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theTheologian
Despite John's oft described love/hate relationship with his spiritual roots, he has always referred to himself as a theologian. His graduate degree is in theology and psychology. Even during the decade of his self-described "exile" from the Church, he described himself as a secular theologian (and a "self-defrocked" clergyman) John has always understood the world and the human condition in theological terms and his writing reflects this on various levels.
This section contains samples of John's current theological-spiritual thinking and writing. As always, comments are encouraged. | personalgrowth
It is hard to separate personal growth and spirituality as topics in John's thinking or writing. They are inter-related, more synonomous than similar. If anything, personal growth is the byproduct of spirituality.
John's latest writing in this genre includes a poetic essay entitled The Core Beliefs which explicitly links spirituality with personal growth and traces one's success to what one believes at the depths of one's soul, at the core of one's being, a belief which may be so deeply buried that we are not aware it is there, and lack of awareness of this hidden belief can be the invisible force that inhibits success and happiness.
See speaking topics related to personal growth.
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Even when John Howell was in a self-declared one-man war with God he still considered himself a spiritual person. Now that he is a Catholic convert, his spirituality continues to be larger than Catholic or even Christian spiritual practice. Rather than taking his spirituality into the Church at his conversion, he brought the Church into his spirituality which he continues to define without sectarian terms. For him spirituality is the awareness of and participation in the fact that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts, that neither the chicken nor the egg came first, that prosperity and wealth are not about math, and that the "law of attraction" as described in The Secret and the mustard seed of faith that moves mountains, per Jesus, are one in the same.
John's sense of spirituality is also potently present in paradox. His most recent theological writing, Commandments for a New Age, are whimsically paradoxical juxtaposed contradictions.
In what those who know John well might find surprising, and what John says he was the most surprised to "hear this come out of my subconscious," he hearkens back to his own experience in ordained ministry to reflect on the meaning of pastoral orders, in a letter to a newly ordained friend.
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