The New Enlightenment: A Search for Global Civilization, Peace, and Spiritual Growth in the 21st Century

by Means, Grady E.

• ISBN13: 9781935097181
• ISBN10: 1935097180
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2010-01-01
• Publisher: Itasca Books

Summary

It is with this premise that this author starts his quest. Has religion in the past 30 centuries been a cause of human problems instead of a solution? Is religion often "a proxy for tribal and national interests?" Are doctrinal religions becoming especially dangerous today as the philosophical underpinnings for increasingly destructive political movements based upon uncompromising, fundamentalist viewpoints? In this profound and intriguing philosophical treatise, Grady Means argues effectively that humans are spirit-seeking creatures who need a different God than the anthropomorphic deities advanced by doctrinal religions. To overcome the effects of traditional "Theonomics" religions as fundamentally economic and political entities, driven by predictable forces of supply and demand mankind must seek out a new rationalism, not unlike that of the 18th Century and the founding of America, in which humans find spiritual comfort through their free minds and souls.

Author Biography

Author Grady Meansùwho splits his time between Washington (DC) and Half Moon Bay (CA)ùis a self-described moderate Republican and life-long Catholic. He has been trained in business, philosophy, and engineering, and offers us a radical view of the spiritual needs of humans and the failure of religion to provide for those needs. His well-reasoned and logically presented arguments are certain to provoke deep thought and hot debate from people on all sides of contemporary religious and political spectra.

Table of Contents

Author's Introduction	p. 1
Our Burden is Light: Our Spiritual Life
The Human Spirit, the Light of the Universe	p. 13
The Nature of the Spirit	p. 29
The Nature of God	p. 55
The Nature of Good and Evil	p. 67
The Spiritual Nature and Role of Prayer	p. 93
Death	p. 99
Theonomics: The Emergence and Growth of Spiritual and Salvation Monopolies
An "Economic" Framework of Religion	p. 109
Theonomics' Demand Side-Why People Created Religion	p. 123
Theonomics' Supply Side-Why the Religious Market Emerged and Evolved into Spiritual and Salvation Monopolies	p. 157
Theonomics' Pricing Theory and Equilibrium	p. 173
A Human Imprint on the Spiritual Journey-The Corruption of Religion	p. 179
From the Celestial to the Banal-Religion, Politics, and Human Governance	p. 209
Judgement Day: A Call for the New Enlightenment
Spiritual Poetry of Life and Enlightenment	p. 231
A Way Forward-Following the Light of the Spirit	p. 269
Afterthought	p. 291
About the Author	p. 293
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