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Standing in the Light: My Life as a Pantheist (Hardcover)

~ (Author)
Key Phrases: holistic science, sanctuary movement, clearness committee, Gila Valley, Gila River, Marcus Aurelius (more...)

4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (12 customer reviews)

Price:	$25.00 & this item ships for FREE with Super Saver Shipping. Details
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Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

*Starred Review* Russell has written discerning and poetic books about butterflies, flowers, and hunger. She now breaks new ground in this spiraling history of pantheism, an essential if overlooked tributary to the great river of spirituality. Russell defines pantheism as the belief that the universe, with all its existing laws and properties, is an interconnected whole that we can rightly consider sacred. Accordingly, the structure of this meditative and gracefully informative book embodies interconnectivity. Russell presents fresh and affecting profiles of key figures in the evolution of pantheism, such as Marcus Aurelius, Giordano Bruno, Baruch Spinoza, and Walt Whitman, and chronicles her own revelatory experiences in Guatemala, India, and her home base, New Mexico’s Gila Valley, where she observes sandhill cranes and javelinas and helps band birds. As she tracks the profound influence pantheism has had on diverse religions, deep ecology, the romantic poets, and the transcendentalists, Russell recounts her decision to become a Quaker and her realization that she is, at heart, a scientific pantheist. Ultimately, Russell’s probing and illuminating inquiry into pantheism renews our appreciation for the complexity and wonder of life. Rhapsodic and expansive, this is a timely and salutary inquiry. --Donna Seaman

Review

"An elegantly written mixture of history, science and memoir... an engaging journey through the full spectrum of hunger, from the familiar stomach rumblings to the global issue of famine... Observer "An elegant meditation... (Sharman Apt Russell) scoops every morsel of interest from her subject. She also writes beautifully. Not surprisingly, this produces a feast." Economist"

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Product Details

Hardcover: 256 pages
Publisher: Basic Books (June 30, 2008)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0465005179
ISBN-13: 978-0465005178
Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.6 x 1.3 inches
Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)

Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (12 customer reviews)

Amazon.com Sales Rank: #177,425 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Inside This Book (learn more)

Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
holistic science, sanctuary movement, clearness committee, sacred reality, loach minnow, magical worldview, small inner voice

Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Gila Valley, Gila River, Marcus Aurelius, New Mexico, Silver City, Quaker Meeting, Walt Whitman, Baruch Spinoza, Ruler of Everything, The Peaceable Kingdom, Nature Conservancy, Deer Park, Sacaton Mesa, Giordano Bruno, Make Oneness Your House, Chuang Tzu, George Fox, United States, The Early Greeks, Virginia Woolf, Renaissance Magician, West Nile, Jim Corbett, Mogollon Mountains, Lichty Ecological Research Center

What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

	81% buy the item featured on this page: Standing in the Light: My Life as a Pantheist 4.7 out of 5 stars (12) $25.00
	6% buy Elements of Pantheism 4.0 out of 5 stars (8) $7.88
	5% buy The Sacred Depths of Nature 4.3 out of 5 stars (24) $13.59
	4% buy When God Is Gone, Everything Is Holy: The Making of a Religious Naturalist 3.7 out of 5 stars (95) $15.61

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Customer Reviews

12 Reviews

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Average Customer Review

4.7 out of 5 stars (12 customer reviews)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A beautiful walking meditation on the web of everything, July 27, 2008

By	Robert E. Pierson (Albuquerque, NM USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

As a Quaker seminarian and fellow New Mexican, I'm more than a little partisan to Russell's latest book, but I'd recommend her beautiful lively writing to all who sense something delightful and disturbing in their experience of nature and spirit.
Standing in the Light: My Life as a Pantheist is a walking meditation, faithful in its survey of pantheistic thought, yet grounded in its particular place and time. The book begins not with a creed, but with a map of the Nature Conservancy's Gila River Farm in southern New Mexico, where the author lives in a "little yellow house" not far from one of the few healthy rivers remaining in the American Southwest.
Her stories of Spinoza, Whitman, Quakers, and Hindus are interlinked by a refrain that counts blackbirds, flycatchers, grosbeaks, and wrens during bird banding season. Greek philosophers are accompanied by a chorus of sandhill cranes. Roman stoics and modern cell biologists find themselves at home among stories of the author's family, or the river's mosquito fish and loach minnows. "Everything is interwoven," writes the Roman ruler Marcus Aurelius, "and the web is holy."
"I am in love with Marcus Aurelius," admits Russell, two thousand years later, yet she paints her portrait of his brutal time and life with the same faithful linguistic brush, as she paints scenes of Coots pecking their baby nestlings to death. Russell has not written a sentimental book. Those looking for an idealized naturalism will not find easy comfort.
Yet the view from Russell's porch remains reverent. "Standing in the Light" is a Quaker phrase that captures both the immediacy of religious experience and the difficulty of its explication. The inbreak of the divine is heralded by the ordinary - by a sidewalk and porch step, pine tree and electric wires, by the gurgling call of a raven. By walking the landscape, Russell is able to walk through thousands of years of human life, pondering the relation of the natural and the divine. One doesn't so much learn history or philosophy in this book as breathe it, smell it in damp earth after desert rain, or watch it form and shift like clouds in the New Mexico sky.
"In my case, pantheism is a word whose back I ride like a man on a horse trying to get somewhere," writes Russell, "Or maybe a word more like a house, a place of shelter when it is cold and rainy, a house with big windows and a gorgeous view."

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18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Refreshing and insightful, August 19, 2008

By	C. Neely (San Lorenzo,NM) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I never heard of Pantheism before this book. I don't know much about Quakerism, nor am I a literay scholar. But I do recognize something well-researched and well-written. I savored every page, sometimes re-reading parts to feel the richness of Sharman Russells words. I so appreciate the time she put in to sift through history and give the reader clearly-written excerpts on of past philosophers and their ideas. I especially enjoyed reading about more personal details about Marcus Aurelius's life and his love of family. I had no idea...
Sharman Russell has an amazing ability to weave the past and present together, like Marcus's web interconnected. This book is rich, deep and delightful. I plan to give copies as gifts this year to family and friends who are "seeking" the light in these dark times. Sharman doesn't gives answers, because she knows there are no answers. Spirituality is not a destination. It is a journey, and she bravely shares hers with us.

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15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A gentle, harrowing light, August 6, 2008

By	Nicholas Briejer (Tacoma, WA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I highly recommend this book (that fifth star is saved for the next Moby-Dick). It is one of those books I read slowly. Don't let the smooth, plain-faced prose fool you. This book moves in deep water. I would read a few pages, or a few lines, or perhaps only one of Russell's finely crafted sentences then sip my coffee and contemplate my own world.
The book braids an often riveting history of pantheism with memoir and nature writing. Though the latter was enjoyable, I was most intrigued by the stories of history's pantheists and author's own intimate struggle with her spiritual place in this world.
The title might suggest a little fluff. The reality is quite the opposite. Russell is a scholar. A few moments with your nose in the bibliography offers a window into the extent of her journey. And just as the historical facts are well rooted in hard research, Russell's own personal journey rings with authenticity.
The highest praise I can give this book is that unlike many of its ilk, it offers no easy answers (if any answers at all) to our human struggle. It instead illuminates the landscape, offers the wisdom of one life's journey, and leaves us to face the day as we have faced all our others--though perhaps heartened, and with a more informed respect for the slants of light moving us all forward.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Deserves a Prize
I think I can honestly say I understand pantheism because Sharman Apt Russell has done a marvelous job of presenting the history of this concept, or spiritual viewpoint. Read more

Published 1 month ago by Patricia Harrelson

5.0 out of 5 stars Memoir Moves Reader Into Light
In Standing in the Light: My Life as a Pantheist, Sharman Apt Russell invites the reader on a quest to resolve the tensions inevitable to one who proposes to live consciously:... Read more

Published 5 months ago by Mary R. Donnelly

4.0 out of 5 stars Standin in the Light: My Life as a Pantheist
I felt like I was talking to a friend as I read. She shared her thoughts while adding historical and background detail. A comfortable but informative book.

Published 7 months ago by G. J. Amber

4.0 out of 5 stars The beauty of pantheism
This is a good read and a thoughtful overview of pantheism and some of the key Western thinkers who have contributed to pantheistic thought. Read more

Published 8 months ago by Kyle Gardner

4.0 out of 5 stars You could do worse...
..than to read this book. I found it a good spring board to many other, more classical, works that she references within this small volume. Read more

Published 9 months ago by Claudia E. Brubaker

5.0 out of 5 stars Delicious
I loved this book. Like a fresh stream, Ms Russell's words soothed my mind and excited my spirit. Read more

Published 15 months ago by Patricia J. Reed

5.0 out of 5 stars Inspiring and unusually well written
This is an inspiring and beautifully written account of one woman's spiritual journey. Highly recommended for those who find meaning in Nature and in everyday life. Read more

Published 15 months ago by G. Taff

5.0 out of 5 stars Going Deeper
In our collective imagination, life-changing revelations are supposed to occur on mountaintops or in deserts or in similarly dramatic landscapes. Read more

Published 15 months ago by Story Circle Book Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Standing in the Light, L. Blauner
What is the meaning of life? How do you want to live? What is our relationship to the world around us? These are the questions S.A.Russell's new book tries to answer. Read more

Published 15 months ago by Full-Track Productions

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