The Healing Path: An Evening With James Finley

In this 90-minute event with the wise and wonderful James Finley, we’ll have a conversation around his new spiritual memoir: “The Healing Path: A Memoir and Invitation”. With a lifetime of study of spiritual teachers, his years as a novice monk guided by Thomas Merton, immersion into Zen Buddhism, re-immersion into Christian theology, and his life as a trauma therapist, Jim powerfully makes the case that moving toward living a contemplative life is utterly transformative. Like all great teachers, he points at ideas and provides suggestions while encouraging each of us to find our own way forward. And to then “little by little, walk our walk.” 

John O’Donohue once said that “Great thinkers put their eye to the earth at a strange angle.” And then they translate what they see into ideas and thoughts for the rest of us. Offering his own life as a case study, Jim’s new book reflect on traumatic personal experiences, a dysfunctional marriage, the loss of a great spiritual partnership, and moments of spiritual breakthrough. With an astounding ability to move seamlessly between down-to-earth theology, insights from the world of psychotherapy, and wildly creative poetic metaphors, Jim helps other people find their angles. And, when you see a slight twinkle appear in his eyes, you know he’s about to make you laugh out loud about life and yourself. 

“To read this book is to receive the transmission of one of the great living mystics of our age. James Finley inhabits the sacred a landscape drenched in love, rooted in the sacred ordinary, where our most devastating wounds become portals to the divine encounter. James’ story is riveting, his insight transcendent, his invitation truly life changing.” (Mirabai Starr)

“This book is rich and deep and sweet, and at times heartbreaking, its clarity comes from the disarming vulnerability of sharing very tender things. This book invites us all into trauma and transcendence and to see them not as opposites, but in what Jim calls ‘a bittersweet alchemy.’”  (Brian McLaren)