Adult Faith: Growing in Wisdom and Understanding

by O'Murchu, Diarmuid

• ISBN13: 9781570758867
• ISBN10: 1570758867
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-10-31
• Publisher: Orbis Books

Summary

Celebrated writer and teacher Diarmuid O'Murchu has written this book for adults who seek adult answers to adult questions and wish to be part of the dialogical process that helps to unearth deeper truth.

Author Biography

Diarmuid O'Murchu is a priest and social scientist who facilitates programs in adult faith development. His books include the classic Quantum Theology, Evolutionary Faith, and Ancestral Grace.

Table of Contents

Introduction	p. 1
The Vanishing Covenant
Defining Adulthood	p. 7
A Cultural Shift	p. 9
Toward a New Integration	p. 11
The Enlarged Context	p. 15
Ruling in Order to Control	p. 18
Democratic Disempowerment	p. 19
The Historical Backdrop	p. 20
The Patriarchal Inheritance	p. 21
The Breakdown	p. 23
Our Codependent Culture	p. 24
Anarchy Let Loose?	p. 26
The Religion of Fearful Submission	p. 29
Love and Power Confused	p. 29
Problematic Religion	p. 31
Beyond Dysfunctional Religion	p. 34
The Tyranny of the Rational Mind	p. 38
The Fallacy of Rationality	p. 39
Rationality and the Evolution of Agriculture	p. 41
Control from a Distance	p. 43
Robust Individualism	p. 44
A New Kind of Heroism	p. 46
Reclaiming the Vulnerable Adult	p. 47
When Heroes Give Way to Lovers	p. 48
Our Frazzled Institutions	p. 50
The Institutional Death Knell	p. 51
Institutions Disempower	p. 53
Networking: The Way Forward	p. 55
The Subversive Power of Cooperation	p. 56
Fluid Structures	p. 58
Theology from the Bottom Up	p. 60
The Paradigm Shift	p. 61
Theological Confidence	p. 65
Theological Bridge-Building	p. 67
Horizons of Quantum Possibility
Calling Forth the Adult in the Twenty-First Century	p. 73
Out of Modernity	p. 74
Characteristics of Contemporary Adulthood	p. 78
The Postmodern, Evolutionary Adult	p. 81
The New Consciousness	p. 84
Transformative Learning for the Protean Adult	p. 88
Evolutionary Readiness	p. 88
The Transformative Nexus	p. 91
The Lure of the Future	p. 94
The Beleaguering Mix	p. 96
Toward a Spirituality of Homecoming	p. 98
The Spiritual Cosmopolitan	p. 99
The Rise of Violent Spirituality	p. 100
A New Spiritual Metaphor: Homecoming	p. 103
Adult Spirituality	p. 104
Stages in Adult Faith Development	p. 109
From the Child to the Adult	p. 110
Adult Faith Development	p. 112
The Journey of Faith	p. 115
When Adults Do Theology	p. 119
Expanding Cultural Horizons	p. 121
Our Primal Belonging	p. 122
An Enlarged Context	p. 125
The Bewildering Paradox	p. 127
The Cycle of Creation-and-Destruction	p. 128
Engaging Paradox	p. 129
A Recurring Cycle	p. 130
Suffering as Paradox	p. 131
Revisiting the Paradox	p. 135
Embracing Embodied Relationality	p. 139
First, the Body	p. 140
Programed to Relate	p. 143
Embodied Sexuality	p. 145
What Would Adult Eroticism Look Like?	p. 147
Programed for Nonviolence?	p. 150
Adult Governance in the Power of Networking	p. 155
Inherited Assumptions	p. 156
The Controlling Power of Money	p. 159
Quantum Theory and the Birth of Networking	p. 163
Networking in the Information Age	p. 166
Doing Ritual in an Adult Way	p. 169
People of Ritual	p. 171
Sacramental Experience	p. 174
Ritualizing the Gift of Food	p. 176
The Adult as Ritual Maker	p. 177
When Adults Die Gracefully	p. 181
Our Death-Ridden World	p. 182
Reclaiming a More Adult Approach	p. 183
The Dynamics of Death-and of Life!	p. 185
Letting Go into Deeper Freedom	p. 191
Notes	p. 195
Bibliography	p. 199
Index	p. 205
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.