About

Liza J. Rankow, PhD, MHS, is an interfaith minister, educator, activist, and writer. Her lifework centers the deep healing that is essential to personal and social transformation. Liza is the founder and former Executive Director of OneLife Institute, an organization that served for 17 years to support the well-being of frontline change-makers.

Liza has been a spiritual counselor and teacher for more than three decades. She works with individual clients, facilitates healing retreats, and offers classes and workshops in a variety of community and academic settings. Her topics include: Mysticism & Social Change, Sustaining the Soul of Activism, Deepening the Well (multifaith spiritual formation), and several different courses on the life and work of Dr. Howard Thurman. She is the producer and co-editor of the six-CD audio collection, The Living Wisdom of Howard Thurman (Sounds True, 2010).

Her publications include anthologized essays, creative nonfiction, and poetry, and academic articles in both theological and medical journals. Her latest book is Soul Medicine for a Fractured World: Healing, Justice, and the Path of Wholeness (Orbis Books, 2025).

Find her blog here: https://lizarankow.substack.com/

Featured Work

Soul Medicine for a Fractured World: Healing, Justice, and the Path of Wholeness

2025
The central image is a photograph of a spiral constructed with small stones and flowers agains a background of dark soil. The book title is at the top in yellow script, with the subtitle and author's name in white. The background is a very dark purple.

Against the backdrop of global upheaval, Soul Medicine offers an integrative path toward healing and social transformation rooted in our belonging to one another, the Earth, and all of life. Combining the insightful analysis of a longtime grassroots activist with the compassion of a seasoned spiritual guide, Liza J. Rankow shows readers how to live with purpose and meaning, not just in spite of the rising tide of calamities around us, but as our response to them.

Other Works

  • Anchored in the Current: Discovering Howard Thurman as Educator, Activist, Guide, and Prophet (essay in this anthology)

    2020

  • The Living Wisdom of Howard Thurman

    2010