Practicing Presence: The Spirituality of Caring in Everyday Life [Paperback]

Kerry Walters (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 2001

Genuine, life-giving spirituality calls us to be our best selves and to bring out the best in others, each and every day. It calls us to care—for God, others, and ourselves. In Practicing Presence, popular spiritual writer Kerry Walters shows us how to integrate care into our daily lives on the road to happiness and holiness. As Walters reveals, we do not need to be professional caregivers to nurture a creative, intimate, and meaningful openness to our deepest selves, to others, and to God. We simply need to be “present” to who God is and who we are as images of God.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Kerry Walters holds the William Bittinger Chair of Philosophy at Gettysburg College in Pennsylvania. A popular lecturer and writer, he is the author of numerous essays and twelve books.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

"The person who hungers for the Divine must find the courage to admit that the God for whom she searches remains just over the horizon, just out of reach, forever beckoning but irremediably ungraspable by intellect, religious rite, or worded description...As Simone Weil wisely observed, 'Contact with God is given us through the sense of absence.' Far from shrinking in horror from this absence, we must allow ourselves to be 'rooted' in it." - Kerry Walters from Chapter 4: Caring for God

Product Details

• Paperback: 122 pages
• Publisher: Sheed & Ward (March 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1580510981
• ISBN-13: 978-1580510981
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.2 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #960,175 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Not what I expected, April 2, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Practicing Presence: The Spirituality of Caring in Everyday Life (Paperback)

I'm a big fan of Kerry Walters's books. They're brainy without being dry or scholarly, and he always tells a good story and makes me think because he's unconventional. So when I picked up this latest one, I figured I'd be surprised. But I was more surprised than I thought I'd be. I expected a kind of practical, how-to manual. What I got was something much better, a reflection on how to care for self, others, and God rooted in what Walters calls "presence." When we cultivate "presence," we make ourselves available with the same generosity God does. I especially liked the Chapter 2, where Walters claims, via Dostoyevky's underground man, that many of us are too afraid to be present to our deepest self. Chapter 3's use of Kurt Vonnegut to talk about "samaritrophia," our refusal to care for others, is super.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A beautiful book, May 14, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Practicing Presence: The Spirituality of Caring in Everyday Life (Paperback)

The word "care" is thrown around today so often that it doesn't mean much anymore. But Kerry Walter's book offers a lovely, beautiful discussion that helps us take the word seriously again. According to him, caring is more than just an emotion or a set of behavior. It's the process by which we become complete humans in touch with one another and God. This is a timely message--that a full human isn't necessarily somebody whose rich or real smart or famous or powerful, but someone who knows how to care. Wonder if we'll ever quite get it?

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An important book, April 27, 2001

By 

"[e-mail]" (Rhode Island) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Practicing Presence: The Spirituality of Caring in Everyday Life (Paperback)

Like the other reviewer said, this definately isn't a how-to guidebook. But it gives a theology of caring that every professional care-giver, and every ordinary human being, ought to think about. The section on learning how to care about your true self is simply brilliant, and the way Walters weaves in the nunc dimmitas story from scripture (Song of Simeon) is clever and insightful. A very good read. and it's the first time anybody's been able to explain Martin Heidegger in language I can understand! :))