Q & R: Sorry, I’m not going to answer this, and here’s why …
Here’s the Q:
My mom gave me your book, The Great Spiritual Migration, to read. Scanning it, it seems you are replacing existing creeds with your own new one?I am skeptical, so can you state in a paragraph or two, or point me to them, of exactly what you are saying.
Have seen the challenges of religion, have seen how denominationalism created divisions but prevented burnings at the stake, and have seen brilliant and loving leaders handle the gospel and the existence of an intimate God with excellence.
How would you summarize your final proposition, and given your lengthy journey with so many changes to date, is this your final landing point or maybe the next in what you are thinking through?
Here’s the R:
Thanks for your questions, but I’m sorry, I won’t be answering them. And I thought I should explain why.
You say that you skimmed my book, which means you didn’t actually read it. Your comment about creeds makes that point especially clear.
And now you’re asking me to summarize it in a paragraph or two?
I don’t write books to tell people what to think, nor do I write books so that people don’t need to think on their own.
I write books for the same reason I love to read books – I like to think, and books help me do so.
I love to spend time in the company of a writer who has thought about things I haven’t thought about, or who sees from a vantage point from which I’ve never seen.
So that’s why I write, to do for others what I enjoy people doing for me.
One of my mentors said, “Learning isn’t a consequence of teaching and listening (or writing and reading), but of thinking.”
To help people learn, I try to stimulate their thinking, and books are one channel for doing that.
I heard a story about someone asking a dancer if he could explain the meaning of his dance. “If I could have explained it, I wouldn’t have danced it,” he said. I suppose the same thing applies to writers. If I could have stimulated the learning I was hoping for in a paragraph, I would have written a paragraph, not a book.
I assume you didn’t mean for your question to be insulting or demeaning, but it would be easy to take it that way. Something to keep in mind …
I thought that this feedback would be more helpful than anything I could say as a direct answer to your questions.
On the positive side, even your skimming of the book seems to have gotten you thinking, and that’s a good thing. And it took some energy or initiative to write to me, and that’s a good thing too. God bless.