The Godseeker's Guide

by Blue, Lionel

• ISBN13: 9781847064189
• ISBN10: 1847064183
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-12-28
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic

Summary

Post Dawkins, how can people believe with their hearts, minds and souls?

Author Biography

Rabbi Blue lives in North London. He appears frequently on the stage on college podiums and on the radio (occasionally on TV). He is a Fellow of Grey College, University of Durham and an honorary Doctor of Divinity. He is currently also honorary Vice Chairman of the Movement for Reform Judaism.

Table of Contents

Introduction	p. ix
The Purpose of this Book	p. 1
The names of God	p. 3
The wrong motives for the right reasons	p. 6
Problems	p. 9
Why Did I Become a Godseeker?	p. 13
Introduction	p. 13
Childhood pilgrimage	p. 14
Evacuated, I wandered into churches	p. 17
My first substantial religious experience	p. 20
God Direct	p. 23
'Away from here'	p. 26
And then...	p. 30
An East European footnote	p. 33
Falling in Love and its Results	p. 35
Introduction	p. 35
I fall among Quakers	p. 36
My call	p. 40
Advice to fellow Godseekers after a 'big' experience	p. 42
Repeated Later - The Positive Consequences of Religious Experience	p. 43
In a chapel	p. 43
Life's a jest	p. 45
Remembering nice things	p. 48
Cheering up God	p. 50
Humour - on the air!	p. 52
Is religion a good thing? - a problem for Godseekers	p. 53
The positive consequences of religious experience	p. 55
Worries and the supernatural	p. 57
Parachuted into Gentile homes	p. 59
The Holocaust at War	p. 61
A big black lump	p. 61
Armistice thoughts	p. 62
A cabalist answer to the creation of evil	p. 63
A black lump within me	p. 64
The Hidden Problems of Religious Experience	p. 69
Introduction	p. 69
A problem	p. 69
How we falsify religion	p. 71
First-rate and third-rate religion	p. 74
A note on doubt	p. 76
Silence	p. 79
Self-knowledge	p. 83
The after-effects of religious experience	p. 86
Unofficial Seminaries and Teachers	p. 91
Introduction	p. 91
A lesson I had to teach myself	p. 92
A lesson from life experience	p. 93
The cabalah changes my life!	p. 95
A very awkward woman	p. 96
Retreats	p. 100
How do you find God Direct?	p. 103
Rabbi retreating solo into Nada (Nothing)	p. 104
The Holy Spirit in the steam	p. 107
Unofficial seminary sauna in Amsterdam	p. 108
God bless	p. 112
Hospitalization	p. 115
Introduction	p. 115
A degree in kindness	p. 115
Click, click in hospital	p. 117
The spirituality of the NHS	p. 118
Scriptures of Tradition and Personal Scriptures of Life Experience	p. 121
Introduction	p. 121
Private prayers	p. 122
Late arrival at traditional Scriptures	p. 123
The ram's horn - making sense of a tradition	p. 127
The Scripture of your own life	p. 129
Private practical honest prayer!	p. 130
Which Scripture?	p. 131
Heresy in the Holy Book - what a relief!	p. 133
Your own scripture - buy yourself a notebook!	p. 135
Remembering what you fancy you feel!	p. 138
The cause of tragedy	p. 140
God at Work! Getting to Grips with the World	p. 143
Introduction	p. 143
Stock Market blues	p. 144
Prayer when the FTSE goes down	p. 145
Yet another recession	p. 147
Press 1 for this and 2 for that and 3 for God ...	p. 148
Suicidal at Christmas	p. 150
A not so Holy Land	p. 151
Turning troubles into treats	p. 153
Ageing, Dying, Death and Heaven	p. 155
An introduction to ageing	p. 155
A gay life!	p. 156
Smart casual but decrepit	p. 157
Ageing - the experience	p. 160
Old, grey and gay	p. 163
Getting acquainted with death	p. 164
Heaven	p. 169
Be British beyond life!	p. 172
A birthday present	p. 173
Who's Who and What's What	p. 175
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