Spiritual but not Anxious

We all know and experience anxiety every day. Sometimes that anxiety is necessary. It is acute. It serves a purpose to focus and align our instincts and energy toward solving a specific problem or eliminating a specific danger. Sometimes, however, anxiety is chronic—or even systemic and institutional. It is accepted as baked right in to our existence—toxically dwelling and seething below the surface, eroding us from the inside out. Once more, when we are chronically anxious, we are not focused or aligned. When we are chronically anxious, we are not too bright at all. Chronic anxiety leads to some of our worst ideas and behavior.

Huston Smith wrote that the “virtuous pagans” of Dante’s Inferno were so fabled because they failed “to imagine better.” Spiritual but not Anxious hopes to imagine better—to imagine lives, systems, and communities that are not riddled with anxiety. Spiritual but not Anxious will explore the origins of some of our deepest anxieties. It will effort to help us recognize the chronic anxieties inherent in our systems, doctrines, dogmas, and worldviews while providing practical ways to lay down what we were never meant to carry. Some of the possible chronic anxieties I hope to expose include:

Cruciocentrism: The Anxiety of Salvation and Damnation

Literalism: The Anxiety of Devotion and Zealotry

Tribalism: The Anxiety of Language and the Other

Narcissism: The Anxiety of Expertise and Control

Transactionalism: The Anxiety of Worth and Packaging

Dualism: The Anxiety of Identity, Detachment, and Death

The goal is for Spiritual but not Anxious to be a published book that is wholly owned by Chapter 3. As with Faith Lies, any and all revenues generated by Spiritual but not Anxious will go to the ongoing work of Chapter 3. Accordingly, I am asking you to please consider making a tax-deductible donation to Chapter 3 with the intention of supporting the writing of this manuscript.