A FRUIT-BEARING SPIRITUALITY

For those who regard spirituality as a private indulgence, Caroline Reinhart provides one of the best antidotes. She begins her book with her experiences in developing a Centre for disabled people and carers on a wide tract of virgin land on the South coast of England, where land and people, both in need of care, called forth a practical spirituality that was integrated with action – a combination for which she uses the term "praxis". In describing this, Reinhart builds the first section of the book as an exposition of this integrated praxis, empowering both individuals and communities. Crucially, praxis is transformative, changing individuals and communities. In the second section the context is opened up to society as a whole, and particularly to the idea that science can support social praxis. Here I felt less comfortable, as she drew almost exclusively from writers such as Zohar, who often take radical liberties with quantum physics; or from Goswami and Laszlo who re-write quantum physics to suit their own ideas. Her conclusion that science can support a union of action and spirituality does, however, remain sound, though much work is still needed to make this a reality within the mainstream scientific community. The final section is the most effective, as Reinhart spells out the practicalities of living in the light of these insights, and strikingly reaches the awareness (emphasised in Christianity but actually universal) that the core of a transformative life – for individuals and for societies – is love. The cumulative development of her three sections builds into an important vision of a future world, making this valuable contribution to modern spirituality.