Description: Through the skillful use of a great variety of literary genres, this book explores the intimate relation and tension between religion and spirituality, evoking a wide range of responses that may awaken one to various possibilities of spiritual experience.
Brief description: Eliot Deutsch is Professor and Chair of Graduate Studies in the Philosophy Department at the University of Hawaii, Manoa. He is the author of eleven books including Religion and Spirituality also published by SUNY Press.
Review Quotes:
"This is a remarkable book, superb in its mastery of a variety of genres. My first reading was in one sitting.
"Obviously the outcome of many years of personal spiritual process and probing intellectual reflection in implicit dialogue with a vast range of philosophical and religious thought, this book explores difficult, subtle, and complex issues within spirituality, within religion, and within their mutual interactions.
"The author's exploration is enhanced by his skillful use of a great variety of literary genres that help the reader to gain access to these issues through many different 'doors.' Profound insights are expressed with unusual lucidity." -- Donald Evans, University of Toronto
"Deutsch's book is remarkable in the way it combines different forms of writing and gives expression to different voices in exploring the interplay of religion and spirituality. The book weaves together philosophical and cross-cultural reflections and a variety of forms of literary composition. The many voices that speak reveal to the reader how complex, profound, deranged, earnest, playful, judgmental, loving, blind, enlightened, and redemptive religion and spirituality, in their interconnection, can be.
"I read the book straight through in a single sitting. It is rich and fascinating reading. I now want to go back and explore the individual pieces in greater depth. The book is extraordinary." -- Michael Washburn, Indiana University at South Bend