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Awakening the Spirit, Inspiring the Soul: 30 Stories of Interspiritual Discovery in the Community of Faiths
 
 
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Awakening the Spirit, Inspiring the Soul: 30 Stories of Interspiritual Discovery in the Community of Faiths [Hardcover]

Wayne Teasdale (Editor), Martha Howard (Editor)
2.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)

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Book Description

July 2004
Many paths can lead to the Divine—these inspiring stories may help you clarify yours.

These original spiritual mini-autobiographies showcase the varied ways that people come to faith—and what that means—in today’s multi-religious world. Examining their own journeys from belief to disillusionment and from searching to discovery, contributors from many faiths, ages, and backgrounds tell how they learned to integrate the spirit into their daily lives, and the remarkable transformations that followed.

From South Africa to India, Chicago to San Francisco, and many places in between, Awakening the Spirit, Inspiring the Soul is the first international collection of its kind. It takes you on a trip through the spiritual lives of Buddhists, Hindus, Christians, Muslims, Jews, and others who are continually searching to find their spiritual identity.

Many of these brief, inspiring memoirs portray the spirit of interspirituality that is growing in the world today, showing you how to build the foundation for religion and spirituality that can serve to unite, rather than divide, humanity.

"There is a thirst for authentic connection in our scattered, busy, speedy culture. Sharing deeply from the soul and being received with an open heart satisfies that thirst. Being seen and acknowledged cultivates the soil of our good hearts. That is what this beautiful book, and the integral spirituality it addresses so elegantly, is all about."
—from the Foreword by Joan Borysenko, PhD


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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This ambitious anthology of spiritual autobiographies steps toward "building the foundation for a viable spirituality that can serve to unite rather than divide humanity for the countless millennia ahead." This lofty goal is an evolved passion of Teasdale (The Mystic Heart), a member of the Parliament of the World's Religion's Spiritual Life Circle that spearheaded this publication. Filled with short accounts by diverse contributors, many under 30 years old, this volume celebrates "the collapse of boundaries that have separated the religions and cultures for millennia... [through the] rediscovery and recovery of the mystical dimension universally present in all the great world traditions." Most of the stories recount the lives of those who experienced some version of an early spiritual awakening. They also express the fruits of first-hand exposure to other traditions through experiences of practice and dialogue. These heartfelt stories reveal an openness of spirit unafraid to be informed and transformed by new experiences and can be enjoyed by the spiritually sympathetic as well as the curious or even cautious. Blank pages invite readers to write their own spiritual autobiography, a worthwhile endeavor complementing the book's quest.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From the Inside Flap

A celebration of understanding, faith, and peace, Awakening the Spirit, Inspiring the Soul is an interspiritual manifesto, calling you to enrich your life and your beliefs with the truths of others.

Drawing from their own searches for higher meaning, thirty thoughtful, wise contributors share their intensely personal struggles—and their triumphs—as they try to truly integrate the life of the spirit into the world of the everyday.

"What is it about these stories that can benefit us? Why is it important to read them and to generate our own stories? Kindness, and all of the good qualities of which we are capable as human beings, are worth cultivating. These stories are practical revelations of the kinds of responses and actions in daily life that develop the skills and focus to make kindness, understanding, mutual respect, generosity, honesty, patience, wisdom, and the golden rule a daily reality. They show how ordinary people just like ourselves arrive at the kind of mental and emotional stability produced by stillness (whether we call it prayer, meditation, or something else) and bring forth the highest potential of their own minds and hearts."
—from the Introduction by Brother Wayne Teasdale and Martha Howard, MD


Product Details

  • Hardcover: 224 pages
  • Publisher: Skylight Paths Publishing (July 2004)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1594730393
  • ISBN-13: 978-1594730399
  • Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.3 x 0.8 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 2.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,197,557 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

 

Customer Reviews

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3.0 out of 5 stars A lightweight book. Informative, with no agenda to push., December 19, 2011
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This review is from: Awakening the Spirit, Inspiring the Soul: 30 Stories of Interspiritual Discovery in the Community of Faiths (Hardcover)
Awakening the Spirit, Inspiring the Soul, edited by Brother Wayne Teasdale and Martha Howard.

This gives me the rare opportunity to offer a review which may reply to the comments offered by one of my classmates, who happened to have this book as a text in a class we shared.

Very briefly, the title and subtitle tell the story. It has thumbnail spiritual biographies of thirty individuals with several different starting points, primarily from Christianity (especially Protestant), Judaism, and Islam, who are dissatisfied with their spiritual traditions, or lack of spiritual tradition, in which they have grown up. None of the subjects have formal training (No Thomas Mertons here) and almost all depend on the guidance which good fortune may have brought their way. The result is what many of us have seen in our friends. The first place people go when they are dissatisfied or disillusioned is outside their own faith. (The book does not discuss those whose endpoint is non-spiritual agnosticism or athiesm).

There is a certain sense of serendipity in the choice of studies. By that I mean there seems to be virtually no plan to how the stories were selected. Of course, we do not see what stories went into their shredder, but there is no perceptible intention to single out a certain point of origin, destination, or method of making the journey. And, if you are writing in contemporary America, you are more likely to find Protestants who feel the need for spiritual renewal than Catholics, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, or whatever. And, if you turn from Protestantism, your first choice is not likely to be either Catholicism or Judaism. It is likely to be either Islam, because that is a common choice, or Buddhism, which is the religious inclination best known for its spirituality. It is also a not uncommon phenomenon for those who begin life in a Biblical literalist community to become disenchanted. One famous example is Bart Ehrman, who is one of the leading Biblical scholars, and who is now an agnostic, because of difficulties in resoling scripture with the world.

This is because a fundamentalist belief requires a far more sophisticalted understanding of the Bible than the average Protestant or Catholic has. While one of Luther's main tenants was study of the Bible, most Lutherans skate by on the 20 minutes they get in the sermon each week, if they are lucky. One of the strengths of Judaism is that it fosters deep bibical study among its members.

Because the approach of this book is so ecumenical, it is probably of little value to the average reader, unless you happen to have a career interest in pastoral counciling. It's purpose is to uncritically present as wide a range of journeys of spiritual discovery as one is likely to encounter at the local library or laundramat. Thus, it had some value as a text on that subject.
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3.0 out of 5 stars Awakening the Spirit, Inspiring the Soul: 30 Stories of Interspiritual Discovery, August 19, 2011
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This review is from: Awakening the Spirit, Inspiring the Soul: 30 Stories of Interspiritual Discovery in the Community of Faiths (Hardcover)
The stories are mini-autobiographies, showing how people came to faith in a variety of faiths. I enjoyed the book - but it required some deep thinking about new ideas.
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0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars One sided look at Spirituality, June 26, 2011
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This review is from: Awakening the Spirit, Inspiring the Soul: 30 Stories of Interspiritual Discovery in the Community of Faiths (Hardcover)
1. No one from a conservative bend is in this book. All of the people of supposed Christian faith were nominal at best. The book boosts of having viewpoints from the whole spectrum but that is far from true.

2. Buddhism seems to be the common link in this is, especially for the supposed Christians. More often then not someone in here that was raised Christian moved into a more Buddhist sphere.

3. There is a strong disdain for those labeled "fundamentalists" and "extremists". Little tolerance is given for these positions though they claim to be open-minded and accepting.

4. The Lutheran girl at toward the beginning of the book was utterly illogical. She wanted to be a Christian but go against cardinal Christian truth and belief. That's illogical. It's like me being a vegan but eating meat. I'm violating a code of my beliefs.

All in all I found this book to be neither insightful or entertaining, or even interesting for that matter. Well, the bashing of "fundamentalists extremists" was interesting in how prejudice they were.
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