How I Found God in Everyone and Everywhere: An Anthology of Spiritual Memoirs

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Leaders of theological and personal transformation share their visions of the divine in light of their own personal journeys.

How I Found God in Everyone and Everywhere captures for a general audience the spiritual shift away from a God "up there" and "out there" and towards an immanent divine right here. It's built around the personal journeys of a close-knit group of prominent contributors. Their spiritual visions of immanence, sometimes called "panentheism," are serving as a path of spiritual return for a growing number of seekers today. Contributors include Deepak Chopra, Richard Rohr, Matthew Fox, Rupert Sheldrake, Cynthia Bourgeault, Ilia Delio, Keith Ward, John B. Cobb Jr., Loriliai Biernacki, Marjorie H. Suchocki, and Rabbi Bradley Shavid Artson.

Reviews

"By the time I reached the second chapter of this unique book, I had started recommending it to others. By the time I reached the last chapter, I felt its deep impact on my own life. Such rich stories, such clear, insightful, and at times tender writing, with common themes arising spontaneously and enriching one another ... this book takes the old Evangelical practice of 'giving testimony' and elevates it to a theological and philosophical practice."Brian D. McLaren, author of The Great Spiritual Migration

"Reading these spiritual journeyswhat my tradition calls 'testimonies'is a sacred experience. The eminent minds and holy souls writing for this tome take sacred experience to new heights! And yet the 'heights' of these adventures are this-worldly: the here, the harrowing, and the hallowed. Many take adventures away from god only to find God: anatheism to panentheism. I suspect many readers will feel drawnas I wasto imagine how best to describe their own adventures toward the God we find in the midst of it all!"Thomas Jay Oord, Professor, Speaker, and Author of The Uncontrolling Love of God

"What a world we live in filled with believers, non-believers, and the vast majority who are somewhere in between. We in-betweeners yearn for a way of using the word 'God' that does not pretend absolute certainty, that does not imagine God as a king on a throne, and that does not reduce God to a mere concept in the imagination. We yearn to find God or something like God in the here and now of daily life, in the garbage and, yes, the flowers. It helps if we have stories from others: people who likewise struggle and somehow find their way into a God of tenderness and creativity, of struggle and peace, of faith and doubt. They become our mentors, evoking and inspiring us with an invitation to seek God on our own terms, too, and in our own way. This marvelous anthology can do just that. Read carefully and freely, with a relaxed grasp, and let the stories take you on a journey well worth the walking."Jay McDaniel, Founder of openhorizons.org and author of Gandhis Hope: Learning from the Worlds Religions as a Path to Peace

"This is a book for people who, in spite of themselves, cannot stop dreaming about God. Unwilling to dismiss their dreams as mere wishes, to discount their imaginations as pure fantasy, they seek words and concepts by which they may begin to think and talk their way back to 'God after God.' In How I Found God in Everyone and Everywhere: An Anthology of Spiritual Memoirs, they get to meet a rich array of others on their own versions of this 'spiritual journey beyond the dead-end.'" Rabbi James Ponet, Emeritus Jewish Chaplain and Divinity School Lecturer, Yale University

"Davis and Clayton are ontological trail guides. They have gathered the stories of an impressive array of theological and spiritual leaders who discovered a living and credible God after the God of old had died for them. It turns out that God was not dead after all. God is hidden where we least expect itin butterflies and hospital beds, waterfalls and embodied rage, in the messiness and mysteriousness of our own real life experience. These guides know. They point to and describe a God who is with us."Frank Rogers Jr., Ph.D., Muriel Bernice Roberts Professor of Spiritual Formation and Narrative Pedagogy and Director of the Center for Engaged Compassion at the Claremont School of Theology, and author of Practicing Compassion

"This passionate and captivating book is a collection of inspiring spiritual memoirs told by many eminent scholars and spiritual leaders of our day. Capturing the many twists and turns of human experience, these memoirs movingly illuminate the many spiritual and intellectual questions which shape the journey to God, and beyond, in the 21st century. This fascinating collection offers readers opportunities for theological engagement beyond the standard anthology, in hopeful engagement with a deeply relational and imminent divine reality which encompasses all. Scholars, religious leaders, students, and interested seekers will find inspiration and challenge in these narratives." The Rev. Dr. Sheryl A. Kujawa-Holbrook, Ed.D, Ph.D, Professor of Practical Theology & Religious Education, Dean of the Faculty, Claremont School of Theology, and author of God Beyond Borders: Interreligious Learning Among Congregations

Author Bio

Andrew M. Davis is a philosopher, theologian, and scholar of world religions. He holds degrees in philosophy/theology and interreligious studies, and is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in religion at Claremont School of Theology. His research interests include metaphysics and philosophical theology, philosophy of religion, natural theology, comparative religion, and applied spirituality, and his studies have led him to India, Israel-Palestine, and Europe. Davis was the recipient of Claremont School of Theologys Award for Excellence in Biblical Studies in 2013, and was awarded a Fellowship at Auschwitz for the Study of Professional Ethics in 2017. Philip Clayton is a philosopher of religion and science whose work focuses on the intersection of science, ethics, and society. He currently holds the Ingraham Chair at Claremont School of Theology and serves as an affiliated faculty member at Claremont Graduate University, specializing in comparative theology and the philosophy of science, biology, and religion. He has served previously as dean of Claremont School of Theology and provost and senior vice president of Claremont Lincoln University, and he was the principal investigator for Science and the Spiritual Quest, an international program conducted by the Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences. Clayton is the author of several books, including Explanation from Physics to Theology, God and Contemporary Science, The Problem of God in Modern Thought, Mind and Emergence: From Quantum to Consciousness, and In Quest of Freedom: The Emergence of Spirit in the Natural World. Deepak Chopra, MD, FACP, is a world-renowned pioneer in integrative medicine and personal transformation. He is the founder of the Chopra Foundation and cofounder of Jiyo.com and the Chopra Center for Wellbeing. TIME magazine has described him as one of the top 100 heroes and icons of the century. He is board certified in internal medicine, endocrinology and metabolism; a fellow of the American College of Physicians; a clinical professor in medicine at the University of California, San Diego; an adjunct professor at Kellogg School of Executive Management at Northwestern University; an adjunct professor at Columbia Business School, Columbia University; and a professor of consciousness studies at Sofia University in Palo Alto, California. The World Post and The Huffington Post global internet survey ranked Chopra #17 influential thinker in the world and #1 in Medicine. In conjunction with his medical achievements, Dr. Chopra is recognized as a prolific author of more than 85 books, translated into over 43 languages; 25 of his books have achieved the status of New York Times Bestsellers. His latest national bestseller, The Healing Self, was coauthored with Dr. Rudolph Tanzi. Dr. Chopra is also a contributing columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle. Richard Rohr is a globally-recognized ecumenical teacher, bearing witness to the universal awakening within Christian mysticism and the Perennial Tradition. He is a Franciscan priest of the New Mexico Province and founder of the Center for Action and Contemplation (CAC) in Albuquerque. His teaching is grounded in the Franciscan alternative orthodoxypractices of contemplation and self-emptying, expressing itself in radical compassion, particularly for the socially marginalized. He is academic dean of the Living School for Action and Contemplation and the author of numerous books, including Everything Belongs, Adams Return, The Naked Now, Breathing Under Water, Falling Upward, Immortal Diamond, Eager to Love: The Alternative Way of Francis of Assisi, and The Divine Dance: The Trinity and Your Transformation. Rupert Sheldrake is a biologist and the author of more than 85 scientific papers and 12 books, including The Presence of the Past, Science Set Free and Science and Spiritual Practices. He has been a Fellow of Clare College, Cambridge University, a Frank Know Fellow at Harvard University, and a Research Fellow of the Royal Society. From 2005 to 2010, he was the director of the Perrott-Warrick Project for research on unexplained human and animal abilities, funded by Trinity College, Cambridge. He is currently a fellow of the Institute of Noetic Sciences in Petaluma, California, as well as of Schumacher College in Devon, England.