Customer Reviews

Natural Spirituality: Recovering the Wisdom Tradition in Christianity

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In this book, Joyce Rockwood Hudson provide Christians a wonderful roadmap to connect their inner spiritual growth with the traditional faith journeys we find in most churches. Through the Jungian focus on dream work and the process of individuation, Hudson provides tools to connect to the scripture in ways that honor the dreams and wisdom we have neglected in our rational world. The book is comprehensive but quite readible! Her original work on male/female wholeness are intriguing. Finally, she leaves the reader with tools to expand their personal inner work as well as grow the church to support and enhance the inner work of the congregation.

This book helps Christians connect to the natural wisdom nature of God through explaining and encouraging the use of Jungian spiritual tools based in the Christian tradition. Hudson explains that if we respect and follow this relationship and its leadings through dreams and synchronicity, we will move toward our own inner and outer personal wholeness on a journey of individuation. Hudson describes how we come to this new way of thinking and perceiving through a transformational spiritual journey with the unconscious world that can't be denied. Along this journey, Hudson says we develop a new way of seeing, as Taoism teaches, and become more attentive to a spiritual dimension in the physical world in everything around us. She encourages the importance of individual and highly personal teachings from God through dreams and synchronicity as the ultimate spiritual teacher over following collective teachings. Hudson says that it is very important how we relate to the unconscious and that we take its truth's seriously and integrate it into our lives. She encourages us to bring the importance of individuation to churches through regular dream groups. If we choose this path, she says, we are following The Way and find our unique and harmonious place in life.

In chapter one, I really appreciated reading Hudson's inner/outer earthquake journey since I have had a similar experience in my life. It made me feel less alone with it. Her vulnerability to expose such intimate details of her life touched my heart. I liked how she validated and reinforced for me the importance of the 4 functions of consciousness, dreamwork, synchronicity, and the opposites. I liked how she showed the grace of the unconscious that compensates for our human-created false illusions. I also related to nature combining with the spirit of heaven to be our greatest teacher and the value of individual experience over collective truth as the ideal. The feminine wholeness chart and explanation along with the psyche and eros story really provided me a visual representation of the process I am now going through and the tasks involved on my individuation journey. I didn't relate as much to the Beatles section and would have preferred a more mythic story like she did for the feminine aspect but overall a wonderful helpful book for Christians interested in the understanding more about dreamwork, Jungian psychology, the individuation process and possibly forming or joining a dream group.

Ms. Jamieson Haverkampf
author of award-winning resource guide Mom Minus Dad: The Essential Resource Guide for Busy Adults with a Newly Widowed Parent
Mom Minus Dad: The Essential Resource Guide for Busy Adults with a Newly Widowed Parent
Mom Minus Dad: The Essential Resource Guide for Busy Adults with a Newly Widowed Parent

We have a group that reads and discusses books on spirituality. When we read The Wisdom Jesus: Transforming Heart and Mind--A New Perspective on Christ and His Message By Cynthia Bourgeault, I was reminded of this book. I was in Joyce Hudson's workshop several years ago (my original copy is spiral bound). Our group is now reading this book and most people have found it quite approachable. I think reading it like this, in a group with discussion, is really ideal. Jung can be a difficult read, but his concepts of the functions of consciousness and the unconscious are really helpful tools for understanding oneself. They also provide a common language for talking about spirituality.

The author is really open about the messy process of spiritual growth. The detail of her journey helps make this complex and fuzzy transformation more understandable. She was also committed to remaining within the Christian tradition and her church community. She was able to do that while remaining open to her own inner enlightenment. That is a tricky balance that many of us struggle with.

After taking a 12 weeks class on the material in the book, I found it had some interest and merit but not the type of material I would want to spend another 12 weeks on. First, if you read Jung you will have a up on the material in the book. It attempts to cross Jung and spirituality in a christian vent and in the end it is neither. Worth reading maybe but something that will alter your life, well that is up to you.