Wandering God: A Study in Nomadic Spirituality

Rating:
Summary: Wonderous Wandering
Review: ...then I would highly recommend that you read "Maps of Meaning" by Jordan B Peterson.

Rating:
Summary: Wonderous Wandering
Review: A paradigm addict's worst nightmare, "Wandering God" eschews everything from the intellectual dishonesty of Deconstructionism to the reassuring but ultimately flawed cross-cultural Comparativism of modern-day idols, Joseph Campbell and Carl Jung.

Third in his trilogy on Human Consciousness, W.G. is Berman's leanest and most densely packed argument so far. The book abounds with scintillating insights on diverse subjects, such as the role that child-rearing has on modern life, and boldly rejects the conventional thesis that Ludwig Wittgenstein's "lost years" were actually so. What on this good green Earth do these two subjects have in common? More than you think.

But this brief and quixotic description is putting the cart before the proverbial horse.

Berman's main focus is in articulating the difference between traditional hunter-gatherer and sedentary consciousnesses, how both are part of our common heritage, and how vestiges of the former (horizontal, paradoxical) collide with the dominant zeitgeist of the latter (vertical, power-driven).

Many have been attracted to this book by the Idries Shah-like cover, a desert caravan image, or lulled into thinking W.G. is another in the endless junkpile of New Age tomes with the word "spirituality" in its sub-title. Those of us who know Berman's work can already see beyond the lamentable dust-jacket design. "Wandering God" moves adroitly across precise, scientific vistas into uncharted terrain - the depths of the human mind and body. By the book's end, one has witnessed, and participated in, the eruption of an intellectual volcano.

Some reviewers have been put off by Berman's unwillingness to neatly package and tie off his theses, and stake his academical prize. But that just confirms what Berman claims about the vertical, ascent underpinnings of modern human life, which are driven by a need to conquer and achieve, be it political power or mental/spiritual proselytizing.

This book is highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: Fantastic
Review: I've always been interested in how events and changes at the level of individual humans contribute to events and changes in society as a whole. Berman does an amazing job of linking together various spheres of human experience (economics, politics, food, psychology, child-rearing) in a coherent way to explain some of the most basic steps in the evolution of human society. This book's extremely thought-provoking and definitely a keeper.

Rating:
Summary: Should be a classic of Western Philosophy
Review: If you know Dr. Berman by way of The Twilight of American Culture, hit the reset button, for this is a far different animal. This book is his current masterpiece. The thesis here is far too complex for summary, but suffice to say that it is forcefully argued and thoroughly researched. I imagine that this work is less popular with academic philosophers, psychologists, and anthropologists than it perhaps should be for several subjective reasons. Its central argument is based on Freud's concept of the self, which has become deeply unfashionable in recent years. Also, Berman offers an iconoclastic interpretation of Wittgenstein that steps on the toes of quite a few important philosophical thinkers. You'll also find elements of Camus' concept of absurdity and William James' pragmatism (i.e. truth, independent of empirical evidence, is what "works" rather than what "is"), though I don't believe the similarities are intentional. The author has a tendency to bend the evidence to his conclusions and can, at times, piece elements of others' works into a collage of quotations and statements that appears to offer little original thought, but those cases are exceptional rather than the rule.

All in all, it's difficult to come away from this book unconvinced. It's difficult to read it and not think that Dr. Berman has his fingers (and mind) on the truth.

Rating:
Summary: Should be a classic of Western Philosophy
Review: If you know Dr. Berman by way of The Twilight of American Culture, hit the reset button, for this is a far different animal. This book is his current masterpiece. The thesis here is far too complex for summary, but suffice to say that it is forcefully argued and thoroughly researched. I imagine that this work is less popular with academic philosophers, psychologists, and anthropologists than it perhaps should be for several subjective reasons. Its central argument is based on Freud's concept of the self, which has become deeply unfashionable in recent years. Also, Berman offers an iconoclastic interpretation of Wittgenstein that steps on the toes of quite a few important philosophical thinkers. You'll also find elements of Camus' concept of absurdity and William James' pragmatism (i.e. truth, independent of empirical evidence, is what "works" rather than what "is"), though I don't believe the similarities are intentional. The author has a tendency to bend the evidence to his conclusions and can, at times, piece elements of others' works into a collage of quotations and statements that appears to offer little original thought, but those cases are exceptional rather than the rule.

All in all, it's difficult to come away from this book unconvinced. It's difficult to read it and not think that Dr. Berman has his fingers (and mind) on the truth.

Rating:
Summary: Berman's Best Yet
Review: Morris Berman has had a profound effect on my thinking during the past decade. "Wandering God," I've concluded, after long deliberation, is my favorite of all of his books. I shied away from it at first because of my aversion to books with the word spirituality in the title. The term is used so often and in so many ways that I'm never certain what it means. I should have know better in Berman's case. This is a fascinating read, and it raises questions about the history of consciousness which should have been aired decades ago, were it not for the tendency of scholarship to converge into group-think. One thing for sure, Berman is always out in front, ahead of the group. His complete confidence and maturity of thought enables him to lay out paragraph after paragraph of serious thought and then wrap it up with a personal statement that shows he respects the reader more than the institutions that rein over serious subject matter. If you want to read something that will give you food for thought for years to come, read "Wandering God."

Rating:
Summary: Go Horizontal, Not Vertical
Review: Morris Berman's masterful book, Wandering God, argues that humakind lost its way once agriculture and sedentary life styles set in. Even though humans have the same brains and bodies that characterized their prehistoric ancestors, they worship a vertical god (in the "heavens") and arrange their societies in vertical hierarchies. Berman touts the advantages of horizontal, egalitatarian relationships and spiritual practices, even though it necessitates living in the paradoxes that come with self-awareness. Although he depends too much on the Freudian notion of "infantile attachment" to make his case, Berman's message is provocative and visionary.