| 1. | Beginnings | 1 |
| 2. | Perpetual Dissatisfaction | 14 |
| What Drives Us? | 18 |
| The Culture of Money | 19 |
| The Captivity of Craving | 21 |
| Culturally Induced Dissatisfaction | 23 |
| A Deeper Dissatisfaction | 25 |
| A Wider Dissatisfaction | 27 |
| Partial Liberations | 29 |
| Captivity Then and Now | 32 |
| 3. | Radical Gratitude | 38 |
| Stories of Gratitude | 41 |
| My Beginning | 41 |
| Beginning Again, Out of the Great Blue | 42 |
| Christopher | 44 |
| Overwhelming Goodness on September 11 | 44 |
| A Preference for Being | 46 |
| The Sun and Poverty | 46 |
| Room Enough for Gratitude | 47 |
| Someone to Thank | 48 |
| The Multiplication of Money | 49 |
| The Dynamics of Gratitude | 50 |
| Beyond Dissatisfaction | 52 |
| The Great Economy of Grace | 55 |
| Ingratitude | 59 |
| Loving God for Nothing | 61 |
| Eucharist | 63 |
| Giving Ourselves Away | 65 |
| Jesus, the Example of Radical Gratitude | 68 |
| Acting on Gratitude | 69 |
| 4. | Creative Power | 71 |
| The Craving for Power | 73 |
| Power and Controlling Interest | 76 |
| Powerlessness Corrupts | 79 |
| Dreams Deferred | 81 |
| The Resentment of Powerlessness | 82 |
| Powerlessness and Violence | 83 |
| The Enchantment of Powerlessness | 84 |
| The Innocence of Victims | 85 |
| The Organization of Powerlessness | 87 |
| Relational Power | 89 |
| The Omnipotence of God | 93 |
| Real Powerlessness and Radical Powerlessness | 96 |
| The Power of Jesus | 97 |
| The Power of Christian Community | 100 |
| 5. | The Point of Our Being | 104 |
| Episodic Meaning | 105 |
| Lifelines from the Past | 107 |
| The Myth of Progress | 109 |
| From Better to More | 112 |
| The Empire of More | 113 |
| Without a Vision the People Perish | 116 |
| Political Ways of Coping with a Loss of Vision | 120 |
| The Future and Class Time | 124 |
| Imperial Ideologies | 126 |
| The Need for Enemies | 128 |
| Living with Purpose | 132 |
| Jesus and the Point of His Being | 139 |
| 6. | Living with Spirit | 142 |
| 1. | Begin before You Are Ready | 144 |
| 2. | Practice Gratitude | 145 |
| 3. | Gather with Like-Spirited People | 152 |
| 4. | Live More Simply | 156 |
| 5. | Look for Good Examples | 159 |
| 6. | Think with the Mind of Your Heart | 162 |
| 7. | See from the Center and the Edge | 165 |
| 8. | Be Connected to a Longer Tradition, a Wider Community | 165 |
| 9. | Find a Beloved Community | 168 |
| 10. | Contemplate the Face of the World | 170 |
| Acknowledgments | 174 |
| Notes on Sources and Recommended Readings | 175 |
