I heard Richard Rohr speak at The Glen Workshop, and in ten minutes he challenged me profoundly. …
After his brief words at the microphone, I asked him if he had written something that would capture the same meditation and, perhaps, expand on it. He told me about his new book.
Reading the introduction to The Naked Now: Learning to See as the Mystics See, I am already convinced that this book is going to become mind- and heart-changing.
I can survive only by trying to build bridges, both affirming and also denying most of my own ideas and those of others. Most people tend to see me as highly progressive, yet I would say I am, in fact, a values conservative and a process liberal. I believe in justice, truth, follow-through, honesty, personal and financial responsibility, faithful love, and humility—all deeply traditional values. Yet, in my view, you need to be imaginative, radical, dialogical, and even countercultural to live these values at any depth. Whether in church life or politics, neither conservatives nor liberals are doing this very well today. Both are too dualistic—they do not think or see like the mystics.