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Reinventing the Sacred: A New View of Science, Reason, and Religion
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Manufacturer: Basic Books
Author: Stuart Kauffman
Publisher: Basic Books
Average Customer Rating:
Our Price: $17.82
You Save: $ 9.18 ( 34% )
Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Basic Books
Author: Stuart Kauffman
Publisher: Basic Books
Average Customer Rating:
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Reinventing the Sacred: A New View of Science, Reason, and Religion Description
Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 215
EAN: 9780465003006
ISBN: 0465003001
Label: Basic Books
Manufacturer: Basic Books
Number Of Items: 1
Book Pages: 320
Publication Date: 2008-05-05
Publisher: Basic Books
Studio: Basic Books
Dewey Decimal Number: 215
EAN: 9780465003006
ISBN: 0465003001
Label: Basic Books
Manufacturer: Basic Books
Number Of Items: 1
Book Pages: 320
Publication Date: 2008-05-05
Publisher: Basic Books
Studio: Basic Books
Editorial Review of Reinventing the Sacred: A New View of Science, Reason, and Religion
Consider the woven integrated complexity of a living cell after 3.8 billion years of evolution. Is it more awe-inspiring to suppose that a transcendent God fashioned the cell, or to consider that the living organism was created by the evolving biosphere? As the eminent complexity theorist Stuart Kauffman explains in this ambitious and groundbreaking new book, people who do not believe in God have largely lost their sense of the sacred and the deep human legitimacy of our inherited spirituality. For those who believe in a Creator God, no science will ever disprove that belief. In Reinventing the Sacred, Kauffman argues that the science of complexity provides a way to move beyond reductionist science to something new: a unified culture where we see God in the creativity of the universe, biosphere, and humanity. Kauffman explains that the ceaseless natural creativity of the world can be a profound source of meaning, wonder, and further grounding of our place in the universe. His theory carries with it a new ethic for an emerging civilization and a reinterpretation of the divine. He asserts that we are impelled by the imperative of life itself to live with faith and courage-and the fact that we do so is indeed sublime. Reinventing the Sacred will change the way we all think about the evolution of humanity, the universe, faith, and reason.
Customer Reviews of Reinventing the Sacred: A New View of Science, Reason, and Religion
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Living Life Forward, With Courage and Faith.
Review: In a conversation I had with Stuart Kauffman on Star Island, NH in 2006 I told him that I had found his latest book--At Home in the Universe at that time--a difficult read. He responded that that made him sad because he had tried his best to keep it simple. I assured him that that was my problem and not his.
He obviously has done a better job in his latest book, Reinventing the Sacred, in writing for the non-expert audience. While portions of the book were difficult for me, eg, the chapter on the "Quantum Brain", the book overall is much more comprehensible to me personally. I'm sure that others with a deeper background in complexity theory and science will find the book very understandable.
The author shows courage in presenting a new (to me) scientific paradigm--emergence--and in offering what are, in his own words, highly controversial suggestions and potential methods of investigating these suggestions. Graduate students and post-docs should find a wealth of ideas for future research in this book.
As a religious naturalist I appreciate the author's writing of "naturalizing the sacred" and suggesting that he is only the latest of many thinkers who would like to hold on to the god symbol because of its power accumulated over the centuries and across cultures. Kauffman's erudition and graciousness come through in his writing, especially in the latter parts of the book as he pleads for a better understanding of our "evolving ethics" that hopefully will lead to a desperately needed "global ethic". Because we cannot foresee the future--a key feature of emergence--we must nevertheless "live our lives forward, with courage and faith." I think I will.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Got to have this book
Review: I heard this author interviewed on the radio and ordered the book from the library. Three pages in I knew I had to own the book so I could underline and write in the margins. It's a book to dialog with.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: A rewarding challenge
Review: This is one of the most difficult 'popular science' books I've ever read. But as much as my brain meat hurts while my neurons are busy trying to cram everything into their speculated quantum semi-coherent computational system, I'm really enjoying the lasting effects of digesting Dr. Kauffman's perspective.
I haven't quite finished yet; I'm on the philosophical payload at the end of the book right now, and as a humanities guy who works with scientists I couldn't agree more with Kauffman's assessment of the relationship between the two fields. We've gained a lot over the past few centuries by parsing and segregating our fields of study & endeavor. Books like this demonstrate that we've reached a point in the evolution of intellect that re-integrating, on some level, will well serve to push our understanding of the world even further.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: On the Limits of Science and 'Faith'
Review: I will start by saying that this is one of the most inspiring reads I have had in a while on the borderlands between 'faith' and science. A difficult read; at times a perplexing read--yet Kauffman always returns to the point he is trying to make, and each time adds something to the offer. I will qualify this accolade by saying that Kauffman only ever gets to the trailhead in this book; he doesn't define "the sacred" very articulately at any point in the book, and he doesn't delve very deeply into his idea of "God." Yet the journey he takes you on is well-worth the effort it takes to follow his erudite analyses of cosmological, evolutionary, cultural and even economic case studies in "emergence."
He uses these case studies to urge that we need a new concept of God, and a new concept of the sacred. Kauffman is trying, here, to build a bridge between religious and scientific worldviews, and attempts to do this by embracing important concepts from the religious traditions of our species. He makes the very resonant point that "new religions" have always built new temples upon the sacred sites of older religions and reinterpreted them. He urges that a scientific understanding of "the sacred" should be built upon earlier religious concepts, and not reject the traditions of the past out of hand. He is for re-interpreting the ideas of "God" and "the sacred," not rejecting them as anathema to the scientific worldview. This is a courageous step; one that may do some good toward healing the rift between science and religions in our culture.
Kauffman has taken some very important steps, here, I think, and has given other thinkers new platforms from which to launch out into deeper explorations of the "sacred" dimension of reality from a naturalistic, scientific point of view.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Perfect for both spirituality and college-level science holdings
Review: REINVENTING THE SACRED: A NEW VIEW OF SCIENCE, REASON AND RELIGION comes from a pioneer in the field of complexity theory, and here offers a radical new world view: that of the natural universe as a ceaseless creativity which is unpredictable - and which should be considered divine in itself. This concept of 'sacred' can be recreated, Kauffman writes - and his title shows how to refine a view of God into a different kind of system entirely. Perfect for both spirituality and college-level science holdings, it offers a challenging new way of perceiving spirituality and deity.
Review Summary: Living Life Forward, With Courage and Faith.
Review: In a conversation I had with Stuart Kauffman on Star Island, NH in 2006 I told him that I had found his latest book--At Home in the Universe at that time--a difficult read. He responded that that made him sad because he had tried his best to keep it simple. I assured him that that was my problem and not his.
He obviously has done a better job in his latest book, Reinventing the Sacred, in writing for the non-expert audience. While portions of the book were difficult for me, eg, the chapter on the "Quantum Brain", the book overall is much more comprehensible to me personally. I'm sure that others with a deeper background in complexity theory and science will find the book very understandable.
The author shows courage in presenting a new (to me) scientific paradigm--emergence--and in offering what are, in his own words, highly controversial suggestions and potential methods of investigating these suggestions. Graduate students and post-docs should find a wealth of ideas for future research in this book.
As a religious naturalist I appreciate the author's writing of "naturalizing the sacred" and suggesting that he is only the latest of many thinkers who would like to hold on to the god symbol because of its power accumulated over the centuries and across cultures. Kauffman's erudition and graciousness come through in his writing, especially in the latter parts of the book as he pleads for a better understanding of our "evolving ethics" that hopefully will lead to a desperately needed "global ethic". Because we cannot foresee the future--a key feature of emergence--we must nevertheless "live our lives forward, with courage and faith." I think I will.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Got to have this book
Review: I heard this author interviewed on the radio and ordered the book from the library. Three pages in I knew I had to own the book so I could underline and write in the margins. It's a book to dialog with.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: A rewarding challenge
Review: This is one of the most difficult 'popular science' books I've ever read. But as much as my brain meat hurts while my neurons are busy trying to cram everything into their speculated quantum semi-coherent computational system, I'm really enjoying the lasting effects of digesting Dr. Kauffman's perspective.
I haven't quite finished yet; I'm on the philosophical payload at the end of the book right now, and as a humanities guy who works with scientists I couldn't agree more with Kauffman's assessment of the relationship between the two fields. We've gained a lot over the past few centuries by parsing and segregating our fields of study & endeavor. Books like this demonstrate that we've reached a point in the evolution of intellect that re-integrating, on some level, will well serve to push our understanding of the world even further.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: On the Limits of Science and 'Faith'
Review: I will start by saying that this is one of the most inspiring reads I have had in a while on the borderlands between 'faith' and science. A difficult read; at times a perplexing read--yet Kauffman always returns to the point he is trying to make, and each time adds something to the offer. I will qualify this accolade by saying that Kauffman only ever gets to the trailhead in this book; he doesn't define "the sacred" very articulately at any point in the book, and he doesn't delve very deeply into his idea of "God." Yet the journey he takes you on is well-worth the effort it takes to follow his erudite analyses of cosmological, evolutionary, cultural and even economic case studies in "emergence."
He uses these case studies to urge that we need a new concept of God, and a new concept of the sacred. Kauffman is trying, here, to build a bridge between religious and scientific worldviews, and attempts to do this by embracing important concepts from the religious traditions of our species. He makes the very resonant point that "new religions" have always built new temples upon the sacred sites of older religions and reinterpreted them. He urges that a scientific understanding of "the sacred" should be built upon earlier religious concepts, and not reject the traditions of the past out of hand. He is for re-interpreting the ideas of "God" and "the sacred," not rejecting them as anathema to the scientific worldview. This is a courageous step; one that may do some good toward healing the rift between science and religions in our culture.
Kauffman has taken some very important steps, here, I think, and has given other thinkers new platforms from which to launch out into deeper explorations of the "sacred" dimension of reality from a naturalistic, scientific point of view.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Perfect for both spirituality and college-level science holdings
Review: REINVENTING THE SACRED: A NEW VIEW OF SCIENCE, REASON AND RELIGION comes from a pioneer in the field of complexity theory, and here offers a radical new world view: that of the natural universe as a ceaseless creativity which is unpredictable - and which should be considered divine in itself. This concept of 'sacred' can be recreated, Kauffman writes - and his title shows how to refine a view of God into a different kind of system entirely. Perfect for both spirituality and college-level science holdings, it offers a challenging new way of perceiving spirituality and deity.