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Religious Book Store > Religious books beginning with D
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The Death of Religion and the Rebirth of Spirit: A Return to the Intelligence of the Heart |
Author: Joseph Chilton Pearce
Published: 2007-03-02 |
List price: $22.95
Our price: $15.61
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As of: January 09th, 2009 05:31:28 PM
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Customer comments on this selection.
 Another Incomphresenible tome
His cosmic egg cracked long ago. Incomprehensible gibberish here, that contributes nothing to the world of thought. One star for getting it published!
 Waking Up
I have followed Pierce's work for decades. This book and his preceeding one, The Biology of Trancendence clearly shows us that we are simply the products of our cultural beliefs. Yet we can begin to see through the veil without blame, shame, or guilt and do it differently. The book made me want to reparent my four children yet understanding that I was so imprinted by the culture I couldn't have done it differently. Choosing to restory our lives & assist our children to parent our grandchildren differently is crucial if we are ever to break the cycle of war and violence.
 Either this or the author's previous title, not both.
I ordered this, Pearce's latest offering, together with his preceding 2002 effort, "Biology of Transcendence" and read them back to back, in chronological order. This is the one book, in his output so far, Joseph Pearce needn't have written.
Given that Pearce's incentive for writing this book (p. 190) was triggered by an altogether demonic experience, that behold-and-become function stressed so often in his authorship has here become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Really, a previous reviewer put it mildly in saying "Death of Religion" shows the author retreading familiar ground. In fact, this is an about 80% rehash or rewrite of his previous title "Biology." The very same material has been reorganized, rewritten - sometimes expanded upon a bit, sometimes contracted. I would not say the presentation of it has improved, it is merely a different version. It even uses the same batch of quotes from a select number of, to Pearce's mind, outstanding thinkers.
So because the bulk of the contents is yet again the discussion of the "New Biology," the title of the new book is a bit of a misnomer. The post 9/11 impetus to writing a book on "violent culture" is a thin veneer, a couple of dozen pages bracketing the older material. Pearce carries over not only his favourite quotes but even repeats a number of his own punch lines already used up in "Biology."
Some mistakes slipped through editing: using cases from, to some, controversial para-psychology, one would expect facts to be absolutely in order. Still famous French explorer Alexandra David-Neel turns into an Englishwoman (and gets her name slightly misspelled). From where Pearce got the etymological explanation that "sin" originally meant "separate" (p. 166) baffles. See [...]resource for more trustworthy facts. From "Biology" one remembers Pearce explaining "existence" as "to set apart" (p. 78), e.g. separate, so perhaps he misread his old notes while revamping them.
Commenting upon the ability to live without food (p. 178) without previously having introduced the subject, is another hint this book was hardly the fruit of that "Heureka! effect" Pearce is rightfully fascinated by. Presumably a paragraph was lifted out from an early draft and this reference to supernatural non-food eaters remained in place.
I heartily recommend the previous "Biology of Transcendence" as a great reading experience, upon which this rewrite has nothing substantially more to offer. The book gets three stars given the intrinsic value of Pearce's observations and if you have not read "Biology," nor intend to, you may consider this a very thought-provoking read. But as Pearce devotes quite a number of pages to describing a theory of Julian Jaynes' (The Origin of Consciousness) - a summary not present in his previous work - I really recommend you to go for Pearce's previous "Biology" and also Jaynes' 1970s classic in its entirety instead. That would be a crucial reading experience.
It's a pick recommended for any spirituality collection
The Death of Religion and the Rebirth of Spirit: A Return to the Intelligence of the Heart could've been featured in our New Age column but deserves wider mention here for its far-reaching survey blending philosophy, religion and sociology. The study begins with a survey of violence in human society and the question of whether cruelty is part of human nature - and argues that the roots of human behavior aren't violent, but a cultural imprint. Chapters use recent neuroscience, cultural anthropology and brain development research to explore the violent trends, spiritual understanding, and how to reverse violence to achieve a higher level of being. It's a pick recommended for any spirituality collection - particularly at the college level - strong on added cultural analysis.
I've been here before
I have been reading Joseph Chilton Pearce for years beginning with "Crack in the Cosmic Egg". His work has been very valuable to me because he explains the spiritual search in ways that are understandable and not all woo woo. This book seemed to me to pretty much cover territory that I was familiar with from previous books. His ideas about the proper birthing and raising of children are important and probably will never have a wide following because of the strength of cultural ways of doing things (another topic that he is very good on). I think this book would be very interesting to someone who had never read any other of his works.
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