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Editorial Review Product Description
Growing out of two decades of teaching and practice, Finding God Again: Spirituality for Adults addresses, in an experiential and pastoral way, the need to re-envision God as we grow from an adolescent to adult spirituality. Shea, a renowned pastoral counselor and teacher, shows how we can lose touch with religion, spirituality, and a belief in God because of times when our image of God is too narrow, unreal, or inadequate to make sense of our experience. Real life stories illustrate Shea's life-changing challenge to leave behind the Superego God of childhood in favor of a Living God we can relate to as adults. ... Read more Customer Reviews (5) 
How to find God as an adult
Finding God Again : Spirituality for Adults by John J. Shea (Rowman & Littlefield Publishers) (Paperback) Growing out of two decades of teaching and practice, Finding God Again: Spirituality for Adults addresses, in an experiential and pastoral way, the need to re-envision God as we grow from an adolescent to adult spirituality. Shea, a renowned pastoral counselor and teacher, shows how we can lose touch with religion, spirituality, and a belief in God because of times when our image of God is too narrow, unreal, or inadequate to make sense of our experience. Real life stories illustrate Shea's life-changing challenge to leave behind the Superego God of childhood in favor of a Living God we can relate to as adults.
Profound, deficient images of the divine have seriously deformed intelligent discussions of interreligious dialogue in our globalized world today.Shea offers a simple yet meaningful approach to God as an adult aspiration and struggle, rather than as an adolescent, authoritarian ogre needing to be rebelled against.I would suggest this book to people of an agnostic and atheistic frame of mind, for it offers them a view of the divine that does not offend, and otherwise trample upon common sense into scientific worldview.In the same way, the devoutly religious of whatever political stripe and social outlook could benefit by reading this book and exorcising from the shadows of their mind the stray images and fears left over from their childish experiences and formulations of their religion.Shea is especially wise in that he casts these images of the divine within a psychological developmental framework that sees that each is fruitful given the developmental tasks we need to pass through in order to reach a full and healthy adulthood.
This book begins and ends with two basic questions. The first is, why is our relating to God so often presented as if it were static and not something meant to develop as we ourselves develop and mature? The second is, why are so many adults still living with a God of child¬hood and adolescence, a Superego God?
The methodological response to these two questions-the founda¬tion of this book-lies in two crucial definitions: the definition of reli¬gion and the definition of adulthood. Religion is defined as "that which is about the self and God together." Religion is not about God, and it is not about the self. Religion is about "the self and God to¬gether." Adulthood is defined as "an integral self-in-mutuality." An adult self is not a separate, autonomous self, and an adult self is no longer at the mercy of the superego. An adult self is a whole self relat¬ing in mutuality to what is other.
The working response to these two questions-the structure of this book-lies in the description of two basic paradigms of "the self and God together." The first paradigm, "The Superego God," describes a subject-object understanding of the self in its togetherness with God. This is a distanced togetherness, an incomplete togetherness, and often an uneasy and conflicted togetherness-because the self is not yet its fullness, be¬cause God is not yet God's fullness, and because the process of imaging that relates this self to God is not yet its fullness. The second paradigm, "The Living God," is a harmonious understanding of the self in its
togetherness with God. This is a close togetherness, a complete togeth¬erness, and really an animating and mystical togetherness-because the self is now its fullness, because God is now God's fullness, and because the process of imaging that relates this self to God is now its fullness.
The final response to these two questions-the dynamic in this book-lies in the experience of transformation. Our imaging of God is meant to be transformed as we grow and develop. An adolescing self is meant to be transformed into an adult self Fettered imaging is meant to be transformed into unfettered imaging. The Superego God is meant to be transformed into the Living God. If we begin, as we usu¬ally do, with the paradigm of the Superego God, we are not meant to end there. The paradigm of "The Superego God" is an incomplete paradigm. It is meant to be transformed into the paradigm of "The Living God."
Finally, some conclusions can be drawn from asking these two questions-conclusions that are primarily pastoral and practical.
1. An adult self is essential for adult religion. Perhaps the single most important finding of these pages is that the structure of adult re¬ligion depends on the structure of adulthood. Human development is not optional if we want to be fully religious. Without an adult self as an integral self-in-mutuality, there is no adult religion. On the one hand, this finding can be easily understood. If a person is not an adult, why would we suppose that he or she would have an adult relationship with God? On the other hand, of all the factors that seem to be im¬portant in the life of religion as it is usually thought about, adult de¬velopment is rarely taken into account.
2. Human development and religious development cannot be sepa¬rated. This finding, even though it is a working supposition of these pages, is confirmed most clearly in the way that we develop as a process of imaging. The fettered imaging of the adolescing self-with its fan¬tasy, relating in transference, and logic of objective knowing-is opera¬tive in our grasp of religious reality, just as it is in our grasp of any other aspect of reality. Fettered imaging is going to find a Superego God. Likewise, the unfettered imaging of the adult self-an adult, integral process of imaging-is operative in our grasp of religious reality, just as it is in our grasp of any other aspect of reality. With unfettered imaging,we are capable of finding a Living God. As a process of imaging, human development and religious development are meant to go hand in hand.
3. Adult religious experiencing is mystical experiencing. Of all the findings of these pages, the understanding that adult religion is mysti¬cal experiencing is perhaps the most interesting and the most chal¬lenging. Adult religion is about the unity of "the self and God to¬gether." To know the self is to know God, and to know God is to know the self. The language of "subject-object," the language of "other¬ness," the language of "two" does not work very well in adult religion. In adult religion, the experiencing of God is in terms of a mutuality and an intimacy in which two gives way to one. This is a paradox that can be spoken of only in metaphor.
4. Religion is that which is about the self and God together. Again, even though this definition of religion is a starting point for this book, it is also a conclusion. In adult religion, this conclusion can be seen clearly because in adult religion the self and God are together in a way in which separation cannot get a foothold. Freud started with the subject-object dichotomy, with an understanding of adolescing religion in terms of fantasy, relating in transference, and the logic of objective knowing. Because of this dichotomy, he was never able to find an adult religion in which the self and God necessarily go together. To under¬stand religion, we need to experience the depth and the mystery of the Living God. Adolescing religion, by its very nature, is only the first part of the journey toward that understanding.
5. Adult religion is possible when adolescing religion is transformed. This is perhaps the most practical finding of these pages. Adult reli¬gion, at least for many of us, is realized only though considerable per¬sonal struggle. The Superego God does not magically turn into the Living God as we grow up. For many of us, it seems, fantasy, relating in transference, and the logic of objective knowing are amazingly pow¬erful obstacles in the way of adult religion, obstacles that often can be overcome only by sustained attention, conscious effort, and the help, example, and empathy of those who are at home with a Living God.
6. Adult religion is an integral spirituality. One of the most clarifying findings of these pages is that the structure of adulthood is the structure of a whole or integral spirituality. While religion and spirituality are
related in that they are both able to give meaning to life, adult religion is not an integral spirituality because it is religious. Adult religion is an in¬tegral spirituality because it is adult. If an integral spirituality provides an adult self with meaning for life and relates it to a larger whole, then in adult religion, we find the meaning and the larger whole in God.
7. Mutuality, experience, and mystery are essential for adult reli¬gion. True mutuality, a genuine respect for each person's experience of God, and an openness to mystery are hallmarks of adult religion on the personal level and on the organizational level as well. While authori¬tarianism, rationalism, and anthropomorphism can be extremely pow¬erful in organized religion, when we are adult selves with an unfettered imaging of God, we are able to stand as an even more powerful chal¬lenge to these fettered structures. Adult selves with an unfettered imaging of God are a living testament to the reality of mutuality, expe¬rience, and mystery in organized religion. When we are adult selves with an integral imaging of God, we are able to embody in ourselves and for each other a spirituality of the Living God.
What John Glaser says in the quote that begins this book is true:
To associate the mystery of invitation, the absolute yes to man's [sic] future, the radical call to eternally abiding love-God-with the hot and cold arbitrary tyrant of the superego is a matter of grave distortion.
Our imaging of God must be adequate for the reality of who God is. Our imaging of God must be adequate for the reality of who we are. On both counts, the paradigm of "The Superego God" falls short. Only the paradigm of "The Living God" can do justice to our ability to be¬come the selves we are meant to be. Only the paradigm of "The Living God" can do justice to our ability to image the reality of God. Only the paradigm of "The Living God" is a spirituality for adults.
A book Jesus would read with joy
Finding God Again is a gem. The author presents concrete examples from dozens of interviews with people speaking about how they perceive God. The book shows how the living God can often be hidden behind religious rhetoric, how the living God can speak again to people, and how people can move beyond the super-critical, life-draining distortion of God to discover in their lives the unconditionally loving, life-giving God of Jesus.
This book, together with Dr. Beier's lucid analysis of A Violent God-Image (2004), are essential reading for all those who want to rediscover the God of grace and love.
must-read for all Christians!
What a wonderful gift John J. Shea has given us. Finally a book that shows how Christian faith in God can be healthy and mature. If you want to experience the Living God, buy this book. It makes a great resource also for group study. Pope Benedict XVI and all the Catholic bishops would do good to read this book.
The book is very readable, free of jargon, and uses inclusive language.
Jesus& Mary were wrong, Aquinas & Moses too, says Shea
Anyone who persists in maintaining an innocent faith, "like a child," or who follows centuries of Christian tradition (as well as the example of Our Blessed Lord) and calls God "Father" will learn from John Shea's book that his/her faith is mere adolescent fantasy.
On the other hand, if you try to understand the mystery of God using reason, perhaps following the example of St. Thomas Aquinas, again, you simply haven't got an "adult" faith according to Shea.
If only the Virgin Mary had read John Shea before she praised the God who shows mercy "from age to age to those who fear him," and had "shown might with his arm," and "lifted up the lowly," she would have understood that her God is a mere psychological category, and that her expression of deep faith was little more than adolescent "imaging" of a "Super-Ego" God.Silly Mary.
Shea, I'm sure, is quite sophisticated in his understanding of the psychology of religious development.And those who want exercise in following the psycho-babble of a post-modern dismissal of orthodox religion will certainly be tested by this book.But be sure, despite his credentials as a professor of theology at Boston College and Fordham, nothing in this book remotely resembles a Catholic understanding of God. (Of course, in Shea's view, by saying as much, I simply expose my own stunted religious development, proving I am "fettered" by formal religion).
It is, in some sense, a tragedy to read this book, for on page after page is evidence of a priest who has lost his faith, and who is struggling mightily to rationalize a view of religion that from a Catholic perspective is plainly heretical.
You will not find a God you recognize in these pages -- that is if your God is the God of Abraham, the God of Moses, the God of Isaiah, the God of John the Baptist, or the God of the Apostles and Matryrs. Indeed, Fr. Shea, I suspect, has long since ceased to recite the Divine Office, for he could not do so with conviction, and have written this book.To judge from his book he has long since left behind the God of the Psalms, "the Lord God, the mighty God." He's remade God in his own image.
A veritable banquet of psychobabble
John Shea is a Catholic priest, but there is absolutely no danger anyone reading this book will ever suspect the fact.Shea's disdain for authority, for paternalism, and in fact for all the many `isms' that currently haunt the nightmares of academicians, `sexism,'`ageism,' `classism,' and what have you, and his insistence that religious maturity demands we move beyond the God most would associate with the last two thousands years of Catholicism, a bogeyman he calls `the Superego God,' are not traits most people instantly associate with a Roman collar.There is nothing particularly startling about this, though, since Catholic writers and academics abound these days who write and say things a quainter age deemed heresy without a second thought.
What sets Shea's book apart from most of the others, however, is its style.There is a far greater gap between his sentences and standard, elegant English than there is even between his beliefs and those of orthodox Catholicism.Phrases like "an integral self-in-mutuality," or "In adult relating in mutuality..." (a gem he uses six times in one paragraph), and entire sentences like
"Reflecting is a gentle holding and a felt sifting of the body-self's experience so that intention, memory, and meaning can come together and become part of the body-self's ongoing process."
pepper the pages of this book save those dedicated to the thoughts of people he has interviewed.The straightforward words of the latter and the occasional quote from someone like William James, a man who did know how to write English, only serve to highlight for readers the deplorable state of current academic prose.
Skip this one.Reading just about any other book you can name would be a wiser investment of your time and effort.
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