Grounded: Book Review

“Where is God?” is one of the most consequential questions of our times.”

Diana Butler Bass [1]


God is in the soil. God is in the water. God is in the sky. God is in our roots. “Our roots are intertwined. We are all related to each other. We belong to each other.” God is in our home. “Home is a place where God somehow meets us – where we belong.” God is in our neighborhood. “We know God through our neighbors.”

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I recently read Diana Butler Bass’ book, “Grounded“. This book has helped me change the way I think about God. God is a beautiful, loving, powerful presence that permeates all of creation and is also the ground of all being.

This book is not only a call to find God but also a call to take better care of the earth that we all share. Because God is in the soil, the water, the sky, our homes and our neighborhoods, we must seriously consider our roles as custodians of the soil, the water, the sky, our homes, and our neighborhoods!

Where is God? God is right here! God is with us and all around us! We need to shift our thinking from a God in the sky looking down at us to a God-with-us. “The spiritual revolution is the shift from a vertical God to God-with-us.”

I would take it even a step further. God is within each one of us. We are divine beings with a little “d”. We are never apart from God. God grounds us. God is the ground of our very being.

Go Further:

Diana Butler Bass,Grounded: Finding God in the World-A Spiritual Revolution  (Free with your Audible Trial )

Diana Butler Bass, Christianity After Religion: The End of Church and the Birth of a New Spiritual Awakening

Diana Butler Bass (Free with your Audible TrialGrateful: The Transformative Power of Giving Thanks

 

[1] Diana Butler Bass, Grounded: Finding God In The World | A Spiritual Revolution (HarperOne: 2015)

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Try Audible and Get Two Free Audiobookshttp://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=richswebsi-20&l=pf4&o=1 – This is a great way to listen to books with your cell phone while you drive, walk or relax at home.  I frequently listen in my car during my commute to and from work.  I’m a proud affiliate.

The Wisdom Jesus by Cynthia Bourgeault: Jesus first and foremost is a Wisdom teacher, grounded in the universal traditions of spiritual transformation, and the first teacher of non-dual consciousness the West had ever seen. Almost two thousand years ahead of his time, he stands in the lineage of the great Jewish prophets, the master “cardiologist” entrusted with implementing the promise made to the prophet Ezekiel: “I will take away your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.”

Centering Prayer by Cynthia Bourgeault: Centering Prayer is a simple, no-frills form of meditation in the Christian tradition. Since it was first developed by Christian contemplative monks in the 1970s, it has allowed tens of thousands of practitioners worldwide to “return home,” developing an authentically Christian meditation practice which not only delivers the healing and quieting of the mind typical of all meditation paths, but also reconnects directly to Christianity’s hidden treasury of mystical and transformational wisdom.

The Gospel of Thomas by Cynthia Bourgeault: This e-course, “The Gospel of Thomas with Cynthia Bourgeault,” is a complete “Thomas starter kit”: everything you need to know to get you up and running with this remarkable text, plus a generous sampling of its most important sayings, arranged thematically so that they speak to issues that contemporary spiritual seekers are actually dealing with.

Themes in the Gospel of John by N. T. Wright:  The course approaches the Gospel of John in a way that looks at seven key themes. These themes bind the Fourth Gospel together in a manner that allows us to see this ‘new way of living’ as possible for followers of King Jesus. In so doing, we then apply these themes to the current era in order to ask ourselves questions about how we are putting them into practice. In a way, this is the story of how to live out being the presence of God on earth through the indwelling of God’s spirit.

Prepare to be immersed in the 1st Century A.D. context of the life, work, teachings, and actions of Jesus.  Check out Simply Jesus by N. T. Wright. It is based on his book Simply Jesus.  Enjoy an article I wrote about one of the lectures on the Beatitudes.

This course is a short course based on Prof. N.T. Wright’s latest book, Simply Good News. Tom Wright will guide you through the chapters of his book through videos that suggest what some of the main points are. You will instantly get into the heart of the idea of ‘good news’ as it was understood by the 1st Century writers of the New Testament. You will be brought into their world in order to make more sense of what ‘good news’ means in our world.

Christian Prayer Methods: Prayer is a core Christian practice, but for many, this means “saying prayers” or asking God for various favors. In this course, we will review a variety of methods of prayer that have been used for centuries in Christianity. Whether you’re a beginner who is just learning how to pray, or a more mature Christian who has been at it awhile, this course will offer specific guidance, encouragement and support for practicing several time-tested methods of prayer.

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