Clearing up the confusion about religion, re-visioning the core elements of spiritual traditions, and transcending the fault line of secular-versus-religious.
Clearing up the confusion about religion, re-visioning the core elements of spiritual traditions, and transcending the fault line of secular-versus-religious.
Comparative religion, Religion, politics & state, Religious
Despite religion being a core theme of many contemporary debates, a solid and settled definition of the concept has not yet been reached. Nevertheless, it is regularly assumed that, because of their common characteristics, we are able to recognize religious phenomena when we see them. For example, it is often supposed that religion is primarily based on faith, that religion conflicts with science, and that the world would be a lot less violent without religions. Yet, no matter how widespread such assumptions might be, in the end, they turn out to be incorrect. What we think about religion does not correspond to what religion really is. Offering many concrete examples from different traditions, Religion: Reality Behind the Myths dispels the main misunderstandings, breaches the contemporary opposition between secular versus religious and presents a novel view on the essence of religion.
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I’ve been wanting to see someone crystallize the myths about religion and show them for what they are. This is an important breakthrough and major clarification. ~ Rupert Sheldrake, best-selling author of The Science Delusion and Science and Spiritual Practices
Jonas Atlas has taken a wealth of scholarship and presented it in brief and accessible form. Atlas replaces nonsense with nuance, and shows that many of what we think are facts are ideologically-motivated falsehoods instead. Rather than simply tearing down myths, however, this book builds bridges between “nonbelievers” and “believers,” and overcomes the tendency to separate the world into “us” and “them.” ~ William T. Cavanaugh, Professor of political theology, author of The Myth of Religious Violence
In the agonizingly superficial and unsophisticated discourses prevalent in the media today, “religion” has tragically become synonymous with irrationality and fundamentalism. While both irrationality and fundamentalism can be found in association with religion—just as they can be found in association with every other form of organized human activity as well—the true core of the religious intuition is something that transcends the logico-conceptual models of the intellect; it doesn’t contradict rationality. Jonas Atlas brings us on a journey of rediscovery of humanity’s greatest treasure and most valuable legacy: the maps to meaning embedded in our religious traditions. ~ Bernardo Kastrup, executive director of Essentia Foundation, author of 'Decoding Jung’s Metaphysics' and 'Why Materialism is Baloney'
A clear and important demolition of some key modern myths about religion. ~ Abdal Hakim Murad, Dean of the Cambridge Muslim College, author of 'Travelling home: Essays on Islam in Europe'
