Philosophy of Religion Books - Page 6

Total Freedom: The Essential Krishnamurti

J. Krishnamurti

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Total reviews: 19 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Counted among his admirers are Jonas Salk, Aldous Huxley, David Hockney, and Van Morrison, along with countless other philosophers, artist, writers and students of the spiritual path. Now the trustees of Krishnamurti’s work have gathered his very best and most illuminating writings and talks to present in one volume the truly essential ideas of this great spiritual thinker.Total Freedom includes selections from Krishnamurti’s early works, his ‘Commentaries on Living’, and his discourses on life, the self, meditation, sex and love. These writings reveal Krishnamuri’s core teachings in their full eloquence and power: the nature of personal freedom; the mysteries of life and death; and the ‘pathless land’, the personal search for truth and peace. Warning readers away from blind obedience to creeds or teachers – including himself – Krishnamurti celebrated the individual quest for truth, and thus became on of the most influential guides for independent-minded seekers of the twentieth century – and beyond.

Fallen Angels, the Watchers, and the Origins of Evil

Joseph B. Lumpkin

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Total reviews: 6 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

A look into the Spirit world 5 out of 5 stars.
10 of 11 people found this review helpful.

I thourghly enjoyed reading the book "Fallen Angels Watchers,and the Origins of Evil". It was one of those books when you start reading it,it is hard to put down.I feel he has touched on a subject that would be very relavent today due to the fact of the hight that Evil had grown to today.I feel that this book is a very good read and worth the time one takes out of one's busy life to expand their knowledge of the Spirit World.I feel this would be very profitable.

Editorial Review:

Deeds of Fallen angels, watchers, nephilim, and the evil of mankind flash before the reader. By seeking out several ancient texts and combining all they have to say about these creatures of heavenly evil, we see a panorama of evil is formed.

Texts of Enoch, Jasher, Jubilees, The War Scrolls, the Holy Bible, and other books were used to form a chronicle of the creation and deeds of the fallen ones. From birth to defeat, this book is one of the greatest stories of evil ever told. Texts are taken directly from the ancient writs and sown into a history that reads like a novel.

The Shattered Lantern: Rediscovering a Felt Presence of God

Ronald Rolheiser

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Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Spiritual reading at its best 5 out of 5 stars.
139 of 140 people found this review helpful.

In this first book by Father Rolheiser he writes a clear and concise guide for those of us walking the contemporary and contemplative path.

He contends that "today we, the children of Western culture, post-modern, adult children of the enlightenment, struggle with practical atheism. Our consciousness is clouded with narcissism, pragmatism, and unbridled restlessness so much so, that we are contemplatively asleep. The road back is not a question of finding the right answers, but in living in a certain way. To approach reality and relationships with a certain set of attitudes. A proper praxis. And, like the Virgin Mary, after a certain gestation process, eventually you will give birth to Jesus. God enters the world as the conclusion of a gestation process.We must live in such a way that we give birth to God in our lives."

He routinely urged me to check my own comfort zone, such as "Endeavor to constantly discern your motivation, that is, be suspicious when the glory of God and your own glory habitually harmonize" and "Enter into the vulnerability of Christ, into his unwillingness to protect himself against pain as he fulfills God's will."

I found his observations about the church and religion today on the mark. His work is very readable and yet I found myself rereading a passage over and over because of the succinct, sometimes gritty, penetrating message. He makes the point that the journey takes time, practice and an ever vigilant opening of your heart. An excellent book that you will read over and over again.

Editorial Review:

Celebrated Catholic Press Award-winner, Fr. Ronald Rolheiser knows how to make faith real and tangible for the contemporary reader. The Shattered Lantern invites us to rediscover that while not all seems well, or just, faith truly can make sense of it all.

The God We Never Knew: Beyond Dogmatic Religion to a More Authentic Contemporary Faith

Marcus J. Borg

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Total reviews: 47 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Answering the many "spiritual" questions left unaddressed by such popular historical bestsellers as a A History of God and God: A Biography, renowned author Marcus Borg reveals how to embrace an authentic contemporary faith that reconciles God with science, critical thinking and religious pluralism.

How to have faith--how to even think about God--without having to stifle modern rationality is one of the most vital challenges facing contemporary religion. In providing a much-needed solution to the problem of how to have a fully authentic yet fully contemporary understanding of God, Borg--author of the bestselling Meeting Jesus Again for the first Time--traces his personal journey. He leads readers from the all-powerful and authoritarian God of his (and their) childhood and traditional faith to an equally powerful but dynamic image of God that is relevant to contemporary seekers and more biblical and spiritually authentic. Borg shows how the modern crisis of faith is itself rooted in delusion--misinterpretation of biblical texts and of God's true nature--and challenges readers to a new way of thinking about God. He opens a practical discussion about how to base a relationship with the divine both immanent and transcendant, here and now, always and everywhere.

Arguing that the authentic Judeo-Christian tradition is that God's being includes the whole world, Borg persuasively shows how this understanding accounts for the whole variety of human religious experience. Ultimately, he introduces readers to a way of thinking about God who is "right here" all around them, rather than distant and remote. This understanding is more intellectually and spiritually satisfying and allows readers to reclaim a stronger sense of God's presence.

The Thirteen Petalled Rose: A Discourse On The Essence Of Jewish Existence And Belief

Adin Steinsaltz

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Total reviews: 15 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

From Madonna's music videos to the glossy pages of celebrity magazines and back to the Lower East Side of Manhattan, Jewish mysticism has stepped into the modern consciousness like never before. In this classic work, world-renowned scholar Adin Steinsaltz answers the major questions asked by modern Jews about the nature of existence in God's universe. The title The Thirteen Petalled Rose is taken from the opening of the classic Jewish text on mysticism, the Zohar, and refers to the "collective souls of the Jewish people," which scholars have likened to the fullness of a rose and its thirteen petals. Along with a new preface by the author, this edition contains a new chapter on prayer that provides the most up-to-date account of the Kabbalistic view of devotion. Another new chapter recounts and interprets the prophet Elijah's Introduction to the Zohar. "Steinsaltz possesses a mind of the quality that occurs perhaps once or twice in a generation, or several generations.... In [The Thirteen Petalled Rose] one can encounter the classical Jewish mystical view of reality, delineated lucidly, concisely, profoundly and, what is so rare, believingly. It is an utterly authentic expression of Judaism yet so unknown even among the well-informed and therefore so necessary, so welcome." (Herbert Weiner, Oxford University)

The Elementary Forms of Religious Life (Oxford World's Classics)

Emile Durkheim

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Total reviews: 10 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Surprisingly Modern 5 out of 5 stars.
5 of 5 people found this review helpful.

I've read Suicide and Division of Labor and was interested in a historical sort of way. Elementary Forms is positively shocking. Pages 8-18 and 433-48 will change your life. In those 25 or so pages he outlines a sociology of knowledge that presages the works of Mead, Berger, and the phenomenologists. He's 50 years ahead of Merleau-Ponty's great Phenomenology of Perception which treads over much of the same material. The rest of EFRL is interesting as well but if you read nothing else of Durkheim's read those pages. They completely reinvigorated the stuffy "father of sociology" I had known.

Editorial Review:

In The Elementary Forms of Religious Life (1912), Emile Durkheim sets himself the task of discovering the enduring source of human social identity. He investigates what he considered to be the simplest form of documented religion - totemism among the Aborigines of Australia. For Durkheim, studying Aboriginal religion was a way 'to yield an understanding of the religious nature of man, by showing us an essential and permanent aspect of humanity'. The need and capacity of men and women to relate to one another socially lies at the heart of Durkheim's exploration, in which religion embodies the beliefs that shape our moral universe. The Elementary Forms has been applauded and debated by sociologists, anthropologists, ethnographers, philosophers, and theologians, and continues to speak to new generations about the intriguing origin and nature of religion and society. This new, lightly abridged edition provides an excellent introduction to Durkheim's ideas.

The Future of an Illusion (Anchor Books)

Sigmund Freud

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Roger Schmeeckle Misrepresents Freud 5 out of 5 stars.
10 of 13 people found this review helpful.

In his 27 Feb 2006 review of Freud's The Future of an Illusion, Roger Schmeeckle misrepresents Freud's explanation (on pages 38-42 of this Norton publication) between Illusion and Delusion.

Roger correctly identified Freud's concept of Delusion as "something that is believed that is not true" -- but then oversimplifies by stating that Freud said an Illusion is "something that may be true or false, but is believed because we want to believe it."

This oversimplification ignores what Freud goes on to say, "Illusions need not be necessarily false - that is to say unrealizable or in contradiction to reality. For instance, a middle-class girl may have the illusion that a prince will come and marry her. This is possible; and a few such cases have occurred. That the Messiah will come is much less likely. Whether one classifies this belief as illusion or something analogous to delusion will depend on one's personal attitude."

The point being, that while the "absolute" truth or falsity of an illusion is debatable - common sense and reason enable us to infer or deduce where the truth actually lies. For instance, it IS possible that the Sun will rise in the west tomorrow (as I am unable to prove something false which has yet to occur), but I would be a fool and utterly devoid of reason and intellect to presume that it will occur.

Roger then asserts that Freud was "not so much atheistic as irreligious." That Freud was irreligious is certain (what atheist wouldn't be) -- but I do not understand how anyone can read The Future of an Illusion and not easily conclude that the author was a confirmed atheist. The entire work is a testament to atheism. Accordingly, it is absurd to suggest that because Freud does not simply state "I do not believe in God" there is reason to infer that he may have believed in one.

Roger continues by arguing that Freud had a "bias" or "prejudice" against religion, whereby Freud's "wish" for there to be no God led him into his own Illusions of atheism. This is quite a stretch and a distortion of Freud's dissertation -- which has at its core the fundamental assertion of reason and the power of the intellect to overcome humankind's infantile and primitive need for "wish fulfillment" in the form of a protective and benevolent God.

And in a final shot, Roger accusing Freud of being a prisoner of his times -- a subject of "materialistic determinism" -- and for not having investigated or being familiar with "the evidence and reasoning of those who defend their own religious belief."

Yet, that Freud was all too familiar with and understanding of the nature and roots of religious beliefs is the hallmark of The Future of an Illusion. That he might have been a "materialistic determinist" is unknown to me -- but that he was a genius as well as great "Humanist" with a profound regard for and understanding of the Human Race seems clear.

Editorial Review:

Of the various English translations of Freud's major works to appear in his lifetime, only one was authorized by Freud himself: The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud under the general editorship of James Strachey. Freud approved the overall editorial plan, specific renderings of key words and phrases, and the addition of valuable notes, from bibliographical and explanatory. Many of the translations were done by Strachey himself; the rest were prepared under his supervision. The result was to place the Standard Edition in a position of unquestioned supremacy over all other existing versions.

Newly designed in a uniform format, each new paperback in the Standard Edition opens with a biographical essay on Freud's life and work—along with a note on the individual volume—by Peter Gay, Sterling Professor of History at Yale.

Case for Faith, The

Lee Strobel

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Total reviews: 12 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Master of Strawmen 1 out of 5 stars.
3 of 6 people found this review helpful.

The premise of the book "The Case for Faith" seems to be an exploration of Biblical Christianity through its better-known proponents by a curious and impartial skeptic. Of course, that is not the case and it is only a dishonest marketing ploy to call it a journalistic investigation and a laughable ruse to say it is the toughest objections. There is an intentional and cleverly fashioned flow in the book through a sequence of interviews by a (supposedly skeptical) journalist in a deliberate progression. These interviews are used to persuade under the illusion of investigation as the author posed questions in a manner that could be dismantled by a clever apologist. Any of Strobel's questions of the apologists' theories are short and feeble they are strawmen. If you are a believer and want to feel more reassured, then you might find it here provided you don't apply critical thought. Also, if you are a believer - ask yourself if you want to support an author and marketing staff that distorts truth for gain. If you are not a believer, you would have to lack the ability to realize fallacious arguments and strawmen to be persuaded.

Editorial Review:

This eagerly anticipated sequel to Lee Strobel’s best-selling The Case for Christ finds the author investigating the nettlesome issues and doubts of the heart that threaten faith. Eight major topics are addressed including doubt, the problem of pain, and the existence of evil. Read by Dick Fredricks.

Integral Spirituality: A Startling New Role for Religion in the Modern and Postmodern World

Ken Wilber

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Total reviews: 31 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Integral Spirituality is being widely called the most important book on spirituality in our time. Applying his highly acclaimed integral approach, Ken Wilber formulates a theory of spirituality that honors the truths of modernity and postmodernity—including the revolutions in science and culture—while incorporating the essential insights of the great religions. He shows how spirituality today combines the enlightenment of the East, which excels at cultivating higher states of consciousness, with the enlightenment of the West, which offers developmental and psychodynamic psychology. Each contributes key components to a more integral spirituality.On the basis of this integral framework, a radically new role for the world’s religions is proposed. Because these religions have such a tremendous influence on the worldview of the majority of the earth’s population, they are in a privileged position to address some of the biggest conflicts we face. By adopting a more integral view, the great religions can act as facilitators of human development: from magic to mythic to rational to pluralistic to integral—and to a global society that honors and includes all the stations of life along the way.

Crisis of Conscience

Raymond Franz

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Total reviews: 115 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

One of the Most Enlightening Books I've Read 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 3 people found this review helpful.

This review is written specifically with Jehovah's Witnesses in mind.

I have been associated with the Jehovah's Witnesses organization for almost my entire life. I was raised by Witness parents, baptized in my late teens, and was a very active member (including being a pioneer and ministerial servant) for 7 years.

When I first learned of this book, my initial reaction was "I have little interest in reading the words of an apostate." Actually, I was afraid of being swayed by one man's "smooth words," a concern I'm sure all witnesses share. The organization regularly warns against reading apostate literature. In a way, this is good counsel, as the majority of "apostate literature" simply isn't worth reading. Far too often the writers employ abusive speech, lies, personal attacks, and one-sided presentations of the facts. Sadly, the writers often use their books as a thinly-disguised vehicle for promoting their newfound beliefs.

I can confidently say you will find none of this in Raymond Franz's book. Here are some of the outstanding qualities of "Crisis of Conscience:"

- A calm, objective, rational tone pervades the entire book. Franz's writing comes across as humble and never mean-spirited. I would describe his attitude toward his former brothers and sisters as "compassionate."

- Franz's treatment of the organization is fair and balanced. He's not interested in exaggerating the facts, painting the Watch Tower as some sort of evil, cultish, antichrist organization. At the beginning of one chapter he even commends the Watchtower and Awake magazines for promoting belief in a Creator, the Bible, and good family values.

- Franz displays a great concern for truth and accuracy. He is careful to never quote anything out of context, and if he doesn't know certain information, he says so. Nearly every statement made is accompanied by references, the vast majority of which come from the Society's own publications. The reader can then look up the material referenced in their own personal "theocratic library" or at their local Kingdom Hall.

- Franz's background fully qualifies him to write such a book. In one of the early chapters, he shares a history of his 40 years of service, during which time he served at every level of the organization, including 9 years on the Governing Body.


Franz did not write this book to "expose" or "get back at" the organization. As stated in his book, his many years of service gave him information to which the vast majority of Witnesses have absolutely no access. He felt bound by his conscience to provide this information to all witnesses and the general public, so that they may come to their own informed decision.

Whether you are a former, current, or prospective member of the Jehovah's Witness organization, read "Crisis of Conscience." After the Bible, it may be one of the most important books you'll ever read.