Customer Reviews

Sacred Earth: The Spiritual Landscape of Native America

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

 

 

Following in the footsteps of Rene Guenon, Frithjof Schuon, Ananda K. Coomwaraswamy, Martin Lings, Titus Burkhardt (the modern one) and Seyyid Hossein Nasr, Mr. Versluis brings the analytical methods of these, the "new traditionalists," to the issues of Native American spirituality. Except for some relatively minor analytical flaws common to the methodology he adopts, his perspective on this subject is a generous and welcome one, and his writing opens out the fundamental qualities of this spiritual tradition for neophytes, as well as for well-informed students of other traditions. It is clearly intended for intelligent and well educated readers, but not for academics or intellectuals. This is an inspiring book, which reinforces my already great respect and reverence for the spirituality of this place, Turtle Island.

Very beautiful. I feel this book woke me up or helped me realize some spiritual truth found constant throughout the universe

I bought this book, hoping to gain more insight about Native American spiritual traditions. Though it is filled with a lot of information, it was too much "work" to read and understand the author's points. As my title suggests, it is better used for a philosophy or anthropology course.

Our book club which includes several college educated persons expected a helpful source for Native American spiritual beliefs. Instead, it found this book full of unfamiliar terms, distracting words, and sweeping generalities as it sought to explain varying "sacred" beliefs of various tribes and certain Native American archeological finds in Kansas. Also, we had questions about the credibility of many assertions, as though the author was speaking of his own authority and expertize. If that were the case, then the book should have described his credentials more completely than the quick summary on the back cover, which contained no specific academic references. It was not an easy read and many of its points regrettably tended toward obscurity.

Get it. Read it. You'll understand