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Lädt ... In the Valley of the Shadow: On the Foundations of Religious Belief (2011)von James L. Kugel
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Kugel has the great critic’s knack for making difficult poetry seem much easier than it is, and he could have written a perfectly lovely book using illness to explain literature and vice versa. Indeed, he has done that, but that’s only part of what he has done. Kugel has bigger ambitions for his perceptions of smallness. He wants to use them to solve the mystery of why people believe in God.
Biography & Autobiography.
Religion & Spirituality.
Nonfiction.
When James L. Kugel, one of the world's leading biblical scholars, was diagnosed with an aggressive, likely fatal form of cancer, he said, "I was, of course, disturbed and worried. But the main change in my state of mind was that the background music suddenly stopped. Now I was just down to myself, one little person, sitting in the late summer sun, with only a few things left to do." He recognized that same feeling of smallness expressed in many early religious writings, and in the months that followed, he began a journey of discovery, reexamining the most basic questions about the origins of religion and its universality, which had taken on immediate and vital importance for him. Weaving reflections on his own struggle-the love of his family became "as tangible as bread"-with the writings of anthropologists, neuroscientists, and poets, he leads listeners from prehistoric religious practices to the religious doubts of modern times via an amazing array of topics: the eerie starkness of medieval cathedral architecture; the "looming Outside" revealed in African witchcraft; biblical encounters with angels; gospel album covers; and-through it all-the peculiar "sense of smallness" that, he argues, characterizes how all humans used to conceive of themselves. Kugel's look at the whole phenomenon of religion is rigorously honest, often funny, sometimes skeptical, but ultimately a deeply moving affirmation of faith in God. Believers and doubters alike will be struck by its combination of objective scholarship and poetic insight-a beautifully crafted consideration of life's greatest mystery. Keine Bibliotheksbeschreibungen gefunden. |
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Google Books — Lädt ... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)200.92Religions Religion Religion History, geographic treatment, biography BiographyKlassifikation der Library of Congress [LCC] (USA)BewertungDurchschnitt:
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If so, then don't say I didn't warn you because that's the feeling you'll get at the end of this book.
Kugel's main idea he works from is that how we think about God or the gods is very much connected to how we conceive of ourselves. Interestingly enough, he does this through exploring his own confrontation with mortality with his battle with cancer while exploring religious belief. Now at first this seems like a brilliant ploy. Don't be fooled. It begins with an artful tale laced with some wonderful poetry. Then the meat of the book comes to play and just when you think here comes the magic the cards come out and your left thinking "Is that all?"
It isn't a complete bust there are some silver lining nuggets, but it is surrounded with a lot of fluff. ( )