Customer Reviews

The Heart Is a Little to the Left: Essays on Public Morality

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William Sloan Coffin is a tower of religious rationalism (as far as that can be taken without a contradiction in terms). This book is a collection of five of his recent talks to colleges, and two of his recent sermons. Through these talks on important political topics like nuclear weapons, the impoverished, and homophobia, WSC exposes the want for morality in our government's current operational agenda. His insights are sharp and often humorous, but it is WSC's broad vision and wisdom that will make this an important addition to your library.

Christians would do well to model themselves after this trailblazer. The world would be a better place if more people would shed what WSC terms the "childish" understanding of religion, that myopic view of the world often espoused by America's Religious Right, that a personal relationship with God and strong personal morality for the purposes of ascending to a better place after death is the centerpiece of Christian ideal.

Atheists should also take note of WSC's thinking, because his well-read and logically analytical mind resides in a religious niche that has resolved the vast majority of the atheist's objections to religion. If you aren't aware of the more rational permutations of religious thought, your atheist position has not been fully considered.

All of us, regardless of belief, owe a debt to WSC for his activism. This book represents his valiant continued attempts to jostle those majority of Americans (in particular the academic culture) who, despite good intentions, too often tolerate the intolerable.

My only disappointment with this book is it's brief nature (80 pages) and frequent repetition. This speaks (no pun intended) to the original intent of the material (public speeches), and certainly doesn't detract from the quality of the material. I suppose this could also reassure you if you want to avoid any heavy-lifting.

If you are considering purchasing this book from this location, please review the following page first:

[...]

When I recently chose to go into the life of one who greatly influenced me in the 1980's I chose "The Heart is a Little Left of Center" because it's filled by Coffin's big & best themes! In his years while at Riverside he stayed busy with Conferences like Montreat Music & Worship Week! Not only did he admire my wife's soprano voice but I could sit next to him in the bass section of Elaine Brown's fabulous choir. He was at home with great choral traditions...Always intensely in-tune with both the text & music. I quickly saw first-hand how his preaching each day in Worship was an exact replay of his momenteous living!

Those themes woven into this later book are "Authority of the Bible, Homophobia, Fundamentalism, Meaning of Life & Death, and Civility!" As he goes thru his severe heart problems in Calif. with his Family, I can bet he's still an inspiring, giving, and caring Person! Still quoting Bishop Tutu, ML King, Rabbi Abraham Heschel: "some are guilty but all are responsible." Thoreau as well as, Abba Eban: "God is not mocked!" Likely unknowingly that he was also quoting Robert Shaw, in Atlanta, who called him Bill Coffin! I will always be able to hear his resonant, deeply rich bass voice both preaching and singing in the Choir. This should be required reading in all seminaries! Retired Chap Fred W Hood

William Sloan Coffin is a tower of religious rationalism (as far as that can be taken without a contradiction in terms). This book is a collection of five of his recent talks to colleges, and two of his recent sermons. Through these talks on important political topics like nuclear weapons, the impoverished, and homophobia, WSC exposes the want for morality in our government's current operational agenda. His insights are sharp and often humorous, but it is WSC's broad vision and wisdom that will make this an important addition to your library.

Christian's would do well to model themselves after this trailblazer. The world would be a better place if more people would shed what WSC terms the "childish" understanding of religion, that myopic view of the world often espoused by America's Religious Right, that a personal relationship with God and strong personal morality for the purposes of ascending to a better place after death is the centerpiece of Christian ideal.

Atheists should also take note of WSC's thinking, because his well-read and logically analytical mind resides in a religious niche that has resolved the vast majority of the atheist's objections to religion. If you aren't aware of the more rational permutations of religious thought, you're atheist position has not been fully considered.

All of us, regardless of belief, owe a debt to WSC for his activism. This book represents his valiant continued attempts to jostle those majority of Americans (in particular the academic culture) who, despite good intentions, too often tolerate the intolerable.

My only disappointment with this book is it's brief nature (80 pages) and frequent repetition. This speaks (no pun intended) to the original intent of the material (public speeches), and certainly doesn't detract from the quality of the material. I suppose this could also reassure you if you want to avoid any heavy-lifting.

If you are considering purchasing this book from this location, please review the following page first:

http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/amazon.html

This book is so inspiring that I wish I could send copies of it to every single Congressman and Senator poised to go to Washington in 2007.

This book is so inspiring that, if they ever do a remake of the movie "Fahrenheit 451" I want to play the part of the person who commits this book to memory.

This book is possibly the most life-affirming thing I have read in the past year -- and I read a LOT on this general subject.

This is one of the best books I have ever read. I have probably given sixty copies away so that others can read and KEEP it as well. It is book you will read over and over. In such a short volume, there is an abundance of important questions, food for thought and challenges for the mind and for your life. Coffin has a gift of cutting through all the rationalizations, distortions and man made doctrines to shine a light on the obvious if we would all only think critically about our human purpose and our fellow man. This is an excellent book for a group study, a couple, a young adult breaking out into the world and anyone that wants to think deeper and live a fuller more valuable life.

This is another gem from Bill Coffin in which he proposes how and why government and religion should not be completely separate in America. He targets injustice as the intolerable source of turmoil for our country and the world and promotes a public policy of compassion as key to church and state agendas. An easy, yet thought-provoking read.

Some of the strong points here include his views on love as being an inclusive concept by its very definition and nature. He spends some time speaking of the Apostle (he uses the term Saint) Paul's statements concerning love, specifically "Now abide faith, hope, love, these three; and the greatest of these is love. Make love your aim". He says that many religious people make faith their aim, and faith is exclusive, not inclusive. I couldn't agree more.

From a macro viewpoint, he makes some excellent points about America's role as a compassionate nation, highlighting the injustice of our poor, and he really has some wonderful things to say about the role of evangelism by saying that good evangelism is not proselytizing but witnessing, bearing witness to "the light that shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it". Amen!

However, his philosophy is lacking on the whole due to his often subtle and often direct conclusion that only those individuals who agree with his socialistic liberal views are capable of demonstrating the "love as the greatest aim, and love as inclusive" concept. For example, he says on page 17 that the "Christian right has trouble not only seeing love as the core value of personal life but even more trouble seeing love as the core value of our communal life". While I do not consider myself a member of the Christian right, I find his pushing of the superior exclusivity of his liberal political views to contrast oddly with his own statements about his desire to live to love, and therefore be inclusive. How does one be inclusive while being exclusive of others? A self contradiction he seems unaware of.

In conclusion, this book presents some wonderfully powerful challenges to Christians regarding our role in society, but it ultimately cannot seem to make the claims without at the same time being the very thing it condemns; exclusive and unloving. The book itself is NOT a "little" to the left. The statement on page 72 illustrates just how far off center he is: "Clearly the Christian right is a tribe that feels slighted. I think we should oppose its views -- vigorously". This type of viewpoint places his views on the far left, not moderate as the title would imply.

The book was not as specified by the seller ("gift condition"). It had several torn pages, and there was a sticky substance on the top of many pages. The seller did, however, give me a refund of the shipping. I had needed to have the item immediately, so I chose not to return it.

The Left-Leaning Christian message of the book is very helpful. Christians and Conservative tend to be synonyms in society today. This is often for very good reason, but sometimes Christians get their faith mixed up with the conservatism and end up being reactionaries to liberalism and paganism. They ignore the Gospel--the Good News that Jesus, God, came to earth to take the punishment that mankind deserves for our sin so that eternal life with Him can be offered to those whose only hope is His death--for the sake of conservatism. Unfortunately, the message of Credo is the opposite reaction. Seeing the social justice and aid to the helpless (See James 1:27), the left-leaning wing of Christianity tends to embrace social activism and morality at the expense of what is truly eternally helpful, the Cross of Jesus Christ. So for Christians the message of the religious right and the religious left must be tempered with the Gospel. If you choose to read this book, do not forget what the Christian message really is.

Don't be fooled by the innocuous-sounding title of this book. It is filled with some good ideas but the liberal agenda of the book becomes clear by page 2! Mr. Coffin has no respect nor use for anyone in the conservative camp. His compassion is all-encompassing, it would seem, but given a choice between a poor fundamentalist Christian and a wealthy liberal congressman, his choice would clearly be the latter. Didn't Jesus mention something about not judging your brother harshly? Mr. Coffin has judged conservative Christians with all the vitriol that is so characteristic of the liberal community.