The Spirituality of Imperfection: Storytelling and the Search for Meaning

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Summary: An exploration of spirituality that speaks to all traditions
Review: This book successfully relates the spirituality of Alcoholics Anonymous,and its Twelve Step program, to the other major spiritual traditions ofthe world. It is related in such a way that the non member of these programs can appreciate the depth and importance of this movement for everyone. Alcoholics Anonymous has been praised by Aldous Huxley, Scott Peck and many other religious thinkers as possibly America's own contribution to the history of western spirituality. Kurtz and Ketcham do a fine job showing the uniqueness of AA's modern insights as well as their kinship to forms of spirituality which pervade the wisdom of many traditions from the early Christian Desert Fathers to the wizened Rebbes of the mystical Hassidim. The Spirituality of Imperfection tells this story with the colorful stories and parables of these various traditions. Some of the tales are wise, some funny and all have the quality of capturing our humaness in a form that is entertaining as well as instructive. These stories comprise a minor theme of our spiritual heritage, which celebrates our humaness and limitation as a source of wisdom, rather than "totalitarian" forms of spirituality which subjugate human experience to an obsession with abstract and antiseptic perfectionism.

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Summary: Healing Thoughts for Recovering Fundamentalists
Review: This book was suggested while I was in an alcohol rehabilitation center when other more traditionally Christian literature didn't seem to fit my needs. This wonderful volume includes and incorporates the spirituality proposed in the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous with the spirituality propounded at least in part in all of the major religions. It presents a fairly coherent arguement that Bill W. was no less a prophet than those more widely accepted who came before. The universality of the fundamental truths described through hundreds of anecdotes and quotes from a host of sources has legitimized and given voice to 'what seems like' my own concept of spirituality. The volume is easily read cover to cover, or piecemeal as a vehicle for contemplation and meditation. I highly recommend this for those struggling with conflicted experiences in organized religion or church, or who feel the futility and emptiness of atheism. It could also be of interest to those with obsessive compulsive character traits or perfectionistic tendencies. My concept of God or a Higher Power is the bedrock of my recovery program and this book has given me great comfort and insight.

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Summary: Not just for alcoholics
Review: This is a great book for anyone who wants to get to grips with their own imperfection in a positive way. And the stories are fantastic! Highly, highly recommended.

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Summary: The best approach to understand our imperfections
Review: This is a wonderful book for those who are in recovery from alcoholism or for those who have sought answers about spirituality and have not found a clear answer. There are many wonderful stories used as illustrations which make this book a must for any book collection on the mysteries of sprituality and our imperfect world. John S.

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Summary: I love this book!
Review: This is one of my favorite spiritual books... S.O.I. provides info into the lives of Dr Bob and Bill W. and the earlier years of A.A. that I have never read of... (over the last 12 yrs of being sober I have read most of the historical books on AA out there)... I also like the spiritual principles and religious parables in the first half of the book... they are great for more exposure to the different spirtual practices of the world...

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Summary: Great Book
Review: This is the best book I've ever read about the twelve steps and what makes the spirituality of AA and other 12 step programs so compelling. The authors show how the distillation of many different spiritual traditions converge to provide a basis for a journey to wholeness.

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Summary: My most favorite recovery book
Review: This was the most powerful book I read during my early work on shame and my most rigorous months of recovery through Al-Anon. By the end of this book, I felt ready and willing to let my guard down and enter the human race.

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Summary: Wisdom on spirituality in an age of mass-market religion
Review: which masquerades as total ("perfect") truth. A hopeful companion for those on the path of self-acceptance beyond the addicting ego-trip of True Belief.