Working with Richard Rohr

In his decades as a globally recognized teacher and Franciscan priest, Richard Rohr has helped millions to understand and engage with matters of faith and spirituality. He is the author of numerous books and has achieved international success, with many of his titles global bestsellers. Alison Barr, Publisher at SPCK, tells us what it’s like working with such an internationally renowned author.

The first Richard Rohr title we published was Falling Upward in 2012. By then I had read the book several times, recommended it to family, friends, my spiritual director – and pretty much everyone else I met! Some great conversations resulted, and Falling Upward stands as one of SPCK’s bestselling titles ever.

Several other books followed – Immortal Diamond and Breathing under Water among them – as we worked with Fr Richard’s various US publishers. But when we signed The Divine Dance through Christopher Ferebee, a literary agent and a board member of the Center for Action and Contemplation, we began to have more direct contact with Fr Richard and his CAC colleagues. Mark Read, our Art Director, and I enjoyed some lively, fun and constructive exchanges on our proposed covers for new titles and the rejacketing of the backlist. In March 2018, when the Beast from the East was at its worst – and on the very day Tom Wright was stuck in snow drifts while valiantly trying to make his way from Aberdeen to London for a prestigious event – Richard sent ‘a big hug to all of you to warm you up’!

A year later, I was travelling to Albuquerque for The Universal Christ conference, attended by 2,300 people, drawn from every state in the USA and several other countries. It was a wonderful, exhausting, humbling and liberating experience. ‘God loves things by becoming them,’ Richard said over and over again, as he articulated a transformative view of Jesus Christ as a portrait of God’s constant, unfolding work in the world. We were encouraged to see faith as less about proving that Jesus was God and more about learning to recognize the Creator’s presence all around us and in everyone we meet. There was real opportunity for practical application! We often had to break into triads to discuss what had touched us, and I was astonished at the depth of sharing made possible between complete strangers, largely owing to the sense of safety lovingly created by the CAC team.

It was a delight to meet many of them at the post-conference party, where Richard, as natural and humble as ever, looked happy and relaxed. After dinner with Vanessa Guerin (Director of Publications) and Richard’s niece, we drove to the CAC’s adobe buildings, beautiful even in a torrentially wet dusk, and I was given a guided tour of the simple, attractive offices and meeting spaces. The sense of peace was palpable.

As I write, The Universal Christ has been the top-selling religion title in the UK for the past four weeks. Subtitled, ‘How a forgotten reality can change everything we see, hope for and believe’, its message is renewing and transformative. As Bono writes, ‘Rohr tells us that “God loves things by becoming them”. Just for that sentence, and there are so many more, I cannot put this book down.’