All in the Mind: A Farewell to God - Hardcover

Kennedy, Ludovic

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0340680636 ISBN 13: 9780340680636

Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton, 1999

Synopsis

Ludovic Kennedy is one of our most distinguished writers and broadcasters. In his new book he explores the question being asked as we approach the end of the second millennium of Christianity - are we any longer justified in interpreting what we call God as an autonomous, independent, sentient being? Or has the time come to recognise him in the way we recognise all history's gods, as images created and sustained by the human mind to meet human needs?
The author examines the origins of gods from the earliest times, questions the reliability of both Old and New Testaments, and records the growth of European atheism from before the Reformation to the present day. Interspersed with this, Ludovic Kennedy offers revealing and often witty insights into how his own upbringing affected his thinking; and in a final, moving chapter, tells how he has found his own way to spiritual fulfilment.

About this title

From Publishers Weekly:

From the first page, which boasts epigraphs from Corinthians, Thomas Paine and Ludwig Feuerbach, to the concluding salvo, British newscaster and author Kennedy relentlessly attacks Christianity. We postmoderns realize, he notes, that ancient Greek gods weren't real, but were merely invented by the Greeks to fill some need. We know that Isis and Pluto and the other Egyptian and Roman deities were fabricated, too. Most people even admit that SatanAat least the half-man, half-beast, red-horns and pitchfork varietyAis a fiction. Isn't it time, Kennedy asks, that we made the same concession about the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost? Kennedy offers familiar critiques of the Bible, arguing that the virgin birth is implausible, as are Jesus' many miracles. He writes with passion about the atrocities committed in the name of Christ, from gouging out the eyes of disobedient archbishops to the Inquisition. Fortunately, in Kennedy's view, between Voltaire, Darwin and Bishop John Robinson (an early British version of John Shelby Spong), many Christians have seen the light and signed up with the atheists. Surely it is time, Kennedy pleads, for the few remaining Christians to give up the ghost. Kennedy's forceful writing compensates, at least in part, for his failure to produce any original arguments, or to consult any of the truly great teachers of the Christian tradition. This throw-down-the-gauntlet and take-no-prisoners manifesto will delight skeptics, disturb Christians and perhaps win over a few fence-sitters. (Aug.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0340680636
• ISBN 13: 9780340680636
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 313