Holy Curiosity: Cultivating the Creative Spirit in Everyday Life

Amy Hollingsworth

Jul 2011 · Wipf and Stock Publishers

About this ebook

One passage, two verses, four words. As a writer and an adjunct professor of psychology, Amy Hollingsworth is on her way to becoming an "expert" on creativity. But just days before delivering her first professional seminar on the topic, she has an unsettling dream. The dream awakens her to the fact that she has missed a crucial element in understanding what true creativity is. Trying to unravel the dream, she soon discovers its contents reflected in a single passage of ancient literature. In this passage she sees for the first time creativity's core, its spiritual roots, and as its meaning unfolds through months of spiritual reflection and study, it confirms the very scientific theories she's been teaching all along. In fact, she discovers the underpinnings of the whole body of creativity research tucked into four small words penned centuries ago, kernels of truth that explode with a new depth of meaning. As she digs deeper, she uncovers for the reader God's blueprint for cultivating the creative spirit in everyday life, through a practical outworking of her spiritual findings. In the end, both writer and reader come away with a new understanding of their own creative abilities--and a profound sense of what's truly holy about holy curiosity.

About the author

Amy Hollingsworth is the author of The Simple Faith of Mister Rogers: Spiritual Insights from the World's Most Beloved Neighbor (2005), based on her nine-year friendship with television's Fred Rogers; and Gifts of Passage: What the Dying Tell Us with the Gifts They Leave Behind (2008). She taught as an adjunct professor of psychology at the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, Virginia, where she lives with her husband, Jeff, and their children, Jonathan and Emily. She has written for various magazines, including ParentLife, and was a writer for eight years for a national television program. She was named one of USA Today entertainment blog's Top 100 People of 2010 for her influence on pop culture and featured in the documentary by MTV News VP/producer Benjamin Wagner titled "Mister Rogers & Me."