Penguin Random House
The Radical Spirit: 12 Ways to Live a Free & Authentic Life
The Radical Spirit: 12 Ways to Live a Free & Authentic Life
Feeling burnt-out from life, strung-out from social media, and put out by a society that always wants more from you? Joan Chittister offers a practical, character-building, and inspirational guide to help you take control of your emotional life and redirect your spiritual destiny. Sister Joan, whom Publishers Weekly calls “one of the most well-known and trusted contemporary spiritual authors,” is a rabble-rousing force of nature for social justice, and a passionate proponent of personal faith and spiritual fulfillment. Drawing on little known, ancient teachings of the saints, her Radical Spirit offers a practical program to help transform our thinking and rebel against our fears, judgments and insecurities. “Freedom from anxiety, worry, and tensions at home and work, comes when we give ourselves to something greater,” she argues. “We need to seek wisdom rather than simply facts, to think before speaking, and in turn create respectful communities.” With a series of twelve simple rules for healthy spiritual living, Chittister not only reminds us, but pleads with us, to develop enduring values by shifting our attention to how God wants us to live. This book will teach you how to accomplish this.
What Readers Say...
"...one of the great Christian spiritual masters of our time. I never come away from her books without being inspired, nourished and, most of all, challenged.”
—James Martin, SJ
Reader Resources
Read an Excerpt
What happens to the person who does not deal with the secrets of the heart? What kind of energy can a person bring to life who allows the past to clog the arteries of the mind? How confident can a person be who lives with the stress of exposure? And, finally, how capable of helping others are those who harbor their own need to hide from themselves?
Psychologists are confirmed in their opinion that what we spend our lives trying to keep secret is what stands to poison us most. It’s not so much what other people say about us that endangers us. It’s what we cannot admit about ourselves—even to ourselves—that most threatens to undermine our confidence, our competence, and even our sense of self-esteem.
The research is clear: Secrets affect the secret keeper’s quality of life. They take the spirit that should be expended on both giving and getting the best out of life and turn it inward.
The social and spiritual ramifications of the open life are totally disarming. Once I say, “I am an alcoholic,” what else can anyone say to embarrass me about that? When I finally admit, “My father died in prison,” what will they use against me? What can they do when they discover that I’m gay if I’ve already told people that myself?
Better yet, perhaps, what can obstruct my own growth and potential once I’m no longer hiding from the world? I have separated myself from the false image that has grown up around me.
There is no substitute for such a moment of spiritual rebirth, of psychological health, of public fearlessness. What can anyone else do to me now? What can they tell about me that I have not told about myself? It is a moment of new growth, of renewed promise. The world is mine to embrace again.
“Those who swallow a stone become a stone,” the adage says. And counsellors tell us that the struggles we hide only serve to consume our energies and sour our psyches. It’s time to put down the burden of silence, to live better and freer in the light than can ever be done in the dark places of life. It’s time to be ourselves. To be truly who we say we are.
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Discussion Questions
Engage in meaningful discussions, think critically, and explore deeper insights with these thought-provoking questions.
Awards
Best Spirituality Book of 2017, Spirituality and Practice
Best Book of 2017, Spirituality and Health Magazine