Religion embraces the secular and ordinary

Pythia Peay

Psychology Today publishes the third and final part, ”At the Intersection of Psychology and Spirituality” of Pythia Peay’s interview with Thomas Moore about his new book, A Religion of One’s Own: A Guide To Creating a Personal Spirituality in a Secular World. In this interview segment, Moore talks about guilt, emotional problems, dreams and deepening our view of the sacred. Near the end of their exchange:

Peay: One of the ideas that resonated with me from your book is the idea that we all have spiritually gifted people in our lives. For example, you write about your Uncle Tom, a farmer. I’ve known people with similar depths of wisdom, such as the farmers I grew up around, or caregivers, and wonder if you could say more about how we can learn from these “ordinary mystics” outside of organized religion.  

Moore: If you really appreciate what my book is saying, its message is pretty radical. What I’m trying to suggest is that we give up this narrow conception of what religion is, and what’s sacred and holy ...  

The Catholic Church may have a wafer of bread — but the farmer’s got the wheat."