Now Featured in the Patheos Book Club
The Soulmaking Room
By Dee Dee Risher
"Dee Dee Risher’s inaugural book is beautiful, personal, and filled with spiritually grounded wisdom. She draws from her story to share how the difficult passages in our lives—the failures and losses—shape us into our best and most truthful selves."
—Shane Claiborne, Author, social activist, founding member of The Simple Way
"What do you get when you cross an Anabaptist, a Pentecostal, and a mainline Protestant? The answer to that question is reason enough to read this book. Then add powerful meditations on failure, midlife, and building a woodshed out of the lumber of youthful dreams, and you have a book that warrants a term like treasure. I have long been a fan of Dee Dee Risher’s work as an editor, first at The Other Side then at Conspire, but now in The Soulmaking Room, her own voice as a writer is being offered to the world—a gift and treasure indeed. This is truly beautiful writing and rich wisdom."
—Brian Mclaren, author and theologian
"The bargain God offers the soul is simple but demanding: The price of enlightenment is that you are thus obligated to pass it on! Dee Dee Risher does that quite well—and she does it again here."
—Richard Rohr, author of Falling Upward and other books; founder of Center for Contemplation and Action
"Dee Dee Risher has spent her life engaged in the struggle for justice—as a poet, a singer, an editor, a mother, a friend. Deeply rooted in the bibli- cal narrative, she has honed her craft of weaving together critical issues of race, class, oppression, the struggle to remain faithful, rich and per- sonal stories from her life with her husband and two children, the great story of faith, and life in all its beauty and tragedy. Dee Dee has created a work of art to help us see more clearly the path toward integrity."
—Murphy Davis, author, pastor, activist, founder of The Open Door
"I consider Dee Dee Risher one of our radical discipleship movement’s most trustworthy, thoughtful, and compassionate spirits. Her journalism, prose, and poetry bear an authenticity and transparency that honors the dignity beneath our blemishes and finds faith amidst struggle. I commend her as an emerging elder helping us to embrace both Word and world."
—Ched Myers, theologian, author of Binding the Strong Man and other books, founder of Bartimaeus Institute
"Dee Dee Risher brings to this book her usual combination of cour- age and eloquence. She moves back and forth between the witness of scripture and the truth she finds in her own life. The outcome of such interpretive work is that she can readily identify her life purpose and a force much larger than her own, the sort of thing that comes under the heading of “providence.” Readers are invited by her book to reflect on their own lives in light of scripture. Her book is a wel- come opportunity for thinking and praying again."
—Walter Brueggemann, theologian, author of The Prophetic Imagination and other books, Professor Emeritus of Old Testament, Columbia Theological Seminary
The things Dee Dee Risher said about gratitude—and said so well— brought my spirit back into focus. This is the kind of wisdom that we lose and have to rediscover at many points in life’s journey. We can all be grateful for her faithful witness.
—David Janzen, author and elder of Reba Place Fellowship
"Dee Dee’s book is cathartic for me: so honest, so refreshing, so help- ful to have her articulate many of my experiences. It is incredibly well written—poetic and moving. I am astounded that she knows my interior life and doubts so well! She succeeded in something I didn’t think was possible: capturing the intimate and honest feel of a letter to me, about me."
—Elizabeth Killough, director, Untours Foundation
"In The Soulmaking Room, Risher writes beautifully, and her content is wise and profound. I am deeply grateful for her extended reflec- tions on the story of the Shunammite woman, with its wonderful shamanic qualities."
—Robert Ellsberg, author and publisher, Orbis Books
4/1/2016 4:00:00 AM