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Title: Working on God by Winifred Gallagher ISBN: 0-375-75537-3 Publisher: Modern Library Pub. Date: 18 April, 2000 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.06 (16 reviews)
Rating: 2
Summary: Reads Like a Long Newspaper Article
Comment: Having "Worked on God" myself for quite a while, and still finding religion a mystery, I set out to read a book with a promising premise. I suppose I would fall in her created category called searching "neoagnostic," but I found little new, educational, or rewarding after reading this book. In fact, by the end, I grew irritated at Gallagher's cafeteria approach to experiencing spirituality.
Joseph Campbell said one purpose of religion is to throw you out of the focus on yourself and into a relationship with the mystical. Gallagher seems enamored by this aspect of religion brought about by the holiness and solemnity of a church, synagogue, zen retreat, etc., but never commits beyond a sentimental brush with each faith. Her book is just one warm and fuzzy feeling after another. She never really makes any progress on her work, and I find it hard to understand why she decided to document her disconnected experiences in a book.
If you're looking to expand your knowledge with a comparison of different religions, skip this book and pick up Huston Smith's classic "The World's Religions." If you'd like any easy book with the depth of a newspaper series, this book might just do.
Rating: 5
Summary: This book just makes me feel better
Comment: Having been raised by atheist parents, I always felt that there was "something more" out there, yet was completely turned off by the dogma, intolerance, and narrow-mindedness I found in the churches I attended. After reading Ms. Gallagher's book, I felt so much better about things - even religion. I always wondered why I felt so peaceful just to be sitting inside the Catholic church before the service started, yet not always agree with what was being said to me in the sermon. I always wondered if maybe I wasn't "getting it" because I could not identify with those people who talked like Jesus was their best buddy and how every decision in their life was governed by Him as opposed to their own free will. I now understand that religion and spirituality is so much more, and that is it OK to reach into the toolbox of religions to use what is best for me. It doesn't matter what religion you follow, if any, because all of them point in the same direction essentially - be good to yourself, be good to others, live in the here and now, know that somehow everything will be alright in the end, and that there is indeed something more out there than just you and your physical body; you are not alone. Thanks, Winifred. I look forwarding to reading your other books.
Rating: 5
Summary: To Seek a Newer World
Comment: I think that it was Karl Marx who wrote that religion is the opiate of the masses. Certainly we all know folks who are extremely devote and yet we all could admit that probably more wars and carnage have taken place in the name of religion than any other subject. Winifred Gallagher, in her book, is attempting to show us another side of religion, a side where religion is a process, a process of "working on God". For this is a book both about and for independent thinking people who are attempting to reconcile spiritual beliefs with their own somewhat skeptical intuitive rationales. For me, this was a book that confirmed my beliefs and yet challenged me, all at the same time. A central theme is that we are all, more or less, on a spiritual journey, and are called, if you will, to this time and this place, be it Reston, Virginia or Greenwich, Connecticut or wherever. According to Ms. Gallagher, this journey is most important because it is not made alone but with others, others of even differing faiths than our own. Her sense of spirituality is not the opiate of Marx but rather is one of being aware, awake, and living a life that is present.
Many of the people that she writes about start out in life having more than enough and yet, they don't have enough. In their growth, if that's the right word, something starts to happen, something that has to do with holding on to what's important to them and letting go of what is not. Ms. Gallagher presents some heartwarming instances, such as the stranger in church who tells her that he will pray for her critically ill son or the young Hasidic mother she sits next to on a cross country flight. These people give her a different view of "other" and allow us to realize that, when it comes to things that matter, we are more alike than we all care to admit. For that reason, she would probably argue that perhaps we should center our lives on the charity of our being and not in the virtue of religion.
This is the type of book that looks at both sides of the spiritual coin. Along these lines, St. Paul is attributed to have said, "In order to know thyself, prove all things to strengthen your faith". Leonardo Da Vinci once wrote that man should have faith in his own gifts and nurture them to the fullest. Ms. Gallagher would appreciate the irony here, for a scientist is saying "have faith" while a saint is saying "prove all things". Towards the end of the book, she makes an interesting statement: "Faith is the meaning of history". Teilhard de Chardin might say it is even (dare I use the word) evolutionary. So, therefore, I came away from this book feeling that I understand what Ms. Gallagher is saying about anyone's spiritual journey. The message may very well be that all that was is part of me, as I am part of what's to be. Well done, Ms. G.
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Title: Spiritual Genius : 10 Masters and the Quest for Meaning by Winifred Gallagher ISBN: 0812967186 Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks Pub. Date: 24 December, 2002 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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Title: Spiritual Genius : The Mastery of Life's Meaning by Winifred Gallagher ISBN: 0375503102 Publisher: Random House Pub. Date: 12 February, 2002 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: Beyond Belief : The Secret Gospel of Thomas by Elaine Pagels ISBN: 0375501568 Publisher: Random House Pub. Date: 06 May, 2003 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: The Purpose-Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For? by Rick Warren ISBN: 0310205719 Publisher: Zondervan Pub. Date: 01 October, 2002 List Price(USD): $19.99 |
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