Divine Dance: The Trinity and Your Transformation - Softcover

Rohr; Richard; Morrell; Mike

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1629119482 ISBN 13: 9781629119489

Publisher: Whitaker Publishers, 2017

Synopsis

Invitation to a Dance
The Trinity is supposed to be the central, foundational doctrine of our entire Christian belief system, yet we're often told that we shouldn't attempt to understand it because it is a "mystery." Should we presume to try to breach this mystery? If we could, how would it transform our relationship with God and renew our lives?

The word Trinity is not found in the New Testament--it wasn't until the third century that early Christian father Tertullian coined it--but the idea of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit was present in Jesus' life and teachings and from the very beginning of the Christian experience.

In the pages of this book, internationally recognized teacher Richard Rohr circles around this most paradoxical idea as he explores the nature of God--circling around being an apt metaphor for this mystery we're trying to apprehend. Early Christians who came to be known as the "Desert Mothers and Fathers" applied the Greek verb perichoresis to the mystery of the Trinity. The best translation of this odd-sounding word is dancing. Our word choreography comes from the same root. Although these early Christians gave us some highly conceptualized thinking on the life of the Trinity, the best they could say, again and again, was, Whatever is going on in God is a flow--it's like a dance.

But God is not a dancer--He is the dance itself. That idea might sound novel, but it is about as traditional as you can get. God is the dance itself, and He invites you to be a part of that dance. Are you ready to join in?

About this title

Review:

Humanity, says Richard Rohr, is a perfect rhyme for what Christianity, trying to express the inexpressible, calls the holy trinity. This human dance we're all in reflects a mysterious divine dance, one that we notice on our best days. Finding the sweet spot where contemporary science meets ancient mysticism, and theology meets poetry, The Divine Dance sketches a beautiful choreography for a life well-lived. In our joy or our pain, true life is always relational, a flow, a dance. (And was always meant to be.)
--Bono, U2
Seriously friends, this is Richard in peak form, doing what he does best: showing you how the best ideas for the future have actually been here, in the Jesus tradition, the whole time. In these pages it's the Trinity--that old familiar word--that suddenly gets infused with insight and electricity as you see just how practical and helpful and healing and inspiring and provocative and dangerous this conception of the Divine is. Our favorite Franciscan has done it again!
--Rob Bell
Speaker, teacher, and author, Love Wins
RobBell.com

More and more people are struggling with conventional understandings of God, like the big white guy on a throne with a long beard and a fistful of swords and lightning bolts by which you (or your enemies) might be smitten at any moment if you don't think or act correctly. For many, the concept of Trinity simply triples their God-problems. But in The Divine Dance, Richard Rohr and Mike Morrell explore the Trinity as a pathway beyond problematic understandings of God. This beautifully-written book can do far more than change your troubled thoughts about God: it can change your way of thinking about God entirely.
--Brian D. McLaren
Activist, speaker, and author, We Make the Road by Walking
brianmclaren.net
Rohr and Morrell have given us a liberating and yet totally orthodox invitation into the life of God. This book is a celebration of the Trinity, not as bad math (1+1+1=3), and not as baffling mystery to avoid, but as the divine movement of love. I'm grateful for a book that speaks God not with pretense and jargon, but with wisdom and genuine human experience. The Divine Dance is an example of why Rohr has had such a profound influence on so many Christians seeking to balance reason and mystery, action and contemplation, not to mention faith and real life.
--Nadia Bolz-Weber
Pastor, House for All Sinners and Saints
Author, Accidental Saints: Finding God in All the Wrong People
NadiaBolzWeber.com
The Divine Dance reminds us that God is a holy community--Father, Son, Spirit. And that humanity is created in the image of community, with a deep longing to love and be loved. This book calls us to be like God--to belong to each other, to be one as God is one, and to refuse to do life alone.
--Shane Claiborne
Activist and author, Jesus for President
RedLetterChristians.org
It's ironic that, while we have many religious institutions named after the Trinity, we are increasingly plagued by feelings of isolation and loneliness because we fail to truly experience this mysterious Three-In-One. With wisdom, compassion, and deep theological insight, Rohr and Morrell help readers begin to hear the music, understand the invitation, and feel the joy that leads our souls to enter into the Divine Dance.
--Sarah Thebarge
Author, The Invisible Girls
SarahThebarge.com
Richard Rohr is one of the great spiritual masters of our time, indeed of any time. His superb new book on the Trinity is vintage Rohr: clearheaded, provocative, inspiring, challenging, and, most of all, suffused with the presence of the Holy Spirit. The Trinity will of course always remain a profound mystery, but after reading Father Rohr's book, you will experience it as a mystery that can, and will, transform your life.
--James Martin, SJ
Author, Jesus: A Pilgrimage and Seven Last Words

The Divine Dance is a joyful plunge into what is often dry academic mystery. Richard Rohr shares his exploration into the sacred and challenges us all to come along on the nourishing journey to community.
--Simone Campbell, SSS
NETWORK Executive Director, lawyer, advocate, poet, and author, A Nun on the Bus
NetworkLobby.org

About the Author:

Fr. Richard Rohr is a globally recognized teacher and the author of numerous books, including Everything Belongs, The Naked Now, Breathing Under Water, Falling Upward, and Eager to Love: The Alternative Way of Francis of Assisi. A Franciscan priest, he is the founder of the Center for Action and Contemplation (CAC.org) and is Academic Dean of the Living School for Action and Contemplation in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Fr. Richard's teaching is grounded in Franciscan practices of contemplation and self-emptying, expressing themselves in radical compassion, particularly for the socially marginalized. //
Mike Morrell is the Communications Director for the Integral Theology think tank Presence International, cofounder of The Buzz Seminar, and a founding organizer of the justice, arts, and spirituality Wild Goose Festival. He is also a futurist, an avid writer, freelance journalist, author coach, publishing consultant, and the curator of the book-reviewing community at TheSpeakeasy.info. You can read his ongoing exploration of Spirit, Culture, and Permaculture at MikeMorrell.org. Mike lives with his wife and two daughters in North Carolina.

About this edition

• Publisher: Whitaker Publishers
• Publication date: 2017
• ISBN 10: 1629119482
• ISBN 13: 9781629119489
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 336