James Conlon is the Director of the Sophia Center in Culture and Spirituality at Holy Names College in Oakland, California. He is the author of Ponderings from the Precipice and Earth Story, Sacred Story. In this dramatic and exciting paperback, Conlon sets out to describe the lineaments of a spirituality that is evolutionary, holistic, and mystical. At the end of each chapter there are exercises and probes designed to help the reader do integral practice by seeing, judging, and acting.

Conlon begins by helping us sense the role we can play in "the Great Work" of our time by listening to our authentic call, or "the DNA of the soul." He then challenges us to take up the New Story, "a holistic educational project, an economics that considers the 'gross Earth product' rather than the gross national product, a political system that advocates and supports the rights of all species, and a theology that fosters the beauty and blessing that is present in all of life."

Certainly the most ambitious section of The Sacred Impulse is the one on geo-justice where Conlon integrates social action, ecological concerns, and personal ethics. He quotes with relish Meister Eckhart who said, "If you want to discover who you are, do justice!" This emphasis when combined with some others, including compassion, prayer, and community, adds up to "the sacred impulse," which is "a thread woven from an emerging vision erupting spontaneously from the depths of our psyches and the sacred heart of the universe."