A powerful debut that leans on the spiritual to reflect on non religious practices. A beautiful but straightforward reflection, this book gives the non religious plenty to think about in terms if our relationship to the world and how we can react to it to encourage reflection in ourselves.

No matter how young or old we are, our technological society increasingly makes us feel isolated and deprived of a life purpose. The church is no longer able to give us meaning, but at the same time we are desperate for meaning. How can we feel connected with ourselves, with each other and with the world? Casper ter Kuile shows us that we can create new rituals during and out of our everyday activities. We can draw universal life lessons from the books we read. At the gym we can not only train our muscles during CrossFit and SoulCycle, but also feel connected with the other attendees. And we can just turn off a phone, but we can also turn it into a magical moment that makes us aware that we need to rest. In The Power of Ritual, Casper ter Kuile invites us to deepen these kinds of everyday actions into moments of happiness and contact. The book shows that what we have been doing all day long is not only important, but can even be the basis of inner reflection and real meaning. An accessible, insightful and interesting read with pages filled with wisdom and reminders of how ritual can positively impact your life. This is an eminently readable book I highly recommend to those looking for inspiration to reset the way they think and to connect with the real world, rather than the increasingly virtual one we now inhabit, once more.

Interesting general observations about the value of ritual but a bit lacking in depth and substance.

The Power of Ritual is an enjoyable and helpful guide to finding more meaning and connection in our lives. The book encourages us to reflect and work on finding the spiritual in our everyday activities. Casper Ter Kuile's tone is warm and engaging and it felt as if he were making a real connection to the reader. I found the chapter on prayer especially useful as it helped me to understand the ways I can deepen my own practices.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with a free e-copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

It felt like there was a lot of truth in this book - interesting insights into our fractured lives and small changes we can make to help them feel more anchored. An important and wise book.

At a time when so many of us in the world are struggling with feelings of loneliness and lack of connection, this book provided a great insight into how to add some of that back into your life. It's easy to forget the important communal roles that religion has played in society, and how important it is that we find meaningful replacements for ourselves in our lives today.

I just couldn't get through this book, I don't know whether it was the writing style or the subject but this just wasn't for me.

Pretty good book, gives you a lot of insight into how rituals came about and why they're so important to humans. Gives you inspiration to practice your own rituals and reasons why it's a good thing to do. A pleasant read.

Owh I loved this. It is written so candidly, with a compelling vulnerability that just made this a really comforting read! It outlines how we are moving away from organised religion, especially amongst millennials and how as a result we are losing both communities – with more people than ever describing themselves as lonely – and those grounding rituals which help us get through the sticker/harder parts of life. But the book then goes on to propose that we can transform everyday acts, from reading to writing a journal, to hiking to walking to your favourite coffee shop, can be turned into a sacred practise. I adore this kind of thinking, I love ideas of bringing the sacred into the secular. I was particularly taken by the section dedicated to the powerfulness of reading and the chapter healing wonder of nature (urg). It’s a very simple, straight forward book and offers a really interesting insight with examples of how religious language is being used within our current society particularly in groups such as Soul Cycle or Tough Mudder. Moreover through these exercise routines, you are more likely to be tired and the sense of community for overcoming something psychically strenuous means you are more likely to experience an emotional release and feel a deep connection with the people around you/feel you are connected to something greater than yourself – like religion. I just really enjoyed this book, it was soo comforting to read, it’s not very long but even still I devoured it, it was a comfort blanket. (he is a co-host on a harry potter podcast which is my fave and have listened to religiously since December 2017… so I’m partially biased because I think he’s great – he’s an atheist I think? But a Harvard Divinity scholar so knows what he’s talking about – and that this book is great!)

How cooking with friends on Zoom can make us more successful

The Power of Rituals by Casper Her Kuile, is a great read on how everyday activities, when elevated to the status of ‘rituals’ (which is much simpler than it might sound) can help us create a healthier and happier version of ourselves, enabling us to achieve any goal we set.

The basic idea is that we can transform simple activities, such as walking, into rituals, which, in turn, help us enact emotions such as gratitude, kindness and compassion. Enacting these emotions strengthen our body and mind, making us more resilient and contented. And what’s great is that even work can be a healthy ritual, if practised rightly.

The author condenses everyday activities into 4 areas, which he refers to as ‘connection’. Different activities can help us establish these different connections. The more connections we can establish, the better, but even one connection can be beneficial.

The four levels of connection are:
- Connecting with oneself
- Connecting with people
- Connecting with the natural world
- Connecting with the transcendent


How do these connections become rituals? There are 3 criteria they have to come up to. First, they have to be intentional, they must be the result of our deliberation and decision. Second, one has to pay attention to them: when one is reading a book, one should not be watching TV simultaneously. Third, they must be repeated over time. While it is great to work out with the intention of becoming stronger, if one does not repeat it, workout doesn’t become a ritual. Equally, when one reads a book with the intention of learning, but while simultaneously watching TV and scrolling on Instagram, reading doesn’t become a ritual either.

So what are the activities through which we can establish these connections? There are multiple examples in the book (and of course, one activity can help us establish more than one type of connection) - let us see a few here.

We can connect with ourselves by reading a book and digesting it through in-depth questions. A great example for this is the book club run by goop. There are detailed questions one is encouraged to answer before discussing the given book together. For example, ‘What is the purpose of the book?’, ‘What is the intention of the hero?’, etc.

Connecting with others can be as simple as having cooking classes with friends over zoom, or even working out together over zoom. One doesn’t need to be an extravert to seek the company of people, as one can connect to chat-based book clubs.

And while we cannot always easily connect with nature, ‘nature can come to us’: a photo or painting of nature can help this kind of connection. Eating seasonal food is another source of connecting with nature.

Finally, connecting with transcendence doesn’t necessarily have to be through a religious experience. Once can experience it through reflection, mindful eating or focusing on an activity and getting lost in the state of flow, such as drawing, or even what we label as ‘working’.


An interesting perspective on how we can improve our quality of life, The Power of Ritual by Casper Her Kuile is out in June, 2020.