Breathing Under Water

Brother Rohr may just take you to places you’ve both avoided and longed for—to truth, union, joy, laughter, and, greatest of all, to your own precious self, here on earth with us, child of God.—Anne Lamott, from the foreword to Breathing Under Water

In Breathing Under Water, Richard Rohr brings together the wisdom of Christian spirituality and the lived practice of the Twelve Steps, revealing how both point to the same transformative path of surrender, healing, and grace. Drawing on Scripture, psychology, and decades of pastoral experience, Rohr shows how addiction—whether to substances, behaviors, or rigid patterns of thinking—names a universal human condition rather than a personal failure.

Moving through each of the Twelve Steps, Rohr reframes them as a practical, incarnational spirituality that leads not merely to sobriety, but to a profound reorientation of consciousness, relationship, and desire. Addiction becomes a doorway to awakening; admitting our powerlessness becomes the first step in attaining freedom.