Customer Reviews

Hymns to an Unknown God: Awakening The Spirit In Everyday Life

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

 

 

keen's blend of psychology and spirituality is very appealing to me.exploring the truths and mysteries of the seen and unseen where organized religion dare not go.a no nonsense book on spirituality in everdaylife.if you are one that seeks yearns and desires but are not happy with any of the already laid paths....this is a great starting point to set the mind spirit and imagination on fire!

I was delighted to read, in the magazine review of the book, an opinion that 'Hymns' was a theology for the New Age. My reaction was very similar, a sudden thought crossed my mind that this was a bible for the 21st century. There have been, admittedly, a number of such bibles produced towards the end of the last century, not the least of them being the Seth books, but the fascinating aspect is that they all follow the same spiritual path and they all contain some form of Myth emphasis that dwells upom Man's pathway through life and his own personal responsibilities in following that path. It is no coincidence that Keen's message comes at the same time as Harry Potter, the Lord of the Rings, and other modern dramas bearing a powerful Myth content. The thirst of a confused Mankind for new forms of digestible myth, carrying the same ancient wisdoms but with refreshed archetypes and modern symbols, is evident. It is a thirst that has been rejected by the churches to their cost. Keen's book encapsulates the spirituality of the new century, the desperate need for balance between every aspect of Man's being and the substitution of knowledge, spiritual knowledge that is, in the place of emotion and unquestioning belief.

Excerpt:

The Yearning: "In every cycle of breath, between the emptying and the inflowing, there is a moment of absolute calm,an instant when history comes to an end. Then, the yearning begins, the divine discontent, the lungs praying to be filled, the body longing to be animated by spirit. To catch the invisible wind, to map the itinerary of spirit,study the outlines of your longing. Just as an echo in a cavebrings news of unfathomable depths, in our yearning is our nostalgia for the future. In the emptiness between breaths we hear a whispered promise of fulfillment, we sense the redolence of a rose now only in the bud.

Breathe through us, breath of God, fill us with life anew."

If that speaks to you, the entire book will, I promise.

Altough Mr. Keen is obviously well-read and, in a perverse way, bright, he puts himself before all others and invites his readers to do likwise. Unless one is convinced that what this world needs most is more self-centeredness, it would be best to avoid this one. I put my copy out with the trash.