The Spiritual Activist: Practices to Transform Your Life, Your Work, and Your World (Compass) [Paperback]

Claudia Horwitz (Author)

Book Description

Series: Compass | Publication Date: July 30, 2002

Burnout is a risk for social workers, teachers, non-profit administrators, volunteers, trainers, artists, and anyone who is trying to make a difference in their world. Claudia Horwitz, who has more than fifteen years of experience working for social justice, believes that faith and spiritual practice play a vital role in the ongoing struggle for change.

The Spiritual Activist is a practical guide to individual and social transformation through spirituality and faith. It will help you to make opportunities to slow down, to build stronger relationships at home and at work, and to embrace the world around you. Horwitz shows you how to use reflection, ritual, silence, movement, and the happenings of daily life to help you find unity between your inner journeys and outer commitments. Each chapter contains:

* easy activities to help you reconnect with your core values, beliefs, and sources of strength
* questions for reflection
* resources
* stories from socially conscious leaders discussing their own spiritual life and practices

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Readers seeking a starting point for developing a spiritual practice may find helpful advice in The Spiritual Activist: Practices to Transform Your Life, Your Work, and Your World. Author Claudia Horwitz is the founder of stone circles, a North Carolina-based organization that integrates faith, spirituality and social justice. Here, she charts a course that moves from "refuge" (finding inner strength) to "union" (reaching out at home and at work) and "embrace" (finding a connection in the outside world). Her book includes useful tips ("spiritual quick hits"), practical suggestions and worksheets. Interviews with socially conscious leaders, such as Mahatma Gandhi's grandson, that add to Horwitz's own counsel.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Many books provide spiritual guidance, and many others promote social action. Horwitz's book is at the intersection of the two in emphasizing that the spiritual life gives grounding and depth to the various helping activities in which a person might be involved. With a master's degree in public policy from Duke, Horwitz is the founder of stone circles, an organization that integrates faith, spiritual practice, and social justice. Her spiritual practice draws from various religious traditions, including Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Judaism, Native American religions, and Wicca. Essays by a variety of spiritual activists appear throughout the book, as do informational sidebars. This book should prove interesting and helpful to different audiences and is appropriate for a wide variety of collections. John Moryl, Yeshiva Univ. Lib., New York
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics) (July 30, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0142196061
• ISBN-13: 978-0142196069
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #580,889 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Buy this book, for yourself and five friends!, February 16, 2003

By 

Barbara Zelter (Raleigh, NC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Spiritual Activist: Practices to Transform Your Life, Your Work, and Your World (Compass) (Paperback)

This is a restful, inspiring, fun and easy book for those in the trenches of social justice work, or anyone else with visions of making the world or her/his own life more peaceful and delightful.

First, you need to have it just for the graphic design and ease of use. Open to any page, graze, and you will find a tidbit of fine advice, a personal story, an observation, a quote--something to enrich your day. All laid out in big print, with beautiful fonts, plenty of white space, and boxed out parcels. You can read this like a novel, but also play around. Shaded grays jump out at you with excerpts from all the world's major and some minor spiritual traditions--wisdom literature in bite-sized pieces, very digestible.

The author's confessional honesty about her challenges to find meaningful rituals for life events, and her creativity in developing them, make this book feel like a good sit-down with a buddy.

Even those with years of spiritual reflection and practice will find this book a great refresher, a patchwork quilt to warm and soothe life's hurdles and also a terrific guidebook for making small celebrations. It's fun. It's profound. I find this book ideal for a holiday/birthday/any time gift.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Speaks directly to the empty spaces within.., September 13, 2005

By 

C. McQueen (New Mexico USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Spiritual Activist: Practices to Transform Your Life, Your Work, and Your World (Compass) (Paperback)

Horwitz has searched through our churches, schools, and community resources to find those people who live a life of quiet purpose, every day. Their essays, interviews, and questions bring to light the issues that we all struggle with, and the ways in which we can address those struggles without losing sight of our individuality.

I think that many social activists reach burnout early in life. They become so overwhelmed with the ugliness and apathy that is present every day, that they are unable to continue the exploration of life in a positive, enlightening way. It requires a strong base to be able to see beyond the magnitude of the hurt, abandonment and loss that is simply a part of life. The exercises and suggestions in this book lead directly onto that path of purposeful building.

Horwitz blends the traditions of a number of world religions, and allows the reader to see the similarities in each of them that tie us all together. It underscores the importance of prayer, awareness and ritual, regardless of the tradition from which it springs. With this book it becomes possible to build a spiritual practice that comes directly from the heart, and enables the reader to participate fully in life.