{"id":2718,"date":"2008-03-25T19:00:00","date_gmt":"2008-03-26T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost:8888\/1969\/12\/31\/soul-provider\/"},"modified":"2008-03-25T19:00:00","modified_gmt":"2008-03-26T00:00:00","slug":"soul-provider","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/2008\/03\/soul-provider\/","title":{"rendered":"Soul Provider"},"content":{"rendered":"

I received
\nhref=”http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/0385515529?ie=UTF8&tag=thecurjes-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0385515529″>Soul
\nProvider: Spiritual Steps to Limitless Love<\/a>\"\"
\nsrc=”http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=thecurjes-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0385515529″
\nalt=””
\nstyle=”border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important;”
\nborder=”0″ height=”1″ width=”1″> by Fr. Edward
\nBeck and here was another book I was not to enthused to review.
\nWhen you have a book cover with positive reviews\u00a0 by
\nthe Dalai Lama and reviews for his previous books by Anne Lamott,
\nAndrew Greeley, Diane Sawyer, L.A. Times etc. you would
\ncertainly have a tendency to judge a book by it’s cover reviews.
\nAdd to that that the book also quotes from Hindu, Islam, and
\nother sources and throws in global warming a couple of times it would
\ncertainly seem that I might rather have my fingernails torn out then to
\nread it.<\/p>\n

Maybe since it was Lent I read it anyway
\nand I do try to review books sent to me even though it gives me no
\npleasure to write a negative review when I have to. To my surprise
\nthought I pretty much did enjoy this book. \u00a0The book is a
\nchapter by chapter following of The Ladder of Divine Ascent by Saint
\nJohn Climacus. \u00a0In the original work there are thirty steps
\nalong the spiritual path and the book follows this steps with thirty
\nchapters.<\/p>\n

Fr. Beck builds on the steps of St. John
\nClimacus by trying these explain these steps in more modern terms.
\nFor the most part he succeeds. \u00a0He tells a wealth of
\nstories from his own life and dealings with others to help the audience
\nsee these steps and why following them are important to the spiritual
\nlife. My positive reaction to this book is mainly because I judge that
\nthis book was written for a larger audience and not specifically for
\nCatholics. \u00a0If the book was specifically written for Catholics
\nthen it is not very good since it almost totally lacks the framework of
\nthe sacraments so necessary to advance in the spiritual life.
\nAs I suspect that this is a more generic book on the topic of
\nspirituality mostly rooted in a Christian context I have less problems
\nwith it.<\/p>\n

As I mentioned there are example used from
\nother religious traditions, but the large majority of references are to
\nscripture. \u00a0I did not get the feeling of syncretism in the use
\nof these other sources and that what was quoted was applicable to the
\ntopic at hand. Fr. Beck is a capable writer and he keeps you interested
\nin the topics at hand and has some good insights along the road.
\nI certainly got the idea that he was firmly in the
\nprogressive camp when it comes to the Church, but it was not overt and
\nfor the most part did not distract from the steps from The Ladder of
\nDivine Ascent. \u00a0But mostly I had to remember what the audience
\nwas for the book for it not to annoy me at times. \u00a0For people
\nwith very modernist ideas who are starting to take God and the
\nspiritual life seriously there is a lot of good in this books.
\nFr. Beck has had a wealth of dealings I suspect with this
\naudience and thus he examples will be quite useful for them.<\/p>\n

One chapter I found that fell short of the
\nrest of the book was the one on lust. This though was not exactly
\nsurprising since it is the telltale sign of the progressive side that
\nwhen it comes to sexual morality that they just don’t fully understand
\nwhy it is sinful. \u00a0He wants to take a “fresh look” and asks
\n“would any of us be around without lust?” \u00a0This question
\nperfectly shows his error of understanding and even thought he quotes
\nthe Catechism on lust as a “disordered desire” he doesn’t seem to
\nunderstand that sexual desire within marriage does not have to be
\ndisordered. I think it is a rather sad worldview to believe that there
\nhas to be lust within the covenant of marriage. \u00a0As if lust is
\na necessary evil. \u00a0There are also a couple of mentions of
\nhomosexuality that while not condoning it certainly contain no caveats
\nand in another chapter the “Course of Miracles” is mentioned without
\nproviding any caveats of this new age nonsense. \u00a0I found it
\nrather interesting that in the chapter on lust he was totally able to
\nsink his teeth into denouncing avarice and was able to wax long on this
\nsubject.<\/p>\n

So while this book is not the sort of book
\nI would recommend to the audience of my blog I can see that this book
\ncould be quite useful for some.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I received href=”http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/0385515529?ie=UTF8&tag=thecurjes-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0385515529″>Soul Provider: Spiritual Steps to Limitless Love src=”http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=thecurjes-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0385515529″ alt=”” style=”border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important;” border=”0″ height=”1″ width=”1″> by Fr. Edward Beck and here was…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2718","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-review"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2718","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2718"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2718\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2718"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2718"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2718"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}