Name: The Power of Ritual
ISBN: 9780062881816

Casper Ter Kuile

"An affirming exploration of how to deepen the practices we do every day-yoga, book club, walking the dog-so they become rituals in the fabric of our modern spiritual lives"--

Turning Everyday Activities Into Soulful Practices

The Power of Ritual

Casper ter Kuile

Casper ter Kuile, a Harvard Divinity School fellow and cohost of the popular Harry Potter and the Sacred Text podcast, explores how we can nourish our souls by transforming common, everyday practices—yoga, reading, walking the dog—into sacred rituals that can heal our crisis of social isolation and struggle to find purpose—a message we need more than ever for our spiritual and emotional well-being in the age of COVID-19. “After half a decade of research and hundreds of conversations with people around the country, I am convinced we are in the midst of a paradigm shift. That what used to hold us in community no longer works, and that the spiritual offerings of yesteryear no longer help us thrive.”–Casper ter Kuile What do Soul Cycle, gratitude journals, and tech breaks have in common? For ter Kuile they offer rituals that create the foundation for our modern spiritual lives. We are in crisis today. Our modern technological society has left too many of us—no matter our ages—feeling isolated and bereft of purpose. Previous frameworks for building community and finding meaning no longer support us. Yet ter Kuile reveals a hopeful new message: we might not be religious, but that doesn’t mean we are any less spiritual. Instead, we are in the midst of a paradigm shift in which we seek belonging and meaning in secular practices. Today, we find connection in: CrossFit and SoulCycle, which offer a sense of belonging rooted in accountability and support much like church groups Harry Potter and other beloved books that offer universal lessons Gratitude journals, which have replaced traditional prayer Tech breaks, which provide mindful moments of calm In The Power of Ritual, ter Kuile invites us to deepen these ordinary practices as intentional rituals that nurture connection and wellbeing. With wisdom and endearing wit, ter Kuile’s call for ritual is ultimately a call to heal our loss of connection to ourselves, to others, and to our spiritual identities. The Power of Ritual reminds us that what we already do every day matters—and has the potential to become a powerful experience of reflection, sanctuary, and meaning.

Turning Everyday Activities into Soulful Practices

Liyah 🤎

Read too long ago to remember much. Liked the basic premise tho. Incorporated some of what I learned which was helpful!

A pretty self explanatory book on how to make everyday tasks more meaningful by treating them like sacred rituals. I enjoyed the authors insight on relating mundane or necessary tasks to spiritual endeavors. 

Kyra Cracchiola

Cindy

I keep hemming and hawing about whether or not I gleaned anything valuable from The Power of Ritual. There's value to be had in deciding what is sacred to you and how to keep those things sacred and nourish them, but the examples that were so often cited (e.g. CrossFit, Soul Cycle -- both of which have gotten recent flak for being cultlike; ter Kuile's justification of them did not do any favors) felt way too fallible. I also came away with the impression that touchstones of different religions and faiths are ours to appropriate and remix at our leisure, which had some weird colonialist implications for me.

The Power of Ritual Turning Everyday Activities Into Soulful Practices

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