The Unending Journey Toward Spiritual Growth
M. Scott Peck · 1993 · Spirituality
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This follow-up to The Road Less Traveled is drawn from lectures that the psychiatrist M. Scott Peck gave in the years after that book’s success. He returns to his central idea that psychological and spiritual growth require facing difficulty honestly rather than avoiding it. The book has three parts. The first, on growing up, covers pain, blame and forgiveness, and death and meaning. The second, on knowing yourself, looks at self-love versus self-esteem, myth and human nature, and addiction. The third, on the search for a personal God, discusses religion, the New Age movement, and sexuality and spirituality.
Peck also sets out his four stages of spiritual growth, a framework for understanding how belief and doubt develop over a lifetime.
Key insights
- Not all suffering should be avoided; Peck separates the pain of facing reality, which leads to growth, from the pain of dodging it.
- Maturity means moving from blame towards forgiveness, but genuine forgiveness begins with honestly naming the wrong that was done.
- Always value yourself, but do not always approve of yourself; feeling bad about wrong actions is healthy when basic self-worth stays intact.
- His four stages, from chaotic to rule-bound to sceptical to mystical, help explain why believers and doubters so often talk past each other.
- He treats addiction partly as a misdirected spiritual hunger, and sees twelve-step groups as strong models of honest, supportive community.
Read it if you valued The Road Less Traveled and want Peck’s further thoughts on forgiveness, self-worth and spiritual growth.