Religion of One's Own: A Guide to Creating a Personal Spirituality in a Secular World A

Product Description

The New York Times bestselling author and trusted spiritual adviser offers a follow-up to his classic Care of the Soul.

Something essential is missing from modern life. Many who've turned away from religious institutions - and others who have lived wholly without religion - hunger for more than what contemporary secular life has to offer but are reluctant to follow organized religion's strict and often inflexible path to spirituality. In A Religion of One's Own, bestselling author and former monk Thomas Moore explores the myriad possibilities of creating a personal spiritual style, either inside or outside formal religion.

Two decades ago, Moore's Care of the Soul touched a chord with millions of readers yearning to integrate spirituality into their everyday lives. In A Religion of One's Own, Moore expands on the topics he first explored shortly after leaving the monastery. He recounts the benefits of contemplative living that he learned during his twelve years as a monk but also the more original and imaginative spirituality that he later developed and embraced in his secular life. Here, he shares stories of others who are creating their own path: a former football player now on a spiritual quest with the Pueblo Indians, a friend who makes a meditative practice of floral arrangements, and a well-known classical pianist whose audiences sometimes describe having a mystical experience while listening to her performances. Moore weaves their experiences with the wisdom of philosophers, writers, and artists who have rejected materialism and infused their secular lives with transcendence.

At a time when so many feel disillusioned with or detached from organized religion yet long for a way to move beyond an exclusively materialistic, rational lifestyle, A Religion of One's Own points the way to creating an amplified inner life and a world of greater purpose, meaning, and reflection.

Praise for Care of the Soul

'Many thanks to Thomas Moore for these profound and timely insights . . . Genuinely inspirational.' Kevin McCarthy, Bloomsbury Review

'Invigorating, demanding, and revolutionary.' Publisher's Weekly

'I soulfully recommend it without reservation.' John Bradshaw, author of Homecoming

'All of us go through troubled times, when we lie awake at night unable to sleep, wishing we had a comforting book to read. Now you do. Dark Nights of the Soul brings solace to the aching heart.' Marianne Williamson, author of Everyday Grace and A Return to Love

'Thomas Moore is the master of conveying the insight that the dark times in our lives are not threats but friends and teachers.' Rabbii Harold Kushner, author of When Bad Things Happen to Good People