In this book, Harris makes the compelling argument that human beings can no longer afford the luxury of major religious belief systems.  In a world in which we now have the capacity to kill millions of humans at one time, belief systems that are intolerant of non-believers and emphasize life in the hereafter over the present are simply too dangerous.  

Harris claims that even moderate members of a religion are to blame for extreme acts committed in the name of their faith, because the moderates help to legitimize the acceptance of beliefs that can be easily used to support violence.  His arguments cut to the heart of the concept of faith itself, and will be unpalatable to many.  But Harris does not seem to be advocating a switch to an atheist or even agnostic view.  He is primarily against subscribing to unexamined beliefs.  As an alternative, he offers a discussion of a rational, experience-based spirituality that has some links to Buddhism.  This is a highly provocative book that offers many important ideas to the debate about the role of religion in modern life.

 S. is a novel which uses the letters and tapes of a middle-aged WASP woman to chronicle her time in a Rajneesh-style Arizona ashram.  While I was intrigued by the concept, I had mixed feelings about the work.  The epistolary structure offered an unusually intimate view into the main character’s world, but because S. was not a woman I found very sympathetic, her monologues didn’t speak to me personally. 

This book is supposedly a satire, and I will agree that it is entertaining on that level.  But I do think Updike crosses the line from satire to cynicism in a number of places.  Still, it’s an interesting read.

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In his earlier work, Hidden Journey, Andrew Harvey literally wrote the book on Indian guru Mother Meera as he described how this woman he came to believe was an incarnation of the Divine Mother assisted him in coming into a more awakened state.  Not much later, his view of Meera (for whom he had become the official spokesperson) began to change when she informed him that his homosexual lifestyle was spiritually wrong and insisted he renounce both homosexuality and his newfound lover. 

Harvey’s account of his acrimonious split from Meera and the resulting dark night of the soul is intensely personal, and some readers may find the graphic depiction of tantric gay sex in one chapter a little too personal.  But the story is fascinating as a raw chronicle of one man’s courageous struggle to reclaim his spirituality from someone who was clearly abusing it and instead forge his own direct connection to the divine.

The one problem I had with Harvey’s account, however, is that while he outlines the process of projection that caused him to originally see Meera as an incarnation of the Divine Mother, I wasn’t left with the impression that he understood  that his new, negative perceptions of who Meera really is might also be subject to the same process of distortion.

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The Program tells the story of a disgraced cop who redeems himself by infiltrating a dangerous cult to rescue a vulnerable young woman.  Hurwitz has done his research and writes with convincing detail about the methodology behind aggressive recruitment techniques, offshore financial shenanigans, and some of the more insidious kinds of mind-control. At the same time, however, the cult he writes about is so extreme as to border on caricature.  Most of the members of his group are very one-dimensional, and the leader, a sort of personal growth guru gone VERY bad, is clearly a scam artist. That said, as a thriller, The Program is well-crafted and a seductive read.

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This novel tells the story of young fishing prodigy Gus Orviston and his madcap, fishing-obsessed family.  After graduating from high school, Gus leaves home so he can be free of distractions and devote himself entirely to fishing.  In the process and despite himself, Gus comes to discover the joys of community, romantic love, and eventually, God.

It’s hard for me to express just how much I love this book.  One of the biggest reasons why is because it’s laugh-out-loud hysterical.  There are just not very many books dealing with spiritual matters that are so fantastically funny.  But this one probably makes up for the lack of many others.  Go.  Read it now.  You’ll thank me, I swear.

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