A Theology of Love
Reimagining Christianity through A Course in Miracles
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- $16.99
Publisher Description
A spirituality based on love, not fear
• Shares key, inspiring teachings from A Course in Miracles as well as Hinduism, Buddhism, Gnosticism, and the Sefer Yetzirah, the oldest known Kabbalistic text
• Cites philosophical wisdom from Kant, Blake, Jung, and Gurdjieff, alongside cognitive science, to reveal how the world is not difficult and flawed, but our fear-based mind-sets lead us to see it that way
• Offers a path to help you regenerate from the “fallen” state and experience God as infinite love and light
In the West, theology has almost always meant Christian theology--a hodgepodge of beliefs that are hard to make sense of. Why, for example, should an all-loving, merciful God have gotten mad at the human race because someone ate a piece of fruit six thousand years ago? And why would he send part of himself down to earth to be tortured to death? These beliefs, stated baldly, are nonsensical. Millions of people are realizing this and losing their faith. The time has come to reenvision Christian theology without contradictory teachings laced with fear. It is time for a theology of love and miracles.
Richard Smoley reframes Christian theology using logical, consistent, and easy-to-understand teachings of unconditional love and forgiveness. He draws inspiration not only from the Bible, but also from Hinduism, Buddhism, Gnosticism, and from esoteric and mystical teachings, such as A Course in Miracles and the Sefer Yetzirah, the oldest known Kabbalistic text. He explains how the “fallen” state of the human condition, not one of sin but of oblivion, leads us to experience the world as flawed and problematic--not wholly evil, but not wholly good.
Citing philosophical wisdom from Kant, Blake, Jung, and Gurdjieff, alongside cognitive science, Smoley reveals how it is not the world that is flawed, but the way we see the world. Sharing key teachings from A Course in Miracles, he shows that our fear-based mind-sets--often filled with anxiety, suffering, and shame--lead us to feel separated from God when, in fact, we are all extensions of a God of infinite love and light.
Offering a path to help you regenerate from the “fallen” state and see the real spiritual world and loving God that lies behind it, the author provides ways for each of us to craft our own self-consistent theology. He also lays out a vision for the future of spirituality, a path for present-day religion to transform into something higher and more universal.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Smoley (How God Became God), former editor of Gnosis magazine, urges readers to rescue Christian doctrine from what he believes is contemporary irrelevance by applying Helen Schucman's bestselling 1979 A Course in Miracles in this unwieldy theological work. He opens with a critique of the shallowness of contemporary Christian thought before taking a confusing route through mysticism to explore creation and how humans construct realities. He draws heavily on Judaism, as well as Hinduism, Buddhism, and esoteric Christianity, to argue for a universal understanding of the interplay between the self and other. The book's second part is a much clearer, though still disjointed, reworking of Christian notions. Smoley explains the view expressed in A Course that physical reality is illusory and limiting, arising through a false sense of the ego as separate from what one perceives. Based on this, he argues, one should rethink what death means, understand the nature of Jesus, reframe relationships as less transactional, and cultivate new forms of spiritual practice. The final chapter's outline of the key theological claims of A Course is useful for untangling the earlier arguments. Though many intriguing ideas are presented, Smoley's oblique style diminishes their impact. This may entice some into learning more about A Course in Miracles, but it delivers a modest payoff on its own.
