Exploring Spirit: Finding What Matters in a Broken World

by Giles Goddard

160 pages, Paperback

Published February 26, 2026

Reviews

[Jodie Nel]

Giles Goddard has created through Exploring Spirit an experience that not only nourishes my faith, but at the same time is a challenging work of theology. This beautiful book pushed me to think, contemplate and wonder but never so hard as to feel inaccessible or alienating.

Following his previous book Generous Faith, this follow-up brings us closer to the author and offers fascinating insights into how we can use faith and love to deepen our bond to ourselves and the world around us. In this respect, the text is a special kind of tool, designed to help us get to grips with the universal need for faith (as much now as ever before). Faith, it teaches, can be the foundation upon which we stand when the world around us is so tumultuous, as it so clearly is today.

It is a tonic for the soul, a reminder that there has to be more to life than just our experience as consumers, regardless of what capitalism tells us. Exploring Spirit reminds us that faith has the ability to bring meaning, community, and love into our lives.

[Neil John]

I read Exploring Spirit a couple of months ago and enjoyed it but then decided to read it again as I thought that I had read it quite quickly and there was more to chew over. The book is divided into three parts. The first part gets you thinking about the spirit, the second part looks at different aspects of exploring spirit and the final part is a kind of way forward for how to engage more in finding out how spiritual growth can be addressed in daily life with the chapter called God is a verb highlighting 6 ‘pillars of practice” to help one get closer to God. The book is full of quotes from different religions which I found interesting and contributed to new knowledge on these religions. I could see that a lot of research or reading had been done over many years. Goddard often speaks about his personal experiences at St John’s, Waterloo and elsewhere to illustrate a particular point and this adds to the immediacy of the book. It is a personal journey of faith written with great humility and love.

[Sophie Daubigney]

This book will take you deep into the material struggles of modern realities right back round to the mystical and ephemeral all to ultimately show that spirituality can - and does - indeed have a place in our day-to-day. The spirit not only has a "place" in unsuspecting places like the rush of urban cities, but the author convincingly expresses the stark necessity of a life aligned with intuition and authentic expression. Get this book!