Customer Reviews

Between Eden and Armageddon: The Future of World Religions, Violence, and Peacemaking

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

A very unusual book. As much as many people desire to have a knowledge of the future, whether based on their religious belief or scientific preference, this book will enhance you. There is a wealth of education here, this book is in fact a bank of information both general and focused on the future. I'd have to say the direction of the book is highly biased and many readers may even be heavily critical, however the material presented allows you to draw reasonable conclusions of your own. The title of the book does in fact reveal the background of the author.
I suggest reading a book that covers this in a very broad scope, from our beginnings to our key to survival, even predicted the terrorist attack, other specific and surprising events, SB 1 or God by Karl Mark Maddox.

Although this book is categorized under Religion, I was impressed with the SECULAR UNIVERSALITY of the guidelines and paradigms.THIS IS A ROADMAP FOR WORLD PEACE; it should be recognized and utilized as such. Compassion in life is ethically and spiritually based. Using ancient religious ethics to solve modern conflicts is the art of using ancient wisdom to create our future, and to keep humanity alive. The alignment of ecumenical leaders for the purpose of global conflict resolution is just the tip of the iceberg. The guidelines for 'listening compassionately' to another person, or to an entire culture, and its needs, in a conflict situation are the basis of survival of the human species. When people pray for peace, there are no diffences in their hearts. When people can "see","understand",and "feel" recognition of and respect for the "core being", conflict cannot exist,and polarities dissolve. This book and excerpts from it should be utilized and taught in all arenas of our lives--homes,workplaces,school,governmental facilities,places of worship. The guidelines are here to stop children from killing children in our schools.These same paradigms are applicable to stopping the senseless global conflict that we view everyday of "man's inhumanity to man". These paradigms are the antidote to the fear that creates conflict.

Marc Gopin made an attempt at an unbiased, all-encompassing handbook for religious peace-making... And unfortuanately fell into the same trap as scholars on religion and war, or religion and peace, have for centuries. The lack of eidetic vision (ability to see things as a whole) and epoché (suspension of judgement) make this book disappointingly bias.

Nonetheless, if one can disregard the majority of the book (which fall into aforementioned trap), there are one or two gems of useful information, although anyone intending to use the framework for religious peacemaking as proposed in the book should be very aware of the implications such a subjective view has.

This book is poorly written. The middle east has been explored by many writers, and there are many views about peace and war in that area and elsewhere. This book is simply not a good vehicle for exploring these complex issues, and it brings the reader no enlightenment about the deep issues it purports to explain.

This is a very uninteresting book on the subject. Much more could have been done about this important subject. There was absolutely nothing of value in this sheer waste of paper and trees...