Quest Magazine

A Place at the Table

By William J. Elliott
New York: Doubleday, 2003. 420 pages.

It began, as recorded in the Christian scriptures, with the question put to Peter: “Who do you say I am?" Since Jesus first asked, seekers have offered a variety of answers, and asked questions of their own, about the Jesus of history and the Jesus of faith.

On pilgrimage by motor home around the country, William J. Elliott undertook his own search to rediscover the real Jesus. A Place at the Table is a wonderful sharing of his learning through dialogues with a wide spectrum of scholars and religious figures about their personal beliefs and historical understandings of Jesus.

Those who have read any of the Jesus material will find this work a special addition. Most of the important topics are discussed by several contemporary scholars (Borg, Crossan, Douglas-Klotz, Fox, Harvey, Johnson, Sanders, Spong, Wright) as well as noteworthy others (Chopra, Falwell, Graham, Keating, Kushner, Williamson, Woodman).

Elliott's narrative is a delight to read. Begin anywhere, with a favorite or an unknown person, and be inspired, challenged, and soul-nourished. Each exchange has its own before-and-after story, including the author's anticipations and reflections. Elliott's questions are heartfelt and clear. All responses are bountifully insightful and passionate with personal conviction. In fact, you may find yourself wishing that he had shared even more.

The book provides many awareness-expanding perspectives. For example, because of the significance of the family in Judaism, Jesus was probably married and scripture does not state the obvious; or he may have been a widower; or, since Jewish males were married by age eighteen if they could afford it, Jesus could have been celibate because of his poverty; or, because celibacy was a known ascetic practice for some in Judaism, he may have been celibate. Simply put, scholars and seekers do not have certain knowledge about Jesus' marital status.

Penetrating questions abound to explore fuller divine perspectives. For example, do we love God enough to let go of our beliefs about God and thus drop eternally into the God we don't know? And how do you understand the words "The Kingdom of God is within you"? Does it mean that spark of divinity within you makes you identical with the divine? Or that the rule of Christ is in your heart?

These dialogues attest to the truth of the scriptural assertion that "Wherever two or more are gathered in my name, I am there in their midst." Elliott engages his interlocutors such that they gift him with inspiring personal perspectives that help explain their experience of Jesus beyond the concepts of history and faith. These perspectives deepen his receptivity to his own experience of the Cosmic Christ. You may be similarly affected.

-DAVID R. BISHOP

July/August 2006

Incompleteness: The Proof and Paradox of Kurt Gödel

By Rebecca Goldstein
New York: W. W. Norton, 2005. Hardcover, 296 pages.

Kurt Godel is generally considered to be the pre-eminent mathematician/logician of the past century, a man whose intellectual prowess and influence is often compared to Einstein's. Godel's major theorems produced or transformed several branches of modern mathematical logic: model theory, recursion theory, set theory, proof theory, and intuitionist logic. His work has exerted a marked effect on computer science and the philosophy of consciousness, by suggesting that there are limits to what computers are capable of, and that the human mind is quite a bit more than just a computer. His incompleteness theorems were a serious blow to attempts to prove the fundamental soundness of formalized mathematical systems (systems that are entirely self-validating, depending on nothing outside of their internal rules to prove the inconsistency).

Godel's groundbreaking work resulted in the disquieting notion that within mathematical systems that are consistent, there will be propositions that can not be proven true or false. Godel further showed that proof of a mathematical system's consistency can never be ascertained by appealing to the rules of the system alone, and that, consequently, mathematical systems are not simply man-made constructs, but contain truths that are "independent of any human activities."

Godel was also a very strange man. Always intensely private, Godel, by the time of his 1978 death in Princeton, New Jersey, had disintegrated into a paranoid, anorexic recluse (his death was essentially caused by self-starvation stemming from his fears of being poisoned ), who had alienated himself from just about everyone , including Princeton's intellectual elite.

A new book, Incompleteness: The Proof and Paradox of Kurt Godel, by novelist and philosophy professor Rebecca Goldstein, is a compelling discussion of the man and his ideas. Goldstein's technical analysis of Godel's incompleteness theorems takes up about a third of the book; it is both thorough and illustrative, but it is not light reading. However, the book's biographical dimension, and Goldstein's musings on the ramifications of Godel's ideas are eminently accessible and fascinating.

Goldstein briefly touches on Godel's precocious childhood, but her focus is primarily on his adult life: Godel's connection to Wittgenstein's famous Vienna Circle (Godel, the ardent but covert Platonist, regularly attended their meetings, never revealing the metaphysical inclinations that clashed so profoundly with their radically empirical positivism); his relationship with Einstein, perhaps the deepest friendship of his life (Einstein said that, in his later years, he went to his Princeton office only "for the privilege of walking home with Godel; his global treks in search of an intellectual haven; and his gradual descent into madness.

Goldstein was a graduate student at Princeton during Godel's final years, and she sprinkles her text with memorable anecdotes: her wonder-struck pilgrimage to Godel's house (to her astonishment, a plastic pink flamingo adorned the icon's front lawn); a Godel "sighting" in a grocery store that touched off an excited discussion amongst academics about the contents of his cart; and a party, during which a daring graduate student called Godel's house, hanging up in a panic when Godel's wife called "Kurtsy" to the phone.

Goldstein tells us that, like many of Einstein's ideas, Godel's theories have been frequently misconstrued, and she postulates that both men were drawn together primarily by their shared sense of frustration.

Goldstein writes that Einstein's work has been generally seen as opening the door to a purely subjective universe that changes as often as our viewpoints. However, she declares, Einstein saw ultimate reality as unquestionably objective, though quite different from what our perceptions would lead us to believe. On the other hand, she says, Godel, because of his association with the Vienna Circle, is often thought of as a harbinger of anti-metaphysical positivism, part of the movement to squash "the old absolutist ways of thinking," when actually his work, heavily influenced by Plato's metaphysics, points to a supra-human realm of mathematical laws requiring both intuition and deduction for access (astutely, Goldstein notes that Wittgenstein was actually not a positivist, as well, believing that metaphysical concerns were essentially ineffable, but of supreme importance).

Goldstein writes that Godel's achievements range far beyond the sphere of mathematical logic, "addressing such vast and messy issues as the nature of truth and knowledge and certainty." Indeed, Goldstein declares that Godel's interpretation of his work "shows us that our minds, in knowing mathematics, are escaping the limitations of man-made systems, grasping the independent truths of abstract reality."

-PAUL WINE

May/June 2006

The Oxford Companion to World Mythology

By David Leeming
New York: Oxford University Press, 2005. Hardback, 469 pages.

If you are looking for the one best reference book on mythology for a personal, lodge, school, or public library, The Oxford Companion is it. Informed by good scholarship and a judicious approach, this volume is not merely a dictionary of mythic names, but also a thumbnail introduction to the entire discipline of mythology. Within it , you will find accounts of individual figures from out of myth (e.g., Wotan, Persephone, Kali ), as well as articles on the mythology of geographical areas and spiritual traditions (e.g., Africa n mythology, Islamic mythology), major mythological themes (e.g., Afterlife, Creation), and eminent mythologists (e.g., C. G. Jung, Mircea Eliade, Joseph Campbell, and others).

Narratives from the Judeo-Christian tradition , (e.g., Adam and Eve, the Ascension of Jesus and the Acts of the Apostles ) are called "myths" and presented in the same way, and with the same fullness, as those of other religions. Leeming patiently explains that this is not to disparage them or any other myth, for what may be history to a person of one faith may be myth to those of another creed, and in a work like this all must be on an equal footing. For many users, the copious inclusion of western religious material will only enhance the value of the work.

As a good encyclopedia should, this volume simply gives basic information- a lot of it-in an authoritative voice without getting into academic arguments. Some scholars may quibble about a few particular points, but for the average reader this book will be state of the art, and should be so received. The volume includes an appendix containing family trees and cross-cultural equivalences for selected pantheons, as well as a bibliography and an index.

-ROBERT ELLWOOD

May/June 2006

Meditation: A Complete Audio Guide

By Eknath Easwaran
Tomales, CA: Nilgiri Press, 2004, 2 CDs + 16 page booklet.

Eknath Easwaran's Meditation: A Complete Audio Guide, a course given some years ago at Easwaran's Blue Mountain Center of Meditation, reveals the late teacher's personal warmth and good humor. He was a charming storyteller who knew how to slip in profound teaching with a bit of laughter.

Easwaran's basic method of meditation involves careful, repeated concentration on a memorized passage from the scriptures of the world's religions or other inspirational literature. In this course, he uses a prayer from St. Francis of Assisi as an example. The method combines one-pointed concentration with a use of sacred texts similar to lectio divina in the Christian monastic tradition.

In addition to this meditative practice, Easwaran also discusses the other seven points of his famous eight-point program: repetition of a mantram (chosen according to one's religion or personal inclination), slowing down, one-pointed attention (not just in meditation, but in all of life), training the senses (learning to let go of our likes and dislikes in order to respond more helpfully to the world around us), putting others first, regular reading in the literature of world mysticism, and finding spiritual companionship with like-minded others. As Easwaran points out, these are very simple disciplines (although perhaps difficult to implement!) that can prove transformative to persons of any--or no--spiritual tradition. One of the strengths of this presentation is Easwaran's focus on very practical considerations (e.g., the need to get up early in order to have time to do one's meditation) rather than metaphysical speculation.

Today, we live in an increasingly hectic world. We multitask our way through the day, continually assaulted by different forms of media offering us a bewildering array of consumer choices. We know the value of slowing down, doing one thing at a time, and caring for others, but most of us need reminders from time to time. Even if one uses another method of meditation, there is much in Easwaran's presentation that will apply to any spiritual practitioner. I hope that: Nilgiri Press will offer more CDs of talks by this wonderful teacher, who truly provided "education for living."

-JOHN PLUMMER

March/April 2006