Reviews for Matter of Faith: Religion and the 2004 Presidential Election

The average rating for Matter of Faith: Religion and the 2004 Presidential Election based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2013-03-15 00:00:00 LUC JUBINVILLE This listing needs a correction, because the book has two editors and Arvind Sharma has been left off the record. The book is a collection of essays based on presentations which were given at the 1993 Parliament of the World's Religions, although it doesn't provide a complete record of the event (in the final summing up, there are references to several fascinating items not included here). Especially interesting to me were chapters by Seyyed Hossien Nasr on religion, globality, and universality (his idea of universality could usefully be compared with Quaker uses of the word 'universalim') and Clara Sue Kidwell on Choctaw religion and cultural expectations in the process of colonialisation and Christianisation.

Review # 2 was written on 2011-11-20 00:00:00 Robert Van Dolder I was impressed by the ending of the introduction. I think the last paragraph hits the nail on the head. I happened to bump into a passage from taoist literature which reminded me of Franke's point in the introduction: "Do you wish to free yourself of mental and emotional knots and become one with the Tao? If so, there are two paths available to you. The first is the path of acceptance. Affirm everyone and everything. Freely extend your goodwill and virtue in every direction, regardless of circumstances. Embrace all things as part of the Harmonious Oneness, and then you will begin to perceive it. The second path is that of denial. Recognize that everything you see and think is a falsehood, an illusion, a veil over the truth. Peel all the veils away, and you will arrive at the Oneness. Though these paths are entirely different, they will deliver you to the same place: spontaneous awareness of the Great Oneness." This particular point is also made in Zen Buddhism and by Nisargadatta.