Spiritual Guidance Across Religions: A Sourcebook for Spiritual Directors and Other Professionals Providing Counsel to People of Differing Faith Traditions

by John R. Mabry (Editor), Dan Mendelsohn Aviv (Contributor), Måns Broo (Contributor)

The groundbreaking professional resource for providing spiritual guidance to people from faith traditions other than your own.

This comprehensive resource offers valuable information for providing spiritual guidance to people from a wide variety of faith traditions. Covering the world's faith traditions as well as interfaith, blended and independent approaches to spirituality, each chapter is written by a spiritual guidance professional from that tradition or who works extensively with people from that tradition. Each chapter provides: An overview of the tradition, including basic beliefsMethods for spiritual guidance honored in that traditionCommon spiritual problems encountered by people of that traditionTips, techniques and practicesHelpful resources for further learning

CONTRIBUTORS: Dan Mendelson Aviv, PhD Mans Broo, PhD Rev. Cathleen Cox, MAT, MDiv Ervad Soli P. Dastur Karen L. Erlichman, MSS, LCSW Jonathan Figdor, MDiv Rev. John A. Jillions, PhD Siri Kirpal Kaur Khalsa Rev. Daijaku Judith Kinst, PhD Ozgur Koca Bruce Lescher, PhD Rev. Ann Llewellyn Evans Rev. Dr. Jim Lockard Rev. John R. Mabry, PhD Fr. Scott McCarthy, DMin Moojan Momen, MB, BChir Wendi Momen, PhD Richard K. Payne, PhD Susan S. Phillips, PhD James Michael Reeder, LCPC, CPRP Robert A. Rees, PhD Bharat S. Shah, MD He Feng Dao Shi Joshua Snyder Rev. N. Graham Standish, PhD, MSW Chief Luisah Teish Christopher Titmuss

Religions CoveredBy Estimated U.S. Population

Evangelical Christianity Roman Catholicism Mormonism Judaism Reformed Christianity Eastern Orthodox Christianity Islam Buddhism Hinduism Spiritual Eclecticism Unitarian Universalism Neo-Paganism Baha'i Faith Sikhism Shinto Humanism New Thought Zoroastrianism Native American Religion African Diaspora Spirituality Daoism Jainism Confucianism"

Genres: Spirituality

400 pages, Paperback

First published March 30, 2014

About the author

I've been writing ever since the third grade, when I produced my first short story. I am a United Church of Christ pastor, and teach world religions and spiritual direction at the Chaplaincy Institute (an interfaith seminary in Berkeley, CA). I also sing for two progressive rock bands, Mind Furniture and Metaphor. My wife Lisa Fullam and I live in Oakland with our two lovely dogs Judy and Sally. I don't write heavy, academic books. I write books for regular folk like you and me who want to explore their spirituality and get closer to God. In my fiction, I want to show people of faith as they actually are—screwed up, insecure, and often bumbling—but still usually trying to do the right thing.

Reviews

[August · Rating 2 out of 5]

As the two stars indicates, this book was ok. My biggest disappointment with it was a tendency for each chapter to offer solution that were basically "If some from {insert religion here} is experiencing spiritual distress, they should reconnect with the traditions of {insert religion here} and try to be a better {insert religion here}." It felt like the shepherd metaphor. If a sheep is straying from the flock a good shepherd goes and gets it and brings it back to the flock without asking where the sheep is going or why it is leaving, if perhaps another flock would be a better fit for it, if it wants to be an independent flockless sheep, maybe it wants to be a part of two different flocks, maybe the flock has something to learn from the sheep and really the flock needs to move towards the sheep and not the sheep towards the flock, maybe the sheep just needs to spend a little time in the wilderness before it can come back to the flock a renewed sheep, etc. Which like, sure ok, that's pretty common (if bad) advice, but didn't offer much possibility for a person feeling like a tradition doesn't fit them or isn't working for them, or feeling disconnected from their spiritual community for legitimate reasons (like being LBTQIA+ or divorced), or having spiritual trauma. Good information on a number of world religions, not trauma informed, not very expansive and open to wilderness or possibility.