4thace reviewed Falling Upward by Richard Rohr
Concentrating on the second half of a person's life
4 stars
(original review from 20 March 2018) This is my Lenten reading (listening) for this year. Unlike the others it is a recent work by a living author. This volume concentrates on the idea of the second half of life which he regards as the main focus of Christ's teaching, as distinct from the job of establishing a career, raising a family, conforming with the norms established by social institutions such as organized religion. In this part of life, the search for meaning becomes paramount, an idea with which I felt a good deal of kinship. I already feel like I can see the end of my career, and can begin to think about how I would want to fill up the remainder of my time here in a way that would lead to a deeper sense of contentment. He refers to "shadow work," I think in reference to Carl Jung's …
(original review from 20 March 2018) This is my Lenten reading (listening) for this year. Unlike the others it is a recent work by a living author. This volume concentrates on the idea of the second half of life which he regards as the main focus of Christ's teaching, as distinct from the job of establishing a career, raising a family, conforming with the norms established by social institutions such as organized religion. In this part of life, the search for meaning becomes paramount, an idea with which I felt a good deal of kinship. I already feel like I can see the end of my career, and can begin to think about how I would want to fill up the remainder of my time here in a way that would lead to a deeper sense of contentment. He refers to "shadow work," I think in reference to Carl Jung's idea of the unconscious side of personality, not the part which can occupy its time with pursuing tangible goals.
The style was approachable, yet somewhat hard to pin down at times because he tended not to speak in terms of actual individual experiences but more in the abstract. He had a kind of open attitude to exploring those things which an individual would have shunned during the earlier stage of life because they went against conventional morality. He took pains to classify the laws of institutions like the Church as primarily concerning themselves with the first half of life where a person is given clear commands on how to live in a good and upright manner, because these rules are not intended to bring enlightenment to someone finding their way through second half of life. I have this idea of a man or woman no longer preoccupied with piling up money or status, starting to explore serving others as a way to express their own worth. It may in some ways be easier to understand the lives of the great religious teachers from the perspective of an older person provided that they still have openness and courage to challenge orthodoxy.
I looked at other reviews of this book before I chose it to read, and saw a number of people saying that it was the most satisfying of this author's works. I am interested in looking at some of his other works in the future for my twice-yearly tradition.
(Additional comments 30 August 2025) I listened to this audiobook again and had kind of the same feeling about the elusiveness of the author's argument. It was clearer to me that his emphasis was on contrasting the rules for the later portion of light where attaining success and accumulating wealth become less important to an individual who begins to ask questions about meaning and connection instead. He mentions the image of the Greek hero Odysseus, at at several points in the narrative. These are he feels the the image of a man in a situation where the tools of his trade (an oar) no longer convey meaning to those he meets are most relevant to the point he is making at that moment. He doesn't see the structure of his book as taking the form of an orderly narrative, a hierarchy with a main point and subtopics. It is more episodic and meditative, I think because of his particular spirituality.
