The Spirituality of Wine

add to cart

List Price: $37.00

Print$18.50

Tom Harpur

160 PP | 8.5" x 9"
Hardcover with Dust Jacket
ISBN: 978-1-896836-63-8

Few things in life can compare with the experience of sitting at a table, enjoying fine food, and taking the time to share a glass of wine. Such moments make us rich beyond compare. They transform our souls and help us vibrate with the sheer joy of being alive. Here is a sweeping look at the deep connection between wine and spirituality from ancient times to today. A feast for the senses, this book overflows with apt quotations, spiritual wisdom, and lavish images. The Spirituality of Wine is a book treasure by wine lovers of every persuasion.

Tom Harpur, Author

Tom Harpur was a columnist for The Toronto Star, Rhodes scholar and Anglican priest, and was a prominent writer on religious and ethical issues. He was the author of seven bestselling books including For Christ's Sake, and Would You Believe? He hosted numerous radio and television programs, and a six-part television series based on his bestseller The Uncommon Touch: An Investigation of Spiritual Healing. Tom Harpur lived in Richmond Hill, Ontario.

Submit a Review

Media Reviews

Tony Aspler

To the great congregation of wine lovers who think of wine as a food group Tom Harpur's book will come as a revelation - and a timely addition to the canon of wine as sacrament, social glue and wonder drug. What wine people know instinctively he has captured here in felicitous prose, blended with praise from sources as diverse as the Bible, Ogden Nash and The Toronto Star. So pour yourself a glass of wine, dip into this book and get in touch with your inner vintner.

The drinking of wine, Tom Harpur contends, is a non-pious act of worship that will help us to 'care for the vineyard of our heart.' Amen.
 

Albert Baldeo, Capital News

Thanks Tom Harpur for this refreshing insight.

Scott Woodhouse, The Express

It’s a sweeping history of the origins of wine from ancient times to its growth in Canada during prohibition.

Bookworld Autumn 2004

The Spirituality of Wine is an endorsement and celebration of wine.

Synchronicity: The Magazine

The Spirituality of Wine is not only a charming volume: it’s a work of art.

Dona Sturmanis, Jeanette Dunagan, Okanagan Life Magazine

This breathtaking coffee table book is a stunning combination of photography and text and explores the mystical connection between the divine drink and our own inner spirituality.

Judie Steeves, Capital News

Beautifully laid-out and studded with some excellent photographs, many of Okanagan scenes, Tom Harpur’s most recent venture with Wood Lake Books’ Northstone Publishing is a radical departure from his more controversial publications.

C.S., Montreal Anglican

Tom Harpur, known for his literary panache, has penned a fascinating text aptly entitled The Spirituality of Wine. From it’s glorious dust jacket featuring a sparkling goblet of wine standing amidst many-hued bunches of grapes to its wondrous richly coloured photographs, the book’s presentation is one of impeccable taste. As to its contents, Harpur has taken the grapes and crushed them into a perfect blend.

Steve MacNaull, The Okanagan Saturday

Harpur is a retired Anglican priest, but the book isn’t religious. Rather, it outlines the spirituality of wine in the bigger sense – touching on vino’s connection to history, romance, agriculture, art, culture and cuisine.

Nancy Jeffrey, Arkansas Democrat Gazette

Savor the photos, ponder the quotes and learn from this Canadian author’s insight on how wine has an integral part in the history of our religious rituals, spiritual growth and heart transformations.

Carol Segal, The Anglican Montreal Anglican

Harpur has taken the grapes and crushed them into a perfect blend.

Editor of Glad Tidings Magazine

Colleen Wood

These wonderful books explore the spirituality of several aspects of our lives. Each book covers a distinct topic and explores some of the reasons why these simple things can mean so much to us. Written by well-known authors, each of these hardbound books makes a lovely gift for anyone who enjoys these spiritual things.

Titles include:

  • The Spirituality of Pets by James Taylor
  • The Spirituality of Gardening by Donna Sinclair
  • The Spirituality of Bread by Donna Sinclair
  • The Spirituality of Wine by Tom Harpur
  • The Spirituality of Mazes and Labyrinths by Gailand MacQueen
  • The Spirituality of Grandparenting by Ralph and Beverly Milton

Wine is heavenly, both literally and as metaphor. Like Shakespeare’s “quality of mercy,” it “droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven upon the place beneath.” It comes first from the sky as warm drops of rain; it flows from heavenly realms as a miracle and gift of God. Simultaneously, it is a blessing of nature’s bounty and a reward for human ingenuity and toil. Nothing embodies and connects the synergy of human endeavor with the energies of the natural world of creation as this most ancient product of the earth. No other agricultural pursuit from the dawn of time has more truly portrayed, and at the same time sacramentally conveyed, the essence of the deepest spiritual realities of our lives.