New Book in Progress: A Religion of One's Own

In his January 2013 Newsletter Thomas Moore describes his current writing project. Last year he negotiated a contract with Gotham Books, an imprint of Penguin Group (USA) to write A Religion of One's Own. He is now on the second revision of the book (he usually does four or five) with the final version due 1 March 2013. Moore explains:

"I'm offering an alternative to the fading formal religious ways of the past and the secularism that is a pseudo-religion itself. I'm very much in the footsteps of the New England Transcendentalists, especially Emerson, Thoreau and Channing, in recommending that we seriously draw insight and inspiration from the traditions as we shape a religious practice suited to us individually. I see a future in which we need not belong to a religion but go deeply into many of them to find the insights and practices we need. We can do this alone or in an established community, but I think we should consciously select and shape our own ideas (theology) and practices. We could be spiritually creative and yet profoundly in debt to the wisdom and beauty of the traditions. In this book I spell out concrete ways to reinvigorate our religiousness in this way. I use the word religion, fully redefined, because spirituality tends to be too vague, abstract and self-centered."

Gotham Books also publishes Moore's book Dark Nights of the Soul: A Guide to Finding Your Way through Life’s Ordeals that won Best Psychology Book in the Books for a Better Life Awards chosen in 2005.