Image: The Soul of Desire by Len Lantz (CC BY-NC-ND)
Synopsis: Len's Star Rating: 7 out of 10. A good but complex book on aspects of desire and beauty from a Christian spiritual perspective.
BY LEN LANTZ, MD, author of unJoy / 12.10.2021; No. 58
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Star Rating – 7 out of 10
Rating guide: 1 = horrible, 5 = average and 10 = wow
Author
Curt Thompson
About the author
Curt Thompson, MD, is a clinical psychiatrist, speaker, author of The Soul of Shame and Anatomy of the Soul, and the founder of the Center for Being Known, “whose mission is to create connections and opportunities for the creation of beauty and goodness at the intersection of Interpersonal Neurobiology and Christian spiritual formation.”
General description
The Soul of Desire is a book devoted to exploring the nature of desire from a Christian perspective and how desire is shaped by other factors, such as shame, sin, beauty, envy, trauma, and our relationships with God and each other. The predominant lens through which the author looks at the nature of desire is through beauty. Topics covered in this book include:
The importance of honestly answering the question, “What do you want?” to better understand your desires and passions and how they influence you
The power and priority of beauty and how it can draw us to God and each other
The multiple effects of trauma and shame
The transformative experiences to be found in accountability groups
The experiential elements of beauty
Unique and most important aspects
The Soul of Desire is a good book and a worthwhile read, however, I found it to be very difficult to get through. I believe that I accurately understood that the author was intending to create a book that was beautiful to read and/or compel the reader into the process of deep reading. I find beauty in simplicity and complexity, yet I just found this book to be a struggle to read.
An example of what I mean by the book being difficult to read is captured in the following sentence from The Soul of Desire, “And as Lesslie Newbigin suggests, reflecting on the work of Peter Berger, the prevailing plausibility structure of our world – the matrix of tacit, nonconscious assumptions we make with which we judge reality – is science.” I think that college professors and theologians would rightfully be highly engaged by this text but the average reader might struggle through it, as the ideas presented in the book are harder to access. I gave this book a lower rating due to readability. Important concepts from The Soul of Desire include:
Providing a convincing argument of the importance of seeking, finding, experiencing, and creating beauty
Differentiating desire from envy
Sin’s distortion of desire to envy and shame
Confessional communities
Discussing desire as it relates to sexuality
Incorporating ideas from interpersonal neurobiology (IPNB) to show the relationship between our understanding of neuroscience and thoughts, behaviors, emotions, and relationships
Best quotes
“It is helpful to know that much of my desire is related to envy.”
“We long for a world in which our relationships with those of the other gender, ethnic people group, and political party, as well as with the material world, are governed by kindness and honesty.”
“We think we must avoid desire at all cost in order to keep away from the pitfalls of sin and the shame that accompanies it. Paradoxically, it is in naming our desire for beauty that we align ourselves with the most primal call of God, which is being broadcast from the heights of heaven and is planted in the core of our souls.”
“Balthasar turns all of that on its head. He proposes that how we actually live requires a reversal of the order in which we approach the three transcendentals, so that beauty is first, followed by goodness, which is followed by truth.”
“He easily replied, ‘I grew up in a loving Christian family,’ which, as I mentioned earlier, is sometimes code for, ‘Life sucked, but I can’t really say that out loud.’”
“It takes anywhere from thirty to ninety seconds for us to fully receive the emotional ‘load’ of a compliment, of a bid for attachment, of a gift of goodness or beauty directed our way.”
“We do not name that we want to generously give our lives away without fear of scarcity and thus continue to hoard our time, money, and relationships. In doing so we refrain from generously pouring into others what they need in order to be recommissioned in life and become a blessing to the world.”
“We either don’t ask for what we want or ask in a way that reveals how consumptive we are in our asking because we have not taken the time to explore the depth and intensity of our desire to be seen, soothed, safe, and secure.”
Who would enjoy this book?
Readers who read at a high level and are interested in delving into the topic of desire and beauty from a Christian spiritual perspective would likely enjoy The Soul of Desire.
Who would not enjoy this book?
Readers who are interested in a Christian book on desire and beauty that is written for the general reader are unlikely to enjoy The Soul of Desire.
Conclusion
The Soul of Desire is a good but complex book on aspects of desire and beauty from a Christian spiritual perspective.