“Dave,” as many of his UUCB friends call him is a gift to this community and has shared snippets of his extraordinary life. In this Personal Theology talk, “Amazing grace: How UUs saved me from burnout…”, Dave will read excerpts from his new book, “The World Remakers’ Child.” The book is about moving in and out of movements dedicated to changing the world. So: joy and despair, faith, burnout, and renewal. And how finding Unitarian Universalism saved him from burnout! Always a mesmerizing speaker, Dave will talk about the nature of personal change and the Oxford Group that raised him. His burning question to everyone will be, “can humans really change and give up our addiction to power, money and status. Are these religious and spiritual questions? Or do we search somewhere else for the answers?
Below are the words from the back cover of Dave’s new book: The World Remakers’ Child–which will be for sale in the Fireside Room on Jan 11th and also on his website, www.davidbelden.com.
What drives a person to try to heal a broken world—and what happens when, for many years, every movement falls short? How did hope, and even joy, flower again for David Belden? In this wise, moving, and unexpectedly humorous memoir, David Belden traces a lifelong quest to unite the personal and the political, the spiritual and the secular. Born in postwar London to parents who believed their faith-based movement—the Oxford Group, later Moral Re-Armament (MRA)—could literally “remake the world,” Belden grew up surrounded by the conviction that personal transformation could end poverty, war, and hatred.
Through experiences ranging from spiritual awakening to social struggle, and from communal idealism to personal healing, The World Remakers’ Child explores what it truly takes to repair the world in an age of climate crisis, inequality, and disconnection. A memoir for readers drawn to progressive spirituality, restorative justice, trauma healing, and social change movements, Belden’s story is an inspiring call to go deep—to rediscover the courage to remake the world.
BIO:
David Belden, PhD, is a longtime activist, restorative justice practitioner, and Oxford-trained scholar dedicated to exploring how spirituality and collective healing can strengthen movements for social change. Over decades, this calling has led him to join struggles for feminism, global justice, and workplace democracy; to author novels of politicized science fiction; to drive change as an organizer in the Network of Spiritual Progressives and as editor of Tikkun Magazine; and to invest himself in a restorative justice movement striving to heal the root causes of violence and harm.
David lives in the California Bay Area with his wife, Debi, and delights in time spent with his son, daughter-in-law and granddaughter. He attends a Unitarian Universalist church.
