The Spirituality of Imperfection: Storytelling and the Search for Meaning

Ernest Kurtz, Katherine Ketcham

Random House Publishing Group, Dec 23, 2009 - Self-Help - 304 pages

Learn how to embrace your faults and vulnerabilities to experience true spiritual growth with this hopeful and motivational guide.

“Inspiring . . . offering comfort . . . to those who want to stop striving for perfection and start living.”—Publishers Weekly

“I am not perfect” is a simple statement of profound truth, the first step toward understanding the human condition—for to deny your essential imperfection is to deny your own humanity. By seeking to understand our limitations and accept the inevitably of failure and pain, we being to ease the hurt and move toward a greater sense of serenity and self-awareness. This illuminating book brings together the wisdom and stories of many traditions and faiths, from Hebrew prophets to Buddhist sages and Christian teachers, and from ancient Greeks to the modern insights of Alcoholics Anonymous.

Through thoughtful commentary and more than one hundred vividly told tales, The Spirituality of Imperfection enables us to accept the inevitability of pain and failure so that we can ease the hurt and move toward serenity and wholeness. It speaks to anyone who yearns to find meaning—and even joy—within suffering.

Contents

• Part: 11
• Beyond the Ordinary: 30
• The Reality of Limitation: 42
• A Sense of Balance: 56
• Experiencing the Spiritual: 68
• Shared Vision Shared Hope: 82
• Part: 99
• ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS: 105
• Not Magic but Miracle: 118
• A Pervasive Spirituality: 144
• Part Three: 157
• Release: 163
• Gratitude: 175
• Humility: 185
• Tolerance: 197
• Forgiveness: 213
• BeingatHome: 227
• Notes: 245
• Index: 285

About the author

Ernest Kurtz is the author of Not-God: A History of Alcoholics Anonymous; A.A.: The Story; and Shame and Guilt. He held a Ph.D. in the history of American civilization from Harvard and was affiliated with the Center for Self-Help Research at the University of Michigan. He died in 2015.

Katherine Ketcham has been writing nonfiction books for forty years. Her work has been published in seventeen foreign languages and has sold nearly two million copies. She founded and serves on the board of a grassroots nonprofit organization called Trilogy Recovery Community, which helps youth and their family members dealing with alcohol and other drug problems. Ketcham lives in Walla Walla, Washington.

Bibliographic information

• Title: The Spirituality of Imperfection: Storytelling and the Search for Meaning
• Authors: Ernest Kurtz, Katherine Ketcham
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group, 2009
• ISBN: 0307424235, 9780307424235
• Length: 304 pages
• Subjects: Religion / Comparative Religion; Self-Help / Personal Growth / General; Self-Help / Personal Growth / Self-Esteem