There's an old Lenny Bruce one-liner that goes like this: "Everyday, people are straying away from the church and going back to God." In this day and age, there must be some truth to that idea; while it's true that more and more people in this country are giving up on the religion they grew up with or else rejecting organized religion entirely, it's also true that many who have turned away from religious institutions --- as well as many others who've lived wholly without religion --- really do hunger for something more than what contemporary secular life has to offer. Today on ST, we offer a discussion of that "something more" --- and of how we as an increasingly "post-religious" culture might strive to attain it. Our guest is the religious expert, award-winning scholar, prolific author, and psychotherapist Thomas Moore. About twenty years ago, just after he'd stopped living as a monk for a dozen years, Moore published a book called "Care of the Soul." This work became a bestseller and, indeed, a widely cherished work of accessible and sincerely reflective self-help-mixed-with-spiritual-discovery. Now comes a sequel of sorts to that classic work, which Moore discusses with us. This new book is called "A Religion of One's Own: A Guide to Creating a Personal Spirituality in a Secular World." As was noted of this volume in a review at the website Spirituality and Practice: "Although Moore has published many books about the soul [since 'Care of the Soul' first appeared], this new one strikes us as the real sequel to that first one --- it details how we can truly care for our souls by crafting our own religion out of our personal inspiration and community experiences, identifying a meaningful set of principles and choosing practices that express our longings and commitments."
"A Religion of One's Own: A Guide to Creating a Personal Spirituality in a Secular World"
