More One Minute Nonsense (Campion Book)

Rating:
Summary: Tired of Heavy Duty Religion Books?
Review: Anthony de Mello's books generally fall into three groups - guided meditations; cross-cultural, interreligious, traditional teaching tales; and sayings of the Master in context. This book falls into the second category - traditional teaching tales. Fr. de Mello has categorized the stories into seven chapters: spirituality, education, authority, human nature, relationships, service and enlightment. Most of the stories are told without any "editorial" comments i.e. the author trusts the power of story. The selection is excellent coming from a wide variety of traditions and ages.

An example: "When the preacher returned to the Good News theme the Master interrupted him: 'What sort of Good News is it,' he asked, 'that makes it so easy to go to hell and so hard to get to heaven?'" Please recall that it is a Catholic priest who wrote this book.

You can read the book straight through and get a lot of laughs or you can read it as intended, pondering the stories and risking having your life changed. The latter is the intend of the author.

Rating:
Summary: Trusting the story
Review: Anthony de Mello's books generally fall into three groups - guided meditations; cross-cultural, interreligious, traditional teaching tales; and sayings of the Master in context. This book falls into the second category - traditional teaching tales. Fr. de Mello has categorized the stories into seven chapters: spirituality, education, authority, human nature, relationships, service and enlightment. Most of the stories are told without any "editorial" comments i.e. the author trusts the power of story. The selection is excellent coming from a wide variety of traditions and ages.

An example: "When the preacher returned to the Good News theme the Master interrupted him: 'What sort of Good News is it,' he asked, 'that makes it so easy to go to hell and so hard to get to heaven?'" Please recall that it is a Catholic priest who wrote this book.

You can read the book straight through and get a lot of laughs or you can read it as intended, pondering the stories and risking having your life changed. The latter is the intend of the author.

Rating:
Summary: Tired of Heavy Duty Religion Books?
Review: I've been reading deMello's books for 25 years, and they always delight. No weighty theology, no preaching, just a little tickle here and there to make you laugh. And sometimes grimace, too, as the following story illustrates:

"When a visitor announced he was leaving because he couldn't take another word the Master said, an older disciple was sympathetic. "I know how you must feel," he said. "For years I avoided the man because his words were like crates that shipped rampaging wild beasts straight from the jungle into my tidy little garden. I would much, much rather have gone to preachers whose words shipped neat white bones from one graveyard to another."

Yes, Anthony deMello was a Catholic priest, deceased now, but his books are not encouraged for the instruction of the faithful. The distinctions between Christianity and Hindu/Buddhist thought is often blurred, and his writings as a whole smack of New Age. Yet no one ever disputes that he personally was a holy man. Is there a contradiction here? Personally, I enjoy struggling with the rampaging beasts...

Rating:
Summary: Not one second of nonsense!
Review: With this outstanding book on wisdom and spirituality, de Mello demonstrates once again his incredible writing talent. Read it and let yourself "enlighten"...