Publisher's Synopsis
In Unexpected Places looks at the place of death in the modern world. It is aimed at a deep concern we all share. It speaks to followers of all creeds or of no creed. The reader's bias, in terms of belief, is not relevant; the writer has none. We are getting to a stage when there is a danger that we throw out all the old theories (the beliefs of the established religions) as well as the pictures presented by traditional and sometimes 'primitive' societies - the accumulated knowledge and experience of mankind.Alternatively we can look again to see if we have heard correctly.
The key is in being clear about the contrast between impermanence and permanence, between the destructible and the indestructible. Ray Brown reviews all the major religions, Christianity, Judaism (especially the Kabbala), Islam, Buddhism, the Upanishads and the Bhagavad Gita, the Tao, and shows how they all say the same thing about how to be aware of the permanent. He finds the same answers outside the formal world religions, in the Epic of Gilgamesh and in traditional African beliefs.
