A Hidden Wholeness: The Journey Toward an Undivided Life - Hardcover

Palmer, Parker J.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0787971006 ISBN 13: 9780787971007

Publisher: Jossey Bass, 2004

Synopsis

In A Hidden Wholeness, Parker Palmer reveals the same compassionate intelligence and informed heart that shaped his best–selling books Let Your Life Speak and The Courage to Teach. Here he speaks to our yearning to live undivided lives—lives that are congruent with our inner truth—in a world filled with the forces of fragmentation.

Mapping an inner journey that we take in solitude and in the company of others, Palmer describes a form of community that fits the limits of our active lives. Defining a “circle of trust” as “a space between us that honors the soul,” he shows how people in settings ranging from friendship to organizational life can support each other on the journey toward living “divided no more.”

This paperback edition includes two new and useful features. Circles of Trust is a DVD containing interviews with Parker J. Palmer and footage from retreats he facilitated for the Center for Courage & Renewal (www.CourageRenewal.org). Bringing the Book to Life, by Caryl Hurtig Casbon and Sally Z. Hare, is a reader′s and leader′s guide to exploring the themes in A Hidden Wholeness. The DVD illuminates and illustrates the principles and practices behind circles of trust. The guide includes questions that connect the DVD to the book, offering "a conversation with the author" as well as an engagement with the text. Together, these features give readers new ways to internalize the themes of A Hidden Wholeness and share with others this approach to sustaining identity and integrity in all the venues of our lives.

Inspired by Palmer’s writing and speaking—and challenged by the conditions of twenty–first century life—people across the country, from many walks of life, have been coming together in circles of trust to reclaim their integrity and help foster wholeness in their workplaces and their world.

For over a decade, the principles and practices in this book have been proven on the ground—by parents and educators, clergy and politicians, community organizers and corporate executives, physicians and attorneys, and many others who seek to rejoin soul and role in their private and public lives.

A Hidden Wholeness weaves together four themes that its author has pursued for forty years: the shape of an integral life, the meaning of community, teaching and learning for transformation, and nonviolent social change. The hundreds of thousands of people who know Parker Palmer’s books will be glad to find the journey continued

About this title

Review:

"Parker J. Palmer′s latest book is a gift...a guide for living...compassionate, deeply insightful...heart opening and transforming." (BookSense, September 2004)

"A Hidden Wholeness is a rich and accessible resource for all who want to nurture their souls in community...explores the meaning of community, teaching and learning for transformation, and the importance of nonviolent social change." (Spirituality & Health, October 2004)

"Parker Palmer′s soul–tempering work explores, in intimate, illuminating ways, the promise of the voice of vocation that speaks to every one of us..." (Common Reader)

"Whenever Parker Palmer publishes a new book, it′s worth a careful look. His latest work is an examination of maintaining integrity, a life based on inner truth, in the face of a world of fragmentation. Palmer provides vivid portraits of integrity, describes the consequences of sublimating our true self, offers a map for creating "circles of trust" which would support our soul self, and explores how the principles and practices of the book can help the reader walk the path of nonviolence every day. This book is a lovely, spiritually nourishing and ultimately hopeful exploration." (Friends General Conference)

"Parker J. Palmer′s latest book is a gift...a guide for living...compassionate, deeply insightful...heart opening and transforming." (BookSense, September 2004)

"A Hidden Wholeness is a rich and accessible resource for all who want to nurture their souls in community." (Spirituality & Health, October 2004)

"This book is a lovely, spiritually nourishing and ultimately hopeful exploration...it′s worth a careful look." (Friends General Conference)

"Parker Palmer′s soul–tempering work explores, in intimate, illuminating ways, the promise of the voice of vocation that speaks to every one of us..." (Common Reader)

"...explores the meaning of community, teaching and learning for transformation, and the importance of nonviolent social change." (One of The Best Spiritual Books of 2004, Spirituality & Health)

About the Author:

Parker J. Palmer is a highly respected writer, lecturer, teacher, and activist. His work speaks deeply to people from many walks of life, including public schools, college and universities, religious institutions, corporations, foundations, and grass–roots organizations. The Leadership Project, a 1998 survey of 10,000 American educators, named him one of the thirty most influential senior leaders in higher education and one of ten key "agenda–setters" of the past decade. Author of six previous books including the bestsellers Let Your Life Speak and The Courage to Teach his writing has been recognized with eight honorary doctorates and several national awards. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley and lives in Madison, Wisconsin.

About this edition

• Publisher: Jossey Bass
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 0787971006
• ISBN 13: 9780787971007
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 224