Seeking the Sacred ─ Leading a Spiritual Life in a Secular World

Speaking from experience?where things can go wrong and wrongs can remain unrighted?the five modern thinkers in this collection offer ways to maintain a spiritual life outside of a strictly religious context. Based on the acknowledgement that religious doctrine and academic paradigm do not always have adequate answers for the world's complicated problems, the essays draw on a rich mosaic of beliefs, customs, and study to address issues from social justice and morality to consciousness and the place of faith. Noted thinker Thomas Moore explores the nature of the soul, while General Romeo Dallaire shares his trials of faith in the face of evil from his 1994 tour in Rwanda. Other ways for spirituality to inform daily life are also dealt with, from putting a wish for peace into action to reaching out to others in a time of need. As these writers name parts of everyday life as sacred and worthy of devotion, they help to lead readers who are seeking something greater in their lives down a mindful, spiritual path.

Thomas Moore is a psychotherapist, lecturer, and author of Care of the Soul, The Planets Within, The Re-Enchantment of Everyday Life, and The Soul's Religion. He lives in New England. Martin Rutte is an author of the New York Times business bestseller Chicken Soup for the Soul at Work. His work on spirituality in the workplace was a featured special on ABC's "Creativity: Touching the Divine." He lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Romeo Dallaire is the author of Shake Hands with the Devil: The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda, winner of the 2004 Governor General's Award for nonfiction. He is a fellow at Harvard University in the area of conflict resolution and a Canadian senator. He lives in Ottawa, Ontario. Stephen Lewis is the Canadian Secretary-General's Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa and the author of Race Against Time. He also served as the Canadian ambassador to the United Nations from 1984 to 1988. He lives in Toronto, Ontario. Marion Woodman is the author of Coming Home to Myself, Conscious Femininity, Dancing in the Flames, and The Ravaged Bridegroom. She lives in London, Ontario.