Being well into my second half of life and having read several other books on human development and spirituality, I was interested in reading this one also because some good friends recommended it. The book is well worth reading and thinking about. Fr. Rohr has many good things to say. But I found it less helpful to me than other books like it.

I am a strong believer in the gleanings available to us from the world of psychotherapy, as all Truth is God's Truth, and what we understand of the human experience from this field can richly flesh out principles we know from Scripture. The danger comes when this is reversed, and Christianity is viewed as one of many valid paths to living out the learnings from the psychotherapeutic community. But we can’t know what the right filling for our container is until we’ve had the wrong one. The container must be filled in the first task first before it can be filled in the second. The Way Down is the Way Up Diversity in reading, including reading works by those of different worldviews, is very important to me. I will not rate a book low simply because I disagree with the author. I may one day write a book with which I would today disagree!He writes that Jesus praised faith and trust more than love. Really? Where in the Bible did he find that?

Summary: Richard Rohr focuses on what he sees are the key developmental tasks for each "half" of life, using the image of the container for the first half, and contents for the second. Finally, he identifies Victor Turner as a leader of the male spirituality movement. Victor Turner was not that. Victor Turner was an anthropologist--an expert in ritual process whose work was frequently appropriated by the male spirituality movement, mostly by the Joseph Campbell, mythopoetic crowd. I have nothing against that crowd crediting Victor Turner with some of their basic tenets, but he wasn't some big Male Spirituality Guru. Not a big deal. I just want Rohr to get it right. The second mountain is a concept that we all have two big purposes in life. The first is becoming self-reliant. This means seeking after a career, happiness, and general well-being. The second mountain is something more profound, one focused more on the impact one can have on the world, and on achieving joy in true enlightenment.

Summary of Falling Upward

I've finished reading "Falling Upward" by Fr. Rohr. Not only that but also, I am familiar with much of his research material. I’ve read Bourgeault’s "Centering Prayer;" Chodron’s "Start Where You Are;" rather much of the Jung, the Xavier, and Pearson’s "Six Archetypes We Live By." When you read a Kindle edition, you don’t usually find the bibliography until last. There isn’t a huge option for an early thumb-through.

The Two Halves' refers to Jung's program of life, where in the first half, we build the Ego and secure a 'living'. There is more, however to this story, and oftentimes the unconscious pushes us into terra incognito...thrusts us into an initiation of maturity, that if heeded, brings a fuller, richer energy to the Self, or the totality of the conscious Ego and unconscious Archetypes. And this journey, the journey of the Self is nothing, if not Archetypal and transpersonal. Although any Bible-reading Christian from a non-cult sect would say that Jesus is the Son of God and that he died to pay for the sins of man, Rohr tells us that there is no one theology of Jesus so there can’t be any true theology of Jesus. I am a Christian. But I certainly wouldn't say the next world will be a Disneyland, for I know better in my bones. Much more to the point, I think, is Kierkegaard's enduring image, in Either/Or, of a spirit world where the rewards go to the the saddest human beings. In post–World War II Japan, returning soldiers were often not prepared for a return to civil society. They had been a “loyal soldier” and now needed a broader identity if they were to reenter their communities in a useful capacity. To enable this, a communal ritual was established in which the soldier was thanked and praised for his service. An elder would declare that the war was over and that the person was needed by the community as something more than a soldier. This kind of process – “discharging the loyal soldier” – is needed by many of us to give closure when we are transitioning from one chapter in our lives to another.

The protagonist lives in an idyllic world, a place where they’re content. Often, they’re a prince or princess, or they have some divine origin they’re unaware of. Then, they leave home on an adventure – an adventure that forces them out of their comfort zone. While on the adventure, they encounter a problem. Whatever the problem is, the process of resolving it makes the hero’s world larger and more open; as a result, the protagonist’s outlook is enlarged and opened, too. He posits that if the first half of life is about achievement and accomplishment, as well as learning from our mistakes and falls from grace, the passage into maturity (elderhood perhaps) allows us to shed the ego needs of the constructed false self, and embrace the uniqueness of the true self -- the soul -- with all its battle scars as well as beauty. This new personal freedom with its deepening consciousness can place us at odds with the familiar, including institutions (the church perhaps), and even family. We no longer measure ourselves by titles, or public images, roles or our place in the dominant culture. More suffering comes into the world by people taking offense than by people intending to give offense.” – Ken Keyes

I'll be honest. This is not a book I can wholeheartedly recommend. While I found a number of useful insights, I thought the "spirituality" on which Rohr grounded these more reflective of a "blend" of Eastern and Western spirituality rather than the Catholic Christianity with which Father Rohr is most closely identified. For some, that may not be a problem, or even is a plus! If you are looking for a spirituality that roots an understanding of development in classic Christianity, whether Catholic, Orthodox, or Protestant/Evangelical, that is not this book. We can save ourselves a lot of distress and accusation by knowing when, where, to whom, and how to talk about spiritually mature things.” He uses the same quotes from the same people and examples from the same stories ad nauseam. Odysseus this and that, Lady Julian “fall…and…recover(y)…both are the mercy of God”, Carl Jung almost every chapter. It’s fine to have a favorite few authors, but he doesn’t just quote them on different topics, he uses the same quote from the same author multiple times. I was attracted to this book first by the title and then by the cover. And then I thought I have for myself a wonderful book when I read its introduction - it promises a lot of things I was looking for. whatever reconnects (re-ligio) our parts to the Whole is in experience of God, whether we call it that or not.” (p. xxxiv)

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Then during the second half of life, the second mountain, we release it so that we might refill it with God and spirituality. If that sounds distinctively Christian, it is. Father Rohr is very comfortable in interfaith circles, but he has a decidedly Franciscan vein in his approach to spirituality. Hebrew and Christian scriptures pop up regularly in his prose, but in fresh, deep ways. His scholarship is also very deep, quoting everyone from Church Founders to Paul Ricouer. He is challenging, but in a deeply personal, friendly way.