Minding Spirituality

In Minding Spirituality, Randall Sorenson, a clinical psychoanalyst, "invites us to take an interest in our patients' spirituality that is respectful but not diffident, curious but not reductionistic, welcoming but not indoctrinating." Out of this invitation emerges a fascinating and broadening investigation of how contemporary psychoanalysis can "mind" spirituality in the threefold sense of being bothered by it, of attending to it, and of cultivating it. Both the questions Sorenson asks, and the answers he begins to formulate, reflect progressive changes in the psychoanalytic understanding of spirituality. Sorenson begins by quantitatively analyzing 75 years of journal literature and documenting how psychoanalytic approaches to religious and spiritual experiences have evolved far beyond the "wholesale pathologizing of religion" prevalent during Freud's lifetime. Then, in successive chapters, he explores and illustrates the kind of clinical technique appropriate to the modern treatment of religious issues. And the issue of technique is consequential in more than one way -- Sorenson presents evidence that how analysts work clinically has a greater impact on their patients' spirituality than the patients' own parents have. Sorenson brings an array of disciplinary perspectives to bear in examining the multiple relationships among psychoanalysis, religion, and spirituality. Empirical analysis, psychoanalytic history, sociology of religion, comparative theory, and sustained clinical interpretation all enter into his effort to open a dialogue that is clinically relevant. Turning traditional critiques of psychoanalytic training on their head, he argues that psychoanalytic education has much to learn from models of contemporary theological education. Beautifully crafted and engagingly written, Minding Spirituality not only invites interdisciplinary dialogue but, via Sorenson's wide-ranging and passionately open-minded scholarship, exemplifies it.

Arranged under five broad headings, these essays create an insightful dialogue on the questions, methods, and critical approaches implemented by the discipline's top scholars.

The heart is the most important biblical term for the person's nature and actions. Indeed, the heart is the control center of life. It is the very place where God works to change us. But how does this growth take place? How are Christians to discover the steadfast spirit of David's psalm? In Minding the Heart, Robert L. Saucy offers insightful instruction on what spiritual transformation is and how to achieve it. He shows how renewing one's mind through meditation, action, and community can begin the process of change, but ultimately the final change—the change that brings abundant life—can only come through a vital relationship with God. "The renewing of the heart is an inescapable human need," writes Saucy, "but the solution lies only within the realm of the divine." Drawing from inspiring Bible passages as well as selected scientific studies, Saucy demonstrates how to make lasting change so Christians can finally achieve the joys of becoming more like Christ.

Many people have an aptitude for religious experience and spirituality but don't know how to develop this or take it further. Modern societies offer little assistance, and traditional religions are overly preoccupied with their own organizational survival. Minding the Self: Jungian meditations on contemporary spirituality offers suggestions for individual spiritual development in our modern and post-modern times. Here, Murray Stein argues that C.G. Jung and depth psychology provide guidance and the foundation for a new kind of modern spirituality. Murray Stein explores the problem of spirituality within the cultural context of modernity and offers a way forward without relapsing into traditional or mythological modes of consciousness. Chapters work towards finding the proper vessel for contemporary spirituality and dealing with the ethical issues that crop up along the way. Stein shows how it is an individual path but not an isolationist one, often using many resources borrowed from a variety of religious traditions: it is a way of symbol, dream and experiences of the numinous with hints of transcendence as these come into personal awareness. Minding the Self: Jungian meditations on contemporary spirituality uses research from a wide variety of fields, such as dream-work and the neuroscience of the sleeping brain, clinical experience in Jungian psychoanalysis, anthropology, ethics, Zen Buddhism, Jung's writings and the recently published Red Book. It will be of interest to psychoanalysts, Jungian scholars, undergraduates, graduate and post-graduate students and anyone with an interest in modern spirituality.

Shunryu Suzuki Roshi founded the San Francisco Zen Center in 1962, and after fifty years we have seen a fine group of Zen masters trained in the west take up the mantle and extend the practice of Zen in ways that might have been hard to imagine in those first early years. Susan Murphy, one of Robert Aitken's students and dharma heirs, is one of the finest in this group of young Zen teachers. She is also a fine writer, and following on the teaching of her Roshi she has engaged her spiritual work in the ordinary world, dealing with the practice of daily life and with the struggles of all beings. We know that our earth is in crisis, but is the situation beyond repair? Are we on a path of planetary disaster where the only proper response is to prepare for our melancholic dystopian future? Is there a way out of our suspicious cynicism? In the tradition of Thomas Berry, using this spiritual opportunity to change the very nature of our crisis, Susan Murphy offers a profound message, subtly presented with clarity and assurance, showing that engaged Buddhism provides a possible path to the necessary repair and healing.

This new spiritual approach to physical health introduces us to a spiritual tradition that affirms the body and enables us to reconceive our bodies in a more positive light. Using Kabbalistic teachings and other Jewish traditions, it shows us how to be more responsible for our own spiritual and physical health. Each chapter explores the meaning of traditional Jewish prayers, providing a framework for new thinking about body, mind, and soul. Simple exercises and movements help our bodies "understand" prayer, and show how the body's energy centers correspond to the Kabbalistic concept of the ten divine "rays of light," the Sefirot. And meditations and visualizations allow us to further enhance our spiritual awareness. Using the structure of the Prayer Wheel, readers can move step by step toward wholeness of body, mind and spirit: ? Modeh Ani Awakening our body and our soul ? Mah Tovu Creating a temple for our soul ? Asher Yatzar Focusing on the gift of our body ? Bircat HaTorah Balancing our mind through the gift of Torah ? Elohai Neshamah Connecting with the soul using the Sefirot ? Elu D'varim Walking on a God-centered path Clearly illustrated with photos and diagrams to guide readers, this active, creative approach allows us to tap the power of the Jewish tradition?to awaken the body, balance the mind, and connect with the soul.

Sandra Schneiders commands respect as one of the most significant and influential figures in the emergence of the study of Christian spirituality as an academic discipline, as the focused and disciplined exploration of religious experience. This book honors her contributions to the field by addressing issues that are emerging at the creative "edges" of the discipline. In this volume, colleagues and students of Dr. Schneiders and other collaborators in the academic discipline of Christian spirituality examine crucial issues from their various disciplinary and methodological perspectives. Questions of methodology address the status of spirituality as a discipline, interdisciplinarity, and self-implication. Other essays explore the "edges" of Christian spirituality and biblical spirituality, gender studies, the natural sciences, nature writing, the social sciences, and interfaith issues. This collection of essays will provoke students and scholars of Christian spirituality, as well as practitioners, to continue critically thinking, discussing, writing, and practicing it.

A New York Times bestseller from the author of Dusk, Night Dawn, Hallelujah Anyway, Bird by Bird, and Almost Everything. Author Anne Lamott writes about the three simple prayers essential to coming through tough times, difficult days and the hardships of daily life. Readers of all ages have followed and cherished Anne Lamott’s funny and perceptive writing about her own faith through decades of trial and error. And in her new book, Help, Thanks, Wow, she has coalesced everything she knows about prayer to these fundamentals. It is these three prayers – asking for assistance from a higher power, appreciating what we have that is good, and feeling awe at the world around us – that can get us through the day and can show us the way forward. In Help, Thanks, Wow, Lamott recounts how she came to these insights, explains what they mean to her and how they have helped, and explores how others have embraced these same ideas. Insightful and honest as only Anne Lamott can be, Help, Thanks, Wow is the everyday faith book that new Lamott readers will love and longtime Lamott fans will treasure.