Hi there!  As of today, my newest book, About You, Fully Human: Fully Alive, is now available online and at bookstores everywhere.  If I may be so bold as to ask this favor? If you have enjoyed my writing, speaking, broadcasting, podcasting or whatever other contact we’ve had, I hope you run right out and buy a copy or order online for your kindle!  Please read it and then post online comments at Amazon, make mentions on your Facebook or blogs, or suggest this book for your book groups ~

In About You I explore three major themes:

One answers the question: What can humans do to please God?
St. Irenaeus answers saying, “The glory of God is man fully alive.”

The second answers the question: What was the mission of Jesus?
Hans Rookmaaker answers saying, Jesus didn’t come to make us Christian; Jesus came to make us fully human.”
Here I try to show Jesus as a humanizer not religionizer

The third answers the question: What does fully human look like?
The answer comes from my own understanding that regardless of nationality, ethnic origin, religion or creed, each and every person on earth is a bearer of God’s image creatively, spiritually, intelligently, morally and relationally in ways unique to them.

Here are some stellar endorsements!
“The human race, in its mass confusion and conflict, asks the existential questions to which there seem to be no solid answers. In the sweep of a mere fourteen chapters, Dick Staub offers us the coherent narrative of the Why of humanity, the How of healing, and the Who of the Creator, giving firm ground for thoughtful questioners to stand on.”
—Luci Shaw, poet and author, Breath for the Bones, Harvesting Fog

“Broadcaster, writer, lover of all things C.S. Lewis, raconteur par excellence and great friend, Dick Staub is one of the few people I’ve met who truly cares about people becoming fully human. He is a faithful and effective guide on the journey to do just that.”
— Bill Kinnon, Moving Image creator, writer, blogger

“Dick Staub’s insight into our present age and our own deep longings lead us on a “rowdy pilgrimage” to discover the riches that lay within our unique design while pointing us to the fully human life.” —Scott and Pam Nolte, theatre artists and co-founders, Taproot Theatre

“Staub’s refreshingly honest book doesn’t flinch at the reality of our fallenness, but offers fresh insight into a profound mystery: Why does God love us? What is wrong with the current picture of our lives? How can it be painted more beautifully and truly to match the vision of the Artist?” —Bruce Herman, artist and Lothlorien Distinguished Chair in Fine Arts, Gordon College

“Dick Staub offers a cup of cold, clear water for all of those who thirst for something significant beyond the oft-superficial and bankrupt materialism of the prevailing culture.” —Jeff Johnson, singer and songwriter, Windham Hill/Ark Music

“About You  is a profound, capacious research into what we humans might both be and become as we find, focus and follow the intentionality of The Great Artist.”
—Nigel Goodwin, United Kingdom based actor and international arts advocate

“Dick Staub is a thoughtful, creative and insightful thinker, who journey’s into the deep questions of life.  About You is a treasure map, where Dick serves as both sage and guide, gently leading us to a broader understanding of our own humanity, it’s source and the fullness therein. A must read for fellow sojourners on the road to becoming fully human.” —John Priddy, CEO, Priddy Brothers

Hope to hear your feedback when you read About You!

I.  Friday 7 PM: The Journey – A thinking person’s quest for meaning
II. Saturday 10 AM: Survival of the Fastest ~ living sanely when life is fired point blank
III. Saturday 7 PM A World Safe for Diversity ~ living with our deepest differences in a world of exploding pluralism
IV. Sunday 10 AM: You Only Live Once ~ calling, the ultimate game plan for life

Out in theatres this weekend, here is a Sundance interview about Frozen River. Every year some films are the “buzz” of Sundance. This time the buzz converted to one of Sundance’s major awards. Enjoy Craig Detweiler’s exclusive discussion with the producer (Heather Rae), writer/director (Courtney Hunt) and two actors (Melissa Leo and Misty Upham) from “Frozen River,” which has not only been talked about by the film-goers, but was picked up for distribution by SONY Pictures. Frozen River’s feature-length script is set in a real-life smuggling zone on a Native American reservation between New York State and Quebec where the lure of fast money presents a daily challenge to single moms who would otherwise be making minimum wage. Strapped for money and having been deserted by her husband, working class Ray (Melissa Leo), reluctantly teams up with Lila (Misty Upham), a widowed Mohawk Indian, to smuggle illegal immigrants across the frozen St. Lawrence River from Canada to the U.S. in the trunk of a Dodge Spirit. Both women swear each trip will be their last, but one final run across the river leads to a showdown with the law on all sides.

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In one of the most interesting election years in ages, we ask some simple questions. DOES God have a politics? What does faith have to do with political positions? With all the hoopla about record turn outs in primaries and caucuses, the fact is there is overwhelming evidence that the majority of Americans have checked out of the process, especially when it comes to religion mixed with politics. Since a healthy democratic republic requires an informed citizenry, this is a rather alarming development. Dick Staub hosts our discussion with guests Reed Davis, SPU Professor and former Republican Senatorial candidate. John-Otto Liljenstolpe (Lil Yen Stoe Pee), known to his co-worker and friends as “Joshua,” is a pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, a co-director of the Rauschenbusch Center for Spirit and Action and an organizer for Pax Christi, an international Catholic peace movement. Finally, our own Rev. Jennie Spohr produces TKM and is an ordained Presbyterian clergy.

On the afternoon of March 29, 2002 the world was shaken when an 18 year-old Palestinian girl and suicide bomber, entered a market where she detonated a bomb, killing herself, injuring 30 and killing a 17 year-old Israeli girl. No one was shaken more than the mothers of the two dead teenage girls, who shared so much in common and yet whose differences brought them to their untimely deaths. In her thought-provoking documentary, To Die In Jerusalem, Director & Producer Hilla Medalia puts a human face on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through two mothers, who struggle to cope with the event that put them in the center of an intractable geopolitical conflict. After conversation with Hilla, we are joined by John and Ed Priddy, producers of the film. We then turn to audience questions.