"In a world where mental health issues and loneliness are at an all-time high, it's more important than ever to find ways to cultivate joy, community, and meaning in our lives. Many of us feel trapped, struggling to find a way out of our own negative thoughts and emotions. Author and psychologist Richard Beck (Hunting Magic Eels) argues that we are struggling because our shape is 'curved inward.' We are self-focused, self-absorbed, ruminative. We're trapped inside ourselves. And we're not happy or filled with joy. So how do we control our egos and ambition when those drives have been useful to us in the past? How do we engage our imagination and our faith?
In The Shape of Joy, Beck offers a powerful argument for how we can break free and rediscover the transcendent and the sacred. Beck argues that to find true joy and fulfillment, we need to understand the importance of 'curving outward' and moving beyond the self to encounter true lovingness. Drawing from principles of positive psychology, Beck explores concepts like gratitude, mindfulness, ego volume, and the self to provide listeners with a road map toward a more fulfilling life. Whether you're struggling with mental health issues, yearning for a deeper connection with your faith, or simply seeking greater happiness and fulfillment, The Shape of Joy will offer you an inspiring vision for a better future."
"We live in a secular age, a world dominated by science and technology. Increasing numbers of us don't believe in God anymore. We don't expect miracles. We've grown up and left those fairytales behind, culturally and personally.
Yet five hundred years ago the world was very much enchanted. It was a world where God existed and the devil was real. It was a world full of angels and demons. It was a world of holy wells and magical eels. But since the Protestant Reformation and the beginning of the Enlightenment, the world, in the West at least, has become increasingly disenchanted.
While this might be taken as evidence of a crisis of belief, Richard Beck argues it's actually a crisis of attention. God hasn't gone anywhere, but we've lost our capacity to see God.
The rising tide of disenchantment has profoundly changed our religious imaginations and led to a loss of the holy expectation that we can be interrupted by the sacred and divine. But it doesn't have to be this way. With attention and an intentional and cultivated capacity to experience God as a living, vital presence in our lives, Hunting Magic Eels shows us we can cultivate an enchanted faith in a skeptical age."
