Francine Thompson

I decided to finally interview Adam in 2015, when I read the foreword he wrote to a book called The Good Book , in which an array of intellectual and literary figures reflect on the Bible. Adam Gopnik sums up a core irony of our secular age in this way: “Our ancestors acknowledged doubt while practicing faith. We moderns are drawn to faith while... See more

But I recognize why that level of order and certainty is very reassuring, as is this idea that you do a certain amount of things and you end up getting your reward, your just reward at the. But as we all know, that is not life. Life is not a simple math problem. It's not algebra. It's far, far more complex. And I think staying because we don't need... See more

what religion brings us is not a dogma but a practice. That’s the rich thing it brings us. That’s the significant thing that it brings us, and that the idea of having a spiritual practice is one that’s completely compatible with the idea of being extremely skeptical of dogma; that those two things are not at war. They may be in tension, the way so... See more

So what’s saving my life right now is the old mantra of staying in the present as best I can and being amazed that life, as it unrolls every single day, is more than scenery as I rush from here to there. That it’s the real deal.

And I think the third way is, it’s a collaboration between a human being’s labors and the mysteries of inspiration. And that’s the most interesting dance that I think you can be involved in, but you are very much an agent in that story. You’re not just a passive receptacle. And also, it’s not entirely in your hands. And standing comfortably within... See more

It’s also that what we have referred to as “body” and what we’ve referred to as emotion and spirit, that those things in fact are completely entangled.

My faith, my spirituality isn't so much like this is my belief system. It is more a question of having faith that there are forces, powers, energies, beyond the seen world that are benevolent, loving attempting to sort of help us on our higher path to move the collective along. And there are also denser, more energetic forces at play, too.

every spiritual practice begins with the body.