Faith Beyond Belief by Margaret Placentra Johnston

Johnston uses first-person stories as well as known spiritual authorities in describing various stages of religious growth.

If you would welcome a broader perspective about religious belief versus nonbelief, please join me here for a bird’s eye view of the unitive and non-literal belief stance that often develops in true spiritual maturity. Faith Beyond Belief gives a much-needed voice to the good people who have left their church but whose spirituality continues to mature. Specifically the term spiritual development, as used on this site, refers to the intention to move forward spiritually in three ways – Spiritual strength, spiritual maturity and spiritual courage. Rather than sequester herself away on a mountaintop, a spiritual person as I am using the word, involves herself fully in the world, faces its questions and problems honestly and directly and does what she can to help out. While the word spirituality can mean many different things to different people, on this site we consider it less as a supernatural (and perhaps escapist) concept, and more about living more authentically in this life. In this episode, Bo Bennett interviews Margaret Placentra Johnston, author of the book Faith Beyond Belief. It also points beyond the atheist/believer controversy wrecking such divisive havoc in our culture today.Click here to download an audio file of this podcast. Johnston's book will help doubters to see things in a new light as well as those who are struggling to clarify their own spiritual vision.

Her second set of stories are of people at the 'mystic' level who can tolerate paradox and see truth and reality as multidimensional. by Margaret Placentra Johnston, Faith Beyond Belief, Winfried Georg Sebald Paperback, 360 Pages, Published 2012 by Quest Books ISBN-13: 978-0-8356-0905-0. Johnston set out to share this concept in her first book entitled, Faith Beyond Belief: Stories of Good People Who Left Their Church Behind, as a message for. But, while that step is a necessary one on the spiritual path, it is only intermediate. The stories of the nonbelievers-including an ex-Catholic, a former Mormon, and a clandestine Muslim apostate who left his community after the attacks of 9/11-show how complete confidence in human reason can lead away from literal religious interpretation. Some of these real-life accounts are by nonbelievers others are by those among the growing numbers of the 'spiritual but not religious.' All are thoughtful people with too much integrity to live what they consider a lie. Faith Beyond Belief gives a much-needed voice to the 'good' people who have left their church but whose spirituality continues to mature.

Faith Beyond Belief by Margaret Placentra Johnston