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Apologia Report 15:38 (1,043)
November 4, 2010
Subject: The alternative spirituality of atheist Sam Harris
In this issue:
ATHEISM - Sam Harris has spiritual beliefs, sort of
ISLAM - jihadi rage driven by Muslim shame over perpetual defeat?
NEW AGE MOVEMENT - booksellers adjust to broadening audience
NEW TESTAMENT CRITICISM - new book from Baker: "a purely historical narrative from the gospels is not just impossible but irrelevant"
+ a new book-length response to Gospel canon questions
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ATHEISM
"Sam Harris Believes in God" by Lisa Miller -- well, Miller qualifies this a bit more by saying that Harris "believes in something certain people would call 'God.'" In fact, the article strives to pin down what Harris believes. The item is subtitled: "The neuroscientist and rationalist has made his name attacking religious faith. Who knew he was so spiritual?"
Miller tells us that Harris "shuns the label 'atheist.' Harris places reason at the apex of human abilities and achievement, but he concedes that there's much that humans may never empirically know - like what happens after death. [I]t seems like there will always be brute facts that we cannot account for but which we must rely on to explain everything else." For his praise of the contemplative experience in The End of Faith [1], Harris has received criticism from atheists. ...
"'Ecstasy, rapture, bliss, concentration, a sense of the sacred—I'm comfortable with all of that,' says Harris later. 'I think all of that is indispensable and I think it's frankly lost on much of the atheist community.' ...
"What Sam Harris believes in - rationality, morality, transcendence, humility, awe, community, selflessness, and love - meets a fairly common definition of God. ...
"Harris's true obsession, then, is not God but consciousness, the idea that the human mind can be taught—trained, rationally—to be more loving, more generous, less egocentric than it is in its natural state. And though he knows that he can sound like a person who believes in God, he thinks that God is the wrong word to describe his beliefs." Newsweek, Oct 25 '10, pp42-43. <www.tinyurl.com/294juod>
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ISLAM
Jihad and Genocide, by Richard L. Rubenstein [2] -- "Rubenstein (religion, Univ. of Bridgeport), a distinguished scholar of Holocaust and genocide studies, describes how 9/11 caused a shift in his research focus to radical Islam and its genocidal threat. He traces jihadism in the writings of some prominent advocates and practitioners - Sayyad Qutb, Sayyid Abul Al'la al-Mawdudi, Abdullah Yusuf Azzam, Ayman al-Zawahiri, and bin Laden. Rubenstein presents a case study of the Armenian massacres in Ottoman Turkey (1894-96), which culminated in genocide (1915-23), as an early example of genocidal jihadism. He details the pro-Nazi activities of Hajj Amin al-Husseini against Balkan Jews and plans to liquidate Palestinian Jewry. Recent jihadist threats are seen emanating from the growing Muslim population in Europe, the rise of anti-Semitism, and the possibility of an Iranian-Shiite apocalyptic nuclear confrontation with Israel. While some readers will take issue with aspects of Rubenstein's analysis, his conclusions should be taken seriously: the rage among Islamists against Israel and the US is driven by the shame brought on by successive Muslim defeats since the 1500s; this rage will continue until the shame is erased by genocide, if Islamist threats are taken seriously. Provocative, important reading for all interested in Arab-Israeli peace and religious coexistence worldwide. Summing Up: Highly recommended. General readers, students of all levels, and research faculty." Choice, Oct '10, n.p.
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NEW AGE MOVEMENT
"Seeking and Finding" By Sarah J. Robbins -- an update on the New Age bookselling market. The opening paragraph ends with an emphasis on "the importance of connecting mind, body, and spirit - the four-word label that's become the alternative title for this category."
Robbins reports on how the category is changing. "'Today, spirituality is so personal,' says [occult publisher] Llewellyn's acquisitions editor Carrie Obry. 'People are not going to church anymore—and we now have words like "metrospiritual."' This term, coined by Beliefnet.com, captures the trend of unifying spirituality and style (think celebrities like Gwyneth Paltrow, Richard Gere, and Donna Karan) and is, according to Obry, 'epitomized by the kind of woman who is drawn to [a book like Elizabeth Gilbert's] Eat, Pray, Love' [3].
"While not a New Age title per se, Elizabeth Gilbert's 2006 blockbuster memoir of her postdivorce quest has become a touchstone for some metrospiritual seekers. The film version, starring Julia Roberts, reinvigorated sales this summer: according to Nielsen, 94,000 books were sold in the week ending August 1, which is the same number as that for all of 2006; it's been in the top three titles on PW's trade paper list since June 14."
Another successful title is noted: "The Secret's Web site includes more than 1,100 financial tales, including a recent story of one practitioner's visualization and subsequent receipt of a literal check in the mail [www.tinyurl.com/22u9hx9]. At a time when money is especially tight—prompting some to pray for fiscal health—a new crop of New Age books explores this connection and urges readers to make positive changes that will lead to prosperity."
A bit of marketing strategy is revealed as well: "The semantics around the idea of psychic experiences have changed over the years, says Llewellyn's Obry. 'I see a shift—you have magazines that are completely comfortable talking about intuition, but would never call themselves psychic,' she says." The entire feature is well worth reading if the above has been of interest. Publishers Weekly, Sep 27 '10, pp24-28. <www.tinyurl.com/28khf25>
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NEW TESTAMENT CRITICISM
Constructing Jesus: Memory, Imagination, and History, by Dale C. Allison [4] -- "Do the gospels contain 'the gospel truth'? The answer depends on how you define truth and whether you're willing to see beyond evangelical assumptions about the historicity of the canonical Jesus stories to a higher, more fully realized truth, according to author Dale Allison Jr. To Allison, the gospels and the abundance of extrabiblical sources constitute a rich, heady brew of fact and fiction, all of which must be read not as a strictly historical record but as the collective memory of a people whose experience and dedication would define the direction of history. Allison, who is on the faculty of Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, insists that efforts to reconstruct a purely historical narrative from the gospels are not just impossible but irrelevant. Looking beyond notions of inerrancy and consistency, the author convincingly presents a richly nuanced view of Jesus Christ and the birth of Christianity. The result is a feast to be savored." Publishers eekly, Oct 11 '10, p16.
Allison is one of several authors who are profiled on page 14 of the same issue of PW. Here he says that "'The book comes from two things: first is my disillusionment with how people typically go about finding out about Jesus. They take a phrase or action and try to prove its authenticity based on certain criterion.... The second is the research on memory. What I learned about it unsettled me because I concluded that the preponderance of research shows human memory is much less exact than we think it is. ...
"'Instead of looking at a saying of Jesus, I'm looking at bunches of sayings and seeing what they have in common,' he says. 'I'm looking for patterns, taking a big-picture approach to the gospels. ...
"'Once I discover a pattern, I ask myself what is the best way to explain it,' says Allison...." <www.tinyurl.com/2b9twnr>
Who Chose the Gospels?: Probing the Great Gospel Conspiracy, by Charles E. Hill [5] -- "Hill (New Testament, Reformed Theological Seminary) marshals very well his evidence that the four canonical Gospels were, from early times, recognized as the important Gospels, and that despite some contemporary biblical scholars' contentions, there never were genuinely viable rivals to their reception as the sole canonical Gospels. He fails, however, to consider how history is often written by, and manuscript survival determined by, winners in a controversy; how women and other outsiders were often excluded from testimony; and how these considerations require modifications in his thesis. Widespread medieval acceptance of the Harrowing of Hell story from the apocryphal Gospel of Nicodemus is one of many challenges to Hill's argument. VERDICT: Conservative Christians wanting evidence for their positions will find Hill very helpful indeed; those who, for academic integrity, want to consider all sides of the issue will also find Hill's work helpful. Recommended for seminary, academic, and large general collections." Library Journal, Sep '10, n.p.
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SOURCES: Monographs
1 - The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason, by Sam Harris (W.W. Norton, 2004, hardcover, 336 pages)
2 - Jihad and Genocide, by Richard L. Rubenstein (Rowman & Littlefield, 2010, hardcover, 260 pages) <www.tinyurl.com/22s3c4z>
3 - Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia, by Elizabeth Gilbert (Penguin, 2007, paperback, 352 pages) <www.tinyurl.com/24x7g35>
4 - Constructing Jesus: Memory, Imagination, and History, by Dale C. Allison (Baker, 2010, hardcover, 592 pages) <www.tinyurl.com/246vwyp>
5 - Who Chose the Gospels?: Probing the Great Gospel Conspiracy, by Charles E. Hill (Oxford Univ Prs, 2010, hardcover, 240 pages) <www.tinyurl.com/27e9vas>
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