Summary

Chapter 5: hooks believes in the importance of being in touch with the divine spirit, as it lets us "see the light of love in all living beings" (101). She believes in the importance of spiritual awakening in a culture that lacks love, but argues that much of what passes as spirituality has been co-opted by materialism, consumerism, and fundamentalism. Love is at the heart of true spirituality and hooks quotes others on the importance of this lesson, including Martin Luther King Jr., Erich Fromm, and Thomas Merton. hooks also emphasizes the importance of the practice of love within the context of community. hooks defines a spiritual life as a way of being and thinking that honors inter-being and inter-connectedness, and her definition of the spiritual is non-denominational. Though she herself was raised in a Christian tradition, hooks writes that spiritual practice does not need...