This book could be called "Religion Brings Exile" for that is the contention of its first half - unity from within the Catholic tradition of Christianity.

The exile about which he writes is from our natural planetary home to which we are intimately connected, but patriarchal religion which has triumphed over the last five thousand years has and always will split us off from.

O'Murchu contends that all religions place human beings as a species in exile because of their emphasis on "place" and "word". The special place - be it temple, church, synagogue or mosque - becomes the place to encounter the divine, rather than the fecundity and nurture of our planet.

The primary "word" and language of our earth is the language that the earth and the cosmos speak to us. It tells us who we are and how to relate in interdependence and co-creativity. He shows that language and the written word are recent in relation to the five million years of our species. Before word and language humans communicated with one another and had spiritual connection to life-cycles and seasons.

Part One of the book ends with an invitation to trust the invitation to chaos. From the cosmos we learn the creative possibility of chaos. The death and resurrection of Jesus comprise an archetypal story that beckons forward to newness, resisting the desire to control and trusting ourselves to the dynamic of creation and cosmos.

Part Two is the return from exile and life. Like many such books the analysis of the problem excites the possibility of brand new answers, but also that it is not to be!

The return from exile is a contemplative way to look and to really see what life is beyond the limitations of a particular civilisation. The author then goes on to explore the themes of separation and connectedness, creation as a place called home where we reconnect to our relational selves. These themes are familiar to those who have read recent work on creation-centred theology and spirituality. It has resonances in contemporary feminist theology to which O'Murchu alludes on a number of occasions.

There is no magic bullet - or maybe that should be "bullet-train" - for a rapid journey home from exile. Rather, it is a turning round in order to begin the journey, but the steps are joyous if uncertain as questions are befriended, depths are gazed into. Listening and dialogue are ways to facilitate the journey homewards.

The final chapter on "Spirituality for the journey home" summarises much of the above, but asks human beings to let all of our planet, all the species and plants, give a sense of meaning to us as we are simply part of it all, not to lord over it and dominate until we destroy. It is spirituality that declares what we have always been, rather the recent phenomenon of religion that leads us to reclaim dimensions of co-evolution and affiliation with the cosmos.

The book concludes with two appendices. One is on "the great mother goddess - fact or fiction?". The second is on "Being a theologian in exile from home" and covers much of the ground that is named in the spirituality of Part Two on the main book.

Like other writings of O'Murchu on similar subjects it is not an easy but a stimulating and thought-provoking read. It left me with the question, "How does he get away with it in the Catholic Church?"

Paul Golightly
February 2006

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