Reimagining A Religion That Feeds Our Soul with Thomas Moore, Ph.D.

Church attendance continues to decline as many of us abandon the religious institutions of our youth. However, in today’s culture the search for the sacred has never been more active. Thomas Moore suggests that nature, art, and accessing the wealth of traditional spiritual wisdom can be of enormous help in revivifying our relationship to religion. We need to abandon the dogma and set our compass according to our personal values and philosophy as we search for a religion that feeds our soul. He says, “This is the time to stop looking for an answer outside yourself, looking for an organization that will answer your needs completely or answer them through your joining them and subscribing to their beliefs and their practices and their way of looking at the world. I think that time is over…We have to do that ourselves…It’s also a responsibility and it is more difficult.” He advises that we not settle for an “off the rack”  philosophy for our lives and that religion needs to be rooted in one’s individual and unique experience. (hosted by Justine Willis Toms)Bio

Thomas Moore, Ph.D. was a monk for twelve years, a university professor. He is a musician and a psychotherapist and lectures widely on holistic medicine, spiritually, psychotherapy, and the arts. He has a Ph.D. in religion from Syracuse University.

He’s the author of:

• Care of the Soul : A Guide for Cultivating Depth and Sacredness in Everyday Life (HarperPerennial 1994)
• The Soul of Sex: Cultivating Life as an Act of Love (Harper Perennial 1999)
• Dark Nights of the Soul: A Guide to Finding Your Way Through Life’s Ordeals (Gotham 2005)
• A Religion of One’s Own: A Guide to Creating a Personal Spirituality in a Secular World (Gotham 2014)

To learn more about Thomas Moore’s work go to www.careofthesoul.net.

Topics explored in this dialogue include:

• How we can find the sacred in the secular
• How religion needs to be rooted in one’s individual and unique experience
• Why seeking a religion of one’s own increases the intimacy of community
• Why dreams are important in understanding our life’s path
• How art can be a portal to the soul
• How making a religion of one’s own is dynamic ever changing thing
• Why sexuality and eros is sacred and is connected to our life vitality
• How reading tea leaves increases our inner guidance and connects to natural magic
• Why marriage is not static and predictable
• What it means to be a mystic

Host: Justine Willis Toms                Interview Date: 1/15/2014              Program Number: 3493

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