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The Good Book: A Humanist Bible [Hardcover]

A. C. Grayling
3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (51 customer reviews)

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Book Description

March 29, 2011
Few, if any, thinkers and writers today would have the imagination, the breadth of knowledge, the literary skill, and-yes-the audacity to conceive of a powerful, secular alternative to the Bible. But that is exactly what A.C. Grayling has done by creating a non-religious Bible, drawn from the wealth of secular literature and philosophy in both Western and Eastern traditions, using the same techniques of editing, redaction, and adaptation that produced the holy books of the Judaeo-Christian and Islamic religions.

The Good Book
consciously takes its design and presentation from the Bible, in its beauty of language and arrangement into short chapters and verses for ease of reading and quotability, offering to the non-religious seeker all the wisdom, insight, solace, inspiration, and perspective of secular humanist traditions that are older, far richer and more various than Christianity.

Organized in 12 main sections----Genesis, Histories, Widsom, The Sages, Parables, Consolations, Lamentations, Proverbs, Songs, Epistles, Acts, and the Good----The Good Book opens with meditations on the origin and progress of the world and human life in it, then devotes attention to the question of how life should be lived, how we relate to one another, and how vicissitudes are to be faced and joys appreciated.

Incorporating the writing of Herodotus and Lucretius, Confucius and Mencius, Seneca and Cicero, Montaigne, Bacon, and so many others, The Good Book will fulfill its audacious purpose in every way.

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The Good Book: A Humanist Bible + The God Argument: The Case against Religion and for Humanism
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Editorial Reviews

Review

'There is an immense depth of human wisdom on display here, and five minutes with any passage will have you contemplating all day' Independent 'An extravagantly erudite manifesto for rational thought' Guardian 'Full of sage counsel, wise advice and comfort for the sorrowing' Observer 'Undeniably thought-provoking' Sunday Times

About the Author

A.C. Grayling is professor of philosophy at Birkbeck College, University of London. He is the author of the acclaimed Among the Dead Cities: The History and Moral Legacy of the WWII Bombing of Civilians in Germany and Japan, Descartes: The Life and Times of a Genius, and Toward the Light of Liberty: The Struggles for Freedom and Rights That Made the Modern Western World. A fellow of the World Economic Forum and past chairman of the human rights organization June Fourth, he contributes frequently to the Times, Financial Times, Economist, New Statesman, and Prospect. Grayling's play "Grace," co-written with Mick Gordon, has played to full houses in London and New York, starring Lynn Redgrave; its central debate over the virtue of religion gives Grayling a strong platform for The Good Book. He lives in London.

Product Details

  • Hardcover: 608 pages
  • Publisher: Walker & Company (March 29, 2011)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0802717373
  • ISBN-13: 978-0802717375
  • Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.4 x 1.9 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (51 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #112,250 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

3.3 out of 5 stars
(51)
3.3 out of 5 stars
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
392 of 401 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars An Atheist's Review April 14, 2011
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
I bought this book with no expectations. I had read an article about it, as an atheist I liked the idea and wanted to support Grayling's work so I bought it. I really was pleasantly surprised.

This book is not a compilation of work. You will not open it up and find passages from various works called out by author. It is truly written in the style of the Bible - Grayling has taken the collected wisdom of hundreds of secular philosophers and melded it together in the flowery prose form typical of the Bible. There is no reference list at the back to tell you where anything came from, he has taken the ideas and the texts and melted them together.

The Good Book begins with Genesis, where you can see the ideas of Darwin laid out in an inspirational way. Reading through this I was really pleasantly surprised at how much I liked it. I'm used to this language being peppered with things I don't believe in, and listening to it at weddings or funerals generally gives me a lump in my stomach. Here was the same kind of lofty language, but saying the things I believed! I didn't realize how much I would enjoy hearing Darwin's theory of evolution told as a beautiful story of how we began and the cycle of life.

As you make your way though the book, you can clearly see where he has incorporated Plato's dialogs, but without specific references. Characters are mentioned in the same way as the Bible, introduced without preamble, just snippets of conversation or story which attempt to showcase an idea. There are passages on grief and death as well.

If you are looking to learn the works of these philosophers in an intellectual way, this is not the book for you. This book is meant to absorb the ideas they upheld in a more spiritual feeling way. I wish this book had been published before I got married, I would have looked for a passage from it to read at my wedding. I could see reading it at a funeral, there really is something cathartic about having grief and death and moving on with life written in this way.

I feel in some ways as an Atheist this may have been what I was missing and didn't realize it. I didn't have anything to help me find a way to feel good about my place in nature's greater story, I just felt the absence of the belief in an afterlife. I also feel like this is a book I could read to my kids to help them figure out how to be a good person in a world which is not always good and in which you cannot rely on a all powerful being to save you from your problems. The language is flowery and poetic, but its also much more accessible than say Kant's Metaphysics of Morals. I minored in philosophy in college, I'm by no means an expert, but I have read some of these works and they are by no means easy to absorb.

So, I think for what this book is trying to accomplish, what it says it is in the description, it is a great work.
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244 of 262 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Free your mind April 3, 2011
Format:Hardcover
What ever your religious outlook, even if you do not have one, I can recommend this genuinely wonderful and wise book to add to your library. Grayling has taken his whole life of learning and crafted it into a beautiful and uplifting, humanist and athiest, book of wide wisdom. It is the sort of book that you can read from cover to cover, and become totally engrossed, or you can take any page, chosen at random, and derive great food for thought from it. Grayling crafted his language like music and it reads like a fresh flowing mountain river. I do think that this book will be around for a few more thousand years.
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76 of 83 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
It is absolutely fantastic! Last night I stayed up with my 10 year old daughter and my 7 year old boy reading the Parables chapter - the story of the leopard and fox. They couldn't get enough of it. I read untill I was horse and they wanted more. I had to cut it off and go to bed however after I put them to bed I read it under my covers to not wake my wife. Honestly I can't put it down and I can't wait till I get off work today so I can go home and read it. Thank you AC Grayling!

Regarding the criticism of the lack of footnotes - valid point, at first I was a bit disappointed that there were no sitations of the author, however I think I am actually glad he didn't put them in because it truly would be a distraction for me. I could see myself not focusing on the passage and become more concerned about who wrote what. Then I'd have to go look it up, etc. It seems a bit more pure this way with only the wisdom and poetry to focus on. I bought 4 copies for friends and family. I treasure this text like a box of gems to open and discover every day. I'm lucky to have found out about it and yes it is far superior and a lot less scary than the original.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars Insight into the "good life."
While Mr. Grayling's english grammar is somewhat different, I liked the layout with the short chapters that took me where he was guiding me. Read more
Published 12 days ago by Terry Joe Chapman
5.0 out of 5 stars Great Thoughts
Just a brief note to some irate reviewers: The word "Bible/bible" is not the exclusive property of Christians. Read more
Published 13 days ago by Michael Eaton
1.0 out of 5 stars Silly Imitation of the Bible -
I was looking for something possibly akin to Confucianism - guiding rules that just make good sense and make for a better life for all. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Loyd E. Eskildson
4.0 out of 5 stars Hardcover edition is a little shoddy.
Ditto all of the 5-star reviews of this book. My additional insight is with respect to the hardcover edition. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Raymond Z. Saltrelli
3.0 out of 5 stars Merely "Good"
The Good Book seems to have been written more as an exercise or proof-of-concept than as a book unto itself. Read more
Published 2 months ago by ApuPunchau
4.0 out of 5 stars Gift
It was a gift for a friend who was writing a movie script. He was happy to use it in the research.
Published 3 months ago by AnielaS
3.0 out of 5 stars Good to have on hand
I listened to this as audiobook and I have it on my Kindle. I did gift the hard back copy. Very heavy read in the middle. Very much like the christian Bible. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Mary
1.0 out of 5 stars this book is so annoying
I was very unsure of this book from the very beginning because most atheist hate the bible and so why would you call it ''A humanistic bible''. Read more
Published 3 months ago by happyman3
5.0 out of 5 stars good book
helps to put your ideas into words, comforting and reassuring that all you need is yourself and not someone else telling you what and how you should believe.
Published 5 months ago by jenne alderton
4.0 out of 5 stars The Humanist Bible: reads like the bible, but without the "thou...
This is very different from what I expected. I had heard an interview on CBC about this and thought that it was a compilation of the thoughts of philosophers down through time. Read more
Published 5 months ago by Deborah Norris
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