Web posted on: Friday, August 20, 1999 6:15:23 PM EDT

In this story: Author tells of quest for spiritual life The role of character in aging RELATED STORIES, SITES

Eighteen years after to returning to religion, author Dan Wakefield, shares his continuing spiritual quest in "How Do We Know When It's God? A Spiritual Memoir."

Wakefield looks back at the triumphs and disasters in his own life, and attempts to show how faith is dynamic, elusive and ever challenging. Though he is a Christian, he stresses the lessons he has learned cross religious boundaries.

"I want my spiritual life to be able to draw on the wisdom of other creeds and faiths," he says, "and to think of my friends who follow other beliefs as fellow pilgrims on a spiritual path rather than enemies or rivals whom I need to convert or compete with in some theological playoff."

Wakefield returned to the church in 1980 after 30 years of terming himself an atheist. He was 48, having a mid-life crisis and drinking too much. Even after finding religion again, he says his struggles with home, relationships and poor career decisions have continued.

Amid these challenges, he says he's never lost faith in God, but his faith has been tested. He tells of his fight to maintain a spiritual life in today's contemporary world and how he has finally found comfort being just "a plain Christian."

Wakefield began to write on spirituality after his return to the church. His books include "Returning: A Spiritual Journey"; "Creating From the Spirit: The Story of Your Life"; ""Writing a Spiritual Autobiography"; and "Expect a Miracle."

"How Do We Know When It's God? A Spiritual Memoir" is published by Little, Brown and Company.

In his newest book, "The Force of Character: And the Lasting Life," James Hillman challenges the traditional concept of aging as a kind of disease -- and he offers an alternative view.

"Aging is no accident," he contends, and says that in fact the behavioral and physical transformations that occur during the aging process often allow people's true selves to show through.

Character, he says, is a force as important as biology, genetics and geriatric physiology, and he stresses the importance of understanding why people age.

He argues that the signs of aging, both physical and mental, are necessary and revealing. "We become more characteristic of who we are," he writes.

Those dreaded signs of aging -- loss of short-term memory, waking at night, changes in physical appearance -- all are seen in a positive light by Hillman.

"Aging can free you from conventional constriction," he writes, "and transform you into a force of nature, releasing your deepest beliefs, your passionate intensity."

Hillman studied with psychologist C.G. Jung and was the Director of Studies at the C.G. Jung Institute in Zurich for 10 years.

He's the author of more than 20 books, the best known of which is "The Soul's Code." His concepts of soul, depression and aesthetics were featured in the BBC programs "Affaires of the Heart, Kind of Blue" and a five-part series "Architecture and Imagination."

"The Force of Character: And the Lasting Life," is published by Random House.