"In this visionary and original work, Dr. Richard Beck rises above the nonsensical self-help landscape and offers an inspiring picture of what it means to seek and obtain wonder. Beck boldly challenges our failing mental health ecosystem and the waning status quo. With the heart of a teacher, he lays out a new, research-driven path for healing our deepest individual hurts and collective cultural pain."

"Beck reveals the toxic cultural soil in which we are all planted, which prevents us from attaining the life of meaning and fulfillment that we desire. More importantly, he offers an antidote that will allow our lives to bear the fruit of goodness and peace."

"A much-needed resource in our age of despair and mental anguish, a timely word addressing the current state of our mental health and the overall increase in our social decline. The path to lasting joy draws our attention beyond ourselves. The shape of joy pulls outward, beyond the self toward the sacred and holy. This book will have a life-changing impact on those who are open to its message."

"Richard Beck uniquely plants himself at the complicated intersection of psychology and spirituality, sharing wisdom that seems counterintuitive to our modern sensibilities. He invites us away from the dizzying fray of our internal lives, toward one another and, ultimately, toward transcendence and the Divine. By grounding the self in a Reality beyond ourselves, we can practice and discover our way into true joy."

"Dr. Beck is a trustworthy guide as he leads us to look not just within but beyond ourselves."

"For a modern world filled with anxiety and heartache, Richard Beck illuminates a path toward true and abiding happiness. The path leads us to exchange the inward focus that traps us in negativity for a life that is 'curved outward' toward love and connection. Beautifully blending psychology and spirituality, this book is a guiding light for all of us who walk in dark shadows."

"Richard Beck is a master at taking complex ideas and making them accessible. The Shape of Joy is another example of his use of this gift. Calling it 'the geometry of self,' his use of the metaphor of geometric curves to explain the angst of our culture--particularly on the heels of the pandemic--offers a clear path forward."

"Rather than inward-focused attempts at self-love and acceptance, Beck calls us to rethink the shape of joy as the embrace of quieting internal noise, rejecting the superhero complex, moving toward humility as self-forgetting, reaching out toward the needs of others, and, finally, anchoring joy in a sense of mattering through spiritual transcendence and love."

"The Shape of Joy urgently reveals not only how we lack tools to address the deprivation of joy in our lives but also how we need to dump some of the tools we assumed would help us in the first place. As a church leader, I can attest that Richard Beck has his finger on the pulse of the mental health crisis plaguing faith communities and the world."