Synopses & Reviews
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
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)
Synopsis
A thoughtful and heartfelt exploration of what it means to become whole from Parker Palmer, bestselling author of Let Your Life Speak and The Courage to Teach
The recent and devastating duplicities in business, religion, and politics have less to do with a " failure of ethics" than with a lack of integrity and wholeness. In their hearts, many who participated in recent scandals knew the right thing to do but shrank from it, choosing a more convenient path. The need to reunite that inner sense of truth and integrity with outward behavior has never been more urgent.
In A Hidden Wholeness, Palmer brings his compassionate intelligence and knowing heart to a more explicitly spiritual exploration of what it means to live an undivided life, one where our inner truth can find expression and value in our outer lives, despite the pressures we may face. Bringing all the insight and wisdom he has gained in his distinguished career, he shows readers how to nurture the soul both in solitude and in community. Palmer examines the problem of the " divided life, " diagnoses its sources, assesses its personal and social costs, and offers a model of community that will help people live with greater integrity and wholeness. This is a book that responds to a very deep longing for what Palmer calls the desire to " create safe spaces for the soul to show up and make its claim on our lives."
Parker J. Palmer (Madison, WI) is senior associate of the American Association for Higher Educatio and senior advisor to the Fetzer Institute. In 1998, he was named one of the thirty most influential senior leaders in higher education. Dr. Palmer s work has been recognized with eighthonorary doctorates, two Distinguished Achievement Awards from the National Educational Press Association, an Award of Excellence from the Associated Church Press, and major grants from the Danforth Foundation, the Lilly Endowment, and the Fetzer Institute. The author of such widely praised books as The Courage to Teach (0-7879-4645-1), Let Your Life Speak (0-7879-4735-0), The Active Life (0-7879-4934-5), and To Know as We Are Known, he is a member of the Religious Society of Friends (Quaker).
Synopsis
At a time when many of us seek ways of working and living that are more resonant with our souls, A Hidden Wholeness offers insight into our condition and guidance for finding what we seekwithin ourselves and with each other.
"The soul is generous: it takes in the needs of the world. The soul is wise: it suffers without shutting down. The soul is hopeful: it engages the world in ways that keep opening our hearts. The soul is creative: it finds its way between realities that might defeat us and fantasies that are mere escapes. All we need to do is to bring down the wall that separates us from our own souls and deprives the world of the souls regenerative powers."
From A Hidden Wholeness
Synopsis
In A Hidden Wholeness, Parker J. 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 liveslives that are congruent with our inner truthin 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."
Inspired by Palmers writing and speakingand challenged by the conditions of twenty-first century lifepeople 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 groundby 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 J. Palmers books will be glad to find the journey continued hereand readers new to his work will be glad they joined that journey.
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 booksincluding the bestsellers Let Your Life Speak and The Courage to Teachhis 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.