The Wounding and Healing of Desire: Weaving Heaven and EarthUsing refreshingly unconventional prose, rising theologian Wendy Farley has written a theological account of the human condition that delves into the deepest dimensions of the soul. Considering human life from the perspective of the wounding and healing of desire, with desire being that within us which longs for connection, home, and beauty, Farley presents a passionate, moving account of the human condition that draws strongly upon the Christian meditative and mystical spiritual traditions. In doing so, Farley shifts the traditional images of sin and redemption into images of healing and power. The result is a theological memoir that reaches into the human depths and draws forth a response of the soul--in courage, compassion, and delight. |
Common terms and phrases
addiction affliction anger arise ascetics awareness beauty become believe Beloved bodhisattva body bondage burning capacity centrism Christ Christian compassion contemplative desire contemplative path courage cruelty Dalai Lama dark night death deep deeper deepest deeply deity yoga delight demons desert destructive difficulties dimension distorted Divine Eros divine image Dorotheus of Gaza egocentrism embodiment emotions energy erotic power Evagrius Ponticus everything evil existence experience fear feel flow folk music habits Hadewijch harmful hatred healing heart heaven hell human humility Ibid illusion incarnation intimacy Jesus Julian of Norwich kind lives lovers Meister Eckhart mind moral mothers ness obstacles ourselves pain and pleasure passions patience Pema Chodron practices psyche rage ransom reality religious traditions remain root Satan self-sacrifice sense Shantideva sion songs soul spiritual story structure suffering temptation Teresa of Avila terror theology things Tibetan Buddhism tion Translated understand vajra pride virtues wisdom women wounds yearning
Popular passages
Page 147 - Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous?
Page 147 - We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.
Page 72 - You will not die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate; and she also gave some to her husband, and he ate.
Page 97 - The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.
Page 36 - I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.
Page 168 - At the bottom of the heart of every human being, from earliest infancy until the tomb, there is something that goes on indomitably expecting, in the teeth of all experience of crimes committed, suffered, and witnessed, that good and not evil will be done to him. It is this above all that is sacred in every human being.
Page 68 - Therefore now, O Lord, take, I beseech thee, my life from me; for it is better for me to die than to live.
Page 132 - Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.
Page 157 - LET nothing disturb thee, Nothing affright thee ; All things are passing ; God never changeth ; Patient endurance Attaineth to all things ; Who God possesseth In nothing is wanting ; Alone God sufficeth.
Page 102 - I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.