The Active Life: A Spirituality of Work, Creativity, and Caring [Paperback]

Parker J. Palmer (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 21, 1999

The Active Life is Parker J. Palmer's deep and graceful exploration of a spirituality for the busy, sometimes frenetic lives many of us lead. Telling evocative stories from a variety of religious traditions, including Taoist, Jewish, and Christian, Palmer shows that the spiritual life does not mean abandoning the world but engaging it more deeply through life-giving action. He celebrates both the problems and potentials of the active life, revealing how much they have to teach us about ourselves, the world, and God.

Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

Engage the Spirit and Truth of the Active LifeWhat spiritual sources can we draw on to receive guidance for-and from-our lives in the world of action?The Active Life is Parker J. Palmer's deep and graceful exploration of a spirituality for the busy, sometimes frenetic lives many of us lead. Telling evocative stories from a variety of religious traditions, including Taoist, Jewish, and Christian, Palmer shows that the spiritual life does not mean abandoning the world but engaging it more deeply through life-giving action. He celebrates both the problems and potentials of the active life, revealing how much they have to teach us about ourselves, the world, and God.

From the Back Cover

Engage the Spirit and Truth of the Active Life

What spiritual sources can we draw on to receive guidance for-and from-our lives in the world of action?

The Active Life is Parker J. Palmer's deep and graceful exploration of a spirituality for the busy, sometimes frenetic lives many of us lead. Telling evocative stories from a variety of religious traditions, including Taoist, Jewish, and Christian, Palmer shows that the spiritual life does not mean abandoning the world but engaging it more deeply through life-giving action. He celebrates both the problems and potentials of the active life, revealing how much they have to teach us about ourselves, the world, and God.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 176 pages
• Publisher: Jossey-Bass; 1 edition (July 21, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0787949345
• ISBN-13: 978-0787949341
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.2 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #67,419 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

PARKER J. PALMER is a writer, teacher and activist whose work speaks deeply to people in many walks of life. He is founder and senior partner of the Center for Courage & Renewal. His books include "A Hidden Wholeness," "Let Your Life Speak," "The Courage to Teach," "The Active Life," "To Know as We Are Known," "The Company of Strangers," "The Promise of Paradox," "The Heart of Higher Education," and "Healing the Heart of Democracy." He holds a Ph.D. in sociology from the University of California at Berkeley, as well as ten honorary doctorates, two Distinguished Achievement Awards from the National Educational Press Association, and an Award of Excellence from the Associated Church Press. In 1998, the Leadership Project, a national survey of 10,000 educators, named him one of the thirty most influential senior leaders in higher education and one of the ten key agenda-setters of the past decade. In 2010, he was given the William Rainey Harper Award (previously won by Margaret Mead, Marshall McLuhan, Paulo Freire, and Elie Wiesel). "Living the Questions: Essays Inspired by the Work and Life of Parker J. Palmer," was published in 2005. In 2011, the Utne Reader named him as one of "25 Visionaries Who Are Changing Your World"--people who "don't just think out loud but who walk their talk on a daily basis." (See the Oct-Nov 2011 print or online edition.) He lives in Madison, Wisconsin.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

32 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars unmasking illusions to reveal reality, January 17, 2007

By 

Daniel B. Clendenin (www.journeywithjesus.net) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Active Life: A Spirituality of Work, Creativity, and Caring (Paperback)

In the last few decades a fair amount of attention has turned toward the so-called "inner journey" of Christian discipleship, as opposed to the mere externals of our "outer" journey. One thinks, for example, of the writings of Thomas Merton, Henri Nouwen, and Richard Foster. Parker Palmer writes out of this genre, and takes as his starting point the many "monastic metaphors and practices" that inform the inner journey--silence, solitude, contemplation, centeredness, and the like (p. 1). But therein lies a Catch-22. Many of us lead such frenetic and harried lives that trying to appropriate these "inner" ideals becomes practically impossible, an unattainable gold standard, the result being feelings of failure, guilt, and unspirituality. Still, we rightly sense that there is something true and good about whatever it means to lead a "centered" life. Conversely, viewed from the energy of an outwardly active life, is not such silence and solitude really a thinly veiled form of escape, passivity and withdrawal? Or perhaps obsession with action is a diversion and ploy to avoid one's "real" self? Thus, the "tug-of-war" (p. 5) between the active and contemplative life, both of which demand our attention and both of which seem opposed to the other.

To move beyond this stalemate Palmer encourages us to understand contemplation (which he defines as unmasking illusions to reveal reality) and action not as contradictory opposites but as complementary poles of a paradox that we should hold in tension. Further, we all have unique callings from God and should strive to maintain our own integrity, whether that veers toward one pole or the other. After two introductory chapters, Palmer devotes one chapter each to six stories or poems that have helped him to tease out the relationship between inner wholeness and outer activity: (1) "Active Life" by Chuang Tzu, a fourth century BC Chinese Taoist, (2) "The Woodcarver" by Tzu, (3) "The Angel" by the Jewish philosopher Martin Buber, (4) the temptation of Jesus in the desert, (5) the story of Jesus feeding the 5,000, and (6) a poem by the Guatemalan activist Julia Esquivel entitled "Threatened with Resurrection." Palmer is at his best, I think, when he reminds us how much we are obsessed with outcomes, the almost ceaseless efforts we make to prove and justify ourselves, our fears of failure rather than embracing the power that comes from being "dis-illusioned," the task of becoming our own true selves instead of allowing others to define us, moving beyond criticism and praise, and the like. This is the third book by Palmer I have read, and he repeats much of his material, but I have found that many of his stories, and his willingness to share his own personal story, encourage me to develop a centered self out of which I can be the unique, active disciple God has called me to be.

66 of 76 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Work Revisioned as Service and Mindfulness, July 21, 2001

By 

Robert L. Rose (Blooming Glen, PA, 18911-0064, Bucks County,United States)) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Active Life: A Spirituality of Work, Creativity, and Caring (Paperback)

This book will help any who are struggling with finding authentic work, or the transformation of current work. The kind of wisdom on action Palmer describes here can help us all to find and to engage in work and creativity which serves simplicity, mindfulness and healing rather than materialism and distraction.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars For those on a spiritual journey, December 11, 2006

By 

Joyce Maddux-jennings "Chaplain Joyce" (Ohio) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Active Life: A Spirituality of Work, Creativity, and Caring (Paperback)

I am pleased to read of the struggles shared by the author and insights received into spirituality of those who are active faith workers like myself. Many friends with whom I have shared some of the insights contained in this book are thankful to know their faith is still in reach in the active and confusing culture in which they and we work and try to find our being.
Chaplain Joyce