'TO BE A PILGRIM'? A NON-BELIEVER'S WALK TO JERUSALEM

MENTAL HEALTH, IMAGINATION AND SPIRITUALITY

Anyone interested in mental health as well as spirituality may have spotted some interesting speakers at Wychwood Circle this autumn.  After mindfulness in September, this Sunday, November 3rd, we have author Guy Stagg who has suffered with serious mental illness and who, as a non-believer, decided to undertake the 5,500km ‘pilgrimage’ from Canterbury to Jerusalem:  he hiked on foot, alone, on ancient paths and busy routes, relying on the generosity of strangers all the way.  The result is ‘The Crossway’ (Picador 2018), which mixes travel and memoir and where Guy Stagg (guystagg.co.uk) tells of his walk towards recovery and – a big question for us – ‘asks whether religion can still have meaning for those without faith’.

You can see Guy in interviews and conversations here and here. 

Join us at Wychwood Library at 7pm on November 3rd. 

After over 7 years of regular monthly meetings Wychwood Circle will take a break in 2020 but before that we have a third visit from Dr Mark Vernon, a

psychotherapist and the author of  ‘How to be an Agnostic’, ‘Wellbeing’, and, just published, ‘A Secret History of Christianity’.  His new book is largely about Owen Barfield – fellow Inkling and friend of JR Tolkien and C S Lewis – and focuses on the importance of imagination within the evolution of consciousness over the centuries, and thereby to the place of poetry as well as spirituality in a fully-rounded appreciation of the world.  His critique of contemporary Christianity is that it has lost touch with the mysticism which should be at its centre.  The new book has just been endorsed by WPF Therapy in London (where Mark trained as a psychotherapist) as their October 'book of the month' (click on the link from the book title above). 
Join us on December 8^th, 7pm at the Village Hall.