Parker J. Palmer, A Hidden Wholeness: The Journey Toward an Undivided Life. Jossey-Bass, 2009.
Referenced in: Missional Lifestyle, Discipleship, Spirituality – Spirituality and Life Calling
LifeandLeadership.com Summary
Parker Palmer is one of the most respected voices on the spirituality of vocation. Although he is not usually associated with the missional conversation, his writings resonate with the missional perspective of engaging all of life with a sense of God’s call.
Living missionally demands a very high level of integration between faith and life, engaging all of life as an expression of the mission of God. The active life, however, is usually characterized by fragmentation and compartmentalization that makes it difficult to focus the whole of one’s existence Godward. Palmer addresses this “dividedness” in A Hidden Wholeness.
A Hidden Wholeness is not distinctively Christian in its orientation. Palmer not uncommonly draws from interfaith traditions. He derived the “hidden wholeness” from Christian spiritualist Thomas Merton, who is also quite inclusive. Thus this is not so much a guide to Christian spiritual formation but a sensitive call to “rejoin soul and role” through the practices of solitude, community, and thoughtful engagement. It helps readers understand how societal forces, or “the blizzard of the world,” mitigate against “the order of the soul,” or living congruently with one’s beliefs. Palmer makes practical suggestions on how to join with others in a communal journey toward becoming “divided no more.”
As an educator, Parker’s strong suit is inspiring passion for the role of teaching in meaningful community life. His appeal goes beyond higher education, however, and many professionals have derived considerable benefit from his writings. A Hidden Wholeness is his seventh book. He writes to help people build a rhythm of solitude, reflection, community, and engagement that allows them to live more congruently with their core beliefs. Nevertheless, this is not This paperback version includes a DVD and group study guide.
Readers may also appreciate two other volumes by Palmer:
- Parker J. Palmer. The Active Life: A Spirituality of Work, Creativity, and Caring. Jossey-Bass, 1999.
- Parker J. Palmer, Let Your Life Speak: Listening for the Voice of Vocation. Jossey-Bass, 1999.
From the Publisher
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.
About the Author
Parker J. Palmer is founder and senior partner of the Center for Courage & Renewal. A writer, speaker and activist, he served for fifteen years as senior associate of the American Association of Higher Education. He holds the Ph.D. in sociology from the University of California at Berkeley, as well as ten honorary 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, Lilly, and Fetzer foundations. In 1998, the Leadership Project, a national survey of 10,000 educators, named him one of the thirty most influential senior leaders in higher education and one of the ten key agenda-setters of the past decade. He lives in Madison, Wisconsin.
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