From the Foreword
“It is a special honor and privilege to write this foreword to Soul in Captivity. Curt Ashburn has been a dear friend and colleague for the last twenty years. He is one of the best teachers I have ever met and has a special gift and anointing to present the Word of God and relate it to contemporary issues in our increasingly polarized world.
It is with a special excitement that I look forward to him writing many more books and sharing his many talents and gifts with the nation and the world. He has a lot to say and he must be listened to because I believe he is a modern-day prophet called for this moment in history.”
David F. Allen, MD, MPH
Distinguished Life Fellow of
the American Psychiatric Association
From the Introduction
If in the midst of your life, in media res, whether you are 30, 40, 50 years old or more, you find yourself in a dark forest and the beasts of your own self-destructive desires are blocking the straight path out of that dark wood, out of Exile, out of your soul’s captivity, I wrote this book for you. Let’s walk together, like Abraham and Isaac, Moses and Aaron, Virgil and Dante, St. Teresa of Avila and St. John of the Cross. Let’s Contemplate the scriptures, Discover our traumas, and find the Pathway of return from Exile through the power of our own stories.
It’s time to begin the descent, to bring your story up from the underworld of your soul. Fear not, your guide is the Spirit of Jesus Christ. He is the One through whom it was said in the midst of Darkness, “Let there be light.” He is the One after whose likeness and image all people on earth (universal) and you (in particular) were made and which the Creator gazed at and declared, “You are very beautiful.” It is Divine Love that asked, “Adam, where art thou?” and “Cain, where is your brother?” It is Incarnate Love who said, “She was forgiven much, therefore she loves much.” It is the Merciful Judge who asked, “Woman, where are your accusers?” It is He, the Resurrection and the Life who wept for his friend and commanded, “Lazarus, come forth.” It is He about whom it was asked, “Why do you look for the living among the dead?” It is He who, “misrecognized” as the gardener, asked, “Woman, why do you weep?” It is He, the Great Shepherd of the sheep who asked, “Simon, do you love me more than these?” And at the center point of all created history, it is “the Lamb slain before the foundations of the world” who said to the thief on his right, “Today you will be with me in Paradise.” It is He, your Virgil, your guide, who then breathed his last and from his dark tomb “descended into Hell” and “quickened by the Spirit … by which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison” and “when he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive.” He will do the same for you.