This memoir invites readers to explore stages of their own spiritual journey.
Bianchi graphically describes his path from an Italian immigrant family on the West Coast through twenty years as a Jesuit to being a professor of religious studies at Emory University. As he develops a more this-worldly inner life, Bianchi struggles with church teachings about Christ, sexuality and authority.
He candidly reveals how failed marriages gave him a humbler grasp of meeting the transcendent in everyday problems. He embraces a contemplative spirituality that links Buddhist and Taoist practices with Western mysticism. With a foot in Christianity, he shows how to walk a way of inter-spirituality as a meaningful road for the contemporary seeker.
For him this involves becoming a metaphorical Christian as he moves away from religious certitudes of early life to find spirit in nature and humanity. Bianchi, a well-known writer on spiritual aging, challenges Baby Boomers to craft a contemplative life that works for them today. With his wife and two cats, he discovers a home for body and spirit along the banks of the Oconee River in Athens, Georgia.
Taking a Long Road Home
A Memoir by
Eugene C. Bianchi
(Wipf & Stock: Resource Publications, 2010)
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The memoir traces interconnections between my life and my spirituality. It evolves in a contemplative way toward an inter-spiritual vision: Catholic-Buddhist-Taoist, the path of an ecumenical seeker. The story moves from my childhood among Italian immigrants to the Jesuit priesthood and life as a religion professor at Emory University. I describe people and ideas that shape my spirit life, from failed marriages to efforts as a reformer in a changing church. It's an ongoing journey toward a home for body and spirit in the "nowness" of everyday life. It's also a book about spiritual aging, a topic of three earlier books.
-- Gene Bianchi (releb@emory.edu)
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