Announcing “Beguiled by Beauty” Publication
We’re excited to announce the publication of Dr. Wendy Farley’s newest book, Beguiled by Beauty: Cultivating a Life of Contemplation and Compassion.
Beguiled by Beauty is a book made for today’s dark and discouraging times because it shows us that beauty is all around us, acting as a threshold to the divine. In her latest book, Farley argues that we are “made for the Beloved” — we imitate the divine by learning to recognize the beauty of beings, to lament their suffering, and to take joy in all that is good around us. The book offers practices that deepen our capacity for justice, compassion, and joyfulness by paying attention to beauty in nature, art, and one another, as well as to the inner workings of our minds and hearts.
“In luminous and lithe prose, Farley invites readers into a more contemplative life,” said Dr. Ellen T. Armour of Vanderbilt Divinity School. “She situates that life in an alluring and compelling theological vision; one that connects the human and the divine not through arduous discipline, but through beauty, wonder, and compassion. That theological vision is, in turn, embodied in the gentle guided walk through various practices she offers in the concluding chapters. It’s an invitation that I hope we’ll all accept – for our own sake as well as that of our troubled, yet beautiful world.”
This book is also the basis of a worship series available to churches through the Worship Design Studio. Churches that have utilized the Beguiled by Beauty worship series have found great help in a time of despair and pandemic fatigue.
“Wendy Farley gently lures us into a world of wonder. We begin to sense the nuance of each detail, infused as it is with divine goodness. She pivots us from one scene to another, showing us ever more instances of inherent beauty even in heartache. She invites us to make a shift from a moral obligation to ‘do right’ to a deep desire for all beings to ‘be right’ – whole and beloved,” said Dr. Marcia McFee, creator and visionary of the Worship Design Studio. “And she gives us tools to make it so, helping us into practices of contemplation to center and guide us, opening deep wells of respite in these times of grief.”
Beguiled by Beauty: Cultivating a Life of Contemplation and Compassion is available from the publisher, Westminster John Knox Press, as well as multiple booksellers nationwide.