The Divine Dance: The Trinity and Your Transformation

by Richard Rohr, Mike Morrell, William Paul Young (Foreword by)

Overview

What if changing our perception of God has the potential to change everything?

God is not what you think. Visions of an angry, distant, moral scorekeeper or a supernatural Santa Claus handing out cosmic lottery tickets to those who attend the right church or say the right prayer dominate our culture. For many others, God has become irrelevant or simply unbelievable.

In The Divine Dance, Fr. Richard Rohr (with Mike Morrell) points readers to an unlikely opening beyond this divinity impasse: the at-times forgotten, ancient mystery of the Trinity—God as utterly one, yet three.

Drawing from Scripture, theology, and the deepest insights of mystics, philosophers, and sages throughout history, Fr. Rohr presents a compelling alternative to aloof and fairytale versions of God:

One God, belovedly in communion, as All-Vulnerable, All-Embracing, and All-Given to you and me.

The Divine Dance makes accessible and practicable the Christian tradition's most surprising gift...

God as Community...as Friendship...as Dance.

Are you ready to join in?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781629117300
Publisher:	Whitaker House
Publication date:	10/04/2016
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	224
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Fr. Richard Rohr is a globally recognized teacher and the author of numerous books, including Everything Belongs, The Naked Now, Breathing Under Water, Falling Upward, and Eager to Love: The Alternative Way of Francis of Assisi. A Franciscan priest, he is the founder of the Center for Action and Contemplation (CAC.org) and is Academic Dean of the Living School for Action and Contemplation in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Fr. Richard’s teaching is grounded in Franciscan practices of contemplation and self-emptying, expressing themselves in radical compassion, particularly for the socially marginalized.
 
Mike Morrell is the Communications Director for the Integral Theology think tank Presence International, cofounder of The Buzz Seminar, and a founding organizer of the justice, arts, and spirituality Wild Goose Festival. He is also a futurist, an avid writer, freelance journalist, author coach, publishing consultant, and the curator of the book-reviewing community at TheSpeakeasy.info. You can read his ongoing exploration of Spirit, Culture, and Permaculture at MikeMorrell.org. Mike lives with his wife and two daughters in North Carolina.

 

Table of Contents

Foreword William Paul Young 19

Introduction: Six Impossible Things Before Breakfast 25

Trinity; MIA 26

A Space at God's Table 28

A (W)hole in God 30

Part I Wanted: A Trinitarian Revolution

Spiritual Paradigm Shift 35

Dusting Off a Daring Doctrine 40

Math Problems 42

The Relationship Is the Vehicle 44

Metaphors Be with You! 47

A Mirrored Universe 49

Vulnerability 57

Weak Wisdom 59

The Delight of Diversity 61

The World in a Word 64

Reshaping Our Image 66

Atomic Bonds 68

Creator and Destroyer of Worlds 70

Aristotle and Boethius: The Price of an Invading Noun 74

Scotus and Merton: Time to Re-verb 75

The Perfect Freedom of God 76

Creative Continuation 78

Paradigms Lost 79

Distinct Union 83

Tide Boxes at Kmart 86

Loving All the Wrong People 88

Emptiness Alone Is Prepared for Fullness 90

The Space Between 91

How the Law of Three Changes Everything 92

Is the Trinity a Boy or a Girl? 94

The Power of Concentric Circles 95

Richard of St. Victor and the Joy Supreme 98

The Paradox of Restlessness and Contentment 102

Body-Based Knowing 104

The Many Belong in the One 108

Accessing the Divine Force Field 111

Always Creating Otherness 113

Next 117

Part II Why the Trinity? Why Now?

Three Reasons for Recovery 121

What Holds Us Back from Genuine Spiritual Experience? 122

Two Ways to Break Through 124

Suffering's Surprising Sustenance 127

At-One-Ment 131

What About the Wrath of God? 136

Expanding Our Horizons 140

Silence: Father 142

The Living Manifestation: The Christ 145

The Dynamism Within and Between: Holy Spirit 146

TDD-Trinity Deficit Disorder 147

Absentee Father 148

Son: Have You Seen Me? 149

The Relentless Drive of the Spirit 150

Inside-Out Prayer 151

Primal Prayer 154

Transcendence Deficit Disorder 155

Interfaith Friendship 157

Do We Have to Talk About Sin? 160

Entering By Another Door 161

Being There 163

An Amazing Chain of Being 164

Trinity in Eternity Past 164

The Wildest Wave Alive 167

Real Presence 169

Being and Becoming 169

Essential Ecstasy 170

Too Good to Be True? 172

The Incarnation Is the Gospel 174

Bleeding and Forbearing 176

The Great Attractor 179

Part III The Holy Spirit

Wholly Reconciling 185

The Divine Energy 186

Everything Is Holy Now 189

Acknowledgments 195

Appendix; Experiencing the Trinity: Seven Practices 199

About the Authors 219

Editorial Reviews

Humanity, says Richard Rohr, is a perfect rhyme for what Christianity, trying to express the inexpressible, calls the holy trinity. This human dance we’re all in reflects a mysterious divine dance, one that we notice on our best days. Finding the sweet spot where contemporary science meets ancient mysticism, and theology meets poetry, The Divine Dance sketches a beautiful choreography for a life well-lived. In our joy or our pain, true life is always relational, a flow, a dance. (And was always meant to be.)
—Bono, U2
 


Seriously friends, this is Richard in peak form, doing what he does best: showing you how the best ideas for the future have actually been here, in the Jesus tradition, the whole time. In these pages it’s the Trinity—that old familiar word—that suddenly gets infused with insight and electricity as you see just how practical and helpful and healing and inspiring and provocative and dangerous this conception of the Divine is. Our favorite Franciscan has done it again!
—Rob Bell
Speaker, teacher, and author, Love Wins
RobBell.com


More and more people are struggling with conventional understandings of God, like the big white guy on a throne with a long beard and a fistful of swords and lightning bolts by which you (or your enemies) might be smitten at any moment if you don’t think or act correctly. For many, the concept of Trinity simply triples their God-problems. But in The Divine Dance, Richard Rohr and Mike Morrell explore the Trinity as a pathway beyond problematic understandings of God. This beautifully-written book can do far more than change your troubled thoughts about God: it can change your way of thinking about God entirely.
—Brian D. McLaren
Activist, speaker, and author, We Make the Road by Walking
brianmclaren.net
 


Rohr and Morrell have given us a liberating and yet totally orthodox invitation into the life of God. This book is a celebration of the Trinity, not as bad math (1+1+1=3), and not as baffling mystery to avoid, but as the divine movement of love. I’m grateful for a book that speaks God not with pretense and jargon, but with wisdom and genuine human experience. The Divine Dance is an example of why Rohr has had such a profound influence on so many Christians seeking to balance reason and mystery, action and contemplation, not to mention faith and real life.
—Nadia Bolz-Weber
Pastor, House for All Sinners and Saints
Author, Accidental Saints: Finding God in All the Wrong People
NadiaBolzWeber.com
 


The Divine Dance reminds us that God is a holy community—Father, Son, Spirit. And that humanity is created in the image of community, with a deep longing to love and be loved. This book calls us to be like God—to belong to each other, to be one as God is one, and to refuse to do life alone.
—Shane Claiborne
Activist and author, Jesus for President
RedLetterChristians.org
 


It’s ironic that, while we have many religious institutions named after the Trinity, we are increasingly plagued by feelings of isolation and loneliness because we fail to truly experience this mysterious Three-In-One. With wisdom, compassion, and deep theological insight, Rohr and Morrell help readers begin to hear the music, understand the invitation, and feel the joy that leads our souls to enter into the Divine Dance.
—Sarah Thebarge
Author, The Invisible Girls
SarahThebarge.com
 


Richard Rohr is one of the great spiritual masters of our time, indeed of any time. His superb new book on the Trinity is vintage Rohr: clearheaded, provocative, inspiring, challenging, and, most of all, suffused with the presence of the Holy Spirit. The Trinity will of course always remain a profound mystery, but after reading Father Rohr’s book, you will experience it as a mystery that can, and will, transform your life.
—James Martin, SJ
Author, Jesus: A Pilgrimage and Seven Last Words


The Divine Dance is a joyful plunge into what is often dry academic mystery. Richard Rohr shares his exploration into the sacred and challenges us all to come along on the nourishing journey to community.
—Simone Campbell, SSS
NETWORK Executive Director, lawyer, advocate, poet, and author, A Nun on the Bus
NetworkLobby.org
 

From the Publisher