Living in Wonder
Finding Mystery and Meaning in a Secular Age
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- 7,49 €
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- 7,49 €
Beschreibung des Verlags
In 2018, at the end of a speech Rod Dreher gave in Genoa, an artist gave him an engraving by his own hand. In broken English, the artist explained that he was in his studio that afternoon when the Holy Spirit told him that he should come hear Rod Dreher, and give him a particular drawing of an obscure medieval saint. None of this made sense to Dreher until two years later, lost in depression and confusion, the saint - a Tuscan hermit named Galgano - appeared in Dreher's life again under circumstances that did not at all seem coincidental, sending Dreher on a search for God's will for his life.
A lifetime of experiencing mystical events and collecting stories from others has solidified Dreher's Christian faith, and convinced him that God reveals himself to us all the time - but we in the modern West have lost our capacity to sense God's presence. How did this happen to us, but not to other peoples in the world? Can it be reversed? If so, how?
LIVING IN WONDER tells the story of how the West became "disenchanted", and gives practical advice - based on history, cultural anthropology, and neuroscience, as well as the testimonies of monks of the ancient Church - on how to regain one's sense of wonder and awareness of the divine. Told through real-life stories of people who experienced miracles, visitations by saints and angels, and in some cases wrestled with demons, this book will open your mind to the reality that the material world is not all there is, and that God is not as silent and as elusive as you might think. You just need to learn how to see with clear eyes.
Join Rod Dreher as he explores why 'contemporary' Christianity seems so empty, and why so many young people are walking away from it. He argues that the enchanted sacramental vision of the church of the first millennium is still true, only hidden, and that the experience of God is something that can happen to anyone - if they are willing to take the risk.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Dreher (The Benedict Option), an editor at the American Conservative, offers an eclectic invitation for Christians to find the sacred in the everyday. Tracing the West's "progressive disenchantment" with a more mystical faith "since the High Middle Ages," he explains how the industrial revolution propelled a rise of capitalism that has left humans obsessed with their own power and knowledge, blinded to the signs of "divine reality" that permeated the lives of "our enchanted ancestors." As a corrective, readers are advised to adopt an attitude of vulnerability and openness to the existence of God, "or at least... meaning, beyond your head." According to Dreher, doing so opens up a world where music, art, and natural beauty are evidence of "God's handiwork"; "signs, wonders, and miracles" abound; and "demonic" activity is a reality. Dreher's message about making room for life's unknowns is often stimulating, though he struggles to tie together a surfeit of topics—UFOs, artificial intelligence, exorcisms—and has a tendency to wander into distracting hyperbole ("If AI becomes sentient, or so convincingly mimics sentience that it's a distinction without a difference, then we will treat AI entities like gods"). Flaws aside, this has much for the spiritually curious to chew on.