Fully Alive

'This remarkable book points not to some unreachable ideal of life but to a deeper, more soulful and meaningful experience of the lives we're actually living.' Oliver Burkeman 'A rich and soul-searching exploration of what it means to believe in a shifting age. This is a rare thing - an open, human and vulnerable profession of faith. I learned a lot. ' Katherine May 'This is deep stuff, personal yet learned, funny and vulnerable ... the book I didn't know I needed.' Sally Phillips 'Luminous in a manner that a medieval anchorite might have appreciated, while simultaneously wise in the ways of coping with a pram on a crowded bus.' Tom Holland 'A great gift to all in search of a deeper life.' Krista Tippett What does it mean to live a good, whole and fulfilling life? And if the world really is ending, or at least expecting turbulent change, what kind of people will we need when it happens? In FULLY ALIVE Elizabeth Oldfield explores how we can build spiritual core strength for an unstable age. Drawing on the ancient wisdom of faith and stories from her own life, Oldfield writes about her quest to live a meaningful, fulfilling life, and the niggling questions that bother all of us below the surface, such as: How can I focus on what really matters and stop getting so distracted by trivialities? How do I become a depolarising person in a culture of outrage, tribalism, and division? Can I find my highs in expansive, life-giving ways, rather than in a bottle of wine or a tub of ice cream? And what kind of world am I leaving for the next generation? FULLY ALIVE is for readers looking for an honest conversation about the deepest questions in our ordinary lives, and practical, meaningful ideas to help us pay attention to the people we are becoming. For ourselves, our communities and the world. 'When I was writing UNAPOLOGETIC more than a decade ago, I knew the job would soon need doing again. And again. Because the bridge between faith and contemporary experience constantly needs to be rebuilt as times change. So here it is, then: the bridge for the present moment, across which seekers for more meaning in their lives can travel in the knowledge that they won't be bullied, browbeaten or talked down to. This book. This one. In your hand. Right now.' Francis Spufford 'Plainspoken, fearless, disarmingly tender. Oldfield is a leader by example, and her book is a glowing argument for faith - one that speaks urgently to our fractured world.' Rhik Samadder