Book Description

What the love of wisdom is and how it enables us to live in today`s world are explored in this ambitious work. Rich insights into what human maturity means and how it is reached have become too easily lost or confined to the world of high academia. Well-being, the true goal of human being, has been tragically reduced to `happiness` and its meanings lost. No subject could be more important, and few modern works deal with it that are not religious, dogmatic and furtively proselytising. Profound ideas are here applied to such unlikely things as skateboarding, love-making, getting rich, tourism and playing cricket, all of which can become a means to the development of mental strength and genuine love. Post-religious spirituality, clarified here, is the development of the psyche, which is as important as finding or losing oneself, and winning or losing in the arena of living. In the age of fiction our lives are enriched by myriad vital stories, personally loved, and also endowed with wider meanings through living in the shared master story for today, the incomplete saga of the salvation of the planet. Radical implications for education, human communication, politics and a sustainable future permeate the text, which calls upon authoritative voices from recent times and the deeper past, from Socrates to Habermas. from Judaism and Christianity to Islam and the traditions of the East. This is no mere history, but the building of a radical approach to human spirituality, lifestyle, communication and life-goals. Although the way is hard, deliverance from the darkness of consumerism, the pressure of rivalry, and confusion about ultimate goals is offered in this book. The thorough bibliography and referencing enable the reader to pursue a wide range of topics, and render the work suitable for the hard-pressed student as well as readers-for-leisure.