Liturgies of the Wild | Dr Martin Shaw

There’s an old Irish belief that if you aren’t wrapped in a cloak of story you will be unprepared for what the world will hurl at you. You remain adolescent at just the moment a culture worth its salt requires you to become a real, grown, human being.
In ‘Liturgies of the Wild’, acclaimed mythographer, storyteller and Christian thinker Martin Shaw argues that we live in a myth-impoverished age and that such poverty has left us vulnerable to stories that may not wish us well. Drawing on the “ancient technologies” of myths and initiatory rites, Shaw provides a road to wholeness, maturity and connection. He teaches us to read a myth the way it wants to be read; provides vivid retellings of tales powerful enough to carry you through life’s travails; and shows you how to gather and reshape your own thrown-away stories. Most vividly, he shares how these ancient technologies led him – unexpectedly - to Christ, ‘the True Myth’, by way of a 30-year journey and a 101-night vigil in a Dartmoor forest.
Combining scholarly erudition with nimble storytelling in the tradition of C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien, ‘Liturgies of the Wild’ is a thrilling counsel of resistance and delight in the face of many modern monsters.

Dr Martin Shaw is a writer, mythographer and Christian thinker and the author of 17 books. He founded the Oral Tradition and Mythic Life courses at Stanford University and is director of the Westcountry School of Myth in the UK. For 20 years, Shaw has been a wilderness rites of passage guide, working with at-risk youth, those who are unwell, and returning veterans, as well as women and men seeking a deeper life. Martin had a conversion experience to Eastern Orthodoxy when he was nearly 50. He became a visiting scholar at the divinity faculty at Cambridge University this autumn and is based in Devon. You can read more about Martin and his work at http://drmartinshaw.com/about-martin-shaw/

The Very Rev’d Dr Mark Oakley is Dean of Southwark. Formerly Dean of St John’s College, Cambridge, and Chancellor of St Paul’s Cathedral, he is an author of several books on poetry and theology. He was awarded the international Michael Ramsey Prize for theological writing for his book The Splash of Words: Believing in Poetry, and the Lanfranc Award by the Archbishop of Canterbury for education and scholarship. He has worked at the Actors’ Church in Covent Garden as Rector and has a strong interest in theatre. He is also Patron of Tell MAMA, monitoring Islamophobic hate crime, and Ambassador for Stop Hate UK. In 2025 he was appointed Whitelands Professorial Fellow in Christian Theology and Contemporary Issues by Roehampton University.

Rowan Williams is a former Archbishop of Canterbury and was until 2020 Master of Magdalene College at the University of Cambridge. He is the author of many books, including Looking East in Winter, Holy Living, and The Edge of Words, published by Bloomsbury Continuum. He lives in Cardiff and continues to broadcast, preach and lecture internationally. In 2022, he gave the second of the BBC’s centenary Reith Lectures. He is contributing writer to The New Statesman.

Know what’s Happening Next — before everyone else does.

Get App

Host or Publisher Southwark Cathedral