Finding God Beyond Religion: A Guide for Skeptics, Agnostics, & Unorthodox Believers Inside & Outside the Church

In his third book, Catholic retreat leader and spiritual director Stella (A Faith Worth Believing) urges readers not to let religion of any denominational flavor become a stumbling block to a profound encounter with God. As Phyllis Tickle argues in her influential Great Emergence, Stella also believes the Western world is transitioning "between an epoch of religion that is on the decline and an epoch of spirituality that is on the rise." Positing that our culture is out of touch with its soul, Stella generously invites spiritual seekers and the "nones" %E2%80%93 those who say they have no religious affiliation -- to experience God as the "ground of being," not a "super being" made in humans' image. He tackles head-on thorny topics too often avoided in fuzzier writing on spirituality%E2%80%94prayer in a non-theistic world, Jesus' distinctiveness, and God's existence in the midst of evil. Readers who appreciate the forward-thinking work of Episcopal bishop John Shelby Spong, New Testament scholar Marcus Borg, and psychologist James Finley will find their perspectives used liberally. While not a book for Christian traditionalists, Stella offers a cup of cool water to the spiritually dehydrated. (May)