A BRIEF REVIEW OF THE HEALING OF TEDDY BEARS—CREATING AN IMAGINATIVE FAITH
Professor Arthur Solomon, Ph.D.
Tuesday, November 06, 2007
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Those who would seek a dynamic and transformational faith would do well to read Don L. Nickerson’s THE HEALING OF TEDDY BEARS. The author cautions the seeker to be skeptical of absolutes and of those who profess external authority as the only way to spiritual truth. He guides the reader, rather, to find his/her own self-authenticating truth by trusting one’s own moral instincts.
Nickerson offers no easy path in the search for a new and vital faith. He has struggled over a lifetime himself, beginning with an external belief system, and that led him finally to a new conscious faith that arises from within rather than from without. The reader will find both the reasoning of science here as well intuition from self-awareness and therapeutic soul-searching that can lead to compassion, forgiveness, and understanding as the basis for this new transforming faith.
To those who would attempt this journey, here is an excellent guide for seeking the “God within” and in finding one’s own individual path to spiritual growth and a deeper faith.”
SOUTHERN ARIZONA AUTHORS
J. C. Martin, Arizona Daily Star, Tucson, AZ
Thursday, September 06, 2007
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Nickerson, a psychotherapist and former pastor, urges self-inventory and personal recollections to achieve a spiritual awareness that is both comfortable and innovative.
CONTEMPORARIES VOICE SPECTRUM OF FAITH
Rev. Michael Robinson, The Standard-Times, New Bedford, MA
Saturday, September 01, 2007
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Book Review
You cannot reconstruct an ocean wave
once it has crashed upon a sandy beach.
You can only turn to waves still forming
far out at sea. No one is without the blessing
of waves, whoever will wade into the blue-
green waters and plant his feet on its bottoms.
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When form comes to an end, love remains.
A statement about the ultimate nature of our existence:
All forms dissolve. Only love prevails.
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Faith is a capacity
to imagine a re-assembly of ruins into spacious and fresh forms.
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The above is a sample of the wisdom expressed in poetry to be found in
The Healing of Teddy Bears: Creating An Imaginative Faith
by Don L. Nickerson, Wheatmark, Tucson, AZ
Available at Amazon.com, BarnesandNoble.com and www.wheatmark.com
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Over the past 600 years the prestige and power of Christianity in the West has been steadily eroded. It began with the first stirrings of the Renaissance and has continued unabated through the Protestant Reformation, the Enlightenment and the clash of worldviews between Science and Religion sparked by Copernicus, Galileo and Darwin. Frontal attacks on organized religion and Fundamentalisms have been launched in the past few years by two best selling authors and avowed atheists: Richard Dawkins, the British Biologist ( The God Delusion) and Sam Harris, the American journalist cum neuroscientist (The End of Faith and Letter To A Christian Nation).
Now along comes Don L. Nickerson, more qualified by far-- in the humble opinion of this reviewer—to be exploring the edges and limits of faith in an “enlightened” world dominated in the popular imagination by the paradigms of science. It turns out that Don cut his spiritual teeth in Dartmouth during the 1960’s, serving as the pastor of Smith Mills Christian Congregational Church as he concurrently pursued a Divinity degree from Andover Newton Theological Seminary [ANTS]. Don holds a host of degrees and credentials apart from his ANTS M-Div: a BSL in Biblical Studies from Cincinnati Bible Seminary, and from Stanford both a Masters in Counseling and a BA in Philosophy.
Now in his eighties Don has been pastor, psychotherapist, professor, counselor, writer and poet. He has immersed himself in Eastern mysticism, Buddhist meditation and gestalt psychotherapy and has managed a synthesis of these diverse disciplines of mind and spirit that has found expression in Teddy Bears. In the book Don shares both openly and honestly his life-long spiritual journey. In many respects he advocates an imaginative “reinvention” of Christianity much along the lines of Shelby Spong, Episcopalian Bishop of Newark (Why Christianity Must Change or Die; and Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism: A Bishop Rethinks the Meaning of Scripture, 1991). ).
A reading of Teddy Bears is not for the faint of heart. Don advocates a “bottoms-up” faith rather than our traditional dogmatic and authoritarian “top down” religion. For Don it is simple: God is Being and consciousness. Just as Jacob struggled and wrestled with God on the mountaintop, Don confronts, questions and eventually “kills” his brother Jesus before coming to terms with him. Like many Christians of a liberal bent, Don reads scripture metaphorically—gaining insight and meaning from the soaring poetry and imagery of the words and stories of the Bible rather than from a literal interpretation, which—like Dawkins and Harris—he finds largely untenable given the laws of nature and biology.
My one criticism of Teddy Bears is that chapter 12, “The Advantages of Aging,” does not fit what is otherwise a fine theological work. It is not at all clear to me why Don put this material in the book. I would have preferred in its place more exposition of the interaction between mind and spirit as he left his pastoral calling and became a teacher, therapist and counselor. Perhaps he will share that with us in a subsequent book.
More importantly, Don seeks God and finds Him… within, at one point declaring, “I am God!” Admittedly, this sounds completely off the wall; but, trust me, in the context of his narrative, it makes sense. Read the book and find out for yourself. Better yet, plan to attend the seminar Don will conduct at Smith Mills next September. Stay tuned !
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The reviewer, Rev. Michael Robinson, is Pastor of Smith Mills Christian Congregational Church, UCC in Dartmouth, Massachusetts, the very church Don Nickerson served 40 years ago.
A REVIEW OF THE HEALING OF TEDDY BEARS—CREATING AN IMAGINATIVE FAITH, BY DON L. NICKERSON
Solala Towler, Editor, The Empty Vessel, Eugene, OR
Wednesday, August 01, 2007
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Just a few words on a recent work by an old friend of mine. He was part of the group I went to China with back in 1993 and has written this entertaining and informative book about “the creation of an imaginative faith based on inner consciousness of God, rather than one constructed around external authority.” In this age of religious intolerance it is refreshing to hear a voice of reason and compassion. For many of us, our spirituality is the most important thing in our lives and not something to be either taken for granted or a matter of blind faith. In this warm-hearted book we are treated to various ways and means to find our own inner guidance and how we can each of us, join the author on the journey to spiritual and emotional healing.
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