Establish your own authority, then listen to others

Thomas Moore’s book, The Soul’s Religion: Cultivating a Profoundly Spiritual Way of Life, offers ideas quoted by Jessica Schafer in her recent post "On Authority". Her excerpt includes Moore’s view:

 "We can best deal with authority by first having it ourselves. We are the authors of our lives, including our spirituality."

Schafer reports the book "was a good read and often thought-provoking." Following the quotation she asks:
* How does this articulation of authority strike you?
* Who has been a positive co-author in your life?

A rigid and defensive belief may signal anxiety

"Belief is so subtle and mysterious that we can’t always count on ministers, rabbis, priests and other spiritual counselors to get it right. Even a professional may confuse faith with an allegiance to an organization." ― Thomas Moore

Retired minister Rev. Alvin Petty relies on Thomas Moore’s book The Soul’s Religion for today’s column, ”A little doubt is good for the soul,” published in Plainview, Texas. Petty writes, “The churchgoer who is rigid and defensive in belief and morality is manifesting signs of failure in belief. Really get to know these kind of people and you will find them mean in spirit. Watch them for they fight dirty in the clinch. Belief/faith is rooted in love. So we may expect believers to be good at loving others and themselves. But those who proclaim loudly their faith are usually the least loving and compassionate of people.” He concludes, “Someone who has no doubts is a dangerous person. Do not trust those who are too certain.” Petty also uses Moore’s book for writing about Paul Tillich and Dietrich Bonhoeffer.

Moore quote looks at virtue, morality, maturity

Today Many Paths Interfaith Ministries, sponsored by the Unitarian Universalist Church in Muncie, Indiana, posts "Character, Rules, or Both?", that discusses a quote from Thomas Moore's book, The Soul's Religion. The blogger states, "Disagreement about whether morality is about following rules or about building good character has been going on for many centuries. Currently, it appears that it is more common to think that ethics is about actions than it is to think that it is about persons and character. However, this is not an either-or choice." Post a comment about your ideas of morality and spirituality.

Bloggers appreciate Moore's sensitivity to learning

Phil Marsosudiro writes about "Care of the Soul (Thomas Moore) and Careers" on 27 December 2009, suggesting:

"In the soul, power doesn't work the same way as it does in the ego and will. When we want to accomplish something egotistical, we gather our strength, develop a strategy, and applying every effort... The power of the soul, in contrast... is natural, not manipulated, and stems from an unknown source. Our role with this kind of power is to be an attentive observer noticing how the soul wants to thrust itself into our life. It is also our task to find artful means of articulating and structuring that power, taking full responsibility for it, but trusting too that the soul has intentions and necessities that we may understand only partially."

Marsosudiro quotes Thomas Moore's book, Care of the Soul, including:

"Maybe we could all use an emptying out of identity now and then. Considering who we are not, we may find the surprising revelation of who we are."

The following day, the Simple Mind Zen blog presents "The Teacher" in which the blogger continues discussion of Moore's book, The Soul's Religon:

"Thus as Thomas Moore notes from his own life experience, imperfection is a good and valued part of education, of both the student and the teacher. In the best moments of teaching, an alchemy or a deep moment of newness of creation, a mystery transpires between two or more persons engaged in this process of experience and perfection. "When a teacher evokes the deep process of imparting and learning subtle aspects of life's mysteries, the teaching goes on." And like any creative activity, teaching "happens best when a muse is present, initiating something far deeper" in the exchange."

Modern secularism can't satisfy spiritual cravings

In the post,"All Human Problems are Spiritual", Simple Mind Zen draws heavily from Thomas Moore's book, The Soul's Religion to suggest most tensions have spiritual dimensions.

"In matters of soul and spirit, things are not always what they might seem." Moore observes, "I have come to understand sexism and violence against women as a spiritual issue, as a failure to appreciate the feminine mysteries" which no amount of nudity, ogling, looking or voyeuristic regard will alleviate. The deepest interior, which cannot be seen, can only be sensed with the soul-heart is at issue. "Today many spiritual passions are disguised in politics, war, money, sex or athletics." Even so, most secular, enlightenment, outlets for spiritual passion are inadequate because they address merely a surface issue, meaning that recognition is viewed only indirectly, often unconsciously, so we don't often even admit they are religious. These modern, secular, indirect forms "siphon off spiritual steam, leaving unsatisfied religious needs."

This loss of recognition of the spiritual, the religious, as an attitude, a way of life, a lifestyle, leads to great degrees of loss, of illness, of alienation in modern life. Some have written of the "sick soul." Many relationships, families and marriages fail "because we now treat them as sociological constructions or psychological arrangements, partnerships, rather than as holy mysteries. As a result we continue to crave religion of the deepest kind, often in disguised form; yet so much of what we try is inadequate, "only increasing the craving and emptiness" of our deepest selves, writes Moore.

The blog suggests that with spiritual growth, we may discover paradoxes: how to combine apparent opposites into a coherent whole. This "is our challenge, and our grace."

Blogger quotes Moore about the nature of God

We've linked to earlier entries at the blog, The Night Sea Journey. On 4 July 2009, SGF quotes Thomas Moore in The Soul's Religion about God, in his post "I Have the Answer or is it a Question?"

SGF prefaces his Moore quote with, "The most profound words I have read to date about God is from The Soul's Religion by Thomas Moore. Yes, more Moore... my blog name is inspired by one of his books! So I feel compelled to include it here. It is a paradox! It is an answer that creates a question. It is knowledge that needs to not know! I find it amazing! Let me know what you think!"

Read the post. Let SGF know what you think by leaving a comment for him. Register with Barque: Thomas Moore Forum to share your responses to the quote with Barque members.

Blogger begins reading The Soul's Religion

Roger Hiduk starts yesterday's blog post about "Organized Religion and Transcendence" with a two-paragraph quote from Thomas Moore's The Soul's Religion that includes, "People know intuitively that some kind of spiritual life is necessary, and so many are searching on their own or joining new churches and communities. They distinguish sharply between the personal spirituality they have found and the religious institution they have abandoned."

Hiduk muses about differences between spirituality and religion: "My experience the last few years has been that people I used to label "unchurched" still sense and long for transcendence. They find it in sex, drugs, music, nature, and anywhere that provides it. The problem is that they find the church completely irrelevant to their lives, so they will not find it there."

Science panelist Sykes names favourite books

Kathy Sykes, who sits on a U.K. judging panel for a competition to find new faces of science, shares her favourite books, films, music, magazines, etc. in "My media" for the Guardian. In her section about favourite books, Sykes includes, "I have read and re-read Thomas Moore's Care of the Soul, and more recently, The Soul's Religion. Their insight and wisdom have helped me to live better, I think."

Her favourite films? Sykes responds, "I spent three years teaching in rural Zimbabwe, with little access to any screens; there were no televisions in the bush, and on forays to town, I rarely got to see films. This made me lousy at handling violence in film. It still shocks me, and I even avoid great films if necessary. I've loved everything I've seen by Stephen Poliakoff: his pace, and astute observations of the world and human beings."

Blog recommends The Soul's Religion by Moore

On the blog Faith Exploration, Rob writes about Thomas Moore’s The Soul’s Religion in his post today, ”Getting Over Ourselves”. He provides eight short bullets from Moore's book to "get the juices flowing", it seems, of those involved in a church-based group at the First Church of Lombard in Lombard, Illinois. Rob recommends this book and all of Moore’s writings to his readers. I like Moore’s observation, "... you can certainly be intelligent and inspired simultaneously."