Customer Reviews

Emptiness & Brightness

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Professor Cupitt has penned a most insightful work with Emptiness & Brightness! I am convinced his call to abandon Platonic metaphysics and develop a non-realist spiritual understanding is our world's best option. His discussion of how we - through language - create our world, and how this world is all we have, has opened my mind to many new things.

I am still processing a good bit of Cupitt's presentation, but highly recommend this book to anyone on a spiritual quest.

In EMPTINESS AND BRIGHTNESS Don Cupitt describes how great thinkers such as Plato and Buddha influenced the formation of at least three major cultural traditions which survived for more than 2,000 years. This period is known as the First Axial Age.

A Second Axial Age began with the work of Erasmus and Copernicus. This period was marked by an explosion of knowledge which has changed forever how we view ourselves and our place in the universe.

Now the Second Axial Age is coming to an end in Cupitt's view. The great religions are tottering and a new cultural tradition is emerging. At the present time we have a modern world view which is dominated by communication and a constantly changing consensus. There is no more eternal reality for us. Instead we are learning to embrace a world of ceaseless change and exchange. Events are no longer viewed as being controlled from the outside.

Cupitt confesses that he does not know the answer to the Big Question. He urges us to give up the idea that someone else has the answer. Cupitt suggests that we develop the ability to do our own religious thinking while we remain always aware of the shifting consensus.

The author has only a few main points to make in this book. His strength lies in his ability to present his arguments repeatedly with fresh examples. Above all he is never dogmatic. EMPTINESS AND BRIGHTNESS is a serious book which deserves to be read by anyone with an open mind. Cupitt's unique views take some effort to absorb and for that reason his repetitive style is very useful to the reader.

IF you are a fan of Gianni Vattimo or Jacques Derrida, then this is a great read, especialy for anyone of a postmodern bent.