What do you think?
Rate this book
Spiritually Healthy Divorce: Navigating Disruption with Insight & Hope
Chart a Course to Wholeness in the Aftermath of Divorce
"Divorce tends to rip away your façade and defenses, and call into question what you know or believe. That vulnerability is painful, but ultimately can bring you to a place where your spiritual life can gain strength and insight if you are open to it. In the midst of feeling lost, you can find a new path forward, which brings you to a better place."
-from the Introduction
Divorce is never easy and almost always includes profound experiences of pain, isolation, anger, despair, and confusion. Here is a spiritual map for regaining your bearings, helping you move through the twists and turns of divorce in a spiritually healthy way.
Drawing on her work as a pastor and counselor--and her personal experience with divorce--Carolyne Call proposes a three-prong approach to help you reset your compass on a new destination-wholeness. Supported by first-person accounts from men and women from a variety of faith traditions who have found their way through divorce, she helps you identify:
• Where you want to go--"I want to be true to who I am"
• Where you don't want to go--the "cul-de-sacs" of bitterness, resentment, victimization, and guilt
• What you can do to get there
"Divorce tends to rip away your façade and defenses, and call into question what you know or believe. That vulnerability is painful, but ultimately can bring you to a place where your spiritual life can gain strength and insight if you are open to it. In the midst of feeling lost, you can find a new path forward, which brings you to a better place."
-from the Introduction
Divorce is never easy and almost always includes profound experiences of pain, isolation, anger, despair, and confusion. Here is a spiritual map for regaining your bearings, helping you move through the twists and turns of divorce in a spiritually healthy way.
Drawing on her work as a pastor and counselor--and her personal experience with divorce--Carolyne Call proposes a three-prong approach to help you reset your compass on a new destination-wholeness. Supported by first-person accounts from men and women from a variety of faith traditions who have found their way through divorce, she helps you identify:
• Where you want to go--"I want to be true to who I am"
• Where you don't want to go--the "cul-de-sacs" of bitterness, resentment, victimization, and guilt
• What you can do to get there
Nook
First published October 1, 2010
2 people are currently reading
7 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
October 22, 2012
Navigating the destructive feelings from divorce with paths leading to insight and hope, and ultimately: forgiveness. Love the phrase "spiritual cu de sac"....
February 16, 2012
Interested in Church Growth? Get This Guide to Spiritual Health in Divorce
Obviously, if you’re reading about this book, you’re likely grappling with a divorce in your family. If so: This is a wise and helpful book—buy it now. But, in this review, I want to address readers who are active in their congregations and care about the almost universal concern in churches these days: How to help our churches grow.
Considering that the latest U.S. Census reports indicate that only half of adult Americans are married, these days, there is a clear challenge to church leaders in reaching out to single and divorced men and women. At the moment, the vast majority of church programs are aimed at welcoming families. If you care about your religious community, get a copy of this book and have it on hand to help expand your welcoming ministries.
Why is the kind of advice in this book so important? Call writes: “In my work with individuals going through divorce, often the most confusing and painful part of the process is coming to terms with how divorce disrupts, damages or challenges their relationship with and concepts of God. … This is not an easy path. … But achieving spiritual health is worth the work if you are able to grow through it into a more compassionate, humble, loving and self-accepting person.”
If that brief description of Call’s book sounds intriguing to you, then you’ll definitely enjoy it. Those few sentences outline the basic quest she unfolds in eight chapters and some of the spiritual values that become touchstones in this journey.
In these chapters you will meet real people Call has encountered over the years. She uses their examples as she provides solid counseling on various steps people need to take to reach the goal she sets of spiritual health. Why do I call her advice “solid”? Because she draws on mainstream wisdom to chart her journey. For example, readers who have dipped into the abundant literature on “forgiveness” and “reconciliation” will discover, in a section mid-way through Call’s book, that her descriptions of these steps parallel other well-known experts in this field like Lewis Smedes in his books like The Art of Forgiving.
Along the way, Call provides flexible options. You have children? Well, here’s how bring your children into the journey. No kids? Well, skip to other passages. Want direct questions for reflection? She’s got them sprinkled through the book. Just want to read the narrative? That’s OK, too.
The book closes with 14 pages addressed to small-group leaders about forming a group, dividing this book into segments for discussion, group activities and more.
Obviously, if you’re reading about this book, you’re likely grappling with a divorce in your family. If so: This is a wise and helpful book—buy it now. But, in this review, I want to address readers who are active in their congregations and care about the almost universal concern in churches these days: How to help our churches grow.
Considering that the latest U.S. Census reports indicate that only half of adult Americans are married, these days, there is a clear challenge to church leaders in reaching out to single and divorced men and women. At the moment, the vast majority of church programs are aimed at welcoming families. If you care about your religious community, get a copy of this book and have it on hand to help expand your welcoming ministries.
Why is the kind of advice in this book so important? Call writes: “In my work with individuals going through divorce, often the most confusing and painful part of the process is coming to terms with how divorce disrupts, damages or challenges their relationship with and concepts of God. … This is not an easy path. … But achieving spiritual health is worth the work if you are able to grow through it into a more compassionate, humble, loving and self-accepting person.”
If that brief description of Call’s book sounds intriguing to you, then you’ll definitely enjoy it. Those few sentences outline the basic quest she unfolds in eight chapters and some of the spiritual values that become touchstones in this journey.
In these chapters you will meet real people Call has encountered over the years. She uses their examples as she provides solid counseling on various steps people need to take to reach the goal she sets of spiritual health. Why do I call her advice “solid”? Because she draws on mainstream wisdom to chart her journey. For example, readers who have dipped into the abundant literature on “forgiveness” and “reconciliation” will discover, in a section mid-way through Call’s book, that her descriptions of these steps parallel other well-known experts in this field like Lewis Smedes in his books like The Art of Forgiving.
Along the way, Call provides flexible options. You have children? Well, here’s how bring your children into the journey. No kids? Well, skip to other passages. Want direct questions for reflection? She’s got them sprinkled through the book. Just want to read the narrative? That’s OK, too.
The book closes with 14 pages addressed to small-group leaders about forming a group, dividing this book into segments for discussion, group activities and more.
October 5, 2013
I had to read this book for my Senior thesis about divorce. This was a helpful book and I gained a lot of important insight to the psychological aspects involved in divorce, and how to come out of divorce a better person. I will definitely be referencing this text in my thesis!
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews