In today’s conversation, I spoke with the amazing Richard Rohr about his latest book, The Tears of Things: Prophetic Wisdom in an Age of Outrage.
Some of the topics we discussed include:
The perpetual process of order, disorder and reorder and how to cope during this period of disorder
How shedding binary thinking changes everything
The growth process of a prophet from anger all the time to sadness and grief at the state of affairs—which results in a desire to pour wisdom into the world, not more gasoline on the fire
If you aren’t familiar with Richard, you have been missing out. He is one of the truly great spiritual teachers of our time—a globally recognized Franciscan friar whose work bears witness to the deep wisdom found in Christian mysticism. Richard’s teachings are accessible to people of all faiths or no faith at all. He is able to make sense of what feels senseless and reframe issues and ideas in unexpected ways.
Richard is the founder of the Center for Action and Contemplation and is the author of many books, including the New York Times bestseller The Universal Christ, Falling Upward, and Breathing Under Water. His work has been featured on Oprah’s SuperSoul Sunday, Krista Tippett’s On Being, and in the New Yorker and Harper’s Magazine. His daily meditations email is my favorite part of the day.
I discovered Richard in 2016 when I was having a crisis of faith after a decade of being religiously devout. I was adrift and looking for something to stabilize me when a friend suggested I read his book Falling Upward.
I devoured it.
It was the first time I had encountered a religious teacher rooted in the Christian tradition explaining the Bible and Christianity in a way that felt true to me. So much of what I had been taught felt fraudulent—ideologies passed off as theologies that all magically aligned with the political and philosophical beliefs of those who taught or developed those theologies.
A few months after I read Falling Upward (and probably five more of Richard’s books) I was able to attend a small retreat with him in New Mexico where attendees sat with him all day as he taught and we peppered him with questions. Over various meals between these sessions, I found him to be just as delightful, sweet and funny as he is brilliant.
Above all things, Richard is truly a prophet.
He has stayed rooted in a religious tradition with which he finds grievous fault and has confronted it with love. He is a model for those who want to create change and in his wonderful new book he teaches us about what prophetic wisdom (versus bomb throwing) looks like and why it’s so important.
You can watch our interview below, listen to the podcast version, or read the transcript. I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did.
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