The Great Search with John Phillip Newell – G25100401
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Well-known Celtic teacher, John Philip Newell explores the main themes of his ground-breaking new book The Great Search: Turning to Earth and Soul in the Quest for Healing and Home. In this time of transition in which so many of us are longing for a spirituality of intimacy with Earth rather than alienation and a vision of interrelatedness in the world instead of religious and political division, John Philip points to a path of healing and integration, both individually and together, and invites us home again to the spiritual depths of Earth and the human soul.
Co-leading the retreat will be Ali Newell who will lead us in our spiritual practices, and David & Winona Poole who will enable our song and music.
Instructor
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John Phillip NewellJohn Philip Newell (born 1953) is a Celtic teacher and author of spirituality who calls the modern world to reawaken to the sacredness of Earth and every human being.
Canadian by birth, and a citizen also of Scotland, he resides with his family in Edinburgh and works on both sides of the Atlantic. In 2016 he began the Earth & Soul initiative and teaches regularly in the United States and Canada as well as leading international pilgrimage weeks on Iona in the Western Isles of Scotland.
His PhD is from the University of Edinburgh and he has authored over fifteen books, including his award-winning publication, Sacred Earth Sacred Soul, which was the 2022 Gold Winner of the Nautilus Book Award for Spirituality and Religious Thought of the West. His new book, also with HarperOne (and published in the UK by Wild Goose), is The Great Search (August 2024), in which he looks at the great spiritual yearnings of humanity today in the context of the decline of religion as we have known it.
Newell speaks of himself as ‘a wandering teacher’ following the ancient path of many lone teachers before him in the Celtic world, ‘wandering Scots’ (or scotus vagans as they were called) seeking the wellbeing of the world. He has been described as having ‘the heart of a Celtic bard and the mind of a Celtic scholar’, combining in his teachings the poetic and the intellectual, the head as well as the heart, and spiritual awareness as well as political and ecological concern. His writings have been translated into seven languages. In 2020 he relinquished his ordination as a minister of the Church of Scotland as no longer reflecting the heart of his belief in the sacredness of Earth and every human being. He continues, however, to see himself as ‘a grateful son of the Christian household’ seeking to be in relationship with the wisdom of humanity’s other great spiritual traditions.
In 2011 John Philip was awarded the first-ever Contemplative Voices Award from the Shalem Institute in Washington DC for his prophetic work in the field of spirituality and compassion. In 2022 he received the Sacred Universe Award from the Well Center for Spirituality in Chicago, IL in recognition of his significant work in furthering humanity’s relationship with the sacredness of Earth.