Thriving in the Crosscurrent: Clarity and Hope in a Time of Cultural Sea Change

The 21st century is experiencing a rare global revolution. Are you prepared to ride the new cultural wave? Thriving in the Crosscurrent says that despite the overwhelming doomsday speak, it’s not the end of the world, but the birthing pains of a new one! Like two massive ocean waves colliding, one on the ascent and the other falling, societal paradigms are on the brink of a world-wide transformation! With the use of this two-wave sea change model, a tool for evaluating human cultural evolution, Thriving in the Crosscurrent demonstrates the causes of our impending revolution and shares an optimistic forecast through the turbulence. With in-depth scholarly research, cultural expert Jim Kenney offers detailed descriptions of the groups that make up our current global consciousness. From "yeasayers" such as Catalysts, Actives, and Creatives to "naysayers", including Militants, Buccaneers and Unexamined Lifers, this book explores the current and emerging beliefs of society. Kenney makes known what is required for the yeasayers to be effective. "The good news" Kenney states, "it’s a smaller percentage than you might think." Thriving in the Crosscurrent goes beyond revealing our forthcoming evolution. A unique compendium of twelve insights inspired by the Buddhist Eightfold Path offers resolution and guiding suggestions for action. Key principles such as Become a Global Citizen and Celebrate Interspirituality equip readers with necessary skills for finding the calm at the center of current uncertainty and to actively move beyond as a revolutionary participant.

260 pages

About the author: For the past twenty years Jim Kenney has been recognized as a leader in the global movement for interreligious and intercultural understanding and cooperative action. Working to promote harmony and cooperative common action among the world’s religious communities, Kenney had a major leadership role in the two largest interreligious gatherings ever held, the 1993 and 1999 Parliaments of the World’s Religions (Chicago and Cape Town). Kenney was global director of the Parliament of the World’s Religions from 1995 to 2002, creating new structures and contexts for interreligious dialogue and activism. In 2002, he founded the Interreligious Engagement Project, helping global interreligious communities to address critical planetary issues. Jim is an educator and well-known lecturer on a wide range of topics relating to history and possible planetary futures. For over thirty years, he’s lectured widely on political, social, religious, and cultural issues. For the past 10 years, his research and writing has focused cultural evolution: how human societies move – sometimes dramatically – toward a better fit with the real world. In 1975 he co-founded Common Ground, an adult educational organization and study center which offers a wide range of programs focusing on the great cultural, religious, philosophical, and spiritual traditions and their implications for every dimension of human experience. For thirty years, Common Ground has provided a rich variety of first-rate educational programs for seekers with broad horizons. Kenney has been Executive Director since 1988. Jim is co-founder and co-editor of Interreligious Insight: a Journal of Dialogue and Engagement published four times each year in the US and the UK by the World Congress of Faiths, the Interreligious Engagement Project, and Common Ground. Insight is the only journal of its kind: a chronicle of the global interreligious movement and the changing world religious scene. He was consulting editor and a regular contributor to Conscious Choice Magazine, which was published monthly out of Chicago, IL, from 1988 through 2009. Jim Kenney has worked closely with a number of important organizations dedicated to building a better world. They include: the Interreligious Engagement Project (Executive Director), the International Committee for the Peace Council (Project Coordinator), the Abraham Path Initiative, and the Spiritual Alliance to Stop Intimate Violence. He resides in Lake Forest, IL, United States.