An important new book on contemporary spirituality by Richard Skinner. Richard was a close associate of the late Jim Cotter, is a former member of Cambridge University Footlights, and in 2012 was awarded a doctorate from Exeter University for his thesis on spirituality. He is a retired counsellor and the author of ten collections of poetry.
In Paradox & Perspective, Richard Skinner brings together poetry, fiction and opinion pieces to explore the contradictions, questions and unexpected shifts of perspective that shape our lives and beliefs.
His journey takes us from the wilderness where Jesus spent forty days and nights to a high-altitude oak wood on Dartmoor; from the startling teachings of the medieval mystic Meister Eckhart to the provocative possibility that guilt might sometimes be a gift.
Along the way, familiar ideas are turned around and viewed from surprising angles. What does it mean to imitate Christ? Where might we encounter the divine in ordinary life? And what becomes possible when we acknowledge that the place from which we see the world is not the only place from which it can be seen?
At turns playful, provocative and contemplative, Skinner writes with a lightness of touch that leaves room for uncertainty as well as faith.
Paradox & Perspective is an invitation to question, wonder, laugh and, perhaps, see things differently.
From Paradox & Perspective:
Miracle enough
To be alive is miracle enough:
not to walk on water, but on the grass;
be open to the tender and the tough.
At times of tragedy we wish to slough
the skin of life, dismiss as ‘sounding brass’
that ‘to be alive is miracle enough’.
At times of quiet blessing, the stuff
of everydayness reasserts our task:
be open to the tender and the tough.
The sceptic claims that they will call our bluff:
what is the evidence, what proof, they ask,
that to be alive is miracle enough?
Our heart and mind will such a view rebuff
if they, when sparks of hope seem dim and sparse,
stay open to the tender and the tough.
And even when the time for Time to snuff
the candle of our life has come to pass,
to be alive was miracle enough,
open to the tender and the tough.
Paradox and Perspective is available now from Wild Goose Publications
USA North East