Böcker av John S. Dunne

This powerful exploration of spiritual longing is the story of two parallel journeys. One is the author's account of his five-day riverboat trip up the Amazon and his discovery of the tiny Church of the Poor Devil, whose members revealed a spiritual wealth in the midst of abject poverty. The other is Dunne's own spiritual quest and his "passing over" from a personal religion concerned with the satisfaction of his individual needs to the religion of the poor. In sharing the life of the church's people and their transcendence of the misery of their human condition, Dunne experiences a greater awareness of the human essence, which redirects his relation of material needs and brings him to a "oneness" with humanity and himself. The story of this journey becomes a compelling metaphor for Christianity.At a religious festival, Dunne witnesses the people's rejoicing in a simplicity that encourages them to follow the heart's desire for God. An awareness of God's presence frees them from the complex, material concerns that so soften beget despair. By acknowledging the truth of human misery and the heart's desire, Dunne believes we too can walk vertically through a horizontal world governed by materialism and misunderstanding, and thus, find our place at the intersection of time and eternity.

Like all writers of really good spiritual theology, John Dunne never betrays his subject matter with the kind of pious posturing or psycho-babble gimmickry that too often passes for spiritual writing. Dunne's theological sensitivity is alert to nuance without becoming trapped into mere jargon.

There is nothing wiser than the circle"", Rilke says in his Stories of God. John Dunne's new book explores the wisdom of the circle. He interprets the circle as the great circle of life and light and love that comes from God and returns to God.

Seeks a vision like that of the great circle of love an old Bedouin described to Lawrence of Arabia, ""The love is from God and of God and towards God."" This inspirational work features a series of meditations by the author, enriched by his wide-ranging insights and quotations from the areas of theology, philosophy, and literature.

Using the method of spirital reading, ""lectio divina"" or ""divine reading"" as it is called in monasteries, the author of this book sets out his interpretation of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and especially John. He argues that reading the Gospels means passing over into the relation of Jesus with his God.

In his new book, John S. Dunne asks: "e;So what is eternal consciousness? It is, I take it, consciousness of the eternal in us. If time is 'a changing image of eternity,' as Plato says, the changing image of the human being is like The Voyage of Life, four paintings by Thomas Cole, showing childhood, youth, adulthood, and age. The eternal in us is the person going through these phases. It is the vertical dimension of the life, as in the title scene of War and Peace where Prince Andre lay on the battlefield looking up into the peaceful sky, perceiving peace in the midst of war. If the horizontal dimension is time and the vertical dimension is eternity, then eternal consciousness is awareness of the vertical dimension. What is more, the vertical dimension carries through the horizontal, as the person walks through life upright instead of being dragged through in 'quiet desperation.' Willingness and hope, accordingly, is willingness to walk through upright with hope in the face of death and darkness."e; -from the bookWhat can I know? What should I do? What may I hope? Dunne explores these questions in his characteristic hermeneutic method, finding the answer in "e;the words of eternal life"e; (John 6:68). It is the life of the spirit that is the eternal in us, the inner life of knowing and loving, the life of hope and peace and friendship and intelligence. "e;If there were no eternal consciousness in a man,"e; Kierkegaard says, "e;what then would life be but despair?"e; John Dunne adds, if there is eternal consciousness in us, on the other hand, there is hope.To readers of John Dunne's books, Eternal Consciousness will be the latest installment chronicling his spiritual journey; to readers new to Dunne's oeuvre, it will be a lively introduction to the distinctive voice and thought of an inspiring author.

"e;The holy man of our time, it seems, is not a figure like Gotama or Jesus or Mohammed, a man who could found a world religion, but a figure like Gandhi, a man who passes over by sympathetic understanding from his own religion to other religions and comes back again with new insight to his own. Passing over and coming back, it seems, is the spiritual adventure of our time. It is the adventure I want to undertake and describe in this book."e;-from the Preface Reflections on the common experiences of man as they are revealed in the writings of the Hindu-Buddhist, Islamic, and Christian traditions. In this inter-religious dialogue John Dunne shifts his standpoint to reach a sympathetic understanding of the essential message of the Eastern religions and then returns with new insight into Christianity. Through an examination of figures in various religions, including Gotama, Mohammed, and Gandhi, Dunne explores the possibilities of companionship with God.

This text focuses on the emergence of the human race and the individual from an undifferentiated oneness and the return of the individual to the human community and to reflective and differentiated oneness with God. Dunne expresses this oneness through music and language.

In this autobiography, John Dunne meditates on what it is to love God with all one's mind, might, heart and soul. His prose connects contemporary theology with the very real life experiences of finding, losing and living love.

Dark Light of Love, John S. Dunne's twenty-third book, was written before his death on November 11, 2013. Dunne, called by Christian Century "e;one of the most serious and original theologians in the country,"e; continues his quest of faith seeking understanding. In this new book he examines darkness as a metaphor for unknowing and the unknown. If dark light is like physical light traveling through the darkness of outer space, invisible until it strikes an object, then the dark light of love is the kindly light that leads us by the heart, one step at a time, toward God. In this slender, deeply meditative work, Dunne engages with a rich variety of sources-literature, theology, philosophy, and music-in an effort to elaborate how "e;the dark light of love"e; illuminates a soul in the process whereby it is "e;oned"e; with God through emergence, separation, and finally union. As Paul Kollman observes in the foreword, by examining his own knowing and his own loving in that process, Dunne leads us to reconsider our own knowing and loving, thereby shining light on the puzzles that perplex each of us.

In Deep Rhythm and the Riddle of Eternal Life, John S. Dunne examines the end of earthly life and the prospect of eternal life.