Biography
The Rev. Roger Joslin is a native Texan, receiving both a BA and an MA from the University of Texas at Austin. He did additional graduate work in International Relations at the University of Sussex in Brighton, England. After working for over 20 years in the architectural woodwork business, Roger graduated from the Episcopal Theological Seminary of the Southwest in 2005. Roger is the author of Running the Spiritual Path: A Runner's Guide to Breathing, Meditating, and Exploring the Prayerful Dimension of the Sport. He continues to run and write as a dimension of his spiritual practice. His two children, Lillian, 19, and Nathan, 23, study and work in New York and in Austin. Roger moved to Northwest Arkansas in June of 2006, was ordained to the priesthood in December of 2006, and is now fully engaged in the creation of a new Episcopal Church for Benton County.
Books
Running the Spiritual Path: A Runner's Guide to Breathing, Meditating, and Exploring the Prayerful Dimension of the Sport
St. Martin's Press, New York. 2003
Imagine achieving physical fitness and spiritual growth simultaneously. Running the Spiritual Path is an exploration of the idea that the attainment of spiritual well being is as likely to happen while you run along the trails of your favorite park as it is within the more traditional setting of your neighborhood church, synagogue, or mosque. The book shows the reader how, through intention and awareness, chants and visualization, or the most evident aspects of the present moment - weather, pain, or breathing - the simple run can be transformed into a profound spiritual practice. Running the Spiritual Path combines the insights gathered in 30 years of running with a personal spiritual journey that has guided the author down a path that led him to the priesthood. While drawing from and exhibiting an abiding respect for the traditions and sacred practices of the world's great religions, the author describes in his book a heretofore-unexplored method of sacred running. The reader is presented with a detailed guide to the beginnings of a "liturgy of the running trail." He describes a place where communion with the Divine happens amidst heavy breathing, aching muscles, and a sweat soaked singlet.