Does the business of daily living distance us from life's mysteries? Do most Americans value spiritual thinking more as a hobby than as an all-encompassing approach to life? Will the concept of the soul be defunct after the next few generations? Child psychiatrist and best-selling author Robert Coles offers a profound meditation on how secular culture has settled into the hearts and minds of Americans. This book is a sweeping essay on the shift from religious control over Western society to the scientific dominance of the mind. Interwoven into the story is Coles's personal quest for understanding how the sense of the sacred has stood firm in the lives of individuals--both the famous and everyday people whom he has known--even as they have struggled with doubt.
As a student, Coles questioned Paul Tillich on the meaning of the "secular mind," and his fascination with the perceived opposition between secular and sacred intensified over the years. This book recounts conversations Coles has had with such figures as Anna Freud, Karen Horney, William Carlos Williams, Walker Percy, and Dorothy Day. Their words dramatize the frustration and the joy of living in both the secular and sacred realms. Coles masterfully draws on a variety of literary sources that trace the relationship of the sacred and the secular: the stories of Abraham and Moses, the writings of St. Paul, Augustine, Kierkegaard, Darwin, and Freud, and the fiction of George Eliot, Hardy, Meredith, Flannery O'Connor, and Huxley. Ever since biblical times, Coles shows us, the relationship between these two realms has thrived on conflict and accommodation.
Coles also notes that psychoanalysis was first viewed as a rival to religion in terms of getting a handle on inner truths. He provocatively demonstrates how psychoanalysis has either been incorporated into the thinking of many religious denominations or become a type of religion in itself. How will people in the next millennium deal with advances in chemistry and neurology? Will these sciences surpass psychoanalysis in controlling how we think and feel? This book is for anyone who has wondered about the fate of the soul and our ability to seek out the sacred in our constantly changing world.
"Coles . . . is one of those rare writers who can gracefully combine intellectual rigor with the idiom of spiritual quest. . . . [T]his is a potent and powerful work readers will think about and return to again and again."--Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"Indeed, Coles writes that the idea of even looking for knowledge--comprehension of the world--is a hallmark of the secular, scientific mind. Flannery O'Connor once remarked that 'mystery is a great embarrassment to the modern mind.' Science seeks explanations for everything, from the history of the universe to the history of the tapeworm.". . . .The Secular Mind, happily, does not live up to its title: it is not a secular, scientific study but a porous, open reflection--with answers that are incomplete. But the answers are satisfying and refreshing because they are incomplete."--David Grayson, San Francisco Bay Guardian
"This book poses gripping existential questions elegantly. The writing invites general readers."--The Virginia Quarterly Review
"This book is well written and quite readable at all levels. . . . Reading it is a delightful and stimulating experience."--Choice
"Coles is tough-mindedly open to inspiration wherever it may be found. He begins by addressing the secular mind's relationship with its opposite-the sacred-and finishes with a turn toward self-exploration. Throughout, Coles is admirably alert to the costs of both worldviews."--Bob Reeder, Boston Review
"It's a pleasure to be in the presence of a man so smart and yet still capable of being rendered speechless by a student's sincere philosophical concerns. There are no conclusions here, but following Coles's considerations is worth the effort."--Ron Charles, The Christian Science Monitor
"This work is the product of a wise man sincerely asking up to rethink our basic values. Coles' style is casual and meditative; his book almost reads like a journal. Readers from a variety of disciplines will appreciate Coles' work."--Laju M. Balani, Journal of Church and State
Diablo Iii: la Orden
Pack Edt: Fullmoon Vol. 2 a 7
El Arte de la Guerra
Parker 03: el Golpe