The Good Book

Few, if any, thinkers and writers today would have the imagination, the

breadth of knowledge, the literary skill, and-yes-the audacity to

conceive of a powerful, secular alternative to the Bible. But that is

exactly what A.C. Grayling has done by creating a non-religious Bible,

drawn from the wealth of secular literature and philosophy in both

Western and Eastern traditions, using the same techniques of editing,

redaction, and adaptation that produced the holy books of the

Judaeo-Christian and Islamic religions. The Good Book consciously

takes its design and presentation from the Bible, in its beauty of

language and arrangement into short chapters and verses for ease of

reading and quotability, offering to the non-religious seeker all the

wisdom, insight, solace, inspiration, and perspective of secular

humanist traditions that are older, far richer and more various than

Christianity. Organized in 12 main sections----Genesis, Histories,

Widsom, The Sages, Parables, Consolations, Lamentations, Proverbs,

Songs, Epistles, Acts, and the Good----The Good Book opens with

meditations on the origin and progress of the world and human life in

it, then devotes attention to the question of how life should be lived,

how we relate to one another, and how vicissitudes are to be faced and

joys appreciated. Incorporating the writing of Herodotus and Lucretius,

Confucius and Mencius, Seneca and Cicero, Montaigne, Bacon, and so many

others, The Good Book will fulfill its audacious purpose in every way.