Making Peace with God [Hardcover]

Harold Bloomfield (Author), Philip Goldberg (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 27, 2003

How often do we wish to pray, to meditate, or to otherwise relate to a higher power only to find ourselves stymied by confusion or doubt? In Making Peace with God, bestselling authors Harold Bloomfield and Philip Goldberg explore how the unresolved experiences of childhood and the burning complexities of adulthood frequently derail our efforts to reach a mature understanding of religion and spirituality.

This immensely useful guide examines persistent doubts and questions, and transforms them into tools that can be used to discover what lies behind our spiritual yearnings. Readers can choose from among nine religious "personality drives" to better understand their expectations of, and struggles with, the idea of Divinity. Making Peace with God leaves us with a renewed understanding of ourselves and a clearer sense of our spiritual calling.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Therapy trumps theology in this self-help guide to personal spiritual peace. Counselors inspired by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the founder of Transcendental Meditation, Bloomfield and Goldberg (coauthors of Making Peace with Your Past) advocate a psychologically sensitive and highly syncretistic personal faith for the religious and nonreligious alike. "We are all pieces of God yearning for the peace of God," they announce, even including atheists in their sweeping statement. With uplifting anecdotes, personal vignettes, and inspiring quotations from an eclectic mix of religious sources (cited with little regard for their original context), the authors encourage spiritual seekers to pursue enlightenment. The chapters offer pathways through doubt, suffering, guilt, and shame toward awakening to consciousness of God and growing beyond self-centered spirituality. The text argues that religions that stress the distinction between God and world are really seeking union with the divine, although they tend to create soul-damaging religious institutions. Designed for do-it-yourselfers, the book sacrifices understanding the faiths of others on the altar of self-awareness. Steve Young, McHenry Cty. Coll., Crystal Lake, IL
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

About the Author

Drs. Harold Bloomfield and Philip Goldberg are the coauthors of Making Peace with Your Past.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Tarcher (January 27, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1585421596
• ISBN-13: 978-1585421596
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.2 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,660,587 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Pleasant Surprise, March 22, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Making Peace with God (Hardcover)

I'll admit I approached this book with some skepticism. I initially feared that the authors were bringing a feel-good, self-help approach to a subject that demands considerably more gravitas; and in any case "God" has not been an operative term in my vocabulary for some years now. I was pleasantly surprised. Bloomfield and Goldberg skillfully mine sources both Eastern and Western, scriptural and secular, and extract an expansive definition of God (or rather an expansive appreciation of the undefinability of God) that blows past the usual Sunday school Superbeing that has sent so many intelligent people running for the exits. There's a lot of warm humor and feet-on-the-ground spiritual pragmatism here. One innovation that I found particularly helpful is the idea, adapted from the Enneagram, of nine types of people (the Reformer, the Lover, the Boss, etc.), who all find different dynamics at play in their quest for the infinite, with different resources and different challenges. As the authors caution, everyone has elements of more than one type, but these psychological portraits can still be extremely valuable in pointing up limiting patterns and assumptions that we have been so locked into that we don't realize we're locked in. Once you see these patterns, you're a good part of the way toward transcending them. This is a useful book that will open doors for people who care about a relationship with God, and for many who think they don't.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Comprehensive and heartfelt, June 16, 2003

By 

Susan R. Quinn (Poinciana, FL USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Making Peace with God (Hardcover)

Bloomfield and Goldberg manage to take a comprehensive and heartfelt perspective on a very sensitive subject: how do we explore and understand our relationship with God? They ask the hard questions from many different viewpoints in a way that invites us to ask those same questions of ourselves--what do we expect of God, how do our own attitudes of God color our vision of God? Ultimately the authors show us ways to find peace within ourselves and with the Divine by both challenging us, and empathizing with us, as we explore and strive to reconcile our connection with God. The book was rich with stories, metaphors, humor and pathos, allowing the reader to connect with this delicate issue in many different ways. I highly recommend it! --Susan Quinn

5.0 out of 5 stars Very Informational, January 9, 2010

By 

Victoria Bonilla-Snead (Reading, PA, USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Making Peace with God (Hardcover)

I enjoy reading this book. It gives me different insights on how to view God and the issues I have with him and others. This book does really help make peace with God. :)