Finding God Beyond Religion - by Tom Stella (Paperback)

About the Book

An accessible guide to a meaningful spiritual life that reinterprets traditional religious teachings central to the Christian faith in ways that connect with people who have outgrown the beliefs and devotional practices that once made sense to them.

Book Synopsis

An accessible guide to a meaningful spiritual life that reinterprets traditional religious teachings central to the Christian faith in ways that connect with people who have outgrown the beliefs and devotional practices that once made sense to them.

Review Quotes

So begins the Rev. Canon Marianne Wells Borg's Foreword to Tom Stella's book: Finding God Beyond Religion. Drawing on this poem by Amichai, Borg explains, "Tom Stella has been moved, shaped, liberated by 'doubts and loves'."

A Christian author who champions doubt? Here's why Borg's insight is so important: Millions of men and women are coming to appreciate the value of doubt in their spiritual lives. Of course, some religious traditions value doubt more than others. The full spectrum of Judaism, for example, runs from ultra-orthodox through secular humanist congregations-Jews who believe that the entity we have traditionally called "God" is really the enlightened spirit of humanity. In Buddhism, as the Dalai Lama regularly explains, the traditional Western concept of God is irrelevant to the Buddhist search for compassion and enlightenment. Sufis and other mystics value doubt.

To clarify his message, Tom Stella is not an atheist. In fact, you'll find in today's interview with Read The Spirit Editor David Crumm that Tom considers himself a Christian. But, he also describes his concept of God, now, as a powerful sense of a Spirit within the world and within all of us. He says his theology is much like that of retired Bishop John Spong, who we also interviewed recently. Stella's opening lines in this book quote the Muslim-Sufi mystic Rumi inviting "us to leave behind the narrow notion of religion understood as moral teachings and to enter the field where spiritual seekers gather." That "field" does not try to impose traditional doctrines, Stella explains.

Many religious writers scoff at people who describe themselves as "spiritual but not religious." But, Tom Stella is a stalwart friend of such seekers. He has become a spiritual counselor to the Nones-the growing minority of Americans who decline to give pollsters a religious affiliation and, instead, respond: "None." Read The Spirit earlier took a close look at the Rise of the Nones. Sociologist Dr. Wayne Baker, creator of the Our Values project, also has reported on the Nones.

For much of his adult life, Tom Stella served as a Catholic priest. Now, he has left his religious order. As you can learn from Tom's homepage, he is a spiritual director, counselor, hospice chaplain and author. He has become a sage of the Rockies-a wise teacher drawing from West and East to help men and women from his home base in Colorado Springs.

Highlights of Our Interview with Tom Stella on Finding God Beyond Religion

DAVID CRUMM: You don't like that label-"Nones." Instead, you use a phrase that I like, too: "unorthodox believers." Explain what you mean by that.
TOM STELLA: These are people who are not being fed by the traditional church. Yet, some of the healthiest religious people I know are unorthodox believers. They wouldn't call themselves "religious" necessarily. Many of the unorthodox believers I have encountered do believe that there is a communion with the divinity, although they are likely to see this divinity as a communion with the spirit of humanity. The term "unorthodox believer" covers a lot of ground-it's a big umbrella. I'm saying in this book that it's important for traditional religious groups not to just write off these folks as heretics or atheists. These folks are spiritually hungry. They're grappling with-and many of them longing for-ways to relate to the larger community.
DAVID: There's an unfortunate stereotype floating around that "spiritual seekers" are somehow self-centered dilettantes. They're too soft for real religion and prefer selfish feel-good experiences. That's essentially what Rabbi David Wolpe said in TIME magazine this spring. We just discussed the Wolpe commentary in a recent interview with Ram Dass. In sharp contrast, you say that the spiritual-but-not-religious path takes a great deal of courage. Some folks may, indeed,