Synopses & Reviews
The headlines are clear: religion is on the decline in America as many people leave behind traditional religious practices. Diana Butler Bass, leading commentator on religion, politics, and culture, follows up her acclaimed book
Christianity After Religion by arguing that what appears to be a decline actually signals a major transformation in how people understand and experience God. The distant God of conventional religion has given way to a more intimate sense of the sacred that is with us in the world. This shift, from a vertical understanding of God to a God found on the horizons of nature and human community, is at the heart of a spiritual revolution that surrounds us - and that is challenging not only religious institutions but political and social ones as well.
Grounded explores this cultural turn as Bass unpacks how people are finding new spiritual ground by discovering and embracing God everywhere in the world around us—in the soil, the water, the sky, in our homes and neighborhoods, and in the global commons. Faith is no longer a matter of mountaintop experience or institutional practice; instead, people are connecting with God through the environment in which we live. Grounded guides readers through our contemporary spiritual habitat as it points out and pays attention to the ways in which people experience a God who animates creation and community.
Bass brings her understanding of the latest research and studies and her deep knowledge of history and theology to Grounded. She cites news, trends, data, and pop culture, weaves in spiritual texts and ancient traditions, and pulls it all together through stories of her own and others' spiritual journeys. Grounded observes and reports a radical change in the way many people understand God and how they practice faith. In doing so, Bass invites readers to join this emerging spiritual revolution, find a revitalized expression of faith, and change the world.
Review
“Grounded is a wise and beautiful book. It is, in fact and in places, almost an anthem to the sacred unity of the physical and the spiritual in the formation of human faith and in the maturation of the human soul.” < b=""> Phyllis Tickle, author of < i=""> The Great Emergence <> <>
Review
“An absolutely gorgeously written book about real faith in the real world.” < b=""> James Martin, SJ, author of < i=""> Jesus: A Pilgrimage <> <>
Review
“The reversing of engines that Diana Butler Bass describes in Grounded was first announced by Jesus himself, of course. How strange that it should seem so new and even revolutionary 2,000 years later.” < b=""> Richard Rohr, O.F.M., Center for Action and Contemplation <>
Review
“Diana Butler Basss thoughtful mandate amounts not so much to a dismissal of the church, but a summons to renewal that can be both faithful and contemporary. Her accent champions a connectedness to the actual context in which we live.” < b=""> Walter Brueggemann, Columbia Theological Seminary <>
Review
“I absolutely love this book. Ive long respected Diana Butler Bass for her intelligent, academic approach to the religious conversation, and never more so than in the pages of this book. Grounded made me love this beautiful world more deeply, and made Gods presence more visible everywhere I looked.” < b=""> Shauna Niequist, author of < i=""> Savor <> and < i=""> Bread & Wine <> <>
Review
“‘There is nothing worse than sleeping through a revolution, Bass says. Her new book will not only help you wake up. It will equip you to be an enthusiastic participant in what I believe is the deepest and most important movement taking shape in our lifetime.” < b=""> Brian D. McLaren, speaker, activity, and author of < i=""> A New Kind of Christianity <> <>
Review
“Beginning with earth (dirt), air (sky) and water Bass weaves an engaging story of interconnectedness ending in the revelation of the divine in the here and now. I thoroughly enjoyed the texture and twists of insights opening the stunning truth of emerging faith in our midst.” < b=""> Sister Simone Campbell, author of < i=""> A Nun on a Bus <> <>
Review
“Ive been grateful for Basss razor-sharp mind, but upon finishing Grounded, I found myself in love with her mystical heart and gorgeous storytelling. We need to believe that God is with us, in dirt and water and our suffering and homes and neighborhoods. God is definitely in this book.” < b=""> Glennon Doyle Melton, author of < i=""> Carry On, Warrior <> <>
Review
“In her excellent treatise, [Bass] declares the current state of religion as not dying but transforming…. Basss biblical and effusive style, always mixing the personal with the political and scriptural, finds a deeper, more profound register in this latest book.” < b=""> < i=""> Publishers Weekly (starred review) <> <>
Review
I“n Grounded, Diana Butler Bass brings theology back down to earth. She writes about the environment and about the church in a way that makes sense, feels authentic, and doesnt put you to sleep. A stunning book that will open up new conversations in the church and beyond.” < b=""> Shane Claiborne, author of < i=""> The Irresistible Revolution <> <>
Synopsis
Winner of the Religious Newswriters Association Book Award and the Wilbur Award
The headlines are clear: religion is on the decline in America as many people leave behind traditional religious practices. Diana Butler Bass, leading commentator on religion, politics, and culture, follows up her acclaimed book Christianity After Religion by arguing that what appears to be a decline actually signals a major transformation in how people understand and experience God. The distant God of conventional religion has given way to a more intimate sense of the sacred that is with us in the world. This shift, from a vertical understanding of God to a God found on the horizons of nature and human community, is at the heart of a spiritual revolution that surrounds us and that is challenging not only religious institutions but political and social ones as well.
Grounded explores this cultural turn as Bass unpacks how people are finding new spiritual ground by discovering and embracing God everywhere in the world around us in the soil, the water, the sky, in our homes and neighborhoods, and in the global commons. Faith is no longer a matter of mountaintop experience or institutional practice; instead, people are connecting with God through the environment in which we live. Grounded guides readers through our contemporary spiritual habitat as it points out and pays attention to the ways in which people experience a God who animates creation and community.
Bass brings her understanding of the latest research and studies and her deep knowledge of history and theology to Grounded. She cites news, trends, data, and pop culture, weaves in spiritual texts and ancient traditions, and pulls it all together through stories of her own and others' spiritual journeys. Grounded observes and reports a radical change in the way many people understand God and how they practice faith. In doing so, Bass invites readers to join this emerging spiritual revolution, find a revitalized expression of faith, and change the world.
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Synopsis
In this follow-up to her acclaimed
Christianity After Religion, a leading trend spotter in contemporary Christianity examines how people are undergoing a new spiritual awakening—discovering God in new ways as well as shifting the way they understand and practice their faith.
In Christianity After Religion, Diana Butler Bass revealed how the “spiritual but not religious movement” is transforming the way individuals engage with God. In Grounded, she further explores our post-religion age, revealing how traditional notions of a top-down, heaven-oriented, distant God are being supplanted by an embodied theology that offers a new vision of God with us. God is active in every aspect of our lives—embodied in the physical world around us, our loved ones, our history, our culture and food, and in our greatest yearnings.
Analyzing current trends, news, data, literature, and pop culture, Bass shows how the world of church and spiritual practice are changing, moving outside the walls of the church and into the world around us, and cites spiritual texts, ancient traditions, theologists, teachers, and anecdotes from her own religious journey to explore the evolving life of faith. As she reports on the changes happening in the church and in religious communities across the country, she offers advice and insight to help readers join this emerging movement and become grounded in their own spiritual journey.
About the Author
Diana Butler Bass is the author of eight books on American religion, including Christianity After Religion, Christianity for the Rest of Us, and A People's History of Christianity. She holds a Ph.D. in Religious Studies from Duke University, has taught at the college and graduate level, and is currently an independent scholar. She was a columnist for the New York Times Syndicate, and blogs for the Huffington Post and the Washington Post on issues of religion, spirituality, and culture. Bass is a popular speaker at conferences, colleges and universities, and churches across North America. She lives in Alexandria, Virginia, with her husband, daughter, and dog. Her website is dianabutlerbass.com and she can be followed on Twitter at @dianabutlerbass.