Looking Inward, Living Outward: The Spiritual Practice of Social Transformation

by Daniel Wolpert

Overview

In a world of so much hurt, how can we create communities of care and healing?

While much of contemporary Christianity careens toward a spirituality of individual salvation and the afterlife, the call of Jesus to create communities that enact justice and bring peace on earth is often tragically ignored. In his revelatory new book Looking Inward, Living Outward, author and student of the spiritual life Daniel Wolpert calls us back to a life of prayer and core spiritual practices that re-orient our gaze outward in acts of social transformation.

Drawing from Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, one of the most radical speeches in human history, this encouraging and practical guide connects acts of contemplation with action, providing a biblically based and spiritually grounded course corrective for how Christians are called to live as Beloved Community today. Discover how spiritual practices can change the way you interact with the world and inspire lasting social change.

Key Takeaways:

• Learn practical spiritual practices to live a life molded by a deep spiritual connection.
• Explore the nature of the spiritual life and how it can become a guiding force in our daily lives.
• Understand the teachings of Jesus and the Sermon on the Mount as a blueprint for living in community and society.
• Discover the importance of communities of practice in reorienting our actions and promoting compassion in a world filled with challenges.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780835820516
Publisher:	Upper Room Books
Publication date:	06/01/2024
Pages:	192
Product dimensions:	5.56(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.40(d)

Editorial Reviews

06/24/2024

This persuasive call for conscious spiritual transformation draws on the language of the biblical Sermon on the Mount to build a framework for centering spiritual work and action in the world. Connecting our interior/contemplative and exterior/action lives, Wolpert argues, help manifest the “beloved community” of God’s “kingdom on Earth” and make a world that is better and more just for everyone. Dividing his process into 12 spiritual practices over four categories (such as “groundwork for social transformation”), Wolpert makes the case that, despite centuries of institutional Christian thought and teaching that emphasize the afterlife, Jesus’s teachings are actually directed toward our lives in the here and now, revealing “how God is calling us to live while we are here on earth.”

Wolpert makes clear throughout that these spiritual practices are “simple but not easy,” and, similarly, his treatment of the value and meaning of core spiritual practices around relationships seems both straightforward and profoundly wise. His attitude toward readers is gentle, as he urges “self-compassion” rather than shame when performing the aspirational work of examining and updating one’s spiritual practice, and he notes that there is a profound blessing in being involved in processes like peacemaking even when we will fail in them. The prose is intimate but never chatty, learned but never overly erudite, successfully communicating a sense of caring for the reader as a beloved student and friend ready to look freshly at what matters.

Though pointed at action in the real world and centered around specific practices, Looking Inward is in the realm of philosophy rather than guided self-help. Open-minded readers of faith will find the development of the core argument, that Jesus directs us to put our spiritual effort toward social transformation, satisfying and persuasive, while his call for connecting with God by slowing down and paying attention to both the internal and the external, with egos out of the way, is fresh and urgent.

Takeaway: Rousing Christian call for social transformation as spiritual practice.

Comparable Titles: Diana J. Ensign’s Faith, Hope, Action, Mae Elise Cannon’s Just Spirituality.

Production grades Cover: A- Design and typography: A Illustrations: N/A Editing: A Marketing copy: A

BookLife Reviews