Most Popular Books by John S. Dunne

What is man, apart from the things of his life, apart from loving and fighting and dying? In his exploration of that fundamental question, John S. Dunne considers the different ways in which man strives throughout his life for immortality. Growing out of the 1971 Yale University Thomas More lectures which Father Dunne delivered in that year, Time and Myth analyzes the man’s confrontation with the inevitability of death in the cultural, personal, and religious spheres, viewing each as a particular kind of myth that takes its form from the impact of time upon the myth. With penetrating simplicity the author poses the timeless dilemma of the human condition and seeks to resolve it through stories of adventures, journeys, and voyages inspired by man’s encounter with death; stories of childhood, youth, manhood, and age; and, finally, stories of God and of man wrestling with God and the unknown. The result is a fascinating “odyssey of the mind in which one travels through the wonderland of other cultures, lives, and religions only to return with new insight to the homeland of one’s own.”

In The City of the Gods, John S. Dunne traces humanity''s political and social mythologies from ancient Sumer to the present, showing how they reflect the diverse responses of each era to the inevitability of death.

In Deep Rhythm and the Riddle of Eternal Life, John S. Dunne examines the end of earthly life and the prospect of eternal life.

Reading the Gospels, according to Dunne, means passing over into the relation of Jesus with his God, the God he calls Abba in prayer, and then coming back from that with a changed vision of life and death. If I pass over into the relation of Jesus with God, then Jesus disappears from in front of me and I find myself in relation to what Jesus calls "my God and your God." When I come back then to myself, I see my life in terms of his life and my death in terms of his death and resurrection, and I am able to say with Paul, "I live now, not I, but Christ lives in me."

Reflections on the common experiences of man as they are revealed in the writings of the Hindu-Buddhist, Islamic, and Christian traditions. In this inter-religious dialogue John Dunne shifts his standpoint to reach a sympathetic understanding of the essential message of the Eastern religions and then returns with new insight into Christianity. Through an examination of figures in various religions, including Gotama, Mohammed, and Gandhi, Dunne explores the possibilities of companionship with God. "The holy man of our time, it seems, is not a figure like Gotama or Jesus or Mohammed, a man who could found a world religion, but a figure like Gandhi, a man who passes over by sympathetic understanding from his own religion to other religions and comes back again with new insight to his own. Passing over and coming back, it seems, is the spiritual adventure of our time. It is the adventure I want to undertake and describe in this book."--from the Preface

This text focuses on the emergence of the human race and the individual from an undifferentiated oneness and the return of the individual to the human community and to reflective and differentiated oneness with God. Dunne expresses this oneness through music and language.

This book by John S. Dunne, whom Kenneth Woodward has called, the most original religious thinker of our time, addresses the spirituality of nonviolence, which Dunne calls an unviolent way of life. Dunne shares Ghandhi''s vision of nonviolence as a spiritual discipline, a learning to love that leads to a seeing of truth. The book is the result of three trips Dunne took to Santiago, Chile, where he lectured on the spirituality of nonviolence. It is also based on conversations that the author had with religious scholar David Daube, philosopher and critic Rene Girard, and psychologist Erik Erilson.

This study aims to be a contemporary contribution to a continuing Christian discourse. It includes voices from the spheres of theology, philosophy, literature and the visual arts.

In the latest of his widely read books about meeting the challenges of our spiritual journey, John Dunne meditates on what Robert Frost calls "the road not taken". Asking if the road taken in life can rejoin the road not taken, Dunne leads us on an adventure where mystery, joy, and infinite grace await us. What is it, he asks, that enables a road to go on and on and not to come to a dead-end?

In Dark Light of Love, John S. Dunne continues his quest of faith seeking understanding by examining darkness as a metaphor for unknowing and the unknown.

"Explores the wisdom of the circle, emphasizing the far point on the circle, farthest away from God, and using that to discuss the difficulties of our secular age."--P. 4 of cover.

This book represents Dunne''s most sustained engagement with modern scientific materialism and the great circle of love

"Do we love with a love we know, or with a love we do not know? This question, posed to author John S. Dunne in a dream, and its answer prompts Dunne to describe in Love''s Mind the journey one takes in contemplating and coming to know love, a journey that involves moving from the loneliness and restless longing of the human heart through spiritual friendship to the ultimate spiritual destination of love of God and union of love with God. The compass one uses on this personal journey is the way of contemplation. For Dunne the contemplative life is a dimension of every human life and should not be limited to the monastic way of life; instead, he considers it the missing dimension in our lives and times - times where violence has supplanted spiritual contemplation and left individuals deprived of the joy and challenge of the spiritual journey that ultimately leads to a union of love with God." "As Dunne describes this journey, three features of the contemplative way of life emerge: the way of words, the way of music, and the way of spiritual friendship. He explores each with characteristic eloquence and introspection, drawing on his experiences of giving spiritual retreats, his presentations on violence and the contemplative life, and his insights on contemplation as the missing dimension in American life. In addition, Dunne considers the contemplations of Aquinas, Aristotle, and Augustine, and draws on a rich store of literary sources, in harmony with his view that art, literature, and music point to God. Ultimately, his insights lead him to a vision, like Augustine''s, of the city of God - a city of the heart where contemplation takes the place of violence. Love''s Mind is the story of how unknowing love becomes knowing love when one comes to the realization that our being in love may be God loving in us, and that our blind love may be God''s unconditional love in us."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

"The integration of mind and heart (and soul and might)--allied with Dunne''s originality and creativity--is what makes his work so vital. His work is important not only to scholars and students of theology but to people of all walks of life who want to reflect on the meaning of their lives." --Elizabeth E. Carr, Smith College "A Journey with God in Time is the personal testimony of a theological mind of rare quality." --John T. Noonan, Jr., author of The Lustre of Our Country In this unique autobiography, John Dunne meditates on what it is to love God with all one''s mind, might, heart, and soul. Dunne''s captivating prose connects contemporary theology with the very real life experiences of finding, losing, and living love. Centered around pivotal moments at various stages in his life, A Journey with God in Time uses the grist of Dunne''s experiences to plumb new theological and spiritual depths. A series of dramatic Thomas Cole paintings reflects the time periods--childhood, youth, adulthood, and old age--that form the organizational backbone of this work. Among the life experiences Dunne discusses are his relationship with his grandfather, his love of music, and his thoughts on death. In prose and song cycles Dunne takes readers on a spiritual journey through his extraordinary, and sometimes ordinary, life. Readers will find rich nourishment for mind and soul in this compelling new book.

In his new book, John S. Dunne asks: "So what is eternal consciousness? It is, I take it, consciousness of the eternal in us. If time is ''a changing image of eternity, '' as Plato says, the changing image of the human being is like "The Voyage of Life," four paintings by Thomas Cole, showing childhood, youth, adulthood, and age. The eternal in us is the person going through these phases. It is the vertical dimension of the life, as in the title scene of "War and Peace" where Prince Andre lay on the battlefield looking up into the peaceful sky, perceiving peace in the midst of war. If the horizontal dimension is time and the vertical dimension is eternity, then eternal consciousness is awareness of the vertical dimension. What is more, the vertical dimension carries through the horizontal, as the person walks through life upright instead of being dragged through in ''quiet desperation.'' Willingness and hope, accordingly, is willingness to walk through upright with hope in the face of death and darkness." --"from the book" What can I know? What should I do? What may I hope? Dunne explores these questions in his characteristic hermeneutic method, finding the answer in "the words of eternal life" (John 6:68). It is the life of the spirit that is the eternal in us, the inner life of knowing and loving, the life of hope and peace and friendship and intelligence. "If there were no eternal consciousness in a man," Kierkegaard says, "what then would life be but despair?" John Dunne adds, if there" is" eternal consciousness in us, on the other hand, there is hope. To readers of John Dunne''s books, "Eternal Consciousness" will be the latest installment chronicling his spiritual journey; to readers new to Dunne''s oeuvre, it will be a lively introduction to the distinctive voice and thought of an inspiring author. "As action grows more frantic and voices more shrill in this age of terror, John Dunne''s wisdom, born of Eternal Consciousness, shows us and leads us into our true selves--never unloved, never abandoned, willing to walk on with God through life into the very gateway of death itself." --Jon Nilson, Loyola University Chicago

We are all mystics, if we take the word mysticism to mean union or communion with ultimate reality. So writes John S. Dunne in this in-depth examination of mysticism.

Coming home for the spirit, according to the author, means coming to peace. The book recounts the author''s quest for peace in the form of three pilgrimages to Jerusalem and how he found peace in conversations with Jews, Christians and Muslims.

This powerful exploration of spiritual longing is the story of two parallel journeys. One is the author''s account of his five-day riverboat trip up the Amazon and his discovery of the tiny Church of the Poor Devil, whose members revealed a spiritual wealth in the midst of abject poverty. The other is Dunne''s own spiritual quest and his "passing over" from a personal religion concerned with the satisfaction of his individual needs to the religion of the poor. In sharing the life of the church''s people and their transcendence of the misery of their human condition, Dunne experiences a greater awareness of the human essence, which redirects his relation of material needs and brings him to a "oneness" with humanity and himself. The story of this journey becomes a compelling metaphor for Christianity. At a religious festival, Dunne witnesses the people''s rejoicing in a simplicity that encourages them to follow the heart''s desire for God. An awareness of God''s presence frees them from the complex, material concerns that so soften beget despair. By acknowledging the truth of human misery and the heart''s desire, Dunne believes we too can walk vertically through a horizontal world governed by materialism and misunderstanding, and thus, find our place at the intersection of time and eternity.