All Things Shining

Title: All Things Shining: Reading the Western Classics to Find Meaning in a Secular Age
Author: Hubert Dreyfus & Sean Dorrance Kelly
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
ISBN: 9781416596158

From the publisher: In unrelenting flow of choices confronts us at nearly every moment of our lives, and yet our culture offers us no clear way to choose. This predicament seems inevitable, but in fact it's quite new. In medieval Europe, God's calling was a grounding force. In ancient Greece, a whole pantheon of shining gods stood ready to draw an appropriate action out of you. Like an athlete in "the zone," you were called to a harmonious attunement with the world, so absorbed in it that you couldn't make a "wrong" choice. If our culture no longer takes for granted a belief in God, can we nevertheless get in touch with the Homeric moods of wonder and gratitude, and be guided by the meanings they reveal? All Things Shining says we can.

Hubert Dreyfus and Sean Dorrance Kelly illuminate some of the greatest works of the West to reveal how we have lost our passionate engagement with and responsiveness to the world. Their journey takes us from the wonder and openness of Homer's polytheism to the monotheism of Dante; from the autonomy of Kant to the multiple worlds of Melville; and, finally, to the spiritual difficulties evoked by modern authors such as David Foster Wallace and Elizabeth Gilbert.

Dreyfus, a philosopher at the University of California, Berkeley, for forty years, is an original thinker who finds in the classic texts of our culture a new relevance for people's everyday lives. His lively, thought-provoking lectures have earned him a podcast audience that often reaches the iTunesU Top 40. Kelly, chair of the philosophy department at Harvard University, is an eloquent new voice whose sensitivity to the sadness of the culture—and to what remains of the wonder and gratitude that could chase it away—captures a generation adrift.

Re-envisioning modern spiritual life through their examination of literature, philosophy, and religious testimony, Dreyfus and Kelly unearth ancient sources of meaning, and teach us how to rediscover the sacred, shining things that surround us every day. This book will change the way we understand our culture, our history, our sacred practices, and ourselves. It offers a new—and very old—way to celebrate and be grateful for our existence in the modern world.

Appalling Silence

Louisa says: This is not about politics, this is not even about religion, this is about education, this is about educating yourself against ignorance and fear. I am deeply disturbed by the number of Islamophobic remarks I have heard recently, all the more so as they were from people I sincerely believe should know better. After what this island has experienced in the recent past, we are the last people who should blithely attach a religious label to political or cultural practices we disagree with. This is especially true if we have not bothered to try to understand these political or cultural differences, or how they have morphed from the religious beliefs of their adherents.

It is easy and lazy to demonise those we do not understand; it takes courage to stand in the shoes of those we fear, of those we disagree with, of those we find repellent. It takes courage because we may find that they are not so scary, that we share common ground with them, that they are not really so very different after all, and that we should be ashamed for ever having thought otherwise. Have courage, educate yourself against fear, know when you are being lied to by those who would keep you scared and by sensationalist media, speak out against bigotry. If you say to me, "I hate the way Muslim men treat their women", I will challenge you - when was the last time you talked with a Muslim of either gender on the subject? If you say to me, "The Koran incites violence", you'd better have at least read the book.

What do you know of Islam? What do you know of Muslims? Do you understand more than the TV cable news? More than the attention-grabbing headlines? Below are three books by Karen Armstrong, the tip of the iceberg but a good place to start. For further reading, there are articles online and suggestions of books at www.islamfortoday.com, a site which began as "practical and theological information about Islam" by a Western convert who states in the introduction, "I consider it essential to make a clear distinction between, on the one hand, the theology and religion of Islam and, on the other, politics and terrorism involving Muslims who sometimes swathe their local culture or regional geopolitical concerns in the cloak of Islam."

Martin Luther King, Jr. said, "We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the vitriolic words and actions of the bad people, but for the appalling silence of the good people."

Title: Islam: A Short History
Author: Karen Armstrong
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 978-0-8129-6618-3

From the publisher: In the public mind, Islam is a religion of extremes: the world’s fastest-growing faith; more than three-quarters of the world's refugees are Islamic; it has produced government by authoritarian monarchies in Saudi Arabia and ultra-republicans in Iran. Whether we are reading about civil war in Algeria or Afghanistan, the struggle for the soul of Turkey, or political turmoil in Pakistan or Malaysia, the Islamic context permeates all these situations.

Karen Armstrong's elegant and concise book traces how Islam grew from the other religions of the book, Judaism and Christianity; introduces us to the character of Muhammed; and demonstrates that for much of its history, the religion has been a force for enlightenment that promoted liberties for women and allowed the arts and sciences to flourish. Islam shows how this progressive legacy is today often set aside as the faith struggles to come to terms with the economic and political weakness of most of its believers and with the forces of modernity itself.

No religion in the modern world is as feared and misunderstood as Islam. It haunts the popular imagination as an extreme faith that promotes terrorism, authoritarian government, female oppression, and civil war. In a vital revision of this narrow view of Islam and a distillation of years of thinking and writing about the subject, Karen Armstrong’s short history demonstrates that the religion is a much more complex phenomenon than its modern fundamentalist strain might suggest.

Title: Muhammad: A Biography of the Prophet
Author: Karen Armstrong
Publisher: Orion
ISBN: 9781842126080

From the publisher: Most people in the West know very little about the prophet Muhammad. The acclaimed religious writer Karen Armstrong has written a biography which will give us a more accurate and profound understanding of Islam and the people who adhere to it so strongly. Muhammad also offers challenging comparisons with the two religions most closely related to it - Judaism and Christianity.

Title: A History Of God
Author: Karen Armstrong
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 9780099273677

From the publisher: The idea of a single divine being - God, Yahweh, Allah - has existed for over 4, 000 years. But the history of God is also the history of human struggle. While Judaism, Islam and Christianity proclaim the goodness of God, organised religion has too often been the catalyst for violence and ineradicable prejudice. In this fascinating, extensive and original account of the evolution of belief, Karen Armstrong examines Western society's unerring fidelity to this idea of One God and the main conflicting convictions it engenders. A controversial, extraordinary story of worship and war, A History of God confronts the most fundamental fact - or fiction - of our lives.

Absence of Mind

Title: Absence of Mind
Author: Marilynne Robinson
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 9780300145182

From the publisher: In this ambitious book, acclaimed writer Marilynne Robinson applies her astute intellect to some of the most vexing topics in the history of human thought - science, religion, and consciousness. Crafted with the same care and insight as her award-winning novels, Absence of Mind challenges postmodern atheists who crusade against religion under the banner of science. In Robinson's view, scientific reasoning does not denote a sense of logical infallibility, as thinkers like Richard Dawkins might suggest. Instead, in its purest form, science represents a search for answers. It engages the problem of knowledge, an aspect of the mystery of consciousness, rather than providing a simple and final model of reality. By defending the importance of individual reflection, Robinson celebrates the power and variety of human consciousness in the tradition of William James. She explores the nature of subjectivity and considers the culture in which Sigmund Freud was situated and its influence on his model of self and civilization. Through keen interpretations of language, emotion, science, and poetry, Absence of Mind restores human consciousness to its central place in the religion-science debate.

Journey Into America

Title: Journey Into America: The Challenge of Islam
Author: Akbar Ahmed
Publisher: Thunder's Mouth Press
ISBN: 978-0-8157-0387-7

From the publisher: Nearly seven million Muslims live in the United States today, and their relations with non-Muslims are strained. Many Americans associate Islam with figures such as Osama bin Laden, and they worry about “homegrown terrorists.” To shed light on this increasingly important religious group and counter mutual distrust, renowned scholar Akbar Ahmed conducted the most comprehensive study to date of the American Muslim community. Journey into America explores and documents how Muslims are fitting into U.S. society, placing their experience within the larger context of American identity. This eye-opening book also offers a fresh and insightful perspective on American history and society.

Following up on his critically acclaimed Journey Into Islam: The Crisis of Globalization (Brookings, 2007), Ahmed and his team of young researchers traveled for a year through more than seventy-five cities across the United States—from New York City to Salt Lake City; from Las Vegas to Miami; from the large Muslim enclave in Dearborn, Michigan, to small, predominantly white towns like Arab, Alabama. They visited homes, schools, and over one hundred mosques to discover what Muslims are thinking and how they are living every day in America.

In this unprecedented exploration of American Muslim communities, Ahmed asked challenging questions: Can we expect an increase in homegrown terrorism? How do American Muslims of Arab descent differ from those of other origins (for example, Somalia or South Asia)? Why are so many white women converting to Islam? How can a Muslim become accepted fully as an “American”, and what does that mean? He also delves into the potentially sticky area of relations with other religions. For example, is there truly a deep divide between Muslims and Jews in America? And how well do Muslims get along with other religious groups, such as Mormons in Utah?

Journey into America is equal parts anthropological research, listening tour, and travelogue. Whereas Ahmed's previous book took the reader into homes, schools, and mosques in the Muslim world, his new quest takes us into the heart of America and its Muslim communities. It is absolutely essential reading for anyone trying to make sense of America today.

Louisa says: This video of the author talking to Jon Stewart on The Daily Show may not play outside of North America

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