Addiction and Recovery ― A Spiritual Pilgrimage

Companionship for the lifelong journey of recovery

In Addiction and Recovery: A Spiritual Pilgrimage, Martha Postlethwaite--pastor and a person in recovery--reflects on her pilgrimage of healing through valleys of despair and vistas of resurrection.

Addiction and Recovery is not just Postlethwaite's story, though. She also draws on the wisdom of pilgrims who have walked other paths to explore themes such as surrender, truth telling, shame, powerlessness, grace, forgiveness, and resurrection.

Together, these chronicles bring hope to people who struggle with the disease of addiction and to those who love them.

Each chapter ends with questions to reflect on with conversation partners or in a journal, and a spiritual practice. The spiritual practices are related to the chapter themes and serve as samplers, but they can be woven into the reader's own pilgrimage.

Readers will recognize themselves in these stories and reflections, learn that they are not alone, and find reasons to hope as they make their own pilgrimage.

Martha Postlethwaite has spent her professional life listening to and sharing stories in numerous settings, including as a seminary chaplain and in congregations. A United Methodist Church pastor, she is trained in counseling psychology and spiritual direction. After twenty-two years in theological education, Martha found her true home as the lead pastor of The Recovery Church in Saint Paul, Minnesota.