Good Spiritual advice with an aroma of the '70s ( )

Good fodder for a fire ( )

> Babelio : https://www.babelio.com/livres/Peck-Plus-loin-sur-le-chemin-le-moins-frequente/1...

> Coups de chapeau : aux éditions Laffont, qui publie par ailleurs Plus loin sur le chemin la suite de son célèbre best-seller, où il continue à expliquer avec bon sens le cheminement d’une quête spirituelle juste : à noter chez ce converti au christianisme un chapitre pénétrant à propos du New Age dont il voit et les ferments et les errements : “Comme tout mouvement intellectuel d’importance, le New Age est né d’une réaction aux défauts, aux vices institutionnels de la civilisation occidentale”.
—Nouvelles Clés, (10), Été 1996, (p. 72)

Fantastic book on facing life and its challenges. ( )

The author put a lot of thought into this book. He wrote about the ideal human being, a disciplined man or woman willing to extend oneself for the benefit of others. He went to great lengths to explain what is involved in such discipline, and why love should be defined as extension of oneself for the benefit of others (and not a warm fuzzy feeling, or erotic feelings, or anything else.) Then he wrote about the existence of what he calls "grace" (a.k.a. serendipity), along with many other phenomenon that can't be explained or even properly examined without acknowledging the existence of God. Then he argued human beings can experience God's grace by probing into our unconscious and understanding what our unconscious is trying to tell us, which ultimately helps us get a grip on what's wrong with us and thus develop the discipline and love that is necessary to become the ideal human being. He tried to incorporate Bible verses, Buddhism stories, science essays and psychologist quotes into the support of these arguments. I'm not an expert on the other sources, but when he used the Bible verses, he interpreted them very differently from what I understand the verses to mean.

I agree with him there are many things in our lives that can only be explained by acknowledging the existence of God. I agree with him that humanity is by nature undeserving of God's grace and don't particularly desire it, and why some people received this grace is a mystery. The people who did receive the grace certainly didn't think they deserved it. And I agree with him that this grace is actually available to all. I largely agree with his view on what love is. I disagree with him that God resides in our unconscious. I disagree with him that the love and discipline he talks about is attainable by probing and drawing from the power of one's unconscious. ( )