Ann's Reviews > Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life

I did not enjoy reading this book & it is not a book I can recommend. The “spirituality” on which Rohr grounds his belief system are more reflective of a “blend” of Eastern and Western spirituality. If you are looking for a spirituality that roots itself in an understanding of development in classic Christianity, whether Catholic, Orthodox, or Protestant/Evangelical, this is not that book.

Rohr's framework leans heavily on Carl Jung. The spiritual life has two stages. In the first half of life, you are devoted to establishing yourself; you focus on making a career and on finding friends and a partner; you are crafting your identity. Spiritually, people in the first half of life are often drawn to order, to religious routine. We are developing habits and letting ourselves be shaped by the norms and practices of our family and community. We might call that nominal Christianity. Freud calls it building the ego.

The second half of life to Rohr is when spiritual growth happens, but not until you have fallen, failed or gone down in some way. In the second half of life one has ceased from self-defining, from the endless fighting and doing to make one’s way prevail. This person rests in God and simply is—being. They have become self-critical, though not self-loathing. They engage in ‘shadow-boxing,’ confronting the shadow-side that previously they kept well-hidden from others. They acknowledge and accept the truth about themselves, leaving go of pretense or subterfuge. They are able to live this way because they have found ‘a friend or a Friend by whom they are ‘mirrored.’

I read a review that said the idea of falling upward into the second life is prominent in Chinese Taoism art. I could not find this in a brief search on Taoism so I cannot comment to the veracity of that statement. The premise of falling upward per Rohr is that one must experience the downs of lives first half in order to fully comprehend, contemplate, and appreciate the ups of the second half.

You will be tempted to identify the 2nd half with being born again, accepting Christ, beginning the life of sanctification or transformation, but Rohr takes us down too many other diverse trails to believe that’s what he means to say. He follows the trail of Odysseus, the hero in The Odyssey from Greek mythology & references it frequently, more than scripture, it seemed to me. He speaks throughout of the false self & the true self, psychological terms from Winnicott. This is not the old self before Christ & the new self in Christ. He articulates a new age account of the fall of Adam and Eve as a “necessary fall” for their development of consciousness. This is not the formative nature of failure, transgression, and suffering that comes to the foot of the cross and finds grace. (The cross does not appear to hold much significance, somewhat superfluous for Rohr, to my memory not referenced). “Heaven” and “hell” have to do with our consciousness, rather than ultimate destinies. He cannot reconcile a loving God with a just God. 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.

The author makes frequent references to philosophers/writers like Unamuno, Pema Chodron, Yung, & Fromm, and his thinking is in line with them. Although the author cites the Bible at times, this book is more of a philosophical or mystical approach to the meaning of existence and maturation. It is not a Biblical or theological reading, or an exegesis of Scripture.  When he does reference scripture, he takes passages out of context and obscures the meaning or applies his own meaning to the scripture. Rohr is a Universalist, putting a little bit of every religion into this book, the least of which is the scripture as the final word. The worst example of twisting scripture is Matthew 13:29–30 where he says the meaning of the wheat and tares [weeds] parable is an argument for universalism. He ignores verse 30 where Jesus says the weeds will be bundled up to be burned.

Richard Rohr is so far from orthodoxy that anything and everything [Buddhism, Islam, Zen masters, etc.] can lead us to the second half of life. If you believe Jesus is The Way and the Holy Spirit is your guide, you will not enjoy this book. He encourages us to fall down and get back up through our own enlightenment about what life is really all about. Christ followers believe that the Holy Spirit enlightens us and transforms from the inside out, that we are not successful by our own strength.  I had a difficult time while reading, to understand clearly if Rohr really believes Christ is the way, the truth and the life or not.

The only justification I could give to read this book is to take a journey into the mind of Richard Rohr, which is why I forced myself to finish the book, so I would know what I’m talking about when I discuss the book. He’s clearly a universalist, denies the Bible as the Living Word of God, appears to believe that there are many ways to his definition of heaven, which means his denying Jesus is The Way, The Truth & The Life & that the Holy Spirit is our power to transformation, not ourselves. There is an arrogance that permeates his writing that is hard to get past, but I think that is what you would expect from someone who believes he is his own savior & that if you, the reader, disagree with him, you are still in the first half of life, focusing on materialism and not growing spiritually.

Quotes in error to the Christ follower are way too many to write here but 1 that I found particularly interesting is:

“There is not one clear theology of God, Jesus, or history presented, despite our attempt to pretend there is. ” My conclusion: This book is another gospel.