Reviews
"A remarkably clear distillation of wisdom about what it means to be Christian in the twenty-first century." -- Marcus Borg , best-selling author, Speaking Christian and Evolution of the Word "Essential reading for all spiritual seekers--and for all of us who live with big questions! Issues a compelling invitation for us to examine and enlarge our understanding of God and how we are of God. Highly recommended." -- Nancy L. Bieber , teacher; spiritual director; author, Decision Making & Spiritual Discernment: The Sacred Art of Finding Your Way "Profound and personal ... challenges our familiar yet often unsatisfying approaches to prayer and belief, and moves beyond to the very heart of the divine experience. You need not agree with everything within to be able to answer this call to awaken and embrace the passionate spiritual life." --The Rev. C. K. Robertson, PhD , Canon to the presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church; author, A Dangerous Dozen: 12 Christians Who Threatened the Status Quo but Taught Us to Live Like Jesus "Stella shares the fruit of a lifetime's spiritual evolution and experience as he freshly interprets nine central dimensions of Christian faith. Many readers will find him a wise spiritual friend.... Highly recommended for seekers of a mature faith and spiritual community." -- Rev. Tilden Edwards, PhD , founder and senior fellow, The Shalem Institute for Spiritual Formation "[Offers] the best insights of the most thoughtful theologians, poets and mystics.... Catholic Christians, take heart. Here's a book to vitalize faith. Protestants, secularists and persons put off by religion-as-usual, welcome." -- The Rev. Dr. James W. White, PhD , minister emeritus, First Congregational UCC, Colorado Springs, Colorado "Saves a new searcher many years of wandering, and reminds a fellow-traveler of the crucial insights from major spiritual stars, adding one--Stella himself." -- Carolyn Jane Bohler , author, God the What? What Our Metaphors for God Reveal about Our Beliefs in God, Former Catholic priest Stella wants spiritual seekers to realize that God is in each of them, and if that sounds like the Quaker concept of the inner light, so be it. That it also suggests divine immanence, shorn of its orthodox confinement to the Incarnation but also free from pantheism, is implicit throughout this fluent, compelling guide. What religion in the title means also goes unstated, but the text inferentially confirms that the institutional church and its dogmas constitute most of what Stella advises seekers to go beyond to find God. Find but not become, for God is not a person. Indeed, as a person, God is not dead but never lived. In chapters provocatively titled to open up that conception of God--"From Belief to Faith," "Jesus: The Way, or in the Way?," "Morality as Right Relationship," "What Problem of Evil?," "Church with a Mission, Mission with a Church"--Stella exposes how, in our time, anthropomorphizing God prevents the fuller life that Christianity, in particular, promises believers. Exceptionally cogent spiritual guidance., In his third book, Catholic retreat leader and spiritual director Stella (A Faith Worth Believing) urges readers not to let religion of any denominational flavor become a stumbling block to a profound encounter with God. As Phyllis Tickle argues in her influential Great Emergence, Stella also believes the Western world is transitioning "between an epoch of religion that is on the decline and an epoch of spirituality that is on the rise." Positing that our culture is out of touch with its soul, Stella generously invites spiritual seekers and the "nones" - those who say they have no religious affiliation -- to experience God as the "ground of being," not a "super being" made in humans' image. He tackles head-on thorny topics too often avoided in fuzzier writing on spirituality-prayer in a non-theistic world, Jesus' distinctiveness, and God's existence in the midst of evil. Readers who appreciate the forward-thinking work of Episcopal bishop John Shelby Spong, New Testament scholar Marcus Borg, and psychologist James Finley will find their perspectives used liberally. While not a book for Christian traditionalists, Stella offers a cup of cool water to the spiritually dehydrated. (May), "A remarkably clear distillation of wisdom about what it means to be Christian in the twenty-first century." - Marcus Borg , best-selling author, Speaking Christian and Evolution of the Word "Essential reading for all spiritual seekers-and for all of us who live with big questions! Issues a compelling invitation for us to examine and enlarge our understanding of God and how we are of God. Highly recommended." - Nancy L. Bieber , teacher; spiritual director; author, Decision Making & Spiritual Discernment: The Sacred Art of Finding Your Way "Profound and personal ... challenges our familiar yet often unsatisfying approaches to prayer and belief, and moves beyond to the very heart of the divine experience. You need not agree with everything within to be able to answer this call to awaken and embrace the passionate spiritual life." - Rev. C. K. Robertson, PhD , Canon to the presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church; author, A Dangerous Dozen: 12 Christians Who Threatened the Status Quo but Taught Us to Live Like Jesus "Stella shares the fruit of a lifetime's spiritual evolution and experience as he freshly interprets nine central dimensions of Christian faith. Many readers will find him a wise spiritual friend.... Highly recommended for seekers of a mature faith and spiritual community." - Rev. Tilden Edwards, PhD , founder and senior fellow, The Shalem Institute for Spiritual Formation "[Offers] the best insights of the most thoughtful theologians, poets and mystics.... Catholic Christians, take heart. Here's a book to vitalize faith. Protestants, secularists and persons put off by religion-as-usual, welcome." - The Rev. Dr. James W. White, PhD , minister emeritus, First Congregational UCC, Colorado Springs, Colorado "Saves a new searcher many years of wandering, and reminds a fellow-traveler of the crucial insights from major spiritual stars, adding one-Stella himself." - Carolyn Jane Bohler , author, God the What? : What Our Metaphors for God Reveal about Our Beliefs in God, "A remarkably clear distillation of wisdom about what it means to be Christian in the twenty-first century." -- Marcus Borg , best-selling author, Speaking Christian and Evolution of the Word "Essential reading for all spiritual seekers--and for all of us who live with big questions! Issues a compelling invitation for us to examine and enlarge our understanding of God and how we are of God. Highly recommended." -- Nancy L. Bieber , teacher; spiritual director; author, Decision Making & Spiritual Discernment: The Sacred Art of Finding Your Way "Profound and personal ... challenges our familiar yet often unsatisfying approaches to prayer and belief, and moves beyond to the very heart of the divine experience. You need not agree with everything within to be able to answer this call to awaken and embrace the passionate spiritual life." -- Rev. C. K. Robertson, PhD , Canon to the presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church; author, A Dangerous Dozen: 12 Christians Who Threatened the Status Quo but Taught Us to Live Like Jesus "Stella shares the fruit of a lifetime's spiritual evolution and experience as he freshly interprets nine central dimensions of Christian faith. Many readers will find him a wise spiritual friend.... Highly recommended for seekers of a mature faith and spiritual community." -- Rev. Tilden Edwards, PhD , founder and senior fellow, The Shalem Institute for Spiritual Formation "[Offers] the best insights of the most thoughtful theologians, poets and mystics.... Catholic Christians, take heart. Here's a book to vitalize faith. Protestants, secularists and persons put off by religion-as-usual, welcome." -- The Rev. Dr. James W. White, PhD , minister emeritus, First Congregational UCC, Colorado Springs, Colorado "Saves a new searcher many years of wandering, and reminds a fellow-traveler of the crucial insights from major spiritual stars, adding one--Stella himself." -- Carolyn Jane Bohler , author, God the What? : What Our Metaphors for God Reveal about Our Beliefs in God, In his third book, Catholic retreat leader and spiritual director Stella (A Faith Worth Believing) urges readers not to let religion of any denominational flavor become a stumbling block to a profound encounter with God. As Phyllis Tickle argues in her influential Great Emergence, Stella also believes the Western world is transitioning "between an epoch of religion that is on the decline and an epoch of spirituality that is on the rise." Positing that our culture is out of touch with its soul, Stella generously invites spiritual seekers and the "nones"--those who say they have no religious affiliation--to experience God as the "ground of being," not a "super being" made in humans' image. He tackles head-on thorny topics too often avoided in fuzzier writing on spirituality--prayer in a non-theistic world, Jesus' distinctiveness, and God's existence in the midst of evil. Readers who appreciate the forward-thinking work of Episcopal bishop John Shelby Spong, New Testament scholar Marcus Borg, and psychologist James Finley will find their perspectives used liberally. While not a book for Christian traditionalists, Stella offers a cup of cool water to the spiritually dehydrated. (May), Former Catholic priest Stella wants spiritual seekers to realize that God is in each of them, and if that sounds like the Quaker concept of the inner light, so be it. That it also suggests divine immanence, shorn of its orthodox confinement to the Incarnation but also free from pantheism, is implicit throughout this fluent, compelling guide. What religion in the title means also goes unstated, but the text inferentially confirms that the institutional church and its dogmas constitute most of what Stella advises seekers to go beyond to find God. Find but not become, for God is not a person. Indeed, as a person, God is not dead but never lived. In chapters provocatively titled to open up that conception of God-"From Belief to Faith," "Jesus: The Way, or in the Way?," "Morality as Right Relationship," "What Problem of Evil?," "Church with a Mission, Mission with a Church"-Stella exposes how, in our time, anthropomorphizing God prevents the fuller life that Christianity, in particular, promises believers. Exceptionally cogent spiritual guidance., In his third book, Catholic retreat leader and spiritual director Stella (A Faith Worth Believing) urges readers not to let religion of any denominational flavor become a stumbling block to a profound encounter with God. As Phyllis Tickle argues in her influential Great Emergence, Stella also believes the Western world is transitioning "between an epoch of religion that is on the decline and an epoch of spirituality that is on the rise." Positing that our culture is out of touch with its soul, Stella generously invites spiritual seekers and the "nones" - those who say they have no religious affiliation -- to experience God as the "ground of being," not a "super being" made in humans' image. He tackles head-on thorny topics too often avoided in fuzzier writing on spirituality--prayer in a non-theistic world, Jesus' distinctiveness, and God's existence in the midst of evil. Readers who appreciate the forward-thinking work of Episcopal bishop John Shelby Spong, New Testament scholar Marcus Borg, and psychologist James Finley will find their perspectives used liberally. While not a book for Christian traditionalists, Stella offers a cup of cool water to the spiritually dehydrated. (May)
