Immortal Diamond: The Search for Our True Self

If i where to recommend one christian book to read. It would be this one. It seems Richard Rohr manages to sum up my every sermon this last year in this beautiful book. If you wonder what I teach or believe. This book will set you on that path.

I guess I highlighted about 1/3 of the book which I want to go back and look over taking my time and meditating. I got the e-book from the library, so I'll buy a copy. Just one example of what grabbed me was his explanation of the error in the thinking that God required the sacrificial death of Jesus to atone for sin. I've always felt that this just could not be a necessity for the Source of all that is. But don't get the impression that this book is about head knowledge. I see it more as a weaving of a trail enticing the reader to go up to and through a gateway that they might not have been afraid to approach. Richard Rohr seems to care a great deal more about the reader than he does of himself. How wonderful to run into that.

Ready to experience the mystical side of Christianity with a Franciscan friar? Here’s a journey that Father Richard Rohr promises will secure a happier existence. It’s the quest for your True Self … the resurrected self, the “immortal diamond” deep within you, which he says is neither God nor human, but both at the same time.

It took me a little longer than usual to get into the book, which keeps it below a five-star review, but it was worth the persistence. My problem was that Rohr writes with a sort of matter-of-fact authority that left me wondering if I missed the proof text somewhere along the way. Perhaps I did; Rohr has published around two dozen books since his first in 1976, and this is the first I’ve read.

Rohr’s show more target is those who sense God is closer than they’ve been told. If you find yourself “in recovery from religion,” you’re in Rohr’s crosshairs. He wants to introduce you to a deeper meaning to life, deeper even than the surface Christian tradition that has been your paradigm to date. While Rohr’s heritage is clearly Judeo-Christian, and many of his quotes come from the Bible, he aims at uncovering the perennial truths that all religions share.

Resurrection is key, both of our Lord and of ourselves. Resurrection is necessary for new life, life in unity with God. As “children of the resurrection” (Luke 20:36), our relationship with God changes … we “breath God in and out—much more than we ‘know’ God, understand God, or even talk to God.” There is an intimacy with God at this level that we never reach within our selfish, base existence, the “False Self.”

A deep read, if you’re ready to take the leap. show less

Rohr is definitely one of my favorite authors. Here he explains our True Selves and how it is both different from our False Selves and connects us to God. In short, it is an important paradigm shift for me in how I understand my faith, my relationship to God and Jesus Christ, and how I hope to grow as a person. A beautiful book!

I could go on and on with quotes, but toward the beginning of the book he identifies the "four major splits from reality that we have all made...to create our False Self:"

1. We split from out shadow self and pretend to be our idealized self.
2. We split our mind from our body and soul and live in our minds.
3. We split life from death and try to live out live without any "death."
4. We split ourselves from other show more selves and try to live apart, superior, and separate.

Overcoming these four splits is the primary message of the book. (p. 29)

I hope to read it again after reading a few more of his others! show less

In Immortal Diamond, Father Richard Rohr likens the True Self to a diamond, buried deep within us, formed under the intense pressure of our lives, that must be searched for and separated from the debris of ego that surrounds it. In a sense, True Self must, like Jesus, be resurrected, and that process is not resurrection, but transformation. Rohr explores the deepest questions of identity, spirituality, and meaning. The book brings to light the mysteries of grace, death, and resurrection.

I like Richard Rohr and have read several books. I especially like his books on Masculine spirituality (the journey from wild man to wise man). This book was just okay for me. Rohr explores the True Self, the immortal diamond we discover if we are willing to go deep enough, and move beyond our false self.

Some good stuff on how the false self is just smallish, and a starting point. Rohr emphases our true self shows our connection to others, the world and the Triune God. He makes good use of the language of resurrection (and dying) as a metaphr for the discovery of the True self, and he writes this book with a wide audience in mind (Catholics, Protestants, spiritual-but-not-religious folks, buddhists, hindus, atheists, etc). As such, show more though he is clearly writing from a Christian perspective, he bends over backwards to show common ground (even co-opting the Vincentian canon: "always everywhere and by all," to illustrate what all religions in the 'perennial tradition' hold in common).

I feel like I can only go part way with Rohr but appreciate a number of his insights. show less

Examines the fundamental issues of who we are and helps us on our path of spiritual maturity
Immortal Diamond (whose title is taken from a line in a Gerard Manley Hopkins poem) explores the deepest questions of identity, spirituality, and meaning in Richard Rohr's inimitable style.