John Roger Barrie’s spiritual novel, Dialogues With the Lord of Time, is now available for order in all print formats wherever books are sold, and also in Kindle format on Amazon.
In the spiritual novel, Dialogues With the Lord of Time, a wise teacher brings authentic spirituality and inspired teachings into many seekers’ lives.
Summary:
A treasure trove of spiritual teachings from Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism, Sufism, and Taoism. Filled with practical advice to help spiritual aspirants find God.
With spiritual teachings so realistic and authoritative, you’ll forget you’re reading a novel.
Father Christopher, a retired priest and university professor, lives in Northern California’s remote coastal region. Endearing yet tough, approachable yet scholarly, the charismatic Father Christopher is in his twilight years. A group of seekers gathers at his cabin in the early 1990s to converse with him on spiritual topics. Well-versed in world religions and always a bit of a rascal, Father Christopher’s profound, transformational dialogues frequently leave his listeners spellbound and their lives changed.
Join his rapt audience as he describes uncommon spiritual states of consciousness and how to attain them. Listen with attentive seekers as he shares practical methods to assist them on their path to enlightenment. Sit alongside the assembled aspirants as he helps them discern genuine spiritual teachers from the dubious. But whether discussing abstract concepts or doling out practical advice, the ever-engaging, sometimes controversial, and occasionally iconoclastic Father Christopher never ceases to captivate.
We follow along through the eyes of the author, who wrestles with various issues in his life. During the course of several visits to Father Christopher, we witness his inner metamorphosis as he finds ways to integrate the secular and spiritual aspects of his daily life. Join him and other seekers as they explore the mysteries of spirituality on a magical journey of self-discovery with Father Christopher, whose wise teachings provide insight-filled antidotes for our spiritually challenged times.
In addition to nine lively dialogues with Father Christopher, excerpts are appended from Father Christopher’s Journal, which is sprinkled with inspirational adages such as:
- “Live fully in the moment. Love fully in the heart.”
- “Be a walking, living, breathing pillar of love, a blazing reservoir of divine solace and compassion.”
- “Infinite, unruffled tranquility can be yours in an instant if you let go of the worrying mind.”
- “To walk in the footsteps of God, radiate limitless love unceasingly.”
Citing Jesus and Ramakrishna; Lao Tzu, Rabi’a and Isaiah; St. Teresa, Bodhidharma, and numerous saints and mystics from diverse religious traditions, Dialogues With the Lord of Time is chock-full of timeless wisdom and sage guidance for serious aspirants, from beginners to advanced. In addition, there is cautionary advice to equip seekers with skills to help them avoid questionable teachers. With profound teachings from Catholic mysticism, Vedanta, Zen and Tibetan Buddhism, the Jewish Bible, the Tao Te Ching, and the Bhagavad Gita, discussions range from in-depth meditation techniques to insights into the highest non-dual experience; from clear explanations of esoteric spiritual terms to soaring passages on devotional mysticism.
Take an inspirational and transformational spiritual journey in the novel, Dialogues With the Lord of Time.
Dialogues With the Lord of Time has received six glowing endorsements from noted scholars and religious professionals:
“Some of us are hoping that human cultural evolution, amidst the enormous challenges that lie ahead, will produce an integral planetary spiritual vision capable of shedding the manifold dysfunctions of the world’s religions while preserving their rich veins of psychological wisdom. For such a day to dawn we will have to tell many stories (for all worlds are made of stories) about how such a vision might feel and sound, preparing the etheric soil from which it may one day spring, revealed more than concocted. John Roger Barrie’s Father Christopher and his probing conversations with men and women who have found their ways to his forest hermitage and who nickname him the Lord of Time, is one such story, an engaging and illuminating trek into the multiple religious understandings that foreshadow a new universalism.”
—Philip Novak, PhD, Sarlo Distinguished Professor Emeritus, Dept. of Philosophy and Religion, Dominican University of California, and bestselling author of The World’s Wisdom
“Dialogues With the Lord of Time is a thoughtful, engaging fruit of the spiritual imagination, a work of fiction that nonetheless bears within it many simple, powerful truths. It is beautifully written, concrete and free of pretense. Fr. Christopher, its central character, comes across as wise and unpresuming, something of a recluse who is nevertheless a precious guide for those who find him and come again and again to hear his words. Through it all, John Roger Barrie himself shines in his honesty, his own voice reaching us in his telling of Fr. Christopher’s story.”
—Francis X. Clooney, SJ, PhD, Parkman Professor of Divinity and Professor of Comparative Theology, Harvard Divinity School, Cambridge, MA, and author of numerous books and articles
“The frame story for this book is a set of talks given by Father Christopher, a retired Catholic priest living in California. His perspective is both mystical and universal, and the talks cover a wide range of experiences.
“His approach is both optimistic and thoughtful, and the book shows a very good example of interfaith dialogue, where ideas on religious experience from some major world religions are discussed and compared. It incorporates a mystical perspective into situations in everyday life, and it has a depth approach that is sadly lacking in much modern religious discourse. It would be useful for students of religion who have learned about the political and institutional side of religion, and wish to learn about the experiential and mystical side at its best.”
—June McDaniel, PhD, Professor Emerita of the History of Religions, Dept. of Religious Studies, College of Charleston, SC, and author of Lost Ecstasy and many other books and writings
“John Roger Barrie’s luminous text takes the reader on a voyage into the heart of the world’s great religious traditions. Told with humor and gentle wisdom, Barrie’s tale of the wise Father Christopher is at once deeply personal and utterly universal. It is a timeless parable of seeking, finding, and then integrating spiritual wisdom into human life, a task as urgent now as it has ever been.”
—Elizabeth M. G. Krajewski, PhD, Adjunct Assistant Professor and World Religions Instructor, Humanities Department, Colby-Sawyer College, New London, NH
“Dialogues With the Lord of Time is a refreshing and much-needed return to spiritual basics. Its main character, the larger-than-life Father Christopher, imparts a universal vision of religion that is right in the mainstream of the centuries-old mystical traditions, although colorfully and contemporarily presented. John Roger Barrie has produced a captivating, timeless story that should be required reading for any modern-day spiritual seeker.”
—William H. Forthman, PhD, Professor Emeritus of Philosophy, California State University, Northridge, and co-author of the textbook Religions of the World
“Dialogues With the Lord of Time is part memoir and part guide for those seeking a deeper spiritual path in life—both beginning and experienced practitioner. Within these pages John Roger Barrie chronicles his quest for a life of deeper meaning: his explorations into various meditative disciplines, religious expressions from the east and west, along with his frustration at the highs and lows of his practice. Through his relationship with Father Christopher (the ‘Lord of Time’) he learns that progress and setbacks are all part of the process and that even one’s teacher can be beset by similar frustrations. The solution? To look for what is positive and enlivening in all events on the journey. This text provides a beginning for a life of spiritual exploration.”
—Charles G. Krajewski, M.Div., Ordained Pastor with the American Baptist Churches USA (retired)
