Professor Jay Augustine has evoked a sense of reflection of ...
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Professor Jay Augustine has evoked a sense of reflection of the Civil Rights Movement with this book. As we acknowledge the 50th Anniversary of the movement, this book serves as a guide in understanding its legal effects, contributions, and remarkable establishment of history.  It would be an extraordinary read for all who possess an interest or influence on Civil Rights in America.

A.R. Cox
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Ronald Quillo is a professor of systematic theology, philosophy, and spirituality at the Oblate School of Theology in San Antonio, Texas.  He is also the author of&nbsp;<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Companions-in-Consciousness/dp/089243824X/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Companions in Consciousness</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Two-Cultures-of-Belief-The-Fallacy-of-Christian-Certitude-A-Systems-Approach/dp/0892438193/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Two Cultures of Belief: The Fallacy of Christian Certitude : A Systems Approach</a>.

Philip St. Romain writes in his Foreword to this 1995 book, "Very few times in the history of Christianity has the Church encountered systems of thought which significantly challenged and renewed her way of seeing things. One of these was the discovery of Greek philosophy... Another great encounter has barely begun. It is the meeting between Christianity and Eastern forms of religion and spirituality... The New Age movement is an attempt to process these spiritual waves that are crashing about us. What are Catholics to think about these encounters and the New Age movement? At one extreme are the archconservatives who feel very threatened by all of this... At the opposite extreme are the liberals who seem to compromise Catholic beliefs in their attempt to accommodate Catholicism to modern science and Eastern religions... (Quillo's book) avoids those two extremes. Ronald Quillo recognizes that there is much good in the New Age movement and much that is hazardous to one's faith."

Quillo writes in his Introduction, "This booklet about the New Age movement is written in a spirit of dialogue. Many Catholics today are curious yet wary of the movement. They appreciate help in understanding its principle features and knowing how these stand in light of Catholic teachings... The following discussion, though neither exhaustive nor the final word, intends to provide such assistance to Catholics and other interested persons." (Pg. 10)

Here are some additional quotations from the book:

"There are good reasons, therefore, for acknowledging that the New Age, with its characteristic reverence for divinity, shares much with those who believe in the God of Jesus Christ." (Pg. 15)
"Christians can, however, find certain elements of the New Age attractive---prayers or meditation, perhaps---and use them profitably without diminishing essential Christian beliefs and practices." (Pg. 16)
"The Bible gives little explicit advice regarding natural healing agents... We observe additional Christian uses of other elements like salt and oil; Catholics believe their power comes from divine influence rather than solely from their inherent capacities." (Pg. 31-32)
"Church teachings also assume that some persons enjoy the use of preternatural gifts or wondrous, God-given capabilities through which marvels occur... New Age interest in this subject, along with recent scientific advances, may entice Catholics and other Christians into a reexamination of this provocative dimension of the Church's heritage." (Pg. 48)
"Nevertheless, an extraordinary degree of unanimity exists between Catholic and New Age beliefs and practices. Catholics, therefore, may support and adopt any New Age supposition, perspective, and practice not at odds with Catholic teachings." (Pg. 59)
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Jaynes makes us go back to our origins. ancient ways of acting,belief systems, voices. He strings together ideas from many different disciplines, anthropology, psychology, archaeology,religion, neurology, theories of evolution, literature, science, technology, art, philosophy, psychiatry,and percolates them through his idea of consciousness. He defines consciousness, eliminating what it is not,sets it up as a time bound historical phenomenon, with a starting date. He percolates all the different disciplines of thought through his idea of consciousness. Consciousness is generated by our metaphorical use of language,which structures the world. It is by the generated structure of consciousness that we then understand the world. Consciousness parallels the physical-behavioural world we are conscious of. He does this all in a mellifluous style,using expressive language. People are so taken with this style they remark on it as much as the ideas expressed.

Scientific materialists and physical determinists are a little suspicious that they cannot weigh,measure, see the evidence, test all the ideas discussed. This master of metaphor has articulated from his own study of man something which cant be denied or demolished, it exists like Homers Odyssey or Iliad or the Bible, in that it paints a picture of mans evolution from 3000 years ago up to today,using the model of the bicameral mind. He controversially depicts religion as coming from divine revelation, and according to that theory, all divine revelation is based on auditory hallucinations. After religion, consciousness begins. Schizophrenia is a vestige of humanitys earlier bicameral state. What Im in awe of in this study is the depth and breadth and richness, like diving into a deep sea, there are no constricting nets, or the more you fish the more vitality pours out. What we have to ask ourselves is all this based on an illusion, have we been misled by the phenomenal traps of language into an ever expanding universe. Does he get consciousness right?

This book is strangely i) mesmeric and metaphorical and ii) strangely neglected and marginalised. The trouble with it's thesis of the idea of religion based on revelation by auditory hallucination is that we should according to science(the God Delusion) have bypassed it in the development of consciousness. But this book wants to inhabit the same rich hinterland of Homer's Iliad and Odyssey and the Bible, but they've been relegated to the rich heritage of our literature. By creating this book and his idea of consciousness, he has created the modern book to take their place. But we often leave such books on the shelf: we want precision and concision not expansion and enrichment. Those kinds of books have to compete with scientific discovery and theories that can be tested and proved. A book to read and reread, through the granaries of mental space consciousness inhabits
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Jasper College offers a totally new cutting edge class.  Richard Aldiss, a specialist in the great new novelist Paul Fallows, will be teaching a new course, Unraveling a Literary Mystery and only a select few will be chosen to participate.  There is only one hitch.  Aldiss was convicted for the murders of two female grad students so he will be conducting the class with video feed from his prison cell.  Aldiss encourages his students to solve the mystery of Paul Fallows, a man whose true identity is more smoke and mirrors than true biography.  The subject matter so inspires the students that their studies become a part of their lives.  Fifteen years later, the body of one of the class alumni is found chopped up with an axe surrounded by Fallows novels.  Now a Harvard professor, Alex Shipley, a woman who earlier solved Fallows identity as well as uncovering evidence that exonerated Aldiss of the earlier murders, wonders if somehow she made a mistake.  Can she use her knowledge of Paul Fallows and his novels to find the identity of the killer and prevent the murders of her classmates?

Will Lavender's academic thriller DOMINANCE takes literary studies to an Xtreme level.  In a narrative that alternates between past and present, the author allows readers to feel the excitement of the pursuit of literary studies, studies that become part of the inner life of the students as well as the later life of the characters.  Carefully interweaving past and present, Will Lavender parcels out clues in just the right measure to escalate the mystery and the edgy academic and psychological suspense.  Readers who have spent a large chunk involved in the pursuit of literary studies will find a certain humorous element as Will Lavender exaggerates certain familiar elements to thriller level.  The description of Jasper College couldn't help but remind me of my own small college and graduate degree program in one sense, although magnified quite a bit add an entirely creepy tone.  Even the literary exercise, The Procedure, could easily be a new form of literary theory extolled by the newest trends among academics.  Will Lavender creates a discomforting yet slightly humorous environment, a world both familiar and unfamiliar in degree, for the literary insider.

DOMINANCE keeps a reader on the edge of the seat with twists and turns to keep one guessing until the very shocking end.  One part of the maze opens to reveal another, puzzle upon puzzle.  Will Lavender blurs the boundaries between truth and literary game (a game that on one level seeks to reveal a different kind of truth), ramps up the level of competition between the players, all the while tying together intellectual choices and high stakes danger.  I enjoyed this thriller so much that I ordered his past work OBEDIENCE within hours of finishing the last page to save for reading while I eagerly await the author's next academic thriller.  Superb!

Courtesy of Book Illuminations
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I grew up as a young believer in the era where apologetics was not unlike a contact sport, beloved among a certain stream in the Church that was dedicated to scoring points in debates with opponents. I think the last apologetics book I tackled was Josh McDowells Evidence That Demands a Verdict.

The Morals of the Story by Liberty University philosophy professor David Baggett, and wife Marybeth Baggett, an English professor at Liberty, is not a book about scoring points, but about opening hearts. While this is an academic book targeting both students of philosophy and theology that assumes its audience possesses a base of knowledge about Western philosophy, it is not a dense, dry read. In fact, the touches of humor and the meaningful examples from contemporary life and classic literature make this an engaging volume. Moral apologetics is an approach to explaining and defending the Christian faith, leaning heavily on general revelation, defined in the book as what God has revealed about himself through nature and the human condition.

After laying a groundwork where they define terms and look at the history of moral apologetics before, during, and beyond the Twentieth Century, the Baggetts explore questions surrounding moral goodness, moral obligations, moral knowledge, moral transformation, and moral providence, with the goal of pointing readers to the God who has revealed himself to us in the Old and New Testament. While I do not have the academic background in philosophy to analyze their arguments, I can affirm that The Morals of the Story challenged me to consider the way in which I think about the world in which I live and the God Ive committed to serve. Plato said, An unexplored life is not worth living, and I would amend this to include the idea that an unexplored faith is not worth having. (In fact, I wonder if it is really faith at all.) The Baggetts challenge the readers to consider life and faith with questions and arguments that are well-constructed, respectful, and inviting.

Note: I received a review copy of this book from the publisher.
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Because Augustine's The City of God has been a companion for so many years, it's neither an adjunct nor an extension, but part of me, of my mind.

Whenever I read a book and feel disappointed by it'as for example: The Dante Club, by Matthew Pearl'I quickly pick up The City and read a few pages. My faith in good writing is then restored. Besides the wisdom one finds in his book (Augustine being a rhetorician), one finds sentences that flow and gurgle in a crystal stream of sheer magic.

That is not to say that it is a perfect book, for it contains some gross generalizations and prejudices as when he inveighs against Jews: "Indeed, a similar sign appeared when the Lord was crucified by the cruel and impious Jews."

To make his case (a defense of the charge that the Christian church caused the sack of Rome), Augustine deploys an arsenal of rhetorical weapons. And knowing he was writing a huge book, he made the writing athletic, quite acrobatic I'd say--never boring. To wit: "For evil has no nature of its own. Rather, it is the absence of good which has received name 'evil.'" Or,

  How much more honourable a thing is to believe that which was taught by holy and truthful angels; uttered by prophets inspired by the Spirit of God; proclaimed by Him Who was foretold as the coming Saviour by the messengers who went before Him; and preached by the apostles whom He sent forth, and who filled the whole world with His Gospel!

Why is The Dante Club boring? Because it is narrated with the pattern subject-verb-complement throughout. How long can a reader take of this annoying pattern before he puts the book down?

Well, while I only read 24 pages before I put The Dante Club book down never to pick it up again, I will go on reading The City'its 1,200 pages'a lifetime.
The writing techniques I employ in this article are all explained in Mary Duffy's writing manual:

[...] openers.com
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Curtis Chang's Engaging Unbelief: A Captivating Strategy from Augustine and Aquinas seeks to answer the challenges of postmodernism by applying the methodology of two giants in church history.

Chang demonstrates the rhetorical effectiveness of Augustine's City of God (400's A.D.) and Thomas Aquinas' Summa contra Gentiles (1260 A.D.) by showing how each theologian confronts the epochal threat of his generation. Chang outlines their apologetic strategy as follows:
 1. Enter the challenger's story.
 2. Retell the challenge's story.
 3. Capture the story in the wider story of Christianity by exposing the challenging story's "tragic flaw" or inadequacy.

Though Augustine and Aquinas faced different threats (Augustine's was a culture turning hostile to Christianity and Aquinas' was the rapid expansion of Islam), Chang argues that both utilized this method of apologetics. Of course, Chang does not leave us with history alone; he then shows how Christians can confront the arrival of postmodernism the same way.

Chang's book is not an easy read. Even as a student who loves church history, I found some of the historical details unnecessary. It would have been more helpful for Chang to intersperse advice for our current challenges within the biographical chapters, instead of simply bookending those chapters with the practical.

Still, there is much to be commended in Chang's work. He correctly identifies many of the problems of postmodernism, one of the features missing from many in the Emerging Church discussion.

Though he occasionally falls too far into the culture he is trying to reach (Is filmmaking really the key to reaching postmoderns? Is inerrancy a doctrine that can only arise in a modernist context, etc.?), Chang manages to strike a good balance between condemning everything about postmodernism and baptizing postmodernist thought in Christian lingo.

I would love to see a rewrite of this book because the world has changed substantially since it was published in 2000. Our collision with radical Islam on September 11 makes Aquinas' confrontation with Islam all the more compelling. And as our world continues to slip into a post-Christian state (with evangelicals waking up to the fact that there are two kingdoms that should not be confused) we would be wise to take another look at Augustine's testimony.
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This would be as definitive a close reading of this masterpiece as we might wish for. Yet to read it is not the end point: it's to practice what Augustine himself does - to Confess praise to one's Creator and so to know oneself a loved creature coram Deo!
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The author makes a refreshingly candid appraisal of how higher education, specifically Harvard College, has been dealing with critical issues affecting the lives and educations of undergraduates. In doing so, he exposes the hypocrisy of political correctness, the vapidity of "consumer oriented" higher education, and, above all, the smugly arrogant attitudes that are held by too many who direct today's institutions of higher learning.

Throughout, the writing is clear and often blunt. This book is especially fascinating in its explanations of the historical background that created many of today's policies and procedures at Harvard and elsewhere, and the cases examined are presented in a lively and interesting way. Lewis makes his points efficiently and effectively, provoking the reader's interest throughout.

This is a book that raises important questions about the overall purpose of higher education in a societal context. Perhaps there could have been a bit more argument as to why the production of thinking, conscientious citizens is so critical in today's world, but I suppose that goes beyond the scope of the book. Yet, if Harvard is indeed the trendsetter for academic policies in the 21st century - - as few of us would deny - - then all Americans should take time to reflect on Lewis's wisdom. There's a lot of important stuff here.
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Patrick Madden takes pride in the ability of the essayist to discover the "infinite suggestivesness of common things," and in Quotidiana, his first book of published essays, Madden receives from laughter, garlic, singing and other mundanity the inspiration to launch forth and explore the complexities of science and math, the mystery of mortality and divinity, and the sweetness of friendships and families. Along the way, Madden invites the reader to share with him in his experiences and to join with him in discovering the wonders of life.

 Although at times I found Madden's forays into history or theoretical physics a little tedious, what kept me hooked to his essays were their sincerity and intimacy. After reading the eleven essays in Quotidiana, I felt like I knew Madden's family and his friends, his interests (Rush and all things Spanish or Latin) and his sense of humor; more importantly, I became acquainted with his questions and his fears, his weaknesses and his hopes.

 The two strongest essays in Quotidiana show up in the middle of the book, one right after the other. "Gravity and Distance" is a commentary on the "difference between theory and practice," and I felt emotionally drained (but in a good way) after reading Madden's list of "things I don't want to think about" and his heart-wrenching account of his son's surgery shortly after birth.  "Panis Angelicus" traces the relationships between Madden and his direct-line ancestors, and I can't imagine anyone reading this essay without feeling an enormous sense of debt to those who have gone before us and made our lives possible through their love, work, and sacrifice.

 Madden writes best when he writes of his family and his personal life, and if there were any way he could improve as an essayist, I think it would be by dwelling less time on external topics of interest and more time on his personal and internal familial life. That's not to say I would have him do away with his little curiosity-driven research journeys--on the contrary, I think they are essential--but I would have him devote less of his essay space to such journeys (I would cut out a lot of "Remember Death," for example).

 That said, I would not hesitate to recommend Quotidiana to anyone seeking an enlightening, uplifting, and amusing read.
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A country-boy-come-to-town who tries to make his mark on secular society while enjoying himself as much as possible winds up an ascetic philosopher/theologian who shapes the course of Western thought for the next several centuries.  A profound thinker with a talent for poetic prose, St. Augustine was a prolific writer.  More of his writings survive than of any other ancient author.

The book is small, but don't let the size fool you--the typeface is also small.  Chadwick crams more information onto fewer pages than you could think possible.  The typeface and the dense content lend themselves to a rather tedious reading experience, but the reward is well worth the effort.

Augustine's thought is placed in the context of contemporary society, and the reader learns of the little-known Manichee and Donatist heresies.  The way the ancient Church dealt with the Donatist heresy stands in stark contrast to the way the medieval Church dealt with heretics.

Chadwick, of course, discusses the "Confessions" and "The City of God," but he does not neglect Augustine's other writings, taking pains to point out how indebted Augustine was to the Old Testament and the Classical authors (Cicero in particular) for his language, but not his ideas.  It is ironic that Cicero, such a mediocre philosopher, had such a profound effect on St. Augustine, such a towering figure in the fields of philosophy and religion.
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The book is full of provocative insights. While some are familiar with alchemy, the common knowledge is usually limited to the idea that alchemy was a magical quest to turn lead into gold. Woodward leads us to understand how alchemy was much more than that, "an important contributing factor in the development of modern chemistry and experimental science." In this work Woodward shows how Winthrop's alchemical knowledge, and connections emanating from his participation in the Royal Society, empowered him locally, as a favored Connecticut governor, and at the Royal Court in England.

Combining religion, metallurgy, healing, an entrepreneurial spirit and political will, Woodward is able to enlighten the reader with how those elements intertwine. Winthrop's efforts to found a NEW London was an attempt to create an outpost of scientific research in the wilderness.

Winthrop's knowledge and authority as a political leader gave him the power to put a brake on witchcraft trials in Connecticut -- while he was in the colony.

Too frequently our view of colonial New England culture is limited to puritans as religious zealots locked in a battle with the wilderness. This book jostles that outlook placing a proto-scientific lens on that world and placing Connecticut's early history within the framework of an Atlantic World Economy. All too often, historians have assumed Connecticut was just like Massachusetts; this work challenges that concept giving us new insight to the past, our local past. This book shines a bright light on southeastern Connecticut.
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The appeal of the Episcopal Church once was that intellectual was not a dirty word. Questioning Revealed Truth was what we were taught to do in Seminary, and once it was common - people came for the liturgy, but also to be challenged by controversial ideas.

This story of an open skeptic finding a home in Jim Adams' lively parish on Capitol Hill in Washington D.C. is a celebration of that liberating spirit. The stories are funny and warm and hopefuland well worth the read.

Sadly, the culture of intellectual openness is fading away as the Episcopal Church turns ever more inward to obsess on power struggles between fundamentalist and gender rights extremists instead struggling with the underlying theology.  Kelly's book may be a last hurrah memoir for what once was.
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Now I understand why the writings of Augustine are so popular. Here he paints a clear inspired picture of early days in the Church, and what it meant to be a Christian in those days. He explained in a way I really enjoyed, the thoughts of notable philosophers like Plato, Varro etc & outlining what wisdom was given to them, where some erred with their disjointed acceptance of the plethora of gods, and finally making the comparison and rightful case for the one true God and Savior Jesus Christ.
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I started following Peter Rollins' work after his visit to Rob Bell's Mars Hill Bible Church in 2010.  In this work, he draws to the surface our subconscious attitudes toward God and Christianity, drawing on many of his themes in talks and essays.  The book goes well beyond these individual themes into a call for us to wake up to our acceptance of cultural Christianity and a me-centered God and, after having woken up, to act from that place in our lives.

As I read this book, I had to take time to asses how I was intellectually accepting these concepts without letting them impact me in any real way.  That is where I see the greatest power of this book: not as a critique of the Christianity of others, but as a tool to check my own self-justification.  As such this book is as difficult and life-altering as I allowed it to be.

If this sort of self critique is new to you, I suggest reading one chapter at a time, slowly, with time to process what has happened in between readings. Allowing the book to read oneself in this way opens up the intellectual discourse into a mode of living authentically.

Having allowed the ideas of this book to bring me into living Resurrection, I encourage you to immerse yourself in the Insurrection.
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Dr. Williams is an unusual teacher and author.  In this work, he is able to accept key elements of would be opponents and make those elements his own.  And not only does he borrow from the opposition, he sells his own side on the idea that they should do so as well.  It is a rare individual who can so skillfully pull off such a feat.  It is an honest scholar who is willing to make the attempt to face the assumptions and challenges of his own side.  Much more so when the topics have more than 500 years of religious history as baggage.

Dr. Williams not only makes one of the best cases for the importance of searching the scriptures within the context of the traditions of the church fathers, he is also able to calm the fears of his fellow Protestants by taking them into that view demonstrating a great gift of diplomacy toward both Protestant and Catholic.  Catholics will find little with which to disagree in this work and may find themselves cheering Dr. Williams  on.  But, they should not become too excited in that, in the end, Dr. Williams still insists on retaining certain Protestant distinctives, though he shies from defining too narrowly what they may be.  Protestants may wonder if Dr. Williams has not already joined the opposition, yet they will find it difficult to deny the logic and historical analysis he brings to bear on the issues.  For instance, his analysis of the "fallen Church" paradigm, wherein the claim is made that at some point after the Apostles the church fell into gross corruption and needed replacement rather than reform, is one of the most challenging this reviewer has seen.  His conclusions that the fallen church paradigm is dubious at best will likely have a ripple effect through Protestant circles for some time.

As Protestants attempt to find their roots, they have a ready and gifted guide in Dr. Williams.  This, along with his other works, can go a long way toward healing the wounds of the reformation.  They will also go a long way to giving his Protestant brothers and sisters deeper roots in the ancient faith from which they seem to have jettisoned too soon in the heated debates of the past 500 years.  Dr. Williams' work cannot be too highly recommended for both Catholics and Protestants.
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Acharya Rita M. Gross invites a look into the identity of self and others and the nature of interaction with regard to religious affiliation. The author's disposition is nondualistic and Buddhist.

The book opens with a personal experience when Acharya Rita was a college student at age 21. It energized a lifelong career and this book. It also fuels the reading experience: we want to see how the one time college student ends up processing the experience and expressing herself decades and many accomplishments later.

The main thesis is that religious diversity could be viewed as natural as diversity in nature or art and as expectable. She writes, "It seems like sheer nonsense to imagine there could be One True Poem. It would be very helpful if people were equally skeptical about One True Religion."

Two other major theses follow: that exclusive truth claims are harmful, of no benefit to the larger populace, and could easily be dropped without affecting one's religious life.

Also, that when religious and political authority merge and unite, the population could be harmed.

"State neutrality - nonduality - gives space for both proreligious and antireligious factions to make their arguments and to flourish.  ... I can think of no point that, when understood, contributes more to flourishing with religious diversity in a multireligious state," Gross writes.

The development of these themes brings the reader into the perspectives of nonduality and Buddhist teachings. This book is a good way to learn about Buddhism!

I would like to introduce the little-known term diunitality, or diunital consciousness (or diunital thinking, diunital view) as an alternative to the terms neutrality or nonduality when it comes to speaking of a world view that means two and one at the same time. In the diunital world view, opposite qualities -- e.g., right and wrong, Christian and Islamic, left wing and right wing -- remain along with an understanding and a knowing that transcends those opposites. The blogger Agabond writes, "In diunital thinking you see things in their fullness, as being independent and equal. Different does not mean unequal. Different is just different."

This is an academic book that anyone can appreciate and enjoy, especially those investigating their true human nature while working toward a community or world consisting of healthy interactions among people of all inclinations: the religious, the anti-religious, and the non-religious.