AARP Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life

by Richard Rohr

AARP Digital Editions offer you practical tips, proven solutions, and expert guidance.

Genres: Spirituality, Nonfiction, Religion, Faith, Christian, Theology, Christianity

242 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 1, 2004

About the author

Fr. Richard Rohr is a globally recognized ecumenical teacher bearing witness to the universal awakening within Christian mysticism and the Perennial Tradition. He is a Franciscan priest of the New Mexico Province and founder of the Center for Action and Contemplation (CAC) in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Fr. Richard's teaching is grounded in the Franciscan alternative orthodoxy—practices of contemplation and expressing itself in radical compassion, particularly for the socially marginalized.

Fr. Richard is author of numerous books, including Everything Belongs, Adam’s Return, The Naked Now, Breathing Under Water, Falling Upward, Immortal Diamond, Eager to Love, and The Divine Dance: The Trinity and Your Transformation (with Mike Morrell).

Fr. Richard is academic Dean of the Living School for Action and Contemplation. Drawing upon Christianity's place within the Perennial Tradition, the mission of the Living School is to produce compassionate and powerfully learned individuals who will work for positive change in the world based on awareness of our common union with God and all beings. Visit cac.org for more information.

Reviews

[Bill Kerwin · Rating 4 out of 5]

As part of my continuing exploration of spiritual books in preparation for a June retirement, I decided, on the recommendation of a trusted few, to read Richard Rohr's Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life. I am glad I did.

Rohr has helped me realize that much of the impatience and frustration I have been feeling with certain trends in my profession (I am a teacher at a Catholic high school) may derive from the fact that my own path has moved beyond the institutional structures that inform and often dictate what I can accomplish. Although such structures may be of value for the integrity of the institutions themselves, and for younger teachers who are establishing their identities within it, they are of little use to those who are in the second half of life (and even less so, I suspect, for those in the last quarter of their lives, like me).

Our task in the first half of life, Rohr tells us, is to construct "the proper container" for our lives and adopt a system of rules that will keep our “container” strong enough to endure the challenges of the early years, all the while permitting the self to flower. First half folks are often obsessed with law, order, custom, tradition, correct rituals, controlling (or refusing to control) passion and pleasure, safety, and intellectual certainty.

Second-half folks who get stuck in first-half tasks—or, like me, in a first-half institution—find it difficult to continue their explorations the way the second half of life requires. For us, it is the tragic sense of life that matters, the sense that growth and redemption spring naturally from inevitable sins and necessary sorrows. It is in this—not in any nit-picky concepts of right and wrong—that we find our meaning and consolation. The container itself is no longer enough, and we begin to journey toward an ancient self with a new homesickness, to enter into a second simplicity, to accept, with a new inner brightness, the old inescapable sadness.

There are drawbacks to Falling Upward. Stylistically, Rohr has little but clarity to recommend him (although that, in itself, is a great gift), and he is a little too much in the Joseph Campbell/Robert Bly mythic mode for my taste. But there is a lot of wisdom here; I have only touched the surface.

[Fergus, Weaver of Autistic Webs · Rating 4 out of 5]

I rather liked this book. And I think I can heartily recommend it to all my friends who are fast approaching "a certain age," as a writer of gently oblique phraseology - like Henry James - might put it.

Falling upward means, quite simply, casting off the excitement and cravings of youth, as Paul of Tarsus enjoins all those who are commencing the New Life. With that removal of extra gravity pull, we commence our "fall" (relaxing of our cares and attachments), "upwards" - into the Grace which is specific to the Second Phase of Life.

But sometimes people feel they've missed out on life. Henry James himself is a classic example! I felt that for years - until I woke up and suddenly saw the debasement of value which is in multitasking entropic movement.

But some folks like the incredibly rich Iranian writer, Housang Moradi Kermani - and me as well - remember our youth as a time of sadness and isolation, that developed into an adulthood of discovering its reflection in books, so it became a way of life.

I am a Christian. But I certainly wouldn't say the next world will be a Disneyland, for I know better in my bones. Much more to the point, I think, is Kierkegaard's enduring image, in Either/Or, of a spirit world where the rewards go to the the saddest human beings.

Pop Christianity really missed the boat on that one, for us moderns. And when my Mom died of an aggressive cancer, sequestered in my angst as I was, I somehow could not get wishful thinking out of my fevered brain.

A dumb new born-again Christian back then - before I became Catholic - I simply thought that somehow Disney's World of Magic would soon open its gates to her. Even evangelists, though, need hard knocks to Grow.

It takes a long time for kids to separate the tinsel from the Gold Bullion of life.

So naturally, when Dad appeared one snowy evening soon after to give my wife and me the sad news of her passing, Deep Peace was all I felt. At last!

Similarily, Richard Rohr is telling us to junk our Disneylands and lighten our load.

A death full of bells and accumulated bangles is likely to load us down to towards a Hell custom-made for those who “want it all."

Don't go there.

Cut off the ballast of sin as you ease into "a certain age."

It's time to Fall Upwards into Peace.

[Kasey Jueds · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've been reading this book slowly--about a chapter every week, for the past several months--partly because I loved and wanted to savor it, partly because it's so rich that I couldn't take in too much at once. Fr. Rohr is a Franciscan priest with a particularly capacious sense of what it means to be Christian (which I'm not, but this feels like a book about Christianity that is really for everyone). He draws on Buddhism and Jungian thought as well as twelve step programs and the teachings of Jesus, and writes with a lovely and rare sort of clarity and accessibility about matters that are hard to make accessible without dumbing them down. Now that I've finished I feel I could happily start this book again from the beginning and still get so much out of it.

[Pearlie · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was attracted to this book first by the title and then by the cover. And then I thought I have for myself a wonderful book when I read its introduction - it promises a lot of things I was looking for.

But alas it feel from the sky to the very depths of the underworld. I could not continue with it and stopped at Chapter 6 with 6 more chapters to go.

I was indeed looking forward to read about what it means to build a life in Christ. I did know from the start that Richard Rohr is a Catholic priest, but little did I know he is as one Amazon reviewer termed him as a "progressive Catholic". I would say that he is pluralistic more than anything.

His views about how life in reality is true and I agree with him. I also agree with him that many areas of our lives and the church needs to undergo a more radical transformation than they have. But I could not agree with his means, and his treatment of theology and Scripture. He gives statements that are blatant and I could not agree with his explanation and justification.

For example, his treatment of sin is rather light, with statements like "you cannot avoid sin...anyway". I find it too absolute - cannot...anyway. Yes, it is difficult to avoid sin, but something we can do and should strive to do.

In reference to Paul's "It is when I am weak that I am strong", he writes, "he was merely building on what he called the 'folly' of the crucifixion on Jesus." Merely?

He writes that Jesus praised faith and trust more than love. Really? Where in the Bible did he find that?

He writes, "People who know how to creatively break the rules also know why the rules were there in the first place." Excuse me?

He writes, "You must first eat the fruit of the garden, so you know what it tastes like." If he is referring to the forbidden fruit of the Garden of Eden...I really do not know how to respond to that. I suppose I can, in a tirade, but I am just rendered speechless for now.

And this is among the last ones that made me stop reading the book: he writes, "There is not one clear theology of God, Jesus, or history presented, despite our attempt to pretend there is."

I rest my case.

[Caroline Mathews · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've finished reading "Falling Upward" by Fr. Rohr. Not only that but also, I am familiar with much of his research material. I’ve read Bourgeault’s "Centering Prayer;" Chodron’s "Start Where You Are;" rather much of the Jung, the Xavier, and Pearson’s "Six Archetypes We Live By." When you read a Kindle edition, you don’t usually find the bibliography until last. There isn’t a huge option for an early thumb-through.

The index of words, some explained and others neglected, is missing Taoism, but the idea of falling upward into the second life is prominent in Chinese Taoist art. Images of Ma Yaun's "Two Sages …Under a Plum Tree" and "Self-Portrait" by Shen Chou came into my mind quickly and quietly as I read.

Not only for the Taoist, but for the rest of us, life is change. There is the quick, constant change, particularly that shifting of fortune captured daily in Eastern culture by anyone who plays at the "I Ching;" the larger, seasonal rotation and stages of life changes (to everything, turn, turn, turn….); the heroic life's journey into self-awareness i.e. "The Odyssey" and "Monkey;" and finally, even our Western notion of retirement at age 65.

The premise of "Falling Upward" is that one must experience the downs of life’s first half in order to fully comprehend, contemplate, and appreciate the ups of the second half. The ups of the second half , which may never be forthcoming, calm us into a new understanding of our impending, inevitable deaths that are not extinction at all but are instead, life everlasting.

The book is not simplistic. It is I who am cramming the whole thesis into a nutshell for the sake of time and tide – which always changing, wait for no man.

I woke up an hour ago from a sound sleep remembering my friend Mohammed who is from Cairo. His father retired several years ago. Mohammed told me that in this “second” half of life, male Muslims become contemplative and studious. The burdens of living are lifted somewhat and they can pursue the Koran and the meanings of life and death. Sure enough, the old gentleman began to spend more time outside of the city in his birth village where he also owned all the land. He read, he talked, he saw a different side of himself.

You've read some of my reviews. You know how I get about research and bibliography. You know these types of works become topic papers to me and that I begin to speed read. Yet, the thesis was a good (even if not a new) one, thought provoking, well-said, and well annotated. And the book got me thinking, didn’t it? That is the sign that something is worthy of reading. It gave a new name and further meaning to a concept as old as our collective mythology and certainly well documented by the words of Jesus himself.

What sunk in was, first and foremost, that familiar line of Jesus, “Do not be afraid.” Don’t be afraid to think, to study, to reappraise, to act, or even to die. If the packaging will no longer hold you with your new thoughts, knowledge, ideas, and actions the book suggests you become a new package! Death? It’s nothing to fear, if one is prepared to look at it through the eyes of the Master.

[Mary Frances · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was less than impressed with this book. I did find a few nuggets of wisdom, but as with much of Rohr's writings it seems as if he thinks his readers need simplistic explanations, and as always it's very self referential. Rohr's good thoughts are too often marred in his writings by a sense that he is not sharing a journey but lecturing to poor souls who aren't able to get his profound wisdom. And since a great deal of what he says is not profound, it get annoying. The worst section was when he presents a Thomas Merton poem to illustrate a point but then, not content to let Merton's words speak to the reader as they will, he deconstructs the poem as a "meditation" by explaining the "meaning" of the lines in his own much less evocative language. I have often garnered a bit of insight from Rohr's work , esp. His work on the enneagram, but this may be my last foray into his work.

[Jordan Shirkman · Rating 1 out of 5]

If you’re expecting a book about how the gospel and following Jesus lead us to maturity and into the “second half of life”, this is not the book for you. That was what I expected from a Franciscan priest. Father Richard Rohr has strayed so far from orthodoxy that anything and everything–Buddhism, Islam, Zen Masters and some out-of-context teachings of Jesus–can lead us to the second half of life. In this second half, he encourages us to to fall down and get back up through our own enlightenment about what life is really all about. A fine sentiment, but ultimately an unsatisfying explanation of how that is to take place through rejecting any and all faiths in their orthodox forms and looking deep within to find our meaning.

Here’s what I enjoyed about the book:

It’s not age that leads us to maturity, but how we handle suffering and what we learn from those experiences.
It’s easy for us to be so content in the comfortable at “home” that we never venture out and thus never truly grow and understand.
His observation about Westerners not being comfortable to hold in tension truths that at first seem paradoxically but are actually congruent and trying to rush to a conclusion too quickly rings true for me personally.
There are a handful of quotes worth pondering:
“More suffering comes into the world by people taking offense than by people intending to give offense.” – Ken Keyes
“We can save ourselves a lot of distress and accusation by knowing when, where, to whom, and how to talk about spiritually mature things.”
“When we are only victorious in small things, it leaves us feeling small.”
“You learn how to recover from falling by falling.”
“We clergy have gotten ourselves into the job of ‘sin management’ instead of sin transformation.”
“Self-help…will help you only if you pay attention to life itself.”

That’s where the good abruptly stops.

Here’s what I hated about the book:

He slams orthodoxy and fundamentalism constantly and essentially rules it out as a path for growth and “enlightenment.” He views historical Christian views (and historical, orthodox views of other religions for that matter) as an obstacle rather than a path.
He uses the same quotes from the same people and examples from the same stories ad nauseam. Odysseus this and that, Lady Julian “fall…and…recover(y)…both are the mercy of God”, Carl Jung almost every chapter. It’s fine to have a favorite few authors, but he doesn’t just quote them on different topics, he uses the same quote from the same author multiple times.
His exegesis of the (admittedly many) Bible passages cited is gut-wrenchingly bad. He takes so many passages out of context and obscures the meaning or rips out a pair of verses out of the context a passage to give it whatever meaning he wants. He does this so often I can’t cite all of the examples here. The worst is when he mentions Jesus saying to let the wheat and the weeds grow together (Matthew 13:29-30) as an argument for universalism, ignoring the end of verse 30 when Jesus says to bundle up the weeds to be burned.
His use of scare quotes is unbelievable and belittles majority understanding whenever he gets a chance. “Salvation” “heaven” and “hell” are all just made up terms that are actually connected to modern psychology. He assigns whatever meaning he wants to Jesus’s words.
Rohr tries to use exceptions to make the rule, in the case of “salvation.” He says that because there are mentally ill people, we can’t believe “any of our theories about the necessity of some kind of correct thinking as the definition of ‘salvation.’”
He puts all of “Christian Europe” at fault for entering into WWI + WWII, and implies that they shouldn’t have tolerated those wars (leaving the option of tolerating Hitler and Stalin’s destruction of millions of people). He also reminds us that the “official church” (whatever that means) doesn’t say that Hitler and Stalin are in hell (a place that is merely where we put ourselves by not growing).
Rohr can’t rectify a loving and just God. His god simply allows and accepts all things and acts (like those of Hitler and Stalin) and just wants people to grow beyond systems and orthodox religion.
Although any Bible-reading Christian from a non-cult sect would say that Jesus is the Son of God and that he died to pay for the sins of man, Rohr tells us that there is no one theology of Jesus so there can’t be any true theology of Jesus.
He mocks substitutionary atonement because he built a strawman argument which completely misses what it is. He doesn’t understand that Jesus didn’t die so that God would love us, but Jesus died because God loves us.
He comments on the fact that many other religions do a better job of understanding God and man, yet remains a “Catholic” because of the “tools” the church gave him. Tools which apparently allowed him to deny all of that church’s doctrine and still call himself a priest.
I nearly threw the book away at page 102 when he talks down at us for misunderstanding God. Although earlier Rohr commends paradoxes, when he finds one he doesn’t like, he condemns it. He tells us that “If you accept a punitive notion of God…you have an absurd universe where most people on this earth end up being more loving than God.” So he tells us that a loving God cannot be a just God, fully contrary to Jesus’s own teachings. He goes on to say that Jesus’s love is unconditional and never requires anything, except that in all of the passages he mentions Jesus loves the people and commends them for their faith in him. Rohr also pretends that Jesus never mentioned hell, although he did so more than any other person in the New Testament.
Although he does some things in humility, his hubris is frustrating and laughable at times: “The only people who do not believe that the Enneagram is true are those who do not understand it or have never used it well.” So we can’t believe any faith is the end all be all, but the Enneagram is?

The above list is not exhaustive. I’ll summarize by saying this: It’s not just that I disagree with the Rohr (which I expect to some degree with any author) it’s that he pretends to write with humility yet comes across constantly with an air of superiority. He says things like, “It is very surprising to me that so many Christians who read the Scriptures do not see this” as he explains that you must leave any religion or system to truly mature since these systems and faiths are too limiting. He tells us that if our view of heaven excludes anyone (i.e. if it isn’t universalism) then it is not heaven. So now Rohr gets to define heaven instead of the Creator of Heaven defining it.

This book is a mixed bag of the occasional encouraging or thought-provoking quote, but the bag is mixed mostly with garbage and I don’t recommend plodding through the frustrating contradictions, statements of superiority, and New Age “look within” and reject-the-system junk that it requires to find the rare gem.

[Glen Grunau · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was uncanny in clarifying many of the often confusing inner movements of my life in the past 5+ years. Could it be that I have been encountering a "falling upward" from a "first-half-of-life" into a "second half of life"? Although there is a newly acquired peace and softness that comes with this "falling" Rohr reminds us that we do not attain this second-half-of life simply as a factor of our chronological age. In fact, he speaks of how deeply saddened he is whenever he finds old folks stuck in first-half-of-life, as illustrated by how they "are still full of themselves and their absolute opinions about everything". In fact, he suggests that most people will end up stuck here . . . "unless people have done their inner work, at least some shadow work, and thereby entered into wisdom, or non-dualistic thinking".

His chapter on "The Shadowlands" invites us to confront the shadow of our persona or false self - the one that we all must spend the first-half-of-life erecting from our ego in order to survive in our world and make ourselves acceptable and loveable in the eyes of others. I was sobered by his litmus test for unfinished shadow work (work which by the way is never done, but well along the way with second=half-of-life people): "Invariably, whenever something upsets you, and you have a strong emotional reaction out of proportion to the moment, your shadow self has just been exposed . . . notice that the cock of St. Peter has just crowed!" Although there is much in this book that has given me hope, there was plenty to keep me humble, particularly as I recognize the extensive "shadow boxing" still required in my life.

It is no secret to those who know me well that I have become increasingly dis-enfranchised with my church experience in recent years. Rohr explained for me much of my dissatisfaction within this "upward falling" phenomenon. In fact, his treatment of much of organized religion, although indicting, was also quite gracious. He suggests that "most groups and institutions (including churches) are first-half-of-life structures that are necessarily concerned with identity, boundaries, self-maintenance, self-perpetuation, and self-congratulation". If we recognize this, it guards us from losing hope by having false expectations and expecting, or even demanding, what these groups cannot give. It follows, of course, that to judge or condemn these organizations is proof that we are still likely first-half-of-life people. Rohr goes on to suggest that "in the second-half-of-life, you can actually bless others in what they feel they must do, allow them to do what they must do, challenge them if they are hurting themselves or others - but you can no longer join them in the first half of life." This reflected very closely my recent ability to inwardly bless and wish my best friend success in his recent joining of our church board - the same church board that I recently left for what I now sense are many of the reasons Rohr seems to cover in this book.

Much of this falling upward has involved what Rohr calls a "necessary suffering" - to strip away some of the ego agendas that comprise so much of the "first half of life". Two of the greatest "wisdom" gifts I have been given in the last 5 years are offered by Rohr in two of his previous books - a willingness to accept necessary suffering ("Everything Belongs") and the freedom to move beyond the judging, categorizing dualistic mind into the freedom of non-dualistic thinking ("The Naked Now"). In this book, Rohr further develops these ideas, among others, to illustrate the journey into a second-half-of-life.

As usual, Richard draws heavily from the gospels to reveal how Jesus, whom Rohr calls the first non-dualistic teacher to the West, was a second-half-of-life-man who was given the unenviable task of trying to teach and reach and be understood by a largely first-half-of-life history, church, and culture. No wonder they judged, excluded, and ultimately killed him! But Rohr also draws from the world's great mythologies to illustrate how this second-half-of-life wisdom, and the pilgrimage required to attain it, is represented in the collective unconscious of humanity and illustrated in such great stories as Homer's tale The Odyssey - written 700 years before Christ! This particular emphasis on truth revealed in the stories and fables of humanity very much reminded me of the premise of another book that had a significant impact on me in years past - The Sacred Romance, by John Eldredge.

I'm not sure how much this book will be appreciated by those who have not read some of Rohr's earlier work. But for anyone willing to entertain the notion that old age does not automatically lead to wisdom, it is a provocative read.

[Ayse_ · Rating 4 out of 5]

"God hides and is found, precisely in the depths of everything....Sin is to stay on the surface of even holy things...."

"Once you touch upon the Real, there is an inner insistence that the Real, if it is the Real, has to be forever."

This book is a guide for realizing your path, shedding your excess and becoming wiser. Its definitely not suited for most people under 40. As it states, it defines and targets the second phase of ones life; where most of the tools in your toolbox from the first phase (that were so useful in excelling in life and constructing your shell), simply won't work. This book focuses on the meaning of ones naked existence (without titles, riches, possessions); the role of evil, the difference between suffering and enduring. Its a great book if you are at a point in life where you are counting your gains and losses, and ready to dive into a new adventure behind the looking glass.

The author makes references to some of my favorite philosopher/writers like Unamuno, Pema Chodron,CG Jung and Fromm; and his thinking is inline with them. Although the author cites the Bible many times, this book is more of a philosophical approach to the meaning of existence and maturation, than just a religious reading. It goes far beyond the formative/authoritative concept of any religion, by focusing on the individual, where God actually resides.

[Terry · Rating 5 out of 5]

Richard Rohr is a Catholic priest and founder of the Center for Action and Contemplation in Albuquerque, NM. This book examines the arc of spiritual growth through our adult lives, using concepts from psychology and mythology to help illuminate the transitions that lead us on this spiritual journey. The sub-title, "A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life" invokes Carl Jung's idea of "two halves of life" -- the 1st where we internalize rules, discover who we are, enter a career, marriage, etc. We build the "container" of our lives in the 1st half. The "second half of life" is spent discovering what that container holds and finding that God enlarges the container with His grace. While Rohr makes it clear that deep spiritual understanding and growth isn't limited by age, the fact is that most people are in their mid-40s or later before they start on this "second journey". I have found my own concepts of God and my own spiritual needs changing and morphing in ways that have sometimes been troubling. Rohr's book has confirmed that the questions that arise with age and experience are not only a common experience, but a necessary one if we are to recapture our "true selves" before God. This spiritual journey brings freedom and a centeredness to our lives, but demands our continued personal growth. As we grow into a "second half of life spirituality", we become more loving, more inclusive, more compassionate, more introspective. Our lives more fully reflect God's grace, which allows us to more fully do His work.

[Pauline · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Be Not Afraid" to Fall Upward
I have given this book as a gift to somewhere between 40 and 50 people, which tells you how much I like it. It is one of the finest books I have read on the spiritual journey. I am considering using it in a spirituality and work class that I teach, even though the students are not at mid-life. I think the book addresses important concepts relevant to people of all ages, and all faiths.

I have read many of Richard Rohr's books, and this is amongst my favorites. While sometimes critical of organized religion, Father Rohr writes eloquently about how religion can be a healthy or unhealthy experience. This is not a book for people who believe that fundamentalism (of any type) is the road to salvation. Rohr is pluralistic, open, and fully engaged in all that life has to offer. Of critical importance is his message that we learn more from our crucibles in life than we do from our major successes. This book is particularly relevant during these difficult times, as it emphasizes that we must embrace all that happening in our lives--both good and bad. When I counsel students, I cite from page 6 of this book that reminds us that "Be Not Afraid" is stated 365 times in the Bible. That's worth remembering!

This review is posted at amazon.com http://www.amazon.com/gp/cdp/member-r...

[Adam Shields · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Short second reading review: I still think that this is an overall helpful book. But I was more irritated by the platitudes this read. There are wisdom all over this book. The overall theme is a good and important one. But because you sound esoteric, does not mean you are wise. There are lots of instances where I just wish he would speak clearly without so many 'wise' quotes. Some of those quotes really are helpful.

the second full review is on my blog at http://bookwi.se/falling-upward/

Short review: This is a book about embracing maturity. Age is not maturity, we all know immature people that are advanced in years. Rohr believes that we need to embrace the different parts of life. Our younger years are concerned with identity (what we do, who we marry, etc.). Our older years should be concerned with meaning. So if we properly understand how to mature, we live inside the structures of of life in our younger years and then we learn when to leave the structures of live in our older years.

This is in interesting book. Rohr uses the story of Odysseus as a structure for understanding maturity. He is quite fluent in modern psychology and anthropology as well as the ancient myths. Rohr believes that the ancient myths in many ways better understand how we should live.

This was the first book I received from the Amazon Vine program for purposes of review.

Full review on my blog at http://bookwi.se/falling-upward-rohr/

[Mehrsa · Rating 5 out of 5]

So I'm on a Richard Rohr kick and this one was the one that got me started. He talks here about how we need to do first life things and then move on to second life things. your first life, you follow rules and build an identity. Your second life you break it all down and figure out what rules you need to break and how you need to break with your parents and your religion.

[Tee Minn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I didn't actually read this book, I listened to it on CDs as told by the author with my husband. Maybe the best day of the vacation was listening to six hours of tapes on my journey home ripe with the quest to explore more in-depth spiritually. We had conversations that were new to us. Finally able to ask the right questions and free enough to risk responding openly as we see it now, knowing we are incomplete, but seeking wholeness. I love Richard's incorporation of quotes from spiritual leaders of all times, poets, anthropologists, psychologists, and "thinkers". Being a Catholic, and like Rohr less a Roman Catholic, I appreciate how he incorporates the real gems of my faith into his guide. A lot of what I have discovered, am working towards, was clarified with this wisdom. I will buy the book to mark up and reread again and again. I am encouraged that I will use my current and future "stumbling blocks"in ways that will bring me more peace.

Maybe being a grandparent and seeing parents in their later years gives me pause to ask "where do I fit in? What will yield the fruit I am to produce?" I have been doing some Falling Upwards work through Alanon and my new franciscan based church community where Rohr's "everything belongs" is a motto. His "Both/And" inclusionary philosophy is biblically referenced which strengthens my love for the pursuit of that spirit which is within us all. Being a fan of biographies, I want to read Merton, Dali Lama, Helen Keller, and others who lived a full second half life.

Being a fan of The Wizard of Oz, I love his metaphor of Dorothy coming home, but the world is all different. I have much work to do, I guess I have fallngs in my future that will yield me peace, fuller acceptance and less shadows and more light.

[Bob · Rating 3 out of 5]

Summary: Richard Rohr focuses on what he sees are the key developmental tasks for each "half" of life, using the image of the container for the first half, and contents for the second.

I'll be honest. This is not a book I can wholeheartedly recommend. While I found a number of useful insights, I thought the "spirituality" on which Rohr grounded these more reflective of a "blend" of Eastern and Western spirituality rather than the Catholic Christianity with which Father Rohr is most closely identified. For some, that may not be a problem, or even is a plus! If you are looking for a spirituality that roots an understanding of development in classic Christianity, whether Catholic, Orthodox, or Protestant/Evangelical, that is not this book.

First for the insights I most appreciated, which I think come out of long pastoral work with people seeking to grow in their faith throughout life. There are two key insights that are important:

First, there is the insight that life can be divided into two halves with the key task of the first being fashioning the "container" of one's life and that the second half is devoted to the "contents" of that container. The first half is the structures of rules, disciplines, community. This occurs in a healthy way when these things are present in an atmosphere of unconditional love. Where love is lacking or the structures are lacking, the container is inadequate for the second half task. The second half, then focuses on the contents of life, the becoming of a unique person who knows how to draw from all these structures and yet go beyond them.

Second, there is the title idea of "falling upward". At some point, there is a necessary "fall"--failure, suffering, tragedy. In some sense the first half "container" may have prepared you to face these, and yet is inadequate of itself to do so. It is time, in Rohr's words to "discharge your loyal soldier." It is often in the facing of our fallenness and finiteness and imperfection that we become fully human as we stop trying to be what we are not, and begin to pursue a life of grace, of calling, of wholeness, discovering our True Self. Those who resist "falling upwards" go on in life to become cynical, emptily driven, emotionally detached and judgmental individuals. This is the story of the elder son in the story of the Prodigal.

There are several key places where I believe Rohr is articulating a spirituality grounded more in a "new age" spirituality than in Christian orthodoxy, despite is warm avowals of how for him Christ is the center. For one thing, he articulates a new age account of the fall of Adam and Eve as a "necessary fall" for their development of consciousness. I would agree with the formative nature of failure, transgression, and suffering that comes to the foot of the cross and finds grace. That is different from a theology that says the fall was necessary for the evolution of our consciousness. One involves restoration of what was lost through the cross. The other seems to involve evolutionary progress where a cross is superfluous.

A second place is Rohr's proposal that "heaven" and "hell" have to do with our consciousness, rather than ultimate destinies. Certainly, our consciousness can be "heavenly" or "hellish." Views like this have become popular of late, perhaps as alternatives to ugly forms of "hell fire preachers". Yet I wonder if the grace Rohr speaks of can be meaningful without there being a real judgment.

Finally, Rohr seems to propose that our development is really through a transformation of consciousness through the "falling upward" experience, perhaps aided by the Spirit of God, rather true spiritual rebirth. There is language of "union with ourselves and everything else" that seems more the language of pantheistic monism than of being "at-one" with God in Christ. In fact, it seems at times that Rohr is among those who say that all religions are really saying the same thing and that those who say otherwise are guilty of "either-or" thinking. I would contend that the difference between a "both-and" view that wipes out distinctives and the Christian faith is that the Christian faith is a faith of reconciliation--a third way between "either" and "or" that doesn't wipe out distinctions but reconciles them in Christ.

This is regrettable in my view because his insights into the two halves of life and the transition of what I might call "fall into re-formation" may be grounded far more robustly is what C. S. Lewis would call "mere Christianity." There are so many things that, for one living in the second half, connected deeply for me. His description of "the second simplicity" and the "bright sadness" ring true. I think part of what so many like in Rohr, and I've appreciated in his other writings is his ability to capture the imagination and heart in his word paintings. However, as one who cares about the second half journey and believes it is best grounded in "mere Christianity" I would recommend Hagberg and Guelich's The Critical Journey as one of the best books I've come across on the issues of our life journeys.

[Kevin Fuller · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mr. Rohr does us all a service with this gem by applying Jungian thought and Joseph Campbell mythology to spirituality. By doing so, he has tapped into a deeper strata of the religious life and requested we all take the Hero's Quest with him.

Beginning with the plight of Odysseus, (love the homeric reference material) Rohr highlights that the quest will be fraught with danger and temptation and will always be an invitation to go even further than what the initial task requires. Home is where the heart is, but alas, in this earthly sphere, we may never arrive!

'The Two Halves' refers to Jung's program of life, where in the first half, we build the Ego and secure a 'living'. There is more, however to this story, and oftentimes the unconscious pushes us into terra incognito...thrusts us into an initiation of maturity, that if heeded, brings a fuller, richer energy to the Self, or the totality of the conscious Ego and unconscious Archetypes. And this journey, the journey of the Self is nothing, if not Archetypal and transpersonal.

Drawing from the great world Traditions, (not Christianity alone), Mr. Rohr effectively poses many prescient questions and even offers answers to boot.

[MG · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love Richard Rohr and feel he is one of the wisest and spiritually alive people I know. But I don't think he is a very good writer. He is abstract, goes off on tangents, and often requires multiple readings to connect his ideas and grasp his point. He even sounds a little smug at times in his wisdom. Still, if I was as wise, I am sure I would be much worse. There is a lot to take in and digest here about what is needed for the second stage of life and Richard is a wonderful guide. It is worth struggling through the book. Enjoy.

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

It has been a long time since I wrote in the margins of a book, or even underlined anything. I found myself pulling out a pen to highlight much of what Father Rohr had to say. I give away almost every book I read. But this one is a keeper. Rohr writes about the two halves of life, focusing on the second half--the half more neglected by society, but the wisdom of which is desperately needed. He explains what should, but often doesn't happen in that first half of life; the consequences of our permanent cultural adolescence, and how we might grow beyond that adolescence into full, free, grace-filled selves.

If that sounds distinctively Christian, it is. Father Rohr is very comfortable in interfaith circles, but he has a decidedly Franciscan vein in his approach to spirituality. Hebrew and Christian scriptures pop up regularly in his prose, but in fresh, deep ways. His scholarship is also very deep, quoting everyone from Church Founders to Paul Ricouer. He is challenging, but in a deeply personal, friendly way.

This deceptively short, little book took a long time to digest, because it is densely packed with thought-provoking spiritual gems like this one, a quote from Ken Keyes: "More suffering comes into the world by those taking offense than by those intending to give offense." Or his own "I do not think you should get rid of your sin until you have learned what it has to teach you." Pretty pithy, eh? The book is not just some quick feel-good devotional read. It's a real thought-provoker--something you can spend hours reflecting on, as I did.

Father Rohr points out, again and again, that there is a path here, through the later years of life, as age and the slings and arrows of existence take their toll, if we pay attention long enough to find the path. It can lead us home, and it can lead us into generativity and contributions to the greater good of society. Great message. Great book. I really, really liked it.

So, why did I not LOVE it? Why four stars and not five?

For someone who is basking in the uncertainties and quirks of human experience, there are some things he's a little too sure of himself about. He seems to think that people who turn out best have so-called "conservative" upbringings. Now, the conservative reader of this review may be either pumping their head up in down in fierce agreement, and the more liberal reader may be squinting in doubt right now. Being more progressive myself, I question this statement. From what follows in the book, I think he means to say, people who turn out best have consistent structure in their early lives. A family with liberal values can have just as consistent a structure as a family with conservative values. Conservative is a loaded word in this day and age, and its meaning is not at all clear anymore. He is also carried away with the "truth" of the enneagram--a system of categorizing the human personality that he has studied deeply and on which he is, by all accounts, an expert. I have no bone to pick with the usefulness of the enneagram. However, people deeply connected to theories often confuse the map of their theory for the far more nuanced and complex territory of reality. Father Rohr errs into this territory with his comments on the enneagram, useful map though it might be.

In addition, and this is my biggest bone to pick with him, he steeps the book in masculine hero tales, and then says, basically, "Ladies, you can go find your equivalent lady hero tale." Well, it's not necessarily equivalent. Women's spiritual development may look very different than men's spiritual development, as many authors have pointed out. Father Rohr could have given that more than a passing sentence and done a little more to address more than half his audience, whom, I assume, are female.

Finally, he identifies Victor Turner as a leader of the male spirituality movement. Victor Turner was not that. Victor Turner was an anthropologist--an expert in ritual process whose work was frequently appropriated by the male spirituality movement, mostly by the Joseph Campbell, mythopoetic crowd. I have nothing against that crowd crediting Victor Turner with some of their basic tenets, but he wasn't some big Male Spirituality Guru. Not a big deal. I just want Rohr to get it right.

But don't think that, because of these points, I didn't get a lot out of "Falling Upward". If you are interested in the spiritual journey from a nuanced, Christian perspective, Falling Upward" is definitely worth a read.

[Samcwright · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have somewhat mixed feelings about this book.

On the one hand, there are some great one-liners and helpful perspectives for those who are too wedded to an obedience-blessing theology. Or those who feel that sin in shameful and have a perfection mentality. I happen to believe that sin is part of God’s plan and that God has a much more positive view of our mistakes and striving (and failure) to become like him than some teach. I also appreciate his perspective about encountering challenges that we can’t overcome, and how that can be the catalyst for entering our second half of life. I have some personal experience with that, and can witness the truth of Rohr’s insights.

However, as a book of salvific theology, it is incoherent and falls into what Bonhoeffer would call “cheap grace.” It asks little of believers but to be good people whose wrongs are either excused or ultimately not acknowledged by God.

I understand why this book is popular. It feels comfortable and inclusive. And on its surface, it seems to get to the heart of why many are leaving religion today. And if one is just reading this to provide some ideas of how they can be more inclusive or kinder then great. But I believe many will adopt this book as what religion should be. It strips religion and spirituality of covenants and godly power and commitment. It offers nothing that any non-believer couldn’t gain from just being a nice non-judgmental person. This book offers Jesus without the atonement and the cross. And, ultimately that minimizes Jesus.

To quote Bonhoeffer, “Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession, absolution without personal confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.”

[Cindy Rollins · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was incredibly helpful as I come face to face with some of the mistakes of the passions of the first half of my life. It brought me much comfort.

Caveat: After chapter 7 it was much more wishy-washy theologically than I am comfortable with. But that aside, I found the book encouraging.

[Susan · Rating 2 out of 5]

4/2021 This book did not resonate with me as I had hoped it would. Rohr's idea is that our early adult years are filled with striving, egos, and setting ourselves up for success, and the second stage for adults should be inclusive, less talking, more open-minded. However, Rohr does not live his words. He ranted, went off on tangents, and expressed strong opinions throughout the book.

[Craig Bergland · Rating 5 out of 5]

Easily the most important book I have read for understanding my own spiritual journey since Thomas Merton's "Seven Storey Mountain." More importantly, Fr. Rohr's descriptions of the two halves of life explain precisely why the Church lacks mentors - so many Church leaders across traditions over the last one hundred years never transitioned from the first half of life to the second, never moved from being completely fixated on building something to a more mature spirituality that would have allowed them to become mentors, allowed them to train and educate those who would succeed them. This choice left them advanced in years trying to do a young person's job and wondering why they lacked the energy and the insight to do that job. The tragedy is that they missed the opportunity to become the elders both the Church and the world so desperately need.

It does not matter if you are in the first half of life or the second, this book will speak to you and help you understand why you are where you are at this precise moment in your journey. Especially if you are, or hope to be, involved in any kind of leadership you need to read this book!

[Robert D. Cornwall · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this book by Richard Rohr to be stimulating intellectually and spiritually. It pushes us to move beyond the boxes we create in the first half of life -- necessary boxes -- to living our faith in the world outside the boxes. It is a call to those of spiritual maturity to be mentors and guides to those who are newer to the journey. Rohr is a Franciscan with Emergent tendencies!

[Zach Adams · Rating 3 out of 5]

Half of me wants to give this book two stars for how vague and repetitive this book is and the other half makes me say, “hey, there are some real nuggets of truth in there!” I still can’t decide.

[Marty Solomon · Rating 4 out of 5]

The typical reading from Rohr that’s packed full of depth and insight. I know many will struggle with the more mystical language that Rohr chooses to use and drift in and out of. All in all, I have always appreciated what Rohr is bringing to a conversation that has the potential to deeply shape who God is inviting us to become.

I find this book helpful on two levels. First, as someone right on the cusp of that “second half of life,” this book had many things that were helpful to consider and many aha moments of affirmation (“so that’s what that is that I’m feeling”). It challenged me to lean deeper into areas I may have wanted to avoid.

Second, as a campus minister who works with young people, I kept thinking about how this could be a guide for conversation — not just as a transformation piece for the one doing the mentoring, but for us to talk about together. I'm not sure that we can cut the corner of natural life development, nor is the goal to “speed up” the learning curve, but a general awareness for the things we’ll experience in the two halves of life could be a fruitful conversation.

[Paul Dubuc · Rating 3 out of 5]

Being well into my second half of life and having read several other books on human development and spirituality, I was interested in reading this one also because some good friends recommended it. The book is well worth reading and thinking about. Fr. Rohr has many good things to say. But I found it less helpful to me than other books like it.

Many of his most helpful and thoughtful sayings are mixed with what read like simplistic put-downs of people living according to what he describes as the "first half" of life. He also makes some broad generalizations about how "most people" for most of our history, and many for most all of their lives, never mature into truly "second half of life" people. This may be true, but it seems a bit overdone to me; as if to invite his readers to consider themselves, along with the author, to be more enlightened than most for seeing themselves in the book or for, at least, being inclined to read it. This sort of thing nearly spoiled the book for me.

I'm a little skeptical of approaches to spirituality that seem to overemphasize finding God within oneself. There's some truth to it, I think. We are made in God's Image and can grow to be more Christlike though the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Greater self understanding is essential to understanding our relationship to God. But it can also lead to self-justification, even at the expense of others in the relative judgements we then make about them. We can end up trusting too much in our own inclinations as a basis for our understanding of God.

Fr. Rohr illustrates many of his points with scripture references often taken out of context. He seems to use the Bible to illustrate his own point of view in many places, rather than as the inspiration for it. Examples of this have been pointed out by other reviewers of the book, leading some of the book's advocates to comment that such a concern for biblical accuracy is the mark of a "first half" person. Ugh. Maybe. Maybe not.

For such a strong advocate of non-dualistic, "both-and" thinking, Fr. Rohr sure relies heavily on what seems to me to be more dualistic, "either-or" distinctions between "first half" and "second half" people with their respective concerns for their "container" vs. its "contents." There is the "shadow self" and the "true self." While there is some validity in these distinctions, they can also make it too easy to pigeonhole others and put ourselves in a category apart, beyond the understanding of others and the flaws they might expose in our own way of thinking and living. Then there are statements like this: "Either God is for everybody and the divine DNA is somehow in all of the creatures, or this God is not God by any common definition, or even much of a god at all" (p. 109). Really? It's just that simple? Hmm.

As I've said, there are many wise and insightful words in this book, but I think it should be read with some detachment and discernment. I have a hard time accepting that everything Fr. Rohr describes as a second half quality of life, which resonates with my experience or outlook on life, is a mark of spiritual maturity. I think spiritual maturity can take different forms in different people depending on their personality and the situations with which life confronts them. Rohr's description may be one of them but I wonder if it may be just as much a product of cultural influence as he says the first half of life is. The "container" and its "contents" may not be so easy to distinguish at any stage of life, if such a distinction even makes sense. Maybe that's OK. I think I can live without it.

As an alternative to this book, I would highly recommend Loving Jesus, by Mark Allan Powell.

[Jeremy · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a difference seven years can make. I recently re-read this book as an anchor point of a silent retreat and it was profoundly helpful to me. For the right person at the right time (anyone wrestling with the sometimes disorienting and isolating elements of passing the existential midpoint of life) this book can be a powerful guide. However, if the dogmatism of my previous review below resonates with you, maybe hold off. ;)

*****

Diversity in reading, including reading works by those of different worldviews, is very important to me. I will not rate a book low simply because I disagree with the author. I may one day write a book with which I would today disagree!

However, Rohr here presents a book consisting almost exclusively of universalist, Jungian reflections on a journey to self-actualization, and drapes it in a veneer of Christianity. While I would have still disagreed with him, I would not have been so frustrated with the book had he simply called it what it was.

I am a strong believer in the gleanings available to us from the world of psychotherapy, as all Truth is God's Truth, and what we understand of the human experience from this field can richly flesh out principles we know from Scripture. The danger comes when this is reversed, and Christianity is viewed as one of many valid paths to living out the learnings from the psychotherapeutic community.

His concluding diatribe against any form of dualism is very enlightening to Rohr's worldview, and I am saddened that this priest sees Christ as no more than HIS key to living rightly, rather than the ONLY key.

[Claudine DiMuzio / Just Jane 1813 · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a faithful listener to Dr. Brené Brown’s unlocking us podcast, I heard Father Rohr speak on her podcast a few weeks ago. Initially I told myself I was not interested in hearing a religious person speak about spirituality, especially for two whole episode on the podcast. Shame on me. Turns out that these were two of the most insightful, meaningful, and profoundly life-changing episodes ever because it led me to read his most popular book, Falling Upward.

This is a book for anyone who is facing a very difficult time in his/her life where he/she is trying to make sense of what he/she is feeling and experiencing and not fully understanding what he or she is going through. Richard Rohr explains the duality of life when one is able to move away from their first half life experiences and enter the more contemplative, spiritually-based, and reflective experience of their second half of life.

I am tremendously grateful to Brené and to Richard for knowing what I needed to learn even better than what I knew for myself. This book changed my life and that says a lot because I am always looking for self help books that bring meaning, depth, and insights into my life experiences.

I read the book and listened to to audiobook as well. Hearing this read by the author himself is highly recommended!! Having a hard copy to highlight and reference is also a key suggestion!! I also look forward to gifting this in the near future.

[Kevin · Rating 5 out of 5]

After reading Father Richard's e-mail meditations for several years, this is the first book of his I've read. This is an amazing book. It is both challenging and encouraging at the same time! It gives a glimpse into where we have been, and who we are to become as we move into the second half of our lives. It is helping me make sense out of the course my life has taken, and shed light into where my life is headed. It is encouraging to see that changes in life that seem crazy from the first half point of view make so much sense moving into second half living. I am looking forward to re-reading this book with a group of close friends, sharing reflections on how each of our lives have moved as is described so well in this book. I heartily recommend this book to aspiring and newbie second halfers (myself included!) A must read and re-read.

[Brenda · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am 48, and for the past few years, I have wondered where the Church I grew up loving had gone. After reading this thought provoking book by Fr. Rohr, I realized that loud-mouthed members of the Church just haven't been growing up as I have been, sometimes because they can't and not because they won't. It reminded me that the nuns in middle school had warned me that I and my "discerning heart" would face great difficulties as I grew older, but that I was to persevere and stay true to my gift. Fr. Rohr's book helped me remember and understand better what they meant, which was very mysterious and rather frightening at the time.

I would recommend this to any spiritual seeker, but especially to Catholics, who have despaired over the apparent rise of rigid fundamentalism.