Paris Hilton is reportedly reading The Secret, The Power of Now, and The Bible while in jail. Granted, one of these things is not like the other.
Anyway, if you knew someone was trying to turn their life around, become a deeper more spiritual person, or whatever, what half-dozen books would you recommend? And to make this a bit more challenging- add a worthwhile book that you disagree with but would recommend anyway?
The Demon Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark, by Carl Sagan. It would help someone to stop depending on fairy stories and start depending on themself.
The Road Less Traveled, by Scott Peck.
I wanted my list to be separate from the challenge-
If I’m going all religious-
of course, The Bible, preferably New King James version, maybe the NIV or the New Jerusalem Bible;
C.S. Lewis- either Narnia, Till We Have Faces, or The Problem of Pain/A Grief Observed (they go together too well to separate)
Father Kallistos Ware- The Orthodox Way (a good personal intro to Eastern Orthodox Christian faith)
Rick Warren’s The Purpose-Driven Life, just a decent how-to primer of practical Christianity
any basic compilation of Bishop Fulton J. Sheen
Billy Graham’s Peace with God
If I wanted to add in something non-religious but inspirational, I’d add
Ayn Rand’s Anthem
Now for the one I differ with…
The only non-Judeo-C’tian Scripture I’ve read most of the way through is
The Bhagavad-Gita, so I might recommend that. Or if I wanted to recommend
a book promoting skepticism but somewhat respectfully, I might go with Carl
Sagan’s The Demon-Haunted World, though I admit I have not read it but I
am going by what I have read by him.
That’s a good one, I was into Peck in the early 1980s. I’d add People of the Lie also.
Modern Magick , by Donald Michael Kraig. This was my first, and it was such a relief to know I didn’t have to ditch all rational and scientific thought to pursue this weird thing called “magick”. It’s your basic Golden Dawnesque Ceremonial Magick primer.
Wicca: A Guide for the Solitary Practitioner by Scott Cunningham. It’s such a classic, and still hold up over time.
Buckland’s Complete Book of Witchcraft by Ray Buckland. Even if you don’t end up going Gardnerian, it’s good solid info, and a book that will be referenced by everyone else for the rest of your life.
My Life With the Spirits: The Adventures of a Modern Magician by Lon Milo DuQuette (And anything else by him.) Funny, illuminating - gives a good taste of the follies and triumphs of a magickal life.
Book of Shadows by Phyllis Currot. A great memoir which is “accidentally” educational as well. Easy read, and, again, a relief to find a level headed “normal” person who believe in these “weird” things.
Circle Round by Starhawk, et al. Aimed at Goddess worshiping parents to include their children, it’s also good for newbies, solitary seekers or Priest(esse)s looking for new ideas for their community rituals.
And, the one I don’t personally agree with but think should be read anyway: The Holy Bible . Great book. Stirring stories, good life lessons. Skip the begats.
Plato: Apology, Republic, Phaedo, Symposium, Phaedrus
Aristotle: Physics, Metaphysics, Nichomachean Ethics
St. Augustine: The Confessions
Thomas Aquinas: Summa Theologiae
Pascal: Pensees
Dante: Divine Comedy
Lao Tse: Tao te Ching.
The Bible, The Koran, The Baghvad Gita, Buddhist Scriptures.
Should get her through her sentence.
The Perennial Philosophy by Aldous Huxley: http://www.amazon.ca/Perennial-Philosophy-Aldous-Huxley/dp/006057058X/ref=sr_1_1/702-6633307-7620021?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1181577475&sr=8-1
The central role of mysticism and the mystic experience (properly understood) which underlies religions. The experience is the same, how it is interpreted is not, as the experience is viewed through the lens of culture.
My SIL, gorblesh her, gave me The Porpoise Driven Life and Who Moved My Jesus.. I haven’t gotten into Porpoise Driven yet. I did Who Moved My Jesus on audio, twice. It’s not about Jesus at all. It’s a fable about losing your job, getting a different one, working harder for less reward, and somehow seeing it all as a great gift. No wonder my company gave a copy to every manager before closing down the plant. :rolleyes:
The Tao Te Ching can be helpful in adjusting one’s list of things that bring anger.
I love how whenever anyone mentions books and spirituality in the same post, someone else has to come in and mention Sagan’s book with a postscript about how stupid spiritual people are.
Indeed. Moreover, I’ve read the book and like it quite a lot and am still religious. As Sagan himself says, “Honest religion, more familiar than its critics with the distortions and absurdities perpetuated in its name, has an active interest in encouraging a healthy skepticism for its own purposes.”
The irony is that it was posted while I was including Sagan’s book on my own list.
This would depend somewhat on who they were, where they were in their life, and what they were ready for. (For someone like Paris, I might recommend Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich.)
twickster already took my #1 choice. The Road Less Traveled absolutely belongs on such a list. (Peck has written other books that have good things to say, but if you read only one, TRLT is definitely the one I’d recommend.)
Man’s Search for Meaning by Victor Frankl is a good choice as well.
For someone from a Christian background looking to deepen their faith, something by Philip Yancey (Disappointment With God) or Larry Crabb (Finding God).
I don’t know if I agree or disagree with this one, and it is somewhat dated, but for the right person, who needs the right kind of shot-in-the-arm/kick-in-the-pants: Norman Vincent Peale (The Power of Positive Thinking).
And, while no one in particular springs to mind right now, I’d certainly recommend reading autobiographical works by people with some spiritual depth to them.
I might add a good introduction to religion (e.g. Huston Smith’s The Religions of Man) and one to philosophy.
Classics, like those on Larry Borgia’s list, are good, but might be a bit rough going for someone who isn’t used to reading that kind of thing. Still, I’m glad they were mentioned!
I’ve read literally hundreds of books that would in some way qualify as “spiritual”. And of all these, after all is said and done, none to me was greater than Kahlil Gibran’s Jesus the Son of Man. I often recommend it over the Bible.
Can’t come up with a half-dozen, most of mine would be of little value to someone looking to turn their life around, but here’s what I came up with -
The Druid Way by Philip Carr-Gomm. Has very little to do (directly) with Druidry, and the Druidry taught by Carr-Gomm’s OBOD is non-religious (IMHO) anyway, but this one is pretty good. Hard to explain, but it reads like his grief cut away the pretentious BS so he wrote as a Bard rather than a Druid (which will probably make sense to no one)
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance - don’t know if this should be considered spiritual or not, and maybe it’s not as deep as it seemed back in 1984
The Tao of Pooh - But not The Te of Piglet
I don’t agree with the Zen or Tao books, but recommend them anyway.
And, as a special bonus, as far as I remember none of these require anyone to depend on faerie tales.
I mis-read the OP slightly and was making a bit of a Paris Hilton joke. But I’d stand by my list regardless. You’re right though that outside of a college context they might be a bit daunting for someone unused to that type of material.
I’m not sure that sets anything apart. From the point of view of any materialist, the spiritual itself is a fairy tale.
For what it’s worth, there’s a separate thread for recommendations of Books promoting a healthy skepticism.
The Servile State, by Hilaire Belloc.
The Abolition of Man, by C. S. Lewis.
A Guide for the Perplexed, by E. F. Schumaker.
Orthodoxy, by G. K. Chesterton.
Confessions of a Guilty Bystander, by Thomas Merton.
The Bible.
Narrowing down my entire reading experience to half a dozen books is difficult and the result will necessarily leave large gaps in the coverage of such a vast field. This is merely the best attempt I can come up with. The Servile State explains the problems with modern society and places them in a larger historical context. The Abolition of Man looks at the philosophical trends underlying modern society. A Guide for the Perplexed introduces the reader to spiritual thought. Orthodoxy explains how Christianity answers the spiritual needs of modern man. Confessions of a Guilty Bystander explains where God stands in the political and economic mess of the late 20th century. And The Bible explains everything. If anyone reading this thread does decide to read all six of them, I highly recommend reading them in the order listed.
A worthwhile book that I disagree with: The Interpretation of Dreams, by Sigmund Freud.