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Rating: 
Summary: Breathtaking!
Review: Jay McDaniel does the near impossible with this long awaited book on spirituality: he manages to speak to our minds, our souls, our hearts, and our culture in one integrated, beautiful work. He speaks from the perspective of a Christian process theology which lends itself both to the mystical beauty of the contemplative movement and all the loving kindness of Buddhism. His critique of our consumer culture does not end with what's wrong, but offers an alternative that is rich, compelling, and Christian in the best sense of the word. I found his original, imaginative language to describe God (e.g.Open Space, The Freshness Deep Down, Sacred Whole)refreshing in a world of burned out images and buzz words. Like looking at piece of art, there were breathless moments in the reading of this book. A true masterpiece in the field of spirituality!
Rating:
Summary: Breathtaking!
Review: Jay McDaniel does the near impossible with this long awaited book on spirituality: he manages to speak to our minds, our souls, our hearts, and our culture in one integrated, beautiful work. He speaks from the perspective of a Christian process theology which lends itself both to the mystical beauty of the contemplative movement and all the loving kindness of Buddhism. His critique of our consumer culture does not end with what's wrong, but offers an alternative that is rich, compelling, and Christian in the best sense of the word. I found his original, imaginative language to describe God (e.g.Open Space, The Freshness Deep Down, Sacred Whole)refreshing in a world of burned out images and buzz words. Like looking at piece of art, there were breathless moments in the reading of this book. A true masterpiece in the field of spirituality!
Rating: 
Summary: Not Buddism, not Christianity. What is it?
Review: The author is obviously quite heavily influenced by Buddhism. He
often mentions, for example, what are in Buddhism
called "The Three Poisons": greed, anger and delusion.
You want to stay away from them. But he certainly doesn't push Buddhism. His main aim
seems to be to add meditation practices to
Christianity--which for many Christian contemplatives,
have always been present--and that makes perfect
sense. Trying to be more present with one's children
and spouse, slower to anger, more responsive and less
reactive--those aren't really "Buddhist" in any sense
other than Buddhism stresses meditation, which is the
main instrument to attain those goals. So it's not
really a Buddhist book, but rather a meditation book
for Christians, perhaps (with lots of politics thrown
in). His anti-consumerist argument seems, from a Buddhist
point of view, rather beside the point. We can get
caught up in all sorts of stuff that isn't good for
us. Compulsive shopping is a problem because it's
compulsive, not because it's shopping. Granted,
television pushes consumerism, but then the problem is
really one of watching too much TV. As for the
economics in the book, I wasn't impressed. All that
"community-owned businesses" stuff is fine for us
middle-class folks, for example. But I guarantee that
when the poor people want to buy cheap clothes for
their kids they don't care whether WalMart is a
multi-national or a multi-vitamin: they want cheap
clothes. And locally owned businesses don't tend to
provide that; that's why they keep going out of
business. So he should stick to theology. My big question: just where is the Christianity in the
book? That is, it doesn't seem to be really a
Buddhist book OR a Christian book. He seems to be
trying to make up his own religion as he goes along,
without really telling us what to do with the old
religion, or, really, what the new religion has to do
with Christianity. He says several times that he is a "recovering
Fundamentalist," which seemed a gratuitous insult, but
that's not my main complaint. If he's not a
literalist, then what is he? If the Bible is not
meant to be read literally, then how should we read
it? How are we supposed to read, say, the
Resurrection? That's the obvious big question, and he
never really addresses it. Okay, let's not read the
scriptures literally. But then what? You don't want
to end up with some watered-down, cafeteria-tray meal
of Christianity (or Buddhism--I'm wrestling with this
myself), so what does one do? He doesn't even start
to address that. I'm not being fair, perhaps, because
that's a big theological question, but he seems to
open himself up for just that criticism. So he
jettisons rather crucial aspects of Christianity (God,
for example), without replacing them with much other
than meditation practice. If I had written the book--the inevitable six words in any review--I would have said something like this.
"Be a Fundamentalist. Be whatever type of Christian
you want. But you can benefit from these meditation
practices and principles." I'm cheating, because that's pretty much what the Dalai Lama says.
Rating:
Summary: Not Buddism, not Christianity. What is it?
Review: The author is obviously quite heavily influenced by Buddhism. He
often mentions, for example, what are in Buddhism
called "The Three Poisons": greed, anger and delusion.
You want to stay away from them. But he certainly doesn't push Buddhism. His main aim
seems to be to add meditation practices to
Christianity--which for many Christian contemplatives,
have always been present--and that makes perfect
sense. Trying to be more present with one's children
and spouse, slower to anger, more responsive and less
reactive--those aren't really "Buddhist" in any sense
other than Buddhism stresses meditation, which is the
main instrument to attain those goals. So it's not
really a Buddhist book, but rather a meditation book
for Christians, perhaps (with lots of politics thrown
in). His anti-consumerist argument seems, from a Buddhist
point of view, rather beside the point. We can get
caught up in all sorts of stuff that isn't good for
us. Compulsive shopping is a problem because it's
compulsive, not because it's shopping. Granted,
television pushes consumerism, but then the problem is
really one of watching too much TV. As for the
economics in the book, I wasn't impressed. All that
"community-owned businesses" stuff is fine for us
middle-class folks, for example. But I guarantee that
when the poor people want to buy cheap clothes for
their kids they don't care whether WalMart is a
multi-national or a multi-vitamin: they want cheap
clothes. And locally owned businesses don't tend to
provide that; that's why they keep going out of
business. So he should stick to theology. My big question: just where is the Christianity in the
book? That is, it doesn't seem to be really a
Buddhist book OR a Christian book. He seems to be
trying to make up his own religion as he goes along,
without really telling us what to do with the old
religion, or, really, what the new religion has to do
with Christianity. He says several times that he is a "recovering
Fundamentalist," which seemed a gratuitous insult, but
that's not my main complaint. If he's not a
literalist, then what is he? If the Bible is not
meant to be read literally, then how should we read
it? How are we supposed to read, say, the
Resurrection? That's the obvious big question, and he
never really addresses it. Okay, let's not read the
scriptures literally. But then what? You don't want
to end up with some watered-down, cafeteria-tray meal
of Christianity (or Buddhism--I'm wrestling with this
myself), so what does one do? He doesn't even start
to address that. I'm not being fair, perhaps, because
that's a big theological question, but he seems to
open himself up for just that criticism. So he
jettisons rather crucial aspects of Christianity (God,
for example), without replacing them with much other
than meditation practice. If I had written the book--the inevitable six words in any review--I would have said something like this.
"Be a Fundamentalist. Be whatever type of Christian
you want. But you can benefit from these meditation
practices and principles." I'm cheating, because that's pretty much what the Dalai Lama says.
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