Ebook The Wisdom Jesus: Transforming Heart and Mind--A New Perspective on Christ and His Message, by Cynthia Bourgeault
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The Wisdom Jesus: Transforming Heart and Mind--A New Perspective on Christ and His Message, by Cynthia Bourgeault
Ebook The Wisdom Jesus: Transforming Heart and Mind--A New Perspective on Christ and His Message, by Cynthia Bourgeault
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Review
"There are few spiritual teachers who give us genuinely fresh insight, but even fewer who give us the tools so we can come to those insights for ourselves. Cynthia Bourgeault does both, and does them very well!"—Richard Rohr, OFM, author of Everything Belongs: The Gift of Contemplative Prayer "A masterful work. Cynthia Bourgeault invites us to follow Jesus's path of self-emptying love, and she describes wisdom practices that we Christians can use every day to transform our own minds so that we too can see with the eyes of Christ."—Jim Marion, author of Putting on the Mind of Christ "Bourgeault centers her expansive house of wisdom in the sayings and extraordinary death of the gospel Jesus as she turns light and darkness into a living poetry of self-emptying vision."—Willis Barnstone, author of The Other Bible, coauthor of The Gnostic Bible
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About the Author
Cynthia Bourgeault, PhD, is an Episcopal priest, teacher, and retreat and conference leader. She is the author of several books, including Chanting the Psalms and Centering Prayer and Inner Awakening.
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Product details
Paperback: 224 pages
Publisher: Shambhala; First American Edition edition (August 12, 2008)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 9781590305805
ISBN-13: 978-1590305805
ASIN: 1590305809
Product Dimensions:
5.5 x 0.6 x 8.5 inches
Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review:
4.5 out of 5 stars
251 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank:
#18,096 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
I am not religious. I am not academic and this is certainly not a book I would have searched out or read on my own were it not brought directly to me by unexplained events. My husband and I were actually attending a meditation retreat when I randomly picked this book up in their library while waiting for dinner one evening. It was hidden among my more familiar authors of Marianne WIlliamson and Eckart Tolle. I am not sure WHY I picked it up other than it being Divinely led TO me. I am confident ANY other time that I'd scan the back of the book to have read Cynthia Bourgeault was a Episcopal priest I would have immediately placed it back on the shelf. (organized religion is not my cup of tea) I know for sure any other time I'd have flipped through the book to see the highly intelligent "academic" type writing style, I also would have put it down...but something made me carry this book over to the nearest chair to start reading...and I couldn't put it down. Clear, deep and profound insights into new ways of inviting thought provoking new ways of looking at Jesus and the messages he's left for us. It's been a new "wow" for me and opened up a whole new world of thought. This book, and the wisdom of Cynthia's teachings, have been like hiring my own personal coach & spiritual leader, urging me on to walk the walk of Godliness as Jesus really taught. I have since been into several of her books and have loved them all.
"Wisdom Jesus" is a three-part book. In Part I, Cynthia Bourgeault presents Jesus as a radical teacher, and not as a savior or as the Messiah. According to her, Jesus was nothing like how he is presented by the traditional church. He was an enlightened person whose only purpose was to reprogram or upgrade human consciousness from the innate dualistic "operating system" to a non-dualistic one. That Jesus was much more like a Zen master than a Jewish rabbi or priest. Bourgeault's analysis resonated completely with my own conclusions about Christianity, namely that traditional or orthodox beliefs are really much more about the person of Jesus and who he was rather than his message. In its current form, Christian teachings ares based more on those of Saul of Tarsus than those of Jesus of Nazareth – traditional Christianity should really be called Paulism in my opinion. The church hierarchy is modeled after the imperial Roman government, where it became its enforcement arm. In contrast to western/Roman style version, introduced some of the so-called heretical texts, such as The Gospel of Thomas and The Gospel of Mary Magdalene to illustrate the fact that some early Christians believed in a very different Jesus and a very different message compared to what is currently taught in Sunday schools. So far so good. I really enjoyed Part I.Then came Part II. Here the author revealed herself as an Episcopalian priest and a professional director of medieval passion plays, contradicting virtually everything she said in Part I. In Part II, she took us back to Sunday school all over again, quoting chapter and verse from Matthew, Mark, Luke and John about Jesus's life, his ministry, his crucifixion, burial, resurrection and bodily ascension into Heaven. In these accounts, she takes everything stated in the four Gospels as literally true and historically accurate. She also presents us with her own non-biblical account of Jesus' descent into Hell, which occurred prior to his resurrection, and how the components of the trinity fit together and complement each other.Part III delves into Christian meditation techniques, which aren't as much about quieting the mind as much as expressing the intent to upgrade the mind to a non-dualistic operating system. This upgrade is accomplished primarily by "letting go" with Jesus as the facilitator.I must say that I was very disappointed in this book. It started off very well, but inexplicably devolved into orthodox Christian dogma, which cannot be be validated by evidence or reason, but must simply be believed as it was written in the Bible. The author does not explain why the writings in the Nag Hammadi scrolls were not included in the Bible if they were in fact closer to revealing the true message of Jesus than the four Gospels. Nothing in Parts II or III resembles any of the teachings of Nag Hammadi or the other Gnostic texts.I didn't find the Christian Wisdom Practices in Part III of the book to be much different than yoga, transcendental meditation, or Buddhist mediation. The Centering Prayer seems a bit like the mantra technique, except that it includes an "intent" to become one with God. Some meditation experts say that stating such an intent takes you in the opposite direction because it implies there is still a gulf that needs to be crossed to get there, whereas as Jesus stated, the Kingdom of Heaven is already at hand.Bourgeault suggests performing the Lactio Divina (sacred reading) method, which involves reading scripture "between the lines." This may be a good starting point for seekers, but it won't take them very far. For one thing, the scriptures have been edited and mistranslated into various languages, plus the meanings of words change over the years, so it's very easy to be misled by the words. One example of this is this famous quote, "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven." This metaphor doesn't really make sense, but some "experts" insist that Jesus was talking about a small gateway into Jerusalem called the "eye of the needle" which a camel could barely pass through. Actually, the saying probably stems from an obvious typographical error: "gamlo" in Aramaic, which means rope, was transcribed as "gamla" meaning camel. Interestingly, the Greek word for rope is also very similar to the Greek word for camel (kamilos vs kamilon) and this verse eventually came down to us from Greek through Latin (where camel = cameli and rope = funem). It would have made a lot more sense to compare something very difficult to a rope passing through the eye of a needle instead of a camel, but biblical scholars refuse to make the correction of "camel" to "rope" because they would be admitting the Bible contains errors. Ruminating scripture filled with errors and improperly translated into modern languages isn't the best way to get to the truth.The "wisdom practice" of chanting and psalmody described in Part III is similar to Buddhist and Hare Krishna chanting. The wisdom practice the author refers to as "welcoming" recapitulates "letting go" she discussed earlier in the book, and Part III finishes off with the practice of celebrating the Eucharist, a full-on Christian ritual that never really made any sense to me. There was nothing new to report in Part III.I gave Part I four stars and only one star each for Parts II and III, which averages out to two stars overall.
With modern historical research, much of the Bible is found to be altered or written specifically to make certain items work the way canon is desired. (See historical research of Bible elsewhere.) Here, the author is proposing that Jesus did NOT want a separate religion from Judaism, but rather wanted others to enter the "Kingdom of Heaven" while in this world. Reading His statements in this light does put His words into a different context. The author uses her interpretation to give new meaning to the "Kingdom of Heaven" and how to access it in this world. This book would be heretical to those who believe that the Bible is the inerrant Word of God, yet it makes sense of much of Jesus' words related to the "Kingdom." If you hold to the Pauline interpretation of Gospel [that the only way to heaven is through the cross, and risen Christ], then you will NOT be happy with this book. HOWEVER, if you are looking for a way to make your life more meaningful, then this book may be what you are looking for. Her thesis is that Jesus was calling for a direct experience of union with GOD, and not a belief system. She uses the later chapters to assist one in achieving this union. I found it to be very insightful and useful for me.
I had very high hopes. Much of the book was an intelligent conversation about what Jesus' words were truly saying and focused on the teachings that caused so many to be enthralled with his message. Unfortunately, I often feel that many authors that approach this topic fall back into line with traditional church teaching in what seems to be an effort to not upset too many people. Also, I find that, as in this book, there is an attempt to take eastern meditation practices and retrofit Christian approaches on top. It seems contrived. Overall good but could have been great.
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