Every Branch in Me: Essays on the Meaning of Man (The Perennial Philosophy) [Paperback]

Barry McDonald (Author)

Book Description

Series: The Perennial Philosophy | Publication Date: September 6, 2003

Leading perennialist authors direct the readers to their intrinsically spiritual nature.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Every Branch In Me is an anthology of profound, thought-provoking essays that search for the essence and purpose of existence. -- Midwest Book Review

The sovereign purpose of this anthology, as the editor reminds us, is to reawaken a sense of man's sacred vocation. -- Harry Oldmeadow, La Trobe University Bendigo, and author of Traditionalism: Religion in the Light of the Perennial Philosophy

[The] leading perennialist authors direct the reader ... to that 'spiritual anthropology' which is the universal heritage of mankind. -- Whitall N. Perry, author of A Treasury of Traditional Wisdom, and Challenges to a Secular Society

About the Author

Barry McDonald's authoritative voice on the world's religions has been formed by a combination of academic study and first hand contact with various sacred traditions throughout the world. He received his undergraduate education at Goddard College and his graduate degree at Indiana University. The six months that he spent in the Middle East in 1973 began a series of life long contacts with authentic representatives of most of the world's great religions, including travels to the Middle East, Asia, North Africa, Europe and the American West. Thomas Yellowtail, the venerable Crow medicine man and Sun Dance chief, adopted McDonald into the Crow tribe.

He is a published poet and has edited "Every Branch in Me: Essays on the Meaning of Man," in the Perennial Philosophy series and is in the process of editing, with Patrick Laude, "Music of the Sky: an Anthology of Sacred Poetry," scheduled for publication in the Fall of 2003 in the Treasures of the World's Religions Series. His writing style combines the lyrical beauty of a poet, the penetrating metaphysical understanding of a scholar, and the personal insights of a spiritual seeker.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 360 pages
• Publisher: World Wisdom (September 6, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0941532399
• ISBN-13: 978-0941532396
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,488,073 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars An anthology of profound, thought-provoking essays, November 4, 2002

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Every Branch in Me: Essays on the Meaning of Man (The Perennial Philosophy) (Paperback)

Compiled and edited by Barry McDonald, Every Branch In Me: Essays on the Meaning of Man is an anthology of profound, thought-provoking essays that search for the essence and purpose of existence in human life itself. Regarding various religious teachings, modern history, and philosophical dilemmas with evenhanded scrutiny, essays such as "The Role of Culture in Education" and "The Survival of Civilization" stretch the boundaries of commonly held wisdom in search of a deeper unifying truth. Every Branch In Me is an impressive compilation and highly recommended reading for students of religion, philosophy, and metaphysics.

7 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Good but marred by fanaticism, January 2, 2003

By 

R. Clampitt "seeker" (Palmdale, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Every Branch in Me: Essays on the Meaning of Man (The Perennial Philosophy) (Paperback)

This book is a collection of articles that have been previously published in other magazines. Ostensibly about the Meaning of Man, it's real thrust is about the need to return to a traditional religious culture. The authors include Prof. Hossein Nasr, Schuon, Burkhardt, Huston Smith, Brian Keeble, Joseph Brown, Grey Henry, Marco Pallis, James Cutsinger, just to name a few. If you are already familiar with these authors and their writings you could probably skip this book.

The articles cover a wide variety of topics from dress, art, holy fools(a good article), modern psychology, Christianity in and its relation to Perennialism, education.

Brian Keeble has a fine piece on 'Work and the Sacred' the same with Thomas Yellowtail's work entitled 'Loss of Our Traditional Values'. Both are short but powerful.

Some of the most poignant for me were written by Grey Henry and Lilian Staveley as both wrote from the heart so to speak. Both pieces are quite moving.

Some are a bit outdated though. For example Titus Burckhardt rails against modern psychology which was defined in his time as Freud and Jung. However truthful neither Freud nor Jung theories mainstream anymore, western psychology has started to realize its limitations and now admits mankind's spiritual aspects with Transpersonal Psychology. Its not perfect but what is in this world?

Though I have some major qualms about of the articles and writers.

One is James Cutsinger's piece, which is a eye glazing head nodding attempt to show that one can be a Christian and still support Perenialism. He does this by invoking the obtuse Trinitarian dogma and using the works of Schuon. Whom is not recognized by any Christian doctor as a authority on Christianity.

The fact is unless one reduces Christian theology to the consistency of chewing gum as Cutsinger does, you cannot say that all religions are valid. A Christian if he is to be honest must state that only his religion is the only valid path and only his way will lead to salvation. Orthodox Christianity may always be the exception to the rule of Perenialist thought.
I'll take the works of Anthony Bloom or Philip Sherrard over Cutsinger anyday.

Now some of the writers like Linbolm and Mark Perry come off as polemical or shrill. Tage Linbom who is in essence a spiritual brother to Jerry Falwell or Pat Robertson. He seems to yearn for the good old days when the Church and tyrants were the ruling authority in Europe and democracy is abolished. Simply put everything post Reformation is bad and has the mark of the Devil on it. He has nothing good to say about anything in western society. Overall his critique of modernity is shallow in comparison to Lewis Mumford's , Ellul, or Theodore Roszak. Metropolitan Anthony Bloom or Bishop Ware would have been a much better and saner representative for the classical Christian point of view than Linbom.

Mark Perry seems to combine both polemics and contempt, he delights in showing how brilliant he his by using Buddhist, Hindu, neo-Platonic and even Christian terms in a single sentence or paragraph. His prose is generally obscure and meanders through a variety of subjects giving each one only scant attention, each of which deserves a chapter of their own. Like Linbolm he too has a intense dislike not only of everything western but is also contemptuous of many religious practitioners in the west ranging from Buddhists, Christians, and Hindus. His implication is that they don't have a clue about their practices and since they are not practiced in a sacred culture they have no effect. Prelest anyone?

I've generally been a avid reader of Traditionalists like Hossein Nasr, A.Coomaraswamy, Smith and Schuon. But these newer authors like Perry and Linbom are a whole nother kettle of fish. They lack the heart and intellect that I found so attractive in Prof. Nasr's and Schuon's works.

As a result Perenialists, especially in the wake of 9/11 are taking a serious risk of alienating the very people they intend to reach with the inclusion of perennial fundamentalists like Perry and Linbolm and will be written off as a bunch of contemptuous, cranky religous elitists.

Who would benefit from this book? If you already familiar with many of perennial authors , this book won't add anything you don't already know. If you're new to the perennial idea, this is a advanced tract and not meant for a non-scholar type, unless you're comfortable switching between Hindu, Islamic, Buddhist and Christian terminologies. Stick with Huston Smith's "Why Religion matters", "Forgotten Truth" or E.F. Schumachers "A Guide for the Perplexed". Then get Hossein Nasrs "Knowledge and the Sacred". Read Schuon last, he's a difficult read and suffers from bad translations from French.