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A review by _kaylee_m_
The Naked Now by Richard Rohr
3.0
3.5 stars
The parts that were good, were really really good. The rest was kinda woo-woo. And the good and the woo were really mixed together.
"The Gnostic Gospels" by Elaine Pagels would be a great companion to this book. "The Gnostic Gospels" talks about how and why Christian churches got their structure. This book talks about how the structure of western religions does not do a good job of helping people reach higher spiritual understanding. This book doesn't really lay out any clear solutions for the problem though.
I appreciated his thoughts about learning to be more comfortable with paradox, and his framing of "repentance" as "changing your mind". I'm still thinking about his definition of suffering as "when you are not in control."
I think Rohr would probably call this:
https://www.the-exponent.com/guest-post-projects/
a mystical experience.
Quotes I would have highlighted if it was my own book:
"Protocols, procedures, policies, consistency, hiring and firing, communion and excommunication--all become quite necessary, it seems. At this level, we all become invested in what Wallace Stevens called "a blessed rage for order," even though our founder, Jesus, seemed quite comfortable with the constant disorder of his world...A large percentage of religious people become and remain quite rigid thinkers because their religion taught them that to be faithful, obedient, and stalwart in the ways of God, they had to create order." P.36
"In recent centuries, the Christian churches were on the wrong sides of the most human reformations and revolutions, until *after* these reformations succeeded." p. 111
"Faith is a word that points to *an initial opening* of the heart space or the mind space from our side" p. 116
"Jesus...is the very template of total paradox. Human yet divine, heavenly yet earthly, physical yet spiritual, possessing a male body yet a female soul, killed yet alive, powerless yet powerful, victim yet victor, failure yet redeemer, marginalized yet central, singular yet everyone, incarnate yet cosmic, nailed yet liberated, resolving the great philosophical problem of the one and the many." p. 147
"The irony is that, today, religious people are often much more invested in either-or thinking than most scientists, who now know better." p. 152
The parts that were good, were really really good. The rest was kinda woo-woo. And the good and the woo were really mixed together.
"The Gnostic Gospels" by Elaine Pagels would be a great companion to this book. "The Gnostic Gospels" talks about how and why Christian churches got their structure. This book talks about how the structure of western religions does not do a good job of helping people reach higher spiritual understanding. This book doesn't really lay out any clear solutions for the problem though.
I appreciated his thoughts about learning to be more comfortable with paradox, and his framing of "repentance" as "changing your mind". I'm still thinking about his definition of suffering as "when you are not in control."
I think Rohr would probably call this:
https://www.the-exponent.com/guest-post-projects/
a mystical experience.
Quotes I would have highlighted if it was my own book:
"Protocols, procedures, policies, consistency, hiring and firing, communion and excommunication--all become quite necessary, it seems. At this level, we all become invested in what Wallace Stevens called "a blessed rage for order," even though our founder, Jesus, seemed quite comfortable with the constant disorder of his world...A large percentage of religious people become and remain quite rigid thinkers because their religion taught them that to be faithful, obedient, and stalwart in the ways of God, they had to create order." P.36
"In recent centuries, the Christian churches were on the wrong sides of the most human reformations and revolutions, until *after* these reformations succeeded." p. 111
"Faith is a word that points to *an initial opening* of the heart space or the mind space from our side" p. 116
"Jesus...is the very template of total paradox. Human yet divine, heavenly yet earthly, physical yet spiritual, possessing a male body yet a female soul, killed yet alive, powerless yet powerful, victim yet victor, failure yet redeemer, marginalized yet central, singular yet everyone, incarnate yet cosmic, nailed yet liberated, resolving the great philosophical problem of the one and the many." p. 147
"The irony is that, today, religious people are often much more invested in either-or thinking than most scientists, who now know better." p. 152