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!

People Are Talking

“Staub’s passion and talent as a writer make this an enjoyable read.”

“Concise, well-researched… shines as something more than the sum of marketing muscle.”

“Staub’s take on Christians in culture is a standout effort.”

“Thoughtful, well-written, packed with insightful and often striking illustrations.”

“A challenging and hope-filled manifesto.”

“Highly recommended.”

Here is the storyline as described by ACT Theatre. “Mitzi’s Abortion is a surprising and compassionate play about a young woman confronting one of life’s most difficult and deeply personal decisions in a system determined to make it a political one.Facing a surprise pregnancy, Mitzi embraces motherhood and a future with her baby’s father. But when complications collide with deeply-held beliefs, insurance regulations, and varying reactions from those she loves, Mitzi’s world is thrown into chaos. As her family and friends try to comfort her in the face of their own discomfort, Saint Thomas Aquinas and a 17th-century midwife join the fray to give Mitzi unexpected support. With humor and honesty, this stunning new play takes a multifaceted look at an extraordinarily powerful and contemporary question.”

Capital Hill Times said: Playwright Elizabeth Heffron has taken one of today’s most volatile topics and tried courageously to present its complexity without making her play a harangue.
Seattle PI said: “The magic of theater” is a phrase that can mean a lot of different things. In the case of “Mitzi’s Abortion” it means “welcoming unwelcome thoughts and feelings.” The play is receiving its premiere production at ACT Theatre. It is powerful. Seattle playwright Elizabeth Heffron deals with two troubling subjects: a genetically defective fetus and a late-term abortion. Much public discourse on these subjects avoids thought and feeling by means of bluster and dogma. Heffron takes the opposite approach. She cultivates thought and feeling by creating engaging characters who grapple with tough issues. Empathy is pretty much automatic.
Seattle Times said: Anyone looking for an ideological rallying cry in Elizabeth Heffron’s play “Mitzi’s Abortion” won’t find one. Instead, you’ll get an even-handed, ambitious yet jumbled and ungainly tragicomedy ” which, almost in spite of itself, manages to break your heart anyway.

Here is the storyline as described by ACT Theatre. “Mitzi’s Abortion is a surprising and compassionate play about a young woman confronting one of life’s most difficult and deeply personal decisions in a system determined to make it a political one.Facing a surprise pregnancy, Mitzi embraces motherhood and a future with her baby’s father. But when complications collide with deeply-held beliefs, insurance regulations, and varying reactions from those she loves, Mitzi’s world is thrown into chaos. As her family and friends try to comfort her in the face of their own discomfort, Saint Thomas Aquinas and a 17th-century midwife join the fray to give Mitzi unexpected support. With humor and honesty, this stunning new play takes a multifaceted look at an extraordinarily powerful and contemporary question.”

Capital Hill Times said: Playwright Elizabeth Heffron has taken one of today’s most volatile topics and tried courageously to present its complexity without making her play a harangue.
Seattle PI said: “The magic of theater” is a phrase that can mean a lot of different things. In the case of “Mitzi’s Abortion” it means “welcoming unwelcome thoughts and feelings.” The play is receiving its premiere production at ACT Theatre. It is powerful. Seattle playwright Elizabeth Heffron deals with two troubling subjects: a genetically defective fetus and a late-term abortion. Much public discourse on these subjects avoids thought and feeling by means of bluster and dogma. Heffron takes the opposite approach. She cultivates thought and feeling by creating engaging characters who grapple with tough issues. Empathy is pretty much automatic.
Seattle Times said: Anyone looking for an ideological rallying cry in Elizabeth Heffron’s play “Mitzi’s Abortion” won’t find one. Instead, you’ll get an even-handed, ambitious yet jumbled and ungainly tragicomedy ” which, almost in spite of itself, manages to break your heart anyway.

Predictably I received a response that attempted just such a defense, arguing that 1) I hadn’t seen the film (though a respected friend had and reported on it’s inadequacies artistically); 2) And reminded me that “Over 280 decisions for Christ resulted after the movie was shown at two Christian film festivals in Boston and Syracuse.”

Lou Carlozo rightly pointed out that God’s own creativity is not message driven: “Contrast that with the notion that the art must have a message to validate its worth. That in essence is the ultimate form of human hubris, because it amounts to telling God that He had no clue what He was doing when He made the waterfalls, or created the world. Must the beauty of nature have a “message”? A sign hung around it that says, “If you love this, then thank God and ask Him to be your savior”? Or does it touch our souls in a way that makes us thirst, hunger and pant to be close to the force that made all this incredible beauty? “Christian” artists who put the message before the art are not only putting the cart before the horse: They are engaging in prideful, blind behavior. Whether they realize it, they think they know how to advance God’s cause better than God does. They are violating the roadmap through, if you will, unintelligent designs.”

Evangelism requires a fallen world as its audience and aim, whereas art can be offered to God as the audience of one. Because God does not need to be evangelized art need not be encumbered by evangelistic intent. Evangelism-driven people seem unable to grasp, to paraphrase Rookmaaker, “Art needs no evangelistic justification.”

Read the following poem and see in it the artist at work without a human audience, but displaying elegance for the unseen audience. This purity of art glorifies God. No need to embroider John 3:16 on the artist’s gown, no need to end the dance with verbiage thanking “my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” Just the glorious sense of a dancer created in God’s image glorifying God through creatively dancing well.

The Dancer

David Tucker

Class is over,
the teacher and the pianist gone,
but one dancer
in a pale blue
leotard stays
to practice alone without music,
turning grand jetes
through the haze of late afternoon.
Her eyes are focused
on the balancing point
no one else sees
as she spins in this quiet
made of mirrors and light–
a blue rose on a nail–
then stops and lifts
her arms in an oval pause
and leans out
a little more, a little more,
there, in slow motion
upon the air.

It was messy. Everyone who was there will agree a baby’s first sounds are a little scary and the little critter learns to crawl before it walks. We got off to a late start (10 minutes) and when we played the pre-recorded introduction to the show, we could hear the music but not the rich basso profundo of Ron Turner. We thought it was because of a last minute switch to stereo recording from mono, but a ½ hour later and a lot of buttons pushed and cables checked, we discovered the culprit: a chair tangled with a cord unplugging it from our system! I hear the newborn is as messy as the birthing process! Next come the dirty diapers, spitting up and crying though the night!

It was paced poorly. Mom wants baby now, but delivery can go on forever! I tried to move the conversation too quickly and it kept us from getting very deep with our stellar panel (Bryan Burton, Heather Hawkins, & Gregory Wolfe). Pacing also prohibited us from getting to MOST of the audience questions and comments (We’re going to post them with the podcast so everybody can see the kinds of audience reaction we were getting).

TKM has a face only a mother could love. Every baby is beautiful to mom and dad and we were able to see glimmers of beauty in the newborn TKM. We had a great crowd, good venue (Thanks to Mike and Kathleen Hale), the panel was superb, intelligent and engaged. Robert Deeble’s music was spot on and Jeff Berryman’s reading of the late poet laureate Stanley Kuntz’s “The Layers” was inspired.

The kid has potential. When our son was a child I liked to play a little song titled “I am a Promise.” It went something like this: “I am promise, I am a possibility I am a promise, with a capital P, I am a great big bundle of potentiality. And if I listen and hear God’s voice and if I promise to make the right choice, I can be anything, anything God wants me to be!” And that is how I feel about “The Kindlings Muse.” I believe there is a need for intelligent, imaginative, hospitable explorations of ideas that matter in contemporary life, and as Stanley Kunitz said in The Layers:

In my darkest night,
when the moon was covered
and I roamed through wreckage,
a nimbus-clouded voice
directed me:
Live in the layers,
not on the litter.

Though I lack the art to decipher it,
no doubt the next chapter
in my book of transformations
is already written,
I am not done with my changes.

Yours for the pursuit of God in the company of friends, Dick Staub.