Holy Curiosity: Cultivating the Creative Spirit in Everyday Life

by Amy Hollingsworth

One passage, two verses, four words. As a writer and an adjunct professor of psychology, Amy Hollingsworth is on her way to becoming an ""expert"" on creativity. But just days before delivering her first professional seminar on the topic, she has an unsettling dream. The dream awakens her to the fact that she has missed a crucial element in understanding what true creativity is. Trying to unravel the dream, she soon discovers its contents reflected in a single passage of ancient literature. In this passage she sees for the first time creativity's core, its spiritual roots, and as its meaning unfolds through months of spiritual reflection and study, it confirms the very scientific theories she's been teaching all along. In fact, she discovers the underpinnings of the whole body of creativity research tucked into four small words penned centuries ago, kernels of truth that explode with a new depth of meaning. As she digs deeper, she uncovers for the reader God's blueprint for cultivating the creative spirit in everyday life, through a practical outworking of her spiritual findings. In the end, both writer and reader come away with a new understanding of their own creative abilities--and a profound sense of what's truly holy about holy curiosity. ""So sensitive, intelligent, and gutsy."" -Thomas Moore, New York Times best-selling author of Care of the Soul ""Amy brings her uniquely lyrical style to the subject of creativity, its origins, and its purpose in our lives. This book is personal, practical, and poetic all in one, and will be a welcome addition to your shelf."" -Daniel H. Pink, New York Times best-selling author of Drive and A Whole New Mind ""You know that best afternoon ever, with the rain outside, and the comfy chair inside, and the good book -a glorious, quiet revelation of a book-and the family dog sleeping at your feet? This is that book. You'll have to bring your own dog."" -Sean Herriott, host of national Catholic radio program Morning Air(TM) on Relevant Radio(R) ""With wit and grace, Amy Hollingsworth invites her readers to listen to their lives. She is bold to embrace the possibility that the Wisdom with whom God framed Creation is the very Wisdom who yearns to create through each of us. Amy draws thread from spools ancient and modern, mythic and scientific, experiential and theoretical and weaves a seamless story that calls us all to hear and respond to the whispers of Wisdom."" -Jim Street, writer and pastor of North River Church, Lawrenceville, Georgia ""I found Amy's book to be a fascinating mix as she examines the deeper essence of creativity. Her personal journey, insights from both the scientific and biblical realms, and the practical delineation of how to assure creativity's existence in a driven, specialized world provide a portal to understanding that everything is relevant and that creativity is our inherent nature. Amy's blueprint for how to live the creative lives we are all meant to live is clear, awakening, profound and practical."" -Carla Hannaford, PhD, Neurophysiologist and author of Playing in the Unified Field: Raising and Becoming Conscious, Creative Human Beings ""Amy is one of my revered people: such a warm, good heart infused with profound spiritual insight and tremendous sensitivity to others. These qualities uniquely position her to offer a nuanced, affecting, practical, and truly exceptional work on creativity in Holy Curiosity. Thank you, Amy."" -Danny Fisher, writer and Professor of Religious Studies at University of the West, Coordinator of the Buddhist Chaplaincy Program Amy Hollingsworth is the author of The Simple Faith of Mister Rogers: Spiritual Insights from the World's Most Beloved Neighbor (2005), based on her nine-year friendship with television's Fred Rogers; and Gifts of Passage: What the Dying Tell Us with the Gifts They Leave Behind (2008). She taught as an adjunct professor of psychology at the University of Mary Washington in Frederi

156 pages, Hardcover

First published July 1, 2011

About the author

Amy Hollingsworth is the author of the bestselling The Simple Faith of Mister Rogers and Gifts of Passage. Her new book, RUNAWAY RADICAL, coauthored by her son Jonathan, releases in February, 2015. Before writing books, Amy wrote for various magazines and was a television writer for eight years for CBN. In 2010, she was named one of USA Today’s Top 100 People for her influence on pop culture and was featured in the documentary by MTV’s Benjamin Wagner titled “Mister Rogers & Me.” Her television appearances include WGN’s Morning News, PBS’s A Word on Words, and FOX Morning News. A former psychology professor, Amy lives in Virginia with her husband and children.



You can email Amy Hollingsworth at amy@amyhollingsworth.com.

Reviews

[Amanda · Rating 5 out of 5]

This review of Holy Curiosity is unique for two reasons. One is that I actually bought the book. I don't buy books. More importantly, I bought this book new, not used. When I do purchase books, I always go used, because it's cheaper. The second is that I have known Amy for several years through an online homeschool group. I've become acquainted with a couple of authors after they asked me to review a book for them, but I've never reviewed a book when I already had a friendship with the author. Amy didn't ask me to review this book and I would probably have politely refused if she had. What if I didn't like it? How do you write a negative review for a book a friend wrote? I was not going there. Turns out I didn't have to. I loved this book.

"The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing. One cannot help but be in awe when he contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality. It is enough if one tries merely to comprehend a little of this mystery every day. Never lose a holy curiosity." - Albert Einstein

Amy defines creativity this way: "For creativity to happen, something within you must be brought to life in something outside of you." Curiosity leads to creativity and both come from God. In Holy Curiosity, we learn the three elements that are necessary for creativity. (No, I'm not going to tell you. You have to read the book.)

Every human is creative, and there is more to creativity than just painting and music. I love how Amy says, "It's not how creative are you, but how you are creative." The best way to discover how you are creative is to ask family and friends what your talents are or to think back to the things you enjoyed as a child before your curiosity and creativity were crushed by unthinking adults. I loved to write. Had I not recently started writing again (at this point, my writing is in the form of blogging) recently, this book would have inspired me to do so. I have been writing more lately, though, so this merely reinforced my conviction that this is what I should be doing.

An alternative (though not the recommended) way to find your creative strengths is to take the Multiple Intelligences Quiz. The Multiple Intelligence Types are Linguistic, Musical, Logical-Mathematical, Spatial, Kinesthetic, Intrapersonal, Interpersonal, and Naturalist. Amy talks more about this in her book.

Understanding the unique way you are creative is important because we need to express that talent to the best of our ability to honor God. In this encouraging (and sometimes humorous) book, Amy shows us how to bring out the best in ourselves in order to glorify God.

About the book:
Title: Holy Curiosity: Culitvating the Creative Spirit in Everyday Life
Author: Amy Hollingsworth
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Release date: July 1, 2011
Pages: 156
Where I got the book: I bought the Kindle version

[Maura · Rating 4 out of 5]

I first learned of Amy Hollingsworth through an interview with Sean Herriott on Relevant Radio. I was intrigued by the title, and picked up the book, which touches on the intellectual and spiritual components of creativity. She threads together experiences and quotes from great creative minds such as Tolkien, Van Gogh, T.S. Eliot, Charlotte Bronte, Einstein and the Bible. Especially appealing to me was the entire section that this author devoted to Howard Gardner's Theory of Multiple Intelligences. Hollingsworth honors her own creative spirit and inspired me with this work.

[Anne]

The Rogers Indicator of Multiple Intelligences was the most interesting part. According to the online version of the quiz mine are interpersonal, intrapersonal and linguistic.