Review of ‘Wonders of Spiritual Enfoldment’, by John Butler

This review is by Julie Bunting, and was published originally in The Peak Advertiser, the Peak District's local free newspaper, and is reproduced with Julie's kind permission.

Neither a biography nor travel guide in the physical sense - for this is not its purpose - 'Wonders of Spiritual Enfoldment' recounts the struggles and rewards of a long, hard spiritual journey.

Bakewell has been home to John Butler for 60 years but his spiritual search has taken him much, much further afield. Raised on a local farm and devoted to organic farming all his life, John sailed around the world as a young man, became a cowboy in outback Australia, worked with sheep in Peru and travelled the prairies and deserts of South America. The physical grounding of his search took him to Siberia, one of 16 spiritually rewarding visits to Russia in almost as many years.

Along the way, John made notes relating to the 'windows of realisation' that provided his greatest reward. Those handwritten memoirs now form the backbone of revelations obtained through 40 years of study, meditation and prayer. In his own words:

'How could I write this if I did not know?
How imagine, if it were not so?
A veil has been lifted, a vision shown,
An insight given, and a secret known.'

The complexities of these thoughtful memoirs are not intended as a novel, but rather as modest inspiration and support for anyone looking to find their God.

Review by Julie Bunting