“Practical suggestions for crafting one’s own religion.”

NO MAJOR SPOILERS

In our fast-changing and diverse world, many people want structure or a practice to celebrate and engage with the Divine and yet find that organized religions are not nourishing their souls nor providing the answers they need.

Thomas Moore’s most recent book (published in 2014), A Religion of One’s Own: A Guide to Creating a Personal Spirituality in a Secular World, will speak to those readers who:

• do not identify with a specific religion,
• want to keep spirituality vital in their lives, and
• enjoy discovering and integrating the wisdom from different faiths into living their lives.

Moore states,

“When I speak of a religion of one’s own, I’m not talking about a selfish, ego-centered, loosely patched together spiritual concoction. I’m recommending a courageous, deep-seated, fate-driven, informed, and intelligent life that has sublime and transcendent dimension. It can be shared in a community. It can be accomplished inside or outside a traditional religious organization. It is suitable for pious members of a religious group and agnostics and atheists. To be religious even in a personal way, you have to wake up and find your own portals to wonder and transcendence.” (p. 12)

In his book, he shares a variety of practices for developing and supporting one’s personalized faith including using your inner guidance, art, nature appreciation, dream analysis, prayer, and mediation. Interwoven throughout each chapter are examples from his own and others’ lives on the help and power that keeping the sacred alive provides and what can happen if it is lost.

 

Reviewed by:

Kathryn V. White, author and artist

Added 31st March 2015