The Universal Christ: How a Forgotten Reality Can Change Everything We See, Hope For, and Believe

Richard Rohr

Mar 2019 · Penguin Random House Audio · Narrated by Arthur Morey

About this audiobook

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From one of the world’s most influential spiritual thinkers, a long-awaited book exploring what it means that Jesus was called “Christ,” and how this forgotten truth can restore hope and meaning to our lives.

“Anyone who strives to put their faith into action will find encouragement and inspiration in the pages of this book.”—Melinda Gates

In his decades as a globally recognized teacher, Richard Rohr has helped millions realize what is at stake in matters of faith and spirituality. Yet Rohr has never written on the most perennially talked about topic in Christianity: Jesus. Most know who Jesus was, but who was Christ? Is the word simply Jesus’s last name? Too often, Rohr writes, our understandings have been limited by culture, religious debate, and the human tendency to put ourselves at the center.

Drawing on scripture, history, and spiritual practice, Rohr articulates a transformative view of Jesus Christ as a portrait of God’s constant, unfolding work in the world. “God loves things by becoming them,” he writes, and Jesus’s life was meant to declare that humanity has never been separate from God—except by its own negative choice. When we recover this fundamental truth, faith becomes less about proving Jesus was God, and more about learning to recognize the Creator’s presence all around us, and in everyone we meet.

Thought-provoking, practical, and full of deep hope and vision, The Universal Christ is a landmark book from one of our most beloved spiritual writers, and an invitation to contemplate how God liberates and loves all that is.

Ratings and reviews

Amazing

About the author

RICHARD ROHR, O.F.M., is a globally recognized ecumenical teacher bearing witness to the universal awakening within the Franciscan way, Christian mysticism and the Perennial Tradition. He is a Franciscan priest of the New Mexico Province and founder of the Center for Action and Contemplation (www.cac.org) in Albuquerque, where he also serves as Academic Dean of the Living School for Action and Contemplation. Fr. Richard is the author of numerous books, including the bestsellers FALLING UPWARD, THE NAKED NOW, and most recently, DIVINE DANCE.