Paradox & Perspective

What happens when we look again at something we thought we understood? In Paradox & Perspective, Richard Skinner brings together poetry, fiction and opinion pieces to explore the contradictions, questions and unexpected shifts of perspective that shape our lives and beliefs. His journey takes us from a stone in the wilderness where Jesus spent forty days and nights to a high-altitude oak wood on Dartmoor; from the startling teachings of the medieval mystic Meister Eckhart to the provocative possibility that guilt might sometimes be a gift. Along the way, familiar ideas are turned around and viewed from surprising angles. What does it mean to imitate Christ? Where might we encounter the divine in ordinary life? And what becomes possible when we acknowledge that the place from which we see the world is not the only one from which it can be seen? At turns playful, provocative and contemplative, Skinner writes with a lightness of touch that leaves room for uncertainty as well as faith. Paradox & Perspective is an invitation to question, wonder, laugh and, perhaps, see things differently.

Richard Skinner is a writer and retired counsellor. A former member of Cambridge University Footlights, he also occasionally writes and performs sketch-based comedy. In 2012 he was awarded a doctorate from Exeter University for his thesis on spirituality and evolutionary psychology. He has published ten collections of poetry, including Invocations and Colliding with God (both Wild Goose).