Newest Spirituality and Religion Reviews
Have a Little Faith by Mitch Albom
One day, Mitch Albom's eighty-two year old rabbi asks him to write his eulogy. Thinking that he must be close to death Albom reluctantly agrees, but decides to meet with 'the Reb' to try to get to know him better as a man first. What then develops is an eight year friendship as Albom continues to regularly meet with the Reb, who was obviously stronger than he looked, discussing life and religion and death and love. At the same time Mitch becomes involved with a pastor in Detroit called Henry, a reformed drug dealer, who is preaching from an old, run-down church with no power, no heat and a hole in its roof. Albom relates the Reb's story, and thoughts on life, against the back drop of the struggling Henry, querying issues like forgiveness, doubt and faith. Full review...
Destiny Disrupted: A History of the World Through Islamic Eyes by Tamim Ansary
I enjoyed history at school and whilst we didn't always work our way through it chronologically I came, over time, to have a working knowledge of the ancient Egyptians, Greeks and Romans. I knew about the rise of Christianity and spoke knowledgeably about medieval England, the Renaissance and the Reformation but was perhaps less taken by the Industrial Revolution and all that followed. I was au fait with the east but it was mainly from the perspective of exploration – or even exploitation. It was an education based on the virtues of the solid, white, English, Christian middle classes and it completely ignored histories from the perspective of other religions. Full review...
Immortal Longings: F.W.H. Myers and the Victorian Search for Life After Death by Trevor Hamilton
Born in 1843, Frederic Myers began his career as a classical lecturer at Cambridge University, but disliked teaching and soon gave it up in favour of writing poetry and essays in literature. Although his social circle included men such as Gladstone, Ruskin, Tennyson, Browning and Prince Leopold, the most intellectual of Queen Victoria's sons, his books (which are not so well remembered today) might have been his sole claim to fame, had it not been for his passionate curiosity about the meaning of human life. If it had a purpose, he was convinced, it could only be discovered through the study of human experiences. Full review...
On Kindness by Adam Phillips and Barbara Taylor
As a title, On Kindness doesn't pack quite the same punch as Adam Phillip's earlier: 'On Kissing, Tickling and Being Bored'. It put me in mind of an eighteenth century treatise, and, give or take a couple of centuries, that is exactly what the book provides: a thought-provoking exposition on a currently unfashionable virtue. Full review...