Religious Life Podcast

Interview with Paul Engler - Let a Thousand Flowers Bloom


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Duncan interviews Paul Engler, co-founder of the Center for the Working Poor, author of This is an Uprising, and co-founder of the Momentum training institute to equip young leaders to launch new movements. Momentum has trained

thousands of people, and launched many movements, most famously Sunrise, a movement to stop
the climate crisis.

They talk about Paul's lessons from the failures of his community, key concepts in launching movements and communities, and Paul's thoughts about starting a new institute for faith-based initiatives.

The interview has been edited for length and clarity. Here are links to many of the authors and books which Paul references:

  • Permaculturist and ecovillage pioneer Starhawk’s website and her book The Empowerment Manual

  • Momentum is the “training institute and community of organizers” which Paul co-founded with Carlos Saavedra. Here is their overview of frontloading and movement ecology

  • Ivan Marovic, Serbian organizer in the Otpor movement

  • Liberation theology and Engaged Buddhism

  • Rory McEntee, Adam Bucko, and the Center for Spiritual Imagination

  • The Rev. Cynthia Bourgeault, Fr. Thomas Keating, James Finley, Matthew Fox

  • Fr. Richard Rohr’s writing on the cosmic egg

  • A Paradise Built in Hell by Rebecca Solnit

  • Books by Joanna Macy

  • Camphill communities

  • ...more
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    Religious Life PodcastBy The Rev. Duncan Hilton