Customer Reviews

The Spirituality Revolution: The Emergence of Contemporary Spirituality

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This beautifully written book is a penetrating look at the evolving spiritual scene in the Western world today. It accurately guages the way modern people are seeking direct inner experience of the 'spirit' in order to give deeper meaning and purpose to their lives. It shows how organised religion on the one hand, and secular, rationalist society on the other, not only fails to assist people in their search, but actually hinders them, causing more and more to leave traditional places of worship, and feeling increasingly alienated from a community they see obsessed with financial and material advantage.

The book examines the myriad paths that the individual search for personal experience of the 'divine' can take, from ecology to the New Age, from psychotherapy to the occult, and how we evaluate each according to the degree they have brought about 'spiritual change or moral transformation in the ways demanded by true spirituality' (p. 207).

Tacey tells us he comes from the point of view of his 'mystical, anti-fundamentalist, humanist' personality. Later, he adds he is a 'mystical Christian'. He speaks for all genuine seekers, I think, when he says 'I am only interested in a faith that has "passed through" the fires of atheism, the blaze of modernity, and the critical scrutiny of psychoanalysis and science. What survives after all else has been burnt away...after conventional forms have been melted down...is the only kind of faith that resonates with the spiritual needs of our extraordinary time' (p. 157).

Religious institutions, Tacey argues, must recognise they are failing to communicate the deepest mystery they are truly about, the message we all need to hear in our de-stabilised world. He asserts the majority of them are either feeling threatened in the face of new demands for more 'spirituality', or denying there is anything wrong. In warm and reassuring tones, he explains that they and the individualist seekers have much to learn from each other. Indeed, in the end, they will both see they are essential to each other's well-being, the traditions to give form, fellowship and stability to the overwhelming power of the radicalising spirit, the mystic to pinpoint and rebel against the forms when they become an obstacle to realising the ineffable experience underlying them.

I only wish Tacey had focused more critically on the most serious problem of organised religions - intolerant fundamentalism. In my view, the real war will always be between those who embrace difference and those who would eradicate it. The fundamentalists, with their fight-to-the-death opposition to the spirit of truth will certainly not take change lying down. I am sure the religious institutions would have welcomed advice on how best to deal with this problem!

Ironically, given the title, 'The Spirituality Revolution' will give much comfort and hope to people in the churches, mosques, and synagogues, who initially will need encouragement to begin the difficult task of soul-searching and institutional change. Tacey puts forward criticisms calmly and constructively, always accentuating the positive.

David Tacey has written a brilliant, illuminating book. His love for the mysteries and life is - like the spirit he writes about - inescapable and unbeatable.

David Tacey, The Spirituality Revolution: The Emergence of Contemporary Spirituality (Sydney: HarperCollins, 2003)

David Tacey, Associate Professor at La Trobe University, researches the decline of organised religion and the increasing popularity of diverse expressions of spirituality. He urges churches to observe how God is communicating with people outside church circles and (echoing Rahner) to seek to draw it out of people's lives rather than striving to pump it in. He draws on literature, philosophy of religion, his own inner life, and the experience of his students - many of whom are hungry for an experience of transformation and not just education's information or religion's moralism. He started a very popular subject that aims to develop the contours of a postmodern spirituality, through which he hears a common critique `There is plenty of God talk, but no God presence in religion.' As a mystical Christian himself, he pleads for holding together the new spirituality and its experiential focus along with tradition and its shared meaning and community.

Originally reviewed in Darren Cronshaw `The Emerging Church: Spirituality and Worship Reading Guide.' Zadok Papers S159 (Autumn 2008).

Lays the groundwork for his excellent essay in "Idea of the Numinous", his more recent (Ed.) title - Tacey has the insight of Karen Armstrong and others who like prophets are showing what is truly before us in this eciting new era.