[삶의 철학] 자연의 큰 흐름과 같이 하라?

Sejin Pak
23 March 2016 at 22:24



[삶의 철학] 자연의 큰 흐름과 같이 하라?
- 정의가 없는, 악의 세상과 같이 하라는 말이냐?
- 아, 그건 아니고 ...

---


[When my mother became seriously ill, I made many trips over great distances to help take care of her. It was nearly impossible to predict when I might be needed and when I would have to cancel professional or family plans. I often found myself ruminating on the stark uncertainty and terrible unfairness of my situation, sometimes giving in to pangs of self-pity.

But a quote from the Stoic philosopher Marcus Aurelius always came to my rescue: “Nothing will happen to you which is not conformable to the nature of the universe.” We are flesh and blood, our loved ones get sick, we take care of them. Marcus’s teaching became a sort of mantra for me—and was my way of going with the flow.

So far, so good. But what does a morally responsible person do when confronted with prejudice, injustice or hatred? Should one go with the flow, saying “Oh, well, that’s life”? What would have happened if the world had gone with the flow when Hitler threatened the annihilation of Western values and civilization? How do the Taoists, Buddhists and Stoics reply to the presence of violence or genocide in the world? In short, isn’t going with the flow a gigantic and unconscionable cop-out in the face of evil?

Philosophers throughout the ages have given their answer: we should not go to pieces in the face of evil, nor should we emulate the cruelty of our oppressors—we must do what we can to oppose injustice. We see this teaching played out in the great traditions of nonviolent resistance and civil disobedience. We see it in the lives of Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela, as well as the Buddhist monks of Chinese-occupied Tibet.

But are these not examples of people who went against the flow? Yes, in the narrow sense that they acted against the flow of ignorance, tyranny or bigotry. But when the Taoists, Buddhists and Stoics speak of going with the flow, they have in mind the great river of nature and reason, the underlying order of the universe. As Marcus Aurelius put it, “All things are woven together and the common bond is sacred . . . for there is one Universe out of all . . . one substance and one law, one common Reason of all intelligent creatures.”

The sages instruct us to accept with equanimity the reality of evil in the world, but not its sovereignty; and to accept that while cruelty is a part of life, it is not a part of our common bond as intelligent human beings. Yes, we do our best to go with the flow—but not with the torrent of injustice.]

- See more at: http://now.tufts.edu/articles/should-you-go-flow…



Should You Go with the Flow?
A Tufts psychiatrist reflects on the wisdom behind an overused saying

“A quote from the Stoic philosopher Marcus Aurelius always came to my rescue: ‘Nothing will happen to you which is not conformable to the nature of the universe.’” Photo: Depositphotos
By Ronald Pies
May 29, 2014
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You’ve heard it a thousand times: “Go with the flow.” For many, this well-meaning advice has become a kind of pop psychology cliché, a mental bumper sticker. Properly understood, the message is one of the most profound in the entire corpus of religious and spiritual literature. But “go with the flow” can all too easily become an excuse for apathy and indifference. How do we apply the phrase wisely?

The idea of going with the flow finds strongest voice in the Taoist, Buddhist and Stoic traditions. Taoism (or Daoism) is an ancient Chinese philosophy associated with the semi-mythical figure Laozi. Tao is usually translated as “way” or “path,” but it really represents the mysterious, ineffable foundation of all being. The central teaching of Taoism is wu-wei. This, too, is difficult to translate, but it is usually rendered as “non-straining” or “effortless action.”

A Taoist practitioner, Elizabeth Reninger, nicely defines wu-wei as “a state of being in which our actions are quite effortlessly in alignment with the ebb and flow of the elemental cycles of the natural world.” (We see debased versions of this teaching in popular sayings like “When life gives you lemons, make lemonade”—or, even lower on the spiritual scale, “find some tequila.”)

The core idea of Taoism—as well as of Zen Buddhism, which Taoism influenced—is that of not forcing or grasping one’s way through life, but instead living life spontaneously, in harmony with the natural order of things. The ancient Stoics followed the similar principle of living in harmony with the “Logos”—roughly, the underlying rational order of the universe. How might this philosophy play out in our daily lives?

When my mother became seriously ill, I made many trips over great distances to help take care of her. It was nearly impossible to predict when I might be needed and when I would have to cancel professional or family plans. I often found myself ruminating on the stark uncertainty and terrible unfairness of my situation, sometimes giving in to pangs of self-pity.

But a quote from the Stoic philosopher Marcus Aurelius always came to my rescue: “Nothing will happen to you which is not conformable to the nature of the universe.” We are flesh and blood, our loved ones get sick, we take care of them. Marcus’s teaching became a sort of mantra for me—and was my way of going with the flow.

So far, so good. But what does a morally responsible person do when confronted with prejudice, injustice or hatred? Should one go with the flow, saying “Oh, well, that’s life”? What would have happened if the world had gone with the flow when Hitler threatened the annihilation of Western values and civilization? How do the Taoists, Buddhists and Stoics reply to the presence of violence or genocide in the world? In short, isn’t going with the flow a gigantic and unconscionable cop-out in the face of evil?

Philosophers throughout the ages have given their answer: we should not go to pieces in the face of evil, nor should we emulate the cruelty of our oppressors—we must do what we can to oppose injustice. We see this teaching played out in the great traditions of nonviolent resistance and civil disobedience. We see it in the lives of Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela, as well as the Buddhist monks of Chinese-occupied Tibet.

But are these not examples of people who went against the flow? Yes, in the narrow sense that they acted against the flow of ignorance, tyranny or bigotry. But when the Taoists, Buddhists and Stoics speak of going with the flow, they have in mind the great river of nature and reason, the underlying order of the universe. As Marcus Aurelius put it, “All things are woven together and the common bond is sacred . . . for there is one Universe out of all . . . one substance and one law, one common Reason of all intelligent creatures.”

The sages instruct us to accept with equanimity the reality of evil in the world, but not its sovereignty; and to accept that while cruelty is a part of life, it is not a part of our common bond as intelligent human beings. Yes, we do our best to go with the flow—but not with the torrent of injustice.

This article first appeared in the Winter 2014 issue of Tufts Magazine.

Ronald Pies is a clinical professor of psychiatry at the School of Medicine. He wishes to thank his wife, Nancy L. Butters, for inspiring this essay.

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You’ve heard it a thousand times: “Go with the flow.” For many, this well-meaning advice has become a kind of pop psychology cliché, a mental bumper sticker. Properly understood, the message is one of the most profound in the entire corpus of religious and spiritual literature. But “go with the flow…

NOW.TUFTS.EDU

Should You Go with the Flow?

You’ve heard it a thousand times: “Go with the flow.” For many, this well-meaning advice has become a kind of pop psychology cliché, a mental bumper sticker. Properly understood, the message is one of the most profound in the entire corpus of religious and spiritual literature. But “go with the flow…

You’ve heard it a thousand times: “Go with the flow.” For many, this well-meaning advice has become a kind of pop psychology cliché, a mental bumper sticker. Properly understood, the message is one of the most profound in the entire corpus of religious and spiritual literature. But “go with the flow…

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Restorative Justice: Returning Good for Evil by Ted Lewis

Restorative Justice: Returning Good for Evil by Ted Lewis




Restorative Justice
Returning Good for Evil
Ted Lewis
AUGUST 22, 2016

A simple question was put to the two young men who burned down the church: “Why did you do this to us?”

There was a long pause, and the question sat heavily in the room. The victims, a group of eight adults from the Scandia Lutheran Church in Barron County, Wisconsin, needed to make better sense of the situation. Some of them had belonged to this farmland church their entire lives, having been baptized there as infants. And now there was nothing left; the building had been reduced to ashes. The meeting was therefore happening in another rural church nearby.

The offenders began to go deeper into their own stories in hopes of giving a better answer to the victims’ question. The older one spoke of his recent tour of duty as a soldier in Iraq, how he struggled with what he saw there, and how on returning he blew his “award” money by living it up, only to regress into a drug habit that needed to be financially sustained. This led to desperate acts of stealing metal, such as copper, that could be traded for money. He, with his younger accomplice, had burglarized over ten locations. This story hit home for one of the victims, who shared the tragic story of his nephew who committed suicide after returning from Iraq.

The younger offender, recently out of high school, spoke of how he had been picked on at school for his minority ethnic status. He openly talked about the frustration and pent-up anger that brewed within him, often resulting from times when school staff treated him as the primary troublemaker. He eventually developed a habit of destroying property, as he did with the furniture in the sanctuary before a smoldering candle later set nearby items aflame. Wrecking things in the burglarized locations was his way of venting his feelings on a community that failed to show the care and support he sought.

On hearing these stories, one of the victims, speaking for the rest, replied with a genuine “thank you.” There was a palpable feeling of relief in the room. The offenders had previously expressed their remorse and apology, but when the victims received a fuller account of what motivated the misbehaviors, it helped them make better sense out of a seemingly senseless situation. And then one of the victims talked about her desire and choice to forgive the offenders since forgiveness was something they all recited every Sunday in the liturgy. When the offenders heard the victims say, “We want to forgive you,” it truly took them by surprise. It was the last thing they expected to hear.

As the main facilitator for this case, I noted how the entire dialogue process moved from an awkward tension at the beginning to a more relaxed state of conversation toward the end. This shifting of energies is nothing new for restorative justice practitioners to witness. In fact, the very model of bringing parties together for safe, constructive dialogue is designed to foster this sort of shift. Without such a shift that relaxes participants and even dispels mistrust and hard feelings, it is very difficult for people to move on well and experience greater peace. And it remains next to impossible for the group to focus on working out future reparations consensually. When the restorative justice process offers no genuine shift, people remain captive to the past.

Through my years working with victims and offenders, I have developed a passion for chronicling stories of deep resolution. There is something very powerful about people moving from a place of complete separation to a place where they shake hands or even hug each other at the end. I also enjoy finding connection points between this work and biblical narratives. In a concrete way, this work has allowed me to put my faith into practice. This is largely due to the many parallels between person-to-person reconciliation and divine-human reconciliation. One of the common features in restorative narratives is how true justice involves the overcoming of evil with good.

Religion and spirituality have always been integral to the restorative justice movement. This is evident in its North American genesis in 1974, when Mennonite probation officers in Ontario pushed their Bible study reflections into the realm of criminal casework. When the movement began to revitalize centuries-old indigenous traditions such as Native American talking circles and Maori family group conferences, it became evident that these non-Western models had sacred status on a par with other spiritual practices. And is not the mending of human hearts and broken relationships the core of the Christian gospel? It is not surprising that theological studies are increasingly being influenced by the restorative justice movement, as exemplified in the writings of Christopher Marshall.

When asked to summarize what restorative justice is, I often resort to a simple illustration. If your child throws a ball and breaks your neighbor’s window, what do you do? Invariably, adults will say: I would take the child with me to the neighbor to apologize, to listen to what the neighbor has to say, and to offer to make amends. This, of course, is what the neighbor would want too. If, on the other hand, the neighbor found out that the child was merely punished and no communication efforts were made, he or she would rightly feel that justice was not done, precisely because the victim was ignored. Restorative justice focuses on the harm done more than on the law broken. Attention to the harm draws greater attention to victims and thus to the repairing of harms.

At the high end of the harm spectrum, restorative justice allows for safe, well-prepared meetings between murder victims’ family members and the perpetrators in prison. The same building-blocks apply as with a simple shoplifting case: the expression of ownership, remorse, impacts, empathy, apology, amends, and so on. In cases of severe and violent crime, when parties share their deep emotional pain, they often end up experiencing the removal of a heavy internal weight. The goodness of honest, heart-to-heart conversation literally overcomes the evil of the crime and its consequences. While there is never a prescribed expectation that forgiveness will be expressed in the restorative process, time and time again participants experience genuine forgiveness whether or not the language of forgiveness is explicitly used.

I once interviewed a woman whose mother was murdered, asking her to sum up what it meant to her to meet with the man who had killed her mother. She talked about how helpful it was to hear him acknowledge the evil thing he had done and to take complete responsibility. She also talked about how good it was for him to hear her pain at not ever being able to get closer to her mother. “When I walked out of the prison, the core of my whole life changed. I felt I was in a state of grace. I felt like a completely new person. I felt like the whole burden of everything had lifted from me.” Through the facilitated dialogue process, she said, “I gave him his life back, and later I realized that he gave me my life back.”

Through this life-restoring lens, justice is defined in terms of positive responsibilities to render good for evil. Full justice is the reinstatement of the good to mitigate the evil that was done. If justice is only a negative response to match the degree of a prior negative – an eye for an eye at best – it may bring a type of equity into play, and it may deter future misdeeds, but such justice does nothing to set things right again between people. New research is now showing how punitive responses to crime that incorporate no remedial means of accountability are frequently counterproductive, driving up future crime rates and taxpayer dollars. Restorative justice, by contrast, seeks positive outcomes for both offenders and victims through attention to accountability and support, through the empowerment of direct communications, through the building of trust and understanding, and through the fulfillment of reparation and reintegration.

In all of the above examples, open communication is central. By speaking and listening from the heart, victims gain new trust and offenders gain new understanding. This internalized learning is an essential ingredient toward taking positive responsibility to make things right, not just for the one incident, but for sustaining right relationships in the future. For this kind of learning to be fruitful, it must involve responding to what one has learned. Unlike courtroom processes, where communication is highly restricted, restorative dialogue helps offenders to be “response-able” to what they have just learned. Meanwhile, the experience of being heard is vital in helping victims to transition toward trust and closure. Out of this comes a double peace: a peace within and a relational peace between persons.

In all of this we see how the restoration of human relationships is vital to the resolution of crimes. Communities are less served by retributive justice measures that fail to heal the brokenness both caused and revealed by crime. Restorative justice seeks to heal these wounds at every level: for victims, offenders, and entire communities. This fits well with the medieval English concept of atonement, literally “at-one-ment,” which is associated with the New Testament concept of reconciliation. Disconnections are overcome by connections.

One of the most pressing questions of our day is, “How can cycles of violence be stopped?” People are realizing that those who violently victimize others were almost always themselves once victims of unjust abuse and resulting trauma. The church-burning case certainly shows this cyclical pattern. Part of what helps victims to move forward out of their resentments or negative ruminations is to experience the humanization of the offender. At some level, every human being is a victim as well as an offender. We are all wounded and we can all wound others.

This is where the death of Jesus provides the ultimate answer. Because all people are victim/offender combinations, forgiveness has to cut both ways to be holistic. The cross in all of its significance is oriented to both offenders and victims. It addresses not only our sins but our sinned-uponness. This is very good news, considering how our own habits of sinning stem out of those deep, unhealed places of past pain. Once we begin to see this interplay within ourselves, we can better see how genuine justice between human beings must bring wholeness to both victims and offenders.

It was necessary for the two young men who had burned down the Lutheran church (and had already spent a year in jail for the crime) to make restitution and other reparations. These plans were worked out in detail so that they could demonstrate their intent to make things right. Even so, the highest restoration happened on a relational level. Forgiveness opened up the possibility for them to live well with others, and to live with themselves.

A while after the meeting with the church folk, I facilitated an encounter between the same offenders and a neighboring farmer and his wife. This elderly farmer had grown up in the same church and also knew the families of the young men. The offenders had stolen metal items from his farm and sold them as scrap to get cash. The farmer spoke very candidly about how hurt he was when he found out who had stolen his property and caused the church to burn down. There were plenty of tears in the room. Hearts were softened. And in the end there were handshakes, heads held high, and eye-to-eye contact before everyone parted ways. People came with their vulnerabilities, but they left with the strengthening gift of reconciliation. Evil was overcome by the good, and new life was rising again.

Photograph from www.restorativetrainer.com; used with permission.

14 Unprecedented: Can Civilization Survive the CO2 Crisis?: David Ray Griffin: 9780986076909: Amazon.com: Books

Unprecedented: Can Civilization Survive the CO2 Crisis?: David Ray Griffin: 9780986076909: Amazon.com: Books







Unprecedented: Can Civilization Survive the CO2 Crisis? Paperback – November 18, 2014
by David Ray Griffin (Author)
4.4 out of 5 stars 44 ratings

Can we act quickly and wisely enough to prevent climate change – better called climate disruption – from destroying human civilization? There is no greater issue facing humanity today. This book provides everything people need to know in order to enter into serious discussions and make good decisions: 

•The latest scientific information about the probable effects of the various types of climate disruption that threaten the very continuation of civilization. 
•The reasons why the media and governments have failed miserably to rein in global warming, even though scientists have been warning them for decades. 
•The additional challenges to saving civilization – religious, moral, and economic. 
•The amazing transformation of solar, wind, and other types of clean energy during the past few years, making the transition from a fossil-fuel to a clean-energy economy possible; and 
the falsity of the various claims that fossil-fuel companies and their (hired) minions have made to belittle clean energy. 

This book combines 
(1) the most extensive treatment of the causes and phenomena of climate change in combination with 
(2) an extensive treatment of social obstacles and challenges (fossil-fuel funded denialism, media failure, political failure, and moral, religious, and economic challenges), 
(3) the most extensive treatment of the needed transition from fossil-fuel energy to clean energy, and 
(4) the most extensive treatment of mobilization. 

It provides the most complete, most up-to-date treatment of the various kinds of clean energy, and how they could combine to provide 70% clean energy by 2035 and 100% before 2050 (both U.S. and worldwide).

See all 4 formats and editions

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Editorial Reviews

Review


"...a most excellent compilation of renewable energy facts and context..." -- Zachary Shahan, Director, CleanTechnica.com and Planetsave.com

"If you can read only one book on climate change,

make it this one...clear and comprehensive...a masterful depiction of the severe dangers and our best available escape routes. If reading this book does not change your life, nothing will." 

-- Richard Falk, UN Special Rapporteur/Reporter


About the Author
is Professor of Philosophy of Religion and Theology, Emeritus, Claremont School of Theology and Claremont Graduate University (1973-2004);
 Co-Director, Center for Process Studies. He edited the SUNY Series in Constructive Postmodern Thought (1987-2004), which published 31 volumes. He has written 28 books, edited 13 books, and authored 248 articles and chapters.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.


Plan B

Acting in accordance with Plan B would mean going into immediate and complete mobilization, racing against time to prevent the kind of sea-level rise that would result from the continuation of business as usual. However, even this will not prevent continued sea-level rise from causing much distress over the next 30 years, because a great amount of further sea-level rise is already built into the system. As Romm pointed out in Hell and High Water, global warming has already guaranteed that while it will


Product details

Paperback: 516 pages
Publisher: Clarity Press, Inc. (November 18, 2014)

Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars 41 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,225,592 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
#4288 in Environmentalism
#706 in Atmospheric Sciences (Books)
#3445 in Ecology (Books)

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Top Reviews

Marcus Ford
5.0 out of 5 stars
I highly recommend this book to everyone who wants to understand the ...Reviewed in the United States on February 9, 2015
Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

There is no shortage of books devoted to the topic of human-caused climate disruption. What sets this new book apart from the others is its scope, its lucidity, its depth of analysis, and its practical recommendations. It also has the advantage of being one of the most current. To reiterate Richard Falk’s endorsement of this book, “If you can read only one book on climate change, make it be Unprecedented.”

This book provides a clear and detailed overview of the latest scientific literature on human-caused climate disruption and its consequences around the world as well as an encyclopedic review of current clean energy technologies. It also looks at the politics of climate deniers and failure of the media and elected officials and others to tackle this unprecedented challenge.

The question that is the subtitle of this book: Can Civilization Survive the C02 crisis? does not have a predetermined answer. If we continue business as usual--if we continue to allow politicians to accept unlimited sums of money from the fossil fuel industry and if the media continues to pretend that we are not facing an unprecedented environmental crisis—then the answer is clearly No. But, as Griffin makes clear, that does not have to be the answer. From Griffin’s perspective, the future is open. It is also possible, assuming that we act now, that the answer is Yes, civilization can survive the CO2 crisis. Griffin’s last chapter is aptly titled “Mobilization” and in it he lays out the steps that could and should be taken by elected officials at the national, state, and local levels; religious leaders; business leaders; academics; military leaders; young people and others so that the answer to this question is Yes, civilization can survive the CO2 crisis. As others have noted before, the “climate crisis” is really a moral and a political crisis.
I highly recommend this book to everyone who wants to understand the challenges that we face and what we can do about them.

30 people found this helpful

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John H Buchanan
5.0 out of 5 stars an issue that looms as perhaps the greatest threat human civilization has yet encounteredReviewed in the United States on April 20, 2015
Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

David Ray Griffin has written the definitive, comprehensive, interdisciplinary analysis of climate change, an issue that looms as perhaps the greatest threat human civilization has yet encountered. While others have made this argument effectively, authoritatively, and more sparingly—Bill McKibben's writings spring immediately to mind—no one else that I know of has addressed our dilemma in such a complete and convincing issue-by-issue fashion. Griffin does this "controversy" a great service by "debunking the debunkers," that is, by showing the true colors of the most public of the climate change deniers, as well as revealing the motivations and actions of the individuals, organizations, and corporations behind them.

14 people found this helpful

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daveyd
4.0 out of 5 stars 
Seems like a rhetorical question
Reviewed in the United States on July 24, 2018
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Author David Ray Griffin provides readers with sufficient irrefutable evidence that connects global warming with greenhouse gas emissions from expanding uses of coal, oil and natural gas. They are abundant; they are affordable sources of heat, fuel and industry drivers.

But wait. Author Griffin writes that the survival of civilization itself may be at stake as the behavior of mankind has become the subject of this book of global discourses on political, social, economic, and ecological issues, but in the end do we as fellow travelers have expectations for change? Will the global elite, the most powerful and influential forces behind the curtain, in the interest of humanity, but at the expense of personal wealth and power, volunteer self sacrifice for some societal benefit? 

Seems like a rhetorical question.

Perhaps it all began about 10,000 years ago when human civilization discovered global agriculture. Fast forward through mankind's rapid reliance on fossil fuels as they became a dependence reflecting abundant results in agricultural expansion and multiple industrial crucibles. But with this bounty of benefits came challenges and formidable threats; global warming, extreme weather changes, droughts, coastal erosion, more storms and floods...
A theme found throughout the Chapters, Endnotes and Conclusion are the hedonic ruminations about the survival of civilization. Excuse me. Should civilization under the perpetual authority and tyranny of mankind survive all else? From whence came the power and greed behind the emergence of global warming and the threat to all living species? Under what virtue does Man earn the medal of wisdom, divinity, and universal ambience that seems to be his entitlement attitude.

Civilization may not deserve to survive. Wars, repressive leaders, greed, corruption, and evil ambits seem to be power portals behind the control and management of all lucrative levers of energy resources.
On page 356 the author writes of "whether the world as a whole could be powered by clean energy..." as though our world is an immutable concord always in wait of the next mandate from flawed managers of the planet's inhabitants. We are where we are because of who we are collectively: an errant self-indulgent trial-and-error matrix of values as diversified as a garland of wrist bands. We are being asked to trust our future destiny to the intellectual forces of wealth and power where dominion over societies transported us to our present continuum of on-the-brink uncertainties.

The book's Postscript begins on page 422 and posits that the crises mankind now confronts has political solutions that elected officials can propose and implement. Sorry, but these are the same power acolytes who succeeded in redefining climate change and its tributaries into civilization's conflicts.
It is the relentless expansion of humanity and its arcane soirees into Camelot with undefined consequences that will prevent meaningful journeys into a calculus of reality.

Perhaps we should revisit the words of former President Ronald Reagan: Government is not the solution to our problems; government is the problem.

One person found this helpful



Helen Goggin
5.0 out of 5 stars AN URGENT WAKE UP CALL
Reviewed in Canada on April 16, 2015
Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

I haven't read the whole 424 pages but can say without reservation that this is and I know will continue to be the best book I have on climate change and i have been reading in this field. 

I am privileged to know David Griffin and through many years now have admired his research and organization skills when it comes to producing books. But there is much more than that here. His intellect and ability to reason give inestimable value to everything he writes. And in this book his passion for his subject and compassion for humanity are equally evident. He pleads with people of faith to support the scientists who are pleading with us to listen. 

Anyone who has children, grandchildren and great grandchildren have to read this book and that doesn't leave out many of us! How dare we expose the next generations of our own families and every family around the world to the conditions of our planet that will be created by a continual increasing temperature and the collapse of civilization and demise of the human race. 

This book is an incredible compilation of the warnings of science and refusal of many living today, and especially corporations in the fossil fuel industries to believe what science has been telling us since the 1970's witnessed by the 75 pages of end notes. Every delegate who will be heading to the December meeting in Paris of our world governments' next try at agreeing on cutting back carbon emissions in the atmosphere should read this book and pack it in their brief case.

5 people found this helpful

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James Manly
5.0 out of 5 stars 
An Important and Helpful Summary of the Environmental Threat.

Reviewed in Canada on September 24, 2015
Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

Unprecedented by David Ray Griffin provides an excellent overview of the crisis our world faces today with helpful background information on the fake science of climate change denial, the failure of politicians, media and other sectors of society to face up to the difficult choices before us and possible approaches to a solution. As a Canadian, I regret that much of his focus is on the United States but there is plenty of material here for us to consider. I have bought copies for our children--it's their world and their children's more than mine that is affected.

One person found this helpful

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John Duddy
5.0 out of 5 stars A monumental work.Reviewed in Canada on April 29, 2015
Verified Purchase

Time to get off the fence. Having listened to the chatter about global warming and climate change over several years I was willing to wait and see. No more. 

This book opened my eyes to the conspiracy to keep us confused so that energy corporations could continue to rake in huge profits. Having read several of Griffin's books over the years I was prepared for some eye opening research. This book gets the job done. Dr. Griffin has been suggested as a candidate for a Nobel Prize; for this work he deserves the highest rewards known to humanity. The Nobel Prize might be a first step in acknowledging his years of research and his profound contributions to human knowledge.
Dr. Griffin deserves a rest; then I suggest he write a report on the damage done to the Pacific Ocean by the Fukushima melt-down. We cannot depend on government or mainstream media to tell us the truth about these extinction level disasters.

3 people found this helpful

The Silent Cry: Mysticism and Resistance by Dorothee Sölle

The Silent Cry: Mysticism and Resistance by Dorothee Sölle | Goodreads


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The Silent Cry: Mysticism and Resistance
Author: Dorothee Soelle (Author)


Description
Exploring the religious impulse known as mysticism — the "silent cry" at the heart of all the world's religions.

Mysticism, in the sense of a "longing for God," has been present in all times, cultures, and religions. But Soelle believes it has never been more important than in this age of materialism and fundamentalism. The antiauthoritarian mystical element in each religion leads to community of free spirits and resistance to the death-dealing aspects of our contemporary culture. Religion in the third millennium, Soelle argues, either will be mystical or it will be dead.

Therefore, Soelle identifies strongly with the hunger of New Age searchers, but laments the religious fast food they devour. Today, a kind of "democratized mysticism" of those without much religious background flourishes. This mystical experience is not drawn so much of the tradition as out of contemporary experiences. In that sense, each of us is a mystic, and Soelle's work seeks to give theological depth, clarity, and direction.

This, her magnum opus, conjoins Soelle's deep religious knowledge and wisdom with her passion for social justice into a work destined to be a classic of religious literature.

Price: $29.00
Release date: April 17, 2001
Pages: 336

Endorsements

"Soelle, author of the best-selling Against the Wind: Memoirs of a Radical Christian, explores mysticism as a major stream of Christian faith. She explores contexts that often give rise to mystical experiences, and then probes the ways mysticism creates a powerful resistance to materialism, violence, and globalization. Soelle sees mysticism as the silent cry at the heart of all authentic spirituality; the place from which visions of creative resistance and alternatives come."

— The Other Side

Read how " Best This Month" reviews this book.
— Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat, The Lutheran July 2001

Excerpts

Excerpt from the Introduction

Why, when God's world is so big,
did you fall asleep in a prison
of all places?
— Rumi


For many years I have been drawn to and borne by mystical experience and mystical consciousness. Within the complex phenomenon of religion, they appeared to be central. All living religion represents a unity of three elements that, in the language of the great Catholic lay theologian Friedrich von Huegel (1852–1925), we may call the institutional, the intellectual, and the mystical (see chapter three). The historical-institutional element addresses itself to mind and memory; in Christianity it is the "Petrine" dimension. The analytical-speculative element is aligned with reason and the apostle Paul. The third element, the intuitive-emotional one, directs itself to the will and the action of love. It represents the Johannine dimension. The representatives of all three elements tend to declare themselves to be absolute and to denigrate the others as marginal; however, without reciprocal relationships among the three elements, religion does not stay alive. Reciprocity between institutional, intellectual, and mystical elements of religion may take the form of polarization, or the exchange may be dialectical.

What enticed me to the lifelong attempt to think God was neither the church, which I experienced more as a stepmother, nor the intellectual adventure of post-Enlightenment theology? I am neither professionally anchored nor personally at home in the two institutions of religion—the church and academic theology. It is the mystical element that will not let go of me. In a preliminary way, I can simply say that what I want to live, understand, and make known is the love for God. And that seems to be in little demand in those two institutions. At best, what Protestant theology and preaching articulate in what they designate as "gospel" can be summed up as follows: God loves, protects, renews, and saves us. One rarely hears that this process can be truly experienced only when such love, like every genuine love, is mutual. That humans love, protect, renew, and save God sounds to most people like megalomania or even madness. But the madness of this love is exactly what mystics live on.

What drew me to mysticism was the dream of finding a form of spirituality that I was missing in German Protestantism. What I was seeking had to be less dogmatic, less cerebral and encased in words, and less centered on men. It had to be related to experience in a two-fold sense of the word: how love for God came about and what consequences it has for life. I was not looking for what Thomas Müntzer refers to as "made-up, fictitious faith," that is, something that is fine for the head and keeps the institution functioning. Instead, I searched for the mystical element of faith; in the Bible and other sacred writings, in the history of the church, but also in the everyday experience of lived union with God or the divinity. The distinction between the ground of being perceived in personal terms, or, in transpersonal terms, need not concern us here. For are "mindfulness" or "pure attentiveness" of Buddhist tradition not other words for what the Abrahamic traditions call "love for God"?

Often an expression like "longing for God"—which could be a different rendering of "mysticism"—evokes embarrassment; yet, tradition declares that our greatest perfection is to need God. But it is precisely that longing that is taken to be a kind of misguided indulgence, an emotional excess. In recent years, when two of my friends converted to Roman Catholicism, I could not approve. In the first place, the denominational divisions of the sixteenth century are no longer substantive for me. Second, in the Roman institution—with its unrelenting "nyet" to women, to a humane sexuality, and to intellectual freedom—I only find in double measure the coldness from which both my friends were fleeing. But what these two women were seeking they found, above all, in the liturgy of the Catholic Church. The experience of mysticism made them feel at home. That is what I am looking for, too, and that is what this book is about.

The history of mysticism is a history of the love for God. I cannot conceive of this without political and praxis-oriented actualization that is directed toward the world. At the beginning of the seventies, I wrote Death by Bread Alone (Die Hinreise), a book with autobiographical undertones. Many of my friends on the political and Christian left became worried. "Dorothee is leaving," I heard them say in Holland, "will she ever return?" But that was not my worry; what I was particularly trying to do was to hold together what Roger Schütz, the founder of the Protestant monastic community in Taizé, calls "lutte et contemplation" (struggle and contemplation). I did not want to travel on two distinct pathways. What in the late sixties we named "politicization of conscience," at the time of the political evensong of Cologne, has in the meantime become widely generalized. More and more Christians and post-Christians understand the connection between setting out and then coming back again (Hinreise and Rückreise). They need both.

There has been very little examination of the relationship between mystical experience and social and political behavior. Social-historical enquiry always recedes—especially in today's mysticism boom—in favor of a "perennial philosophy" (to borrow the name of Aldous Huxley's famous anthology), a way of thinking that is outside time. It looks at God and the soul alone, without any social analysis. To say the least, such an approach is an abridgment. What interests me is how mystics in different ages related to their society, and how they behaved in it. Was the demeanor of flight from the world, separation, and solitude adequate for mysticism? Were there not also other forms of expressing mystical consciousness to be found in the life of communities as well as individuals? Did mystics not have a different relation, communally and individually, to the "world," to the whole of society, both in practice and in theory? The prison, of all places, in which we have fallen asleep (Rumi)—is this what we are supposed to regard as the world's eternal condition, unaffected by real history?

My questioning is focused on social reality. This means that for the sake of what is within, I seek to erase the distinction between a mystical internal and a political external. Everything that is within needs to be externalized so it doesn't spoil, like the manna in the desert that was hoarded for future consumption. There is no experience of God that can be so privatized that it becomes and remains the property of one owner, the privilege of a person of leisure, the esoteric domain of the initiated. In my search for concepts that depict the possibilities open to mystics of their relation to the world, I find a series of different options. They lie between withdrawal from the world and the transformation of the world through revolution. But whether it be withdrawal, renunciation, disagreement, divergence, dissent, reform, resistance, rebellion, or revolution, in all of these forms there is a No! to the world as it exists now. The reformer Teresa of Avila; the Beguines of Flanders, who created their own new forms of life; Thomas Müntzer, the revolutionary leader of peasants; and Daniel Berrigan, the Jesuit destroyer of weapons of mass destruction; all of them lived their mysticism in the repudiation of the values that ruled in their worlds. For those who want the world to remain as it is have already acceded to its self-destruction and, consequently, betrayed the love of God and its restlessness before the status quo.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Part I: What Is Mysticism?

1. We Are All Mystics
Mysticism of Childhood
Are Mystics Completely Different?
Mystical Sensibility
"I Am What I Do": C. S. Lewis

2. Ecstasy
Stepping Out and Immersing Oneself
Commotion and Unity: Martin Buber
Rabi'a and Sufi Mysticism
Mansur al-Hallaj: Agnus Dei Mohamedanus
We Have Not Been Created for Small Things

3. Definitions, Methods, Delimitations
From the Hermeneutic of Suspicion to a Hermeneutic of Hunger
Pluralism of Methods and Contextuality
The Distinction between Genuine and False Mysticism

4. Finding Another Language
The Cloud of Unknowing and the Cloud of Forgetting
Sunder Warumbe: Without a Why or Wherefore
A Language without Dominance
The Via Negativa, the Way of Negation
The Paradox
Silence

5. The Journey
Ladders to Heaven and Stations on Earth
Purification, Illumination, Union: The Three Ways of Classic Mysticism
Traces of a Different Journey: Thomas Müntzer
Being Amazed, Letting Go, Resisting: Outline of a Mystical Journey for Today

Part II: Places of Mystical Experience

6. Nature
Places and Placelessness
A Morning Hymn: Harriet Beecher Stowe
Monotheism, Pantheism, Panentheism
Sharing and Healing: A Different Relation to the Earth

7. Eroticism
Heavenly and Earthly Love and Their Inseparability
The Song of Songs
Marguerite Porète and the Enrapturing Far-Near One
The Bitterness of Ecstasy: D. H. Lawrence and Ingeborg Bachmann
Sacred Power

8. Suffering
Job: The Satanic and the Mystical Wager
Between Dolorousness and Suffering
"Even When It Is Night": John of the Cross
"Better in Agony than in Numbness": Twentieth-Century Mysticism of Suffering

9. Community
The Hidden Sacred Sparks: Hasidim
Community, the Sinai of the Future: An Examination of Buber's Relation to Mysticism
Without Rules and Poor, Persecuted, and Free: The Beguines
The Society of Friends and the Inner Light

10. Joy
The Mystical Relation to Time: Thich Nhat Hanh
Publicans, Jesters, and Other Fools: The Abolition of Divisions
Dancing and Leaping: The Body Language of Joy
The Relation of Mysticism and Aesthetics

Part III: Mysticism Is Resistance

11. As If We Lived in a Liberated World
The Prison We Have Fallen Asleep In: Globalization and Individualization
Out of the Home into Homelessness
Acting and Dreaming: Becoming Martha and Mary
The Fruits of Apartheid

12. Ego and Ego-lessness
The Ego: The Best Prison Guard
"Go Where You Are Nothing!"
Asceticism: For and Against
Tolstoy's Conversion from the Ego to God
Freedom from the "Ring of Cold": Dag Hammarskjöld
Success and Failure

13. Possession and Possessionlessness
Having or Being
Naked and Following the Naked Savior: Francis of Assisi
John Woolman and the Society of Slave Owners
Voluntary Poverty: Dorothy Day
Middle Roads and Crazy Freedoms

14. Violence and Nonviolence
The Unity of All Living Beings
The Duty of Civil Disobedience: Henry David Thoreau
Mahatma Gandhi and Ahimsa
"Our Weapon Is to Have None": Martin Luther King Jr.
Between Hopes and Defeats

15. A Mysticism of Liberation
The Death and Life of Severino: João Cabral
Kneeling Down and Learning to Walk Upright: The Theology of Liberation
"When You Dance with Death, You Must Dance Well": Pedro Casaldáliga
The Voice of the Mute: Dom Helder Camara
Learning to Pray and a Different Mysticism

Notes

Bibliography

Index


====
Goodreads Reviews
The Silent Cry: Mysticism and Resistance
by 
Dorothee Sölle, 
Martin Rumscheidt (Translator), 
Barbara Rumscheidt (Translator)

====

4.43 · Rating details · 120 ratings · 15 reviews
Exploring the religious impulse known as mysticism - the "silent cry" at the heart of all the world's religions. Mysticism, in the sense of a "longing for God," has been present in all times, cultures, and religions. But Soelle believes it has never been more important than in this age of materialism and fundamentalism. The antiauthoritarian mystical element in each religion leads to community of free spirits and resistance to the death-dealing aspects of our contemporary culture. Religion in the third millennium, Soelle argues, either will be mystical or it will be dead. Therefore, Soelle identifies strongly with the hunger of New Age searchers, but laments the religious fast food they devour. Today, a kind of "democratized mysticism" of those without much religious background flourishes. This mystical experience is not drawn so much of the tradition as out of contemporary experiences. In that sense, each of us is a mystic, and Soelle's work seeks to give theological depth, clarity, and direction. This, her magnum opus, conjoins Soelle's deep religious knowledge and wisdom with her passion for social justice into a work destined to be a classic of religious literature. (less)

Paperback, 325 pages
Published May 1st 2001 by Augsburg Fortress Publishing (first published 1997)
Original Title
Mystik und Widerstand: "Du stilles Geschrei"


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Jan 08, 2015Andrew Marr rated it it was amazing
Shelves: religion, social-issues
A powerful overview of mysticism, mostly Christian but with helpful references to Hasidic rabbis & Sufi masters as well. What is unique about this book is that the author is a committed social activist & her interest in mysticism is centered on the intersection between mysticism & social outreach. This is a very intense book that should set the heart on fire for mystical prayer and social concerns both.
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Jul 17, 2017Dawna Richardson rated it really liked it
I found this to be a thought provoking read. It is somewhat dated in terms of current world issues but the essence of the mysticism of oneness remains the same. Mysticism is indeed the experience of the oneness and wholeness of life where one acts without any why or wherefore.
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Nov 24, 2013Glen Grunau rated it really liked it
I chose this book because it was recommended by a small group of Soulstream partners who read it together and then shared their enthusiasm with the rest of us. A highlight for me was the broad introduction given to mysticism throughout the ages in many different Christian traditions as well as in other religions. The world wide mystical community is breathtaking in its expanse. To be a part of this tradition is an encounter in unitive consciousness.

A chapter was devoted to each of several places where mystical encounter is often likely to be discovered: in nature, eroticism, suffering, community, and joy.

Contrary to popular opinion, mysticism embraces activism - resistance. Mysticism is by definition activist. It is particularly resistant to any society of consumerism, which by its very nature, is rife with injustice. Soelle makes the case that we resist such injustice best when we seek ego-lessness, possessionlessness, non-violence, and liberation.

Such mystical resistance is relatively new territory for me. I have until present, often been content simply to "hold an opinion" on such matters of injustice. I was struck by the criticism of Henry David Thoreau against all who are merely content to hold an opinion and unwilling to engage in "a deliberate denial of the state's authority".

Yet I was also taken by the suggestion that any focus on what my efforts of resistance may achieve is superfluous in the face of mystical prayer which is free of any investment of outcome. It is the silent cry which "gives away its own ears and eyes to let itself be given those of God" . (less)
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Feb 25, 2017Petra Steinmair-Pösel rated it it was amazing
One of my favourite books ever!
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Oct 29, 2015Carter West rated it really liked it
This arresting volume offers us a view into the heart of one of the most dynamic theologians of the last 50 years. Sölle's last work brings together her longtime passions for the self's Christ-realization and for social transformation, demonstrating their inseparability. Her mastery of the literature of classical Christian mysticism is especially impressive – Meister Eckhart is a constant companion. She keeps returning to Eckhart's call to act "*sunder warumbe* (without a why and wherefore)" as one essential lever to lift one's understanding of the contemplative life. Such holy gratuitousness proves essential in building a bridge between mysticism and political engagement. "Resistance" is the key theme here, and there Sölle rightly perceives a commonality between the two. Both are lives lived across the grain of the culture of dominance, the former in hope of a self authenticated in love, the latter determined to bring about whatever liberating power is available to us. A serene carelessness for any "must" as to consequences and outcomes in either realm enables the disciple to claim maximum freedom of action and maximum sustained effort. In those two spheres of living, Sölle perceives one united human spirit, and she is very persuasive.

As much as I feel compelled to affirm this book as an essential work for the development of my faith, though, I had to give it only four stars (only!). The final few chapters, those dealing with the witness of several politically engaged mystics, tended to lose their focus. The incisive analysis of the "mystics" of the book's first two-thirds gave way to a more loose and wandering style, making it difficult at points to boil her prose down to the essence of the thought of each figure (Henry David Thoreau, e.g., or Dom Helder Camara). Her rambling here, though, only served at last to highlight the vitality of the first sections of the book. Reading it, I realized how long I'd been in need of an author who could bring together the social and the personal, the political and the mystical. Sölle fills that bill admirably. (less)
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Jun 20, 2012Naum rated it really liked it
Mysticism. Suffering, Resistance.

In an age of materialism and fundamentalism, "mysticism" is of essence to Jesus followers.

The word itself may be confusing to Americans, and I am not sure the early plodding in this book succeeded in expository. Or it could be until my reading synced with the writer style, a difficult chore I find with works translated from German. But wading through the early chapters was well worth the effort, as the read kept getting better and better, until final parts detail stories of saints engaged in "mysticism" resistance and liberation -- St. Francis, John Woolman, Dorothy Day, MLK and others with foreign spelled names that I would mangle at the tip of my keyboard. (less)
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Aug 22, 2012Curtis rated it it was amazing
Best Soelle that I've read yet. Although it is also the longest. For those with less time to read, Theology for Skeptics is great as well. This one, however, establishes mysticism as an important focus for postmodern religion as well as fuel for resistance.
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Oct 27, 2013Russ Booton rated it it was amazing
I loved this book. Solle connects the dots between mysticism, liberation theology, and political activism, with examples from the lives and writings of prominent figures. In my mind, this is a perfect sequel to the writings of Evelyn Underhill. I heartily recommend it.
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May 14, 2012Carrie rated it it was amazing
Amazing book to understanding suffering and human real people to reference. A core base for my theology of jeong.
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Sep 09, 2014Bob Seabury rated it liked it
very intense and dense. I feel this might turn out to be an important book in my life, but there was too much to absorb in one reading. will most likely go back to it.
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Sep 28, 2007Monica marked it as to-read
my kind of woman, dorothee is
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Dec 28, 2008Debbie Blane rated it it was amazing
Finished at long last! This book is STUPENDOUS! It is well written and thought provoking, and a perfect read for me on my way out of China and on my way towards Sudan.
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Sep 08, 2012Dougw rated it it was amazing


Brilliant analysis of mysticism and it's place in contemporary culture. The ideas in this indispensable book bear deep reflection. A book to be read and re-read.
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Jan 16, 2012Steve Allison rated it it was amazing
Shelves: mysticism, women-authors
I read this several years ago. Gave away my hardcopy. So, recently downloaded to Kindle and plan to read again. More later.

===

Exploring the religious impulse known as mysticism - the "silent cry" at the heart of all the world's religions. Mysticism, in the sense of a "longing for God," has been present in all times, cultures, and religions. But Soelle believes it has never been more important than in this age of materialism and fundamentalism. The antiauthoritarian mystical element in each religion leads to community of free spirits and resistance to the death-dealing aspects of our contemporary culture. Religion in the third millennium, Soelle argues, either will be mystical or it will be dead. Therefore, Soelle identifies strongly with the hunger of New Age searchers, but laments the religious fast food they devour. Today, a kind of "democratized mysticism" of those without much religious background flourishes. This mystical experience is not drawn so much of the tradition as out of contemporary experiences. In that sense, each of us is a mystic, and Soelle's work seeks to give theological depth, clarity, and direction. This, her magnum opus, conjoins Soelle's deep religious knowledge and wisdom with her passion for social justice into a work destined to be a classic of religious literature.


From the Publisher


From the Foreword (pre-publication version): 

What is more splendid than gold?  asked the king. 

The light,  replied the serpent. 

What is more refreshing than light?  the former asked. Conversation,” the latter said. 

Goethe, The Fairy Tale

---

When I began writing this book, Fulbert Steffensky read the first pages of the manuscript and spontaneously made some critical comments. I responded and the following spousal conversation ensued.

Fulbert: What bothers me about mysticism is that it’s really not something for simple folk. I can’t imagine that my mother or my father could get anything from what you’re trying to do here.

Dorothee: (humming) Into his love [In seine Lieb versenken] I will wholly plunge myself, [will ich mich ganz hinab,] my heart is to be his [mein Herz will ich ihm schenken] and all that I have. [und alles was ich hab.]

Fulbert: Piety, yes, but mysticism?

Dorothee: I suppose that mysticism is always piety, even when it takes on utterly degenerate forms such as Satanic Masses. If I understand the meaning at all of this Christmas carol by Friedrich von Spee (1591-1635), then I can also talk about syntheresis voluntatis. Your mother wouldn’t have known what to do with that, but perhaps it could be useful to her clever grandchildren, who live without Christmas carols but not without philosophy.

Fulbert: Back again to my mother. I believe that she can appropriate every sentence of the New Testament tradition as nourishing bread on which one can live a normal and burdened life. But what is she to do with the curious religious ingenuities of a Jacob Böhme, or John of the Cross? Surely, the Gospel itself deals more with the simple and sensible desires of people: to be healthy and not having to despair of life, to be able to see and hear, to live for once without tears and to have a name. It’s not about spiritual artistry but about the possibility of simply living.

Dorothee: But aren’t mystics concerned precisely with the bread of life? As I see it, the problem is that people, including your mother, but certainly her children and grandchildren, encounter not just the Gospel but something that has been distorted, corrupted, destroyed and long been turned into stone.

Mysticism has helped those who were gripped by it to face powerful but petrified institutions that conformed to society; it still helps them today, albeit in a manner that is often very odd. What you call spiritual artistry may figure in it, but the essence of mysticism is something very different. One evening, without knocking first, I entered your mother’s room. And there she was, the old lady, sitting on her chair with her hands folded--no needlework! I don’t know whether to call what she was doing “praying” or “reflecting.” But great peace was with her. That is what I want to spread abroad.

Fulbert: Perhaps my reticence towards mystics is not meant so much for them as it is for a certain craving for mysticism prevalent in the present religious climate. The high regard for categories of religious experience is in an inflationary growth rate. The religious subject wants to experience the self without mediation, instantly, totally and authentically, in the manner she or he shapes personal piety. Experience justifies substance and becomes the actual content of religiousness. And then direct experience stands against institution, against the slowness of a journey, against the crusty, dark bread of the patient dealing with oneself. In this craving for experience, everything that occurs suddenly and is direct rather than institution-mediated becomes ever so interesting; everything that’s oriented to experience and promises religious sensation. I know, genuine mysticism is completely different from this. But that’s how it’s perceived.

Dorothee: I’m also concerned when immediacy becomes the chief category. I think that the great figures of the tradition of mysticism have chewed on some of your crusty, dark bread. As Huxley once said, there is no “instant Zen-Buddhism.” The “now” of the mystics is an experience of time that is no common experience. This has nothing to do with a teenage sense of life, the “right this moment” of wanting a certain kind of sneaker or ice-cream.

I cannot agree with your covert pleading for the institution--as if the bread it baked were edible! I think there must be a third entity, next to voguish “religious sensation,” and the homespun institutions that are in charge of such things. You are seeking something like that yourself, except that you call it spirituality.

Fulbert: When I speak of spirituality I always rule out the ideas of particularity and extraordinary experience. It’s the name, more than anything else, that makes “spirituality” so alluring. What spirituality itself actually is has much to do with method, order and repetition. It’s a matter of constituting the self, in the midst of banality and everydayness. And everyone who is not utterly beaten down by life can work at it. Spirituality is not a via regia, an elevated pathway, but a via laborosa, a labor-intensive regimen for determining one’s own vision and life-options. And so I stick doggedly to the notion that something is important only when it’s important for everyone.

But it’s possible that in mysticism, what manifests itself in dramatically concentrated form and artistic expression, so to speak, is what constitutes the nature of piety and faith. This would mean that mysticism may in fact be neither the road of all nor of many. Rather, it may be that in poetic density the nature of a faith that is meant for all is revealed within mysticism.

Dorothee: My most important concern is to democratize mysticism. What I mean to do is to reopen the door to the mystic sensibility that’s within all of us, to dig it out from under the debris of trivia--from its self-trivialization, if you like. An older woman in New York told me about meeting a guru. When she told her black minister about this, he asked only one question. It’s a question I too want to ask: “Didn’t he tell you that we’re all mystics?”

---
About the Author

Dorothee Soelle studied philosophy, theology, and literature at the University of Cologne and served as Professor of Theology at Union Theological Seminary in New York City from 1975 to 1987. Among her most influential writings are Christ the Representative (1967), Suffering (1975), To Work and to Love (1984), and Theology for Skeptics (1994). Soelle is a peace and ecological movements activist and lives in Hamburg, Germany.See all Editorial Reviews

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Product details

Paperback: 336 pages
Publisher: Fortress Press (May 1, 2001)
Language: English
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Amherstbelle
5.0 out of 5 starsScholarly, Incisive, Fresh, Mind EspandingMarch 3, 2014
Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
This is by no means an easy read, but if you are a student of the Christian Wisdom tradition, a practioner of Centering Prayer or a fan of Cynthia Bourgeault or Richard Rohr, you will be glad to explore this boo, even if you can only get through a portion of it.

6 people found this helpful


Larry Klinker
5.0 out of 5 starsenjoy this walk through a connection between mystism and political ...July 13, 2017

So, enjoy this walk through a connection between mystism and political action.


James H Smith
5.0 out of 5 starsProfound writingMarch 5, 2013

I've read through this book and really like the concepts presented by Soelle. She's a mystic and radical in the best sense. I'm reading it again, slowly to savor her astute observations. Definitely recommended reading for "followers" of Jesus, but it will upset most Christians...

3 people found this helpful


Sweetooth
5.0 out of 5 starsComplex review of mysticismFebruary 7, 2019

Academic review of many theories on mysticism. Thought provoking.


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RSG
5.0 out of 5 starsThe Curch and Social IssuesJune 24, 2013

Dorothee Soelle writes fluently and goes to the point. She makes very simple to understand why mystic are so concern with social issues. A must read if you are interested in the Social aspects of the Church and Christianity.

2 people found this helpful

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Peace Maven
4.0 out of 5 starsFour StarsAugust 2, 2016

An interesting integration of two paths.

One person found this helpful

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Dr. Samuel Mahaffy
5.0 out of 5 starsLonging for the Divine: Questioning of Instituted ReligionMarch 19, 2014

This is a work of great depth that will deepen your longing for the Divine. It may also lead you to question presuppositions we make in faith traditions. In this work, Dorothy Soelle speaks with the genuine voice of the mystic. We do well to leave the towers and edifices of religious institutions and journey to the wilderness to listen to such voices.

3 people found this helpful

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Rainga
5.0 out of 5 starsExcellent bookJuly 8, 2013
Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase
This book was highly recommended to me. It is easy to read and is a very good study of mysticism in general.

2 people found this helpful