Publisher's Synopsis
This book is a spiritual memoir, and much more than that. Both an argument and a personal narrative wend their way throughout the text. The argument is about the fundamental importance of imagination to human self identity, and how that plays out in our spirituality. The personal narrative is a complicated imitation of Augustine's Confessions, the classic spiritual memoir from antiquity. The goal of this book is to paint a portrait of human identity that does justice to the tenacity of our beliefs, the fallibility of our minds and knowledge, the bedrock spiritual impulse to grasp what lies beyond understanding, and the creative use of constructed realities in order to make life meaningful. The themes and questions that this book investigates are universal and basic. What is time, truth, love? Why is death so important to our self understanding? What, if anything, is the difference between a scientific belief and a religious one? What is it about our minds that makes it practically impossible to overcome innate biases and cognitive tendencies? These questions, and more like them, are explored and answered in refreshing and novel fashion. This book is important because it offers an authentic and personal investigation into the meaning of human existence that cuts through old cliches and worn out assumptions. Many of its insights are unexpectedly original and powerful because of the creative nature of the project, combining ancient wisdom with the best philosophical, historical, and scientific theories of our time.
