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A review by dkatreads
The Naked Now by Richard Rohr
4.0
For a book about nonduality and the essentiality of paradox, it sure makes a lot of claims about the “right” or “correct” meaning of this scripture or that. Relativism tends to self-contradict sooner or later, and Rohr’s insistence on uniting all religions under the same banner (even if simply for pedagogical purposes) is no exception.
Yet there’s so much to appreciate from this short work about the ways in which we cheapen truth by our need for exclusion and palatability and comfort, and the necessary work it takes to break free from our own self-collapsing.
I found myself often knowing his writing to be true, but sensing within me a resistance to its critiques of the faith (or rather, religion) of my upbringing. I believe I’ve had an experience with the things he is writing about, and I can’t chalk it up to anything other than the Divine. Even if he uses terms I’m not always comfortable with (or even find rhetorically clarifying more than distracting), I know I have much to learn from this book.
On love and suffering, on truth and its accessibility, on knowing our true selves and learning to see more clearly with the eyes of God, on release from fear and shame, on acceptance of mystery and comfort in the unknowing, on the profound truth of both/and over either/or…Rohr is accessing a whole different level of spirituality which I believe is close to the heart of God—who is surely big enough to carry all of our terms and contradictions and claims, and call us gently into correction as we stumble along.
The Naked Now seems to be about being okay walking this path, whether it’s fully lit or not.
Yet there’s so much to appreciate from this short work about the ways in which we cheapen truth by our need for exclusion and palatability and comfort, and the necessary work it takes to break free from our own self-collapsing.
I found myself often knowing his writing to be true, but sensing within me a resistance to its critiques of the faith (or rather, religion) of my upbringing. I believe I’ve had an experience with the things he is writing about, and I can’t chalk it up to anything other than the Divine. Even if he uses terms I’m not always comfortable with (or even find rhetorically clarifying more than distracting), I know I have much to learn from this book.
On love and suffering, on truth and its accessibility, on knowing our true selves and learning to see more clearly with the eyes of God, on release from fear and shame, on acceptance of mystery and comfort in the unknowing, on the profound truth of both/and over either/or…Rohr is accessing a whole different level of spirituality which I believe is close to the heart of God—who is surely big enough to carry all of our terms and contradictions and claims, and call us gently into correction as we stumble along.
The Naked Now seems to be about being okay walking this path, whether it’s fully lit or not.