READERS' COMMENTS
about
At One With the Heart of Creation
Reflections and Verse on the Spirit Journey
Back Cover Comments:
As we awaken, in this new millennium, to a dynamic, hitherto scarcely dreamed of future in every phase of life, John Cock's latest book sounds a clarion call for our participation in the great enterprise of enhancing communion between the human and the other-than-human components of the sacred earth community.
~Thomas Berry, historian and geologian. Author of The Dream of the Earth; The Universe Story; and The Great Work.
John and Lynda Cock call us to pay attention to only the most important: the whole creation and our place in it. And they show us a way, in the dailiness of our lives, to wonder, to rejoice, to mourn, and to celebrate. What more can we ask?
~Rev. Dr. Marie Fortune, Founder of FaithTrust Institute. Author of Is Nothing Sacred? and Keeping the Faith.
I carried this manuscript in my rucksack on a trip to Serbia and Azerbaijan. The reflections framed my day and kept me in touch with my foundations.
~Terry Bergdall, Ph.D., third world planner and consultant. Author of Methods for Active Participation.
Comments Since Publication
I deeply appreciate your giving me a copy of your recent book. You seem to grasp as well as anyone the basic design of my thinking. ~Thomas Berry
I appreciate its consistency in approach. The book maintains a clear "everyone is in this together" that does not later turn to "God is on the side of the religious or the Christian." This is rare and refreshing. Your best so far. I have about five people I want to give the book to. ~Justin Morrill, consultant, Tacoma
This latest book does a great job of telling stories re the spirit dimension of all that is in any given moment. I highly recommend it for people inside and outside the church who are still using varying names/images/words to describe the here and now, the then, and the time to come. ~Ellen E. Howie, artist and nurse, New York
The most experiential, grounded book I have ever read. For someone who grades every sermon by whether it points to an experience in life, this book was heaven for me. I almost didn't get home with it from Texas. . . . [My brother] wanted to keep it. So please send him one. ~Phyllis Hockley, Lane Community College, Oregon
I was captivated by the style you use in each of the chapters. . . . "Spirit" methods often appear to me phony or contrived. Your approach, however, with the "grounding" that you provide from life experience, beacons one to engage in the deeper journey. ~Lela Jahn, investment advisor, San Francisco
It is just beginning to sink in that these books of yours . . . are the answer to prayer. ~David Dunn, publications, Denver
Thanks again for all you do in awakening my spirit. Every time I read one of your books (I think I have them all) I am reminded of how unselfconsciously I go about my life. You help me make a new decision to be more present to LIFE all around me. ~David Zollars, Jesus Seminar member, California
I want to order two Heart of Creation books. Clare Whitney said it is the best thing you have done. I really liked the last one! ~Jean Long, law school, Denver
I received your book Saturday and sat right down to read the first five chapters. . . . Once again I find that through the wonder of the printed page I am sustained in our Great Work. . . . Although the immediate impact was the rewrite of Sunday's first 300 words of the morning message, of more lasting impact, I'm sure, was the reminder that spirit awareness is about seeing the mundanity of life as transparent to incarnate sacredness. . . . Please send six more copies for a study group or for lending. ~Dr. Harold Slater, minister, Michigan
I've been skipping here and yon through your latest book, The Heart of Creation, and just this morning ran across your reference to "spirit power" as"'primal energy." Al- though I've been working to define power from the perspective of its inner sources of wisdom, courage and spirit, the thought of power as energy rather than something to do with force or leverage was a breakthrough idea for me. This makes it all the more clear that the power of the spirit is a persuasive power. . . . I just wanted to thank you for that and for the continuing stimulation you provide with your reflective writing . . . as you continue to pop me between the eyes with the proverbial 2 x 4, or just awaken me to new thinking and new stories of reality. ~Randy Williams, spirit-in-the- workplace facilitator, Texas
This is a clear, sensitive journey book, with each of you speaking from your hearts and your personal journeys. It is a book I will read again at least ten times in the next ten years. Its images and reasonability are bold and grounded as a secular altar call. Thanks for sharing its pages with me. ~T. C. Wright, poet, Denver
Just want you to know that I have spent some time today reading, with great pleasure and edification, your The Heart of Creation. I think my favorite chapter is "Fil Lik Rolty." Congratulations to you both on an exquisite set of reminders of what it's all about. ~Margaret Berry, retired professor and author, Greensboro
Two Reviews
First Review: R. Brian Stanfield, Australia
Author of The Courage to Lead and editor of The Art of Focused Conversation
Authors John and Lynda Cock are friends and disciples of Thomas Berry. With this book they have become interpreters of the writings of Thomas Berry.
The book examines the relationship of the human to himself, to other humans, to nature, to earth, to the universe. While so many authors of the last 100 years have found in this theme an opportunity to censure the human's tragic separa- tion from all that is, John and Lynda Cock take every opportunity to open up the deeps in every part of creation and the possibility of communing with those deeps, of being a communicant of creation. Having pointed out the soul- lessness of people today, they show us how to experience our experience. Then the authors invite us to pay attention to the spirituality of life itself, experienced in many kinds of social encounters. Spirit is introduced as "something that happens to us in our relations with creation" -- in the process
of buying a car, for example. The spirit's presence is at the heart of creation.
The second part of the book is about communion -- a word generally associated with the taking of the bread and wine at Sunday service -- a symbol of the possibility of communion with all of life. We are here, say the authors, to be family to creation -- to intercommune with it. This means communing with other humans, with nature, the sun, moon and stars -- all of life. At present, the destruction of earth takes so much of our attention that the opportunities for true communion with creation seem to be few. But the authors open up situation after situation where the activity of communion is appropriate.
Hard-core ecologists and sociologists need this book. It should be prescribed reading for anyone involved in caring for the Earth or society. It has given me a completely new way of looking at and relating to life and the universe.
Second Review: David J. Pope
Professor Emeritus, Bowling Green State University, USA
I don't know how long it took John and Lynda Cock to write this book. I do know that the active ministry of Jesus was reported to be about three years long. I also remember that Moses and his people spent forty years in the desert pursuing promise. Now John and Lynda have tackled the whole human journey, all 70,000 years of it.
They successfully engage an attractive, contemporary vocabulary in communi- cating the essence of a timeless issue. Instead of just lecturing or informing, they include verse to take our hands - as if walking with us through an experience with intercommunion. We look at the world's current spiritual malaise, then we move toward the elicitation of an open awareness of Spirit, and finally we embrace together the shared responsibility of tapping the power of Spirit to become agents of intercommunion.
Along the way we pause briefly at "transcendency," which tempts us to see a narrow path. Then we explore the reality of "transparency," which is there for all of us, and which characterizes access to a comprehensive vision of Spirit. The glass through which so many have seen only darkly is no longer so opaque.
John and Lynda elucidate how creation is a dynamic, continuing process, constantly refueling itself from the limitless power at its heart. Through this book they have reached out, calling for all of us to join in sharing the rich blessings which have been part of creation forever. Creation is ours.
When I was a youngster studying Luther's Catechism in confirmation class, I was taught that God is Spirit. I was also taught that we humans are created in the image of God. I am still pondering the full significance of those lessons, and I don't think that I am alone in asking questions. At One With the Heart of Creation provides a unique resource with which each of us can explore the elusive answers more deeply, and with greater courage.
