About the Book
This book presents a new framework for knowing the God of Jesus Christ. It reveals, in biblical, experiential, and contemporary terms, the Three Faces of God. These three dimensions of God uncover the bigger, closer, and more human God than many commonly understand and experience. These have long been hidden behind the traditional words and images of the "Father, Son, and Spirit" of the Trinity.
Others have presented parts of this path, or one or two Faces of God, but no widely recognized Christian group has yet fully integrated all Three Faces of God. Most denominations, churches, and Christians hold to one or two of these and dismiss the other. Most disagreement among Christian groups are over these three dimensions, arguing for one or two and against the other.
The three-dimensional God that Jesus demonstrated is God-beyond-us, God-beside-us, and God-being-us. This last one is least understood in the West. It is, in part, Spirit within, which is best understood biblically as divine-human consciousness in all its modes.
This is a God who is big enough for our minds, close enough to our hearts, and us enough for, and as, our deepest identity.
About the Author :
PAUL SMITH is a life-long follower of Jesus, mystic, author, teacher, and retired pastor of Broadway Church in Kansas City where he served for 49 years. During this time, the church evolved from a traditional church to a progressive, radically inclusive congregation following the integral model described in his books. Smith has traveled extensively teaching at churches, seminaries, and groups around the country. He is also the author of Is It Okay to Call God Mother? Considering the Feminine Face of God and Integral Christianity: The Spirit's Call to Evolve.
Fr. Richard Rohr is a globally recognized teacher and the founder of the Center for Action and Contemplation (CAC.org) in Albuquerque, New Mexico. His teaching is grounded in the Franciscan alternative orthodoxy--practices of contemplation and self-emptying, expressing themselves in radical compassion, particularly for the socially marginalized. He is also the academic dean of the Living School for Action and Contemplation. Drawing upon Christianity's place within the Perennial Tradition, the mission of the Living School is to produce compassionate and powerfully learned individuals who will work for positive change in the world based on awareness of our common union with God and all created beings.
Fr. Richard is the author of numerous books, including Everything Belongs, Adam's Return, The Naked Now, Breathing Under Water, Falling Upward, Immortal Diamond, and Eager to Love: The Alternative Way of Francis of Assisi.
KEN WILBER is the founder of Integral Institute and the cofounder of Integral Life. He is an internationally acknowledged leader and the preeminent scholar of the Integral stage of human development. He is the author of more than twenty books, including A Brief History of Everything, A Theory of Everything, Integral Spirituality, No Boundary, Grace and Grit, and Sex, Ecology, Spirituality.
Review :
"Exceptionally thoughtful and thought-provoking, ... an inherently fascinating and potentially life-changing read that is especially recommended to all members of the Christian community regardless of denominational affiliations."
--Helen Dumont, Reviewer, Midwest Book Review
This is the most important book I have read in the last 15 years. For those who desire a deeper and richer understanding of Jesus, this book is a feast. It is a new wineskin, which represents an ever more divine level of consciousness capable of bringing together the body of Christ in a way that nothing else can.
--James P. Danaher, Ph.D., Professor of Philosophy, Chair of Department of Philosophy, Nyack College and author of Philosophical Imagination
Please trust me as I tell you to trust the wisdom you are about to uncover here. . . . a book that will be at the top of my recommended reading list for all of my students.
--Richard Rohr, author of Divine Dance: The Trinity and Your Transformation
Smith makes so much that passes for modern theology seem timid and constrained. He pushes the mind and the heart where they want to go but are afraid to become free enough to soar. And in doing so he shows the way to a depth of spirituality we never thought was there.
--Robert N. Minor, Professor Emeritus of Religious Studies, University of Kansas, and author of eight books including When Religion Is an Addiction, Sri Aurobindo: The Perfect and the Good, and Bhagavad Gita: An Exegetical Commentary
This book brings together a rich tapestry of science and spirituality in a way that is accessible to a world seeking light. It is a book that one can read over and over again, find new insights each time. May this book touch your life and transform your vision of God who dwells in the heart of the cosmos as the fullness of love.
--Ilia Delio, OSF, Chair of Theology, Villanova University, author of Making All Things New: Catholicity, Cosmology, Consciousness
This book is magnificent. Smith, in clear contemporary yet biblically grounded language, explains the spiritual essence of Jesus' teaching, and therefore of Christianity, better than any writer I have ever read. He shows why Christianity is as relevant today as it ever has been - provided we understand its core spiritual essence. Finally, he shows us how to relate to God in three very distinctive ways - to the Supreme Creator of multi-universes seen and unseen, to the intimate friend Jesus described at the Last Supper, and to our own deepest and highest self, the God within us all. I recommend the book to every Christian and to all spiritual seekers.
--Jim Marion, author of Putting on the Mind of Christ, the Inner Work of Christian Spirituality
To tackle the concept of the Trinity is a daunting task for any theologian or scholar. Paul Smith, however, does it with relish, vigor, and a creative spirit. He has given thoughtful Christians a new prism by which to reflect upon the partial truths we have about God and about ourselves. His approach of understanding God as "big enough, close enough, and you enough" will at some points delight readers and at other points challenge them. To both delight and challenge is the measure of a good book. In this carefully researched and readable work, he writes to always engage the mind and heart for a more authentic experience with God. Because of this dual purpose, readers will reap both academic and spiritual benefits.
--David May, Ph.D., Professor of New Testament, Central Baptist Theological Seminary, Shawnee, KS
Understanding the central importance of spiritual states opens us to the very core of what Christianity was trying to transmit. Moreover, by taking an Integral metaview of these states, we can see that any religion can be judged on just how complete or inclusive it is--the more states it helps its followers realize, the more complete and full that religion is. And Christianity, as Paul Smith explores it, fits that "complete" category very well....
The excitement of this adventure is that, as Smith continues to demonstrate, a whole new level of sophistication, complexity, and completeness is brought to our spiritual endeavors by these more inclusive approaches, which will catapult religion itself from being something of the laughingstock of the modern and postmodern world to being a genuine and deeply respected beacon of-and a real pacer of-actual transformation, fully available to all people around the world, and disclosing a future that is the closest thing to Heaven on Earth that could ever be imagined.
With this book, Smith gives us a staggering increase in our understanding of Christianity! Imagine how extraordinary it would be for a Christianity like this to actually take hold in the world. It would change history profoundly.
--Ken Wilber, Founder of Integral Institute and the cofounder of Integral Life and author The Religion of Tomorrow: A Vision for the Future of the Great Traditions--More Inclusive, More Comprehensive, More Complete
