Looking In The Distance celebrates the possibilities that life affords whilst examining how doubts and fears too often paralyse people, especially as they get older. It is a highly personal and meditative work that will inspire whoever reads it, helping us to better understand the different ways in which the human search for wholeness and healing can be approached. As with all his books, Richard Holloway peppers his lively prose with an eclectic selection of writings from poets, philosophers and novelists from around the world and across the centuries. The resulting book presents a brilliantly argued thesis that is both challenging and empowering. Looking In The Distance is accessible, funny, serious, hopefully and heartfelt - a book that will change your life.
| ||||||||||||||||||
 Trade In this Item for up to £0.25
Trade in Looking in the Distance: The Human Search for Meaning for an Amazon.co.uk gift card of up to £0.25, which you can then spend on millions of items across the site. Trade-in values may vary (terms apply). Learn more
|
Book Description
Special Offers and Product Promotions
-
Seasonal Offer:
This title is part of our Seasonal Offers promotion.
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
More About the Author
Discover books, learn about writers, and more.
Product Description
Review
"(A) profound meditation on spiritual tolerance... A truly wonderful book by a man who has the courage to doubt." Observer "This is exhilarating and inspiring stuff, but it is in his last section, 'Leaving', that Holloway hits the sweetest, highest, saddest notes on his trumpet." Bel Mooney, The Times "Lucid and exhilarating." Independent on Sunday "Passionate, exciting and interesting... [a] theological roller-coaster." Herald"
About the Author
One of the most outspoken and best-loved figures in the modern church, Richard Holloway recently stood down as the Bishop of Edinburgh. He was Gresham Professor of Divinity in the City of London and remains a Fellow of the Royal Society. He has written for many newspapers in Britain including The Times, the Guardian, the Sunday Herald and the Scotsman and presented his own series on BBC Television. His books include On Forgiveness, Looking in the Distance, Godless Morality and Doubts and Loves. His forthcoming book Between the Monster and the Saint: Reflections on the Human Condition will be published by Canongate in August 2008.
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
51 of 51 people found the following review helpful
By Ralph Blumenau
TOP 500 REVIEWER
Format:Hardcover
A marvellous, wise and tolerant book. If I say that it is astonishing that it should have been written by a bishop, it is only because he examines and then discards so many teachings of the churches, from the idea that God has laid down the moral rules according to which we should live to the notion of life after death.
It has four chapters. The first deals with the questions that must torment every believer in the divine ordering of a world that is so full of impersonal and personal cruelty. If the universe is indifferent to us, that is no reason why we should not find a worthy purpose in our own lives. If we cannot believe that God is Love, we should continue to live as though He were present in love.
The fine second chapter deals with religious myths. A myth is not literally true, and it is stultifying and damaging if we believe that it is. But many myths tells us something about ourselves and often convey a wisdom about the human condition.
The third chapter addresses some of the dilemmas when we are faced by conflicting moral principles.
The most powerful and moving chapter is the fourth, which deals with the challenges of ageing and of death.
This bare summing up does not do justice to the book. The things he says are not, I think, particularly original, and I do not think he would claim that it is: one of the charms of the book is that he calls in aid philosophers, novelists and above all poets who have expressed in their own beautiful way what he is now telling us. As he says in his introduction, it is a very personal book, the book of a man who has thought deeply about what he has read and about what he has experienced himself in his own journey through life.
73 of 75 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I heard this book being reviewed on the radio.
Moral philosophy is not a subject I would normally rush to amazon with an order. However, I would have no hesitation with this small, beautifully written book. His is the wide angle lens of an academic who seems to have left the church but was obviously a gifted preacher. He champions the millions of us who have profound doubts but still want a framework. If you are the sort of person who hears those who are certain that God Exists or Does Not Exist and you shudder but remain silent then this book is for you. He quotes poetry and holds this in prose that captures your attention because his writing is as fine as the poetry. He uses examples of modern dilemmas that are hot off the 2004 press. His last chapter on Leaving made me laugh out loud. This is a rare book that I now want to read again.
Moral philosophy is not a subject I would normally rush to amazon with an order. However, I would have no hesitation with this small, beautifully written book. His is the wide angle lens of an academic who seems to have left the church but was obviously a gifted preacher. He champions the millions of us who have profound doubts but still want a framework. If you are the sort of person who hears those who are certain that God Exists or Does Not Exist and you shudder but remain silent then this book is for you. He quotes poetry and holds this in prose that captures your attention because his writing is as fine as the poetry. He uses examples of modern dilemmas that are hot off the 2004 press. His last chapter on Leaving made me laugh out loud. This is a rare book that I now want to read again.
14 of 14 people found the following review helpful
By Ed Trotter
Format:Hardcover
Richard Holloway's exploration of spirituality within an increasingly secular society is a book I would highly recommend to almost anyone with a philosophical bent. Holloway's style of writing is constantly engaging, and at no point becomes as pretentious or convoluted as so many similar texts on the subject. I would perhaps recommend this book most highly to agnostic readers as opposed to atheistic, as Holloway wisely avoids much debate as to the existence of God and instead focuses on how religion and spirituality can be a part of people's lives without the dogmatism of organised religion.
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
›
Go to Amazon.com to see all 6 reviews
4.5 out of 5 stars
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Parallels with Bishop Spong
Bishop Richard Holloway, now resigned and a common man, has a superb command of the English language and a, sometimes corruscating, commitment to the personal truth of his life and... Read more
Published 14 months ago by R. Iain F. Brown
5.0 out of 5 stars
Morality without God
Looking in the Distance: The human search for meaning by Richard Holloway, Canongate, Edinburgh, 2004, 228 ff. Read more
Published on 30 July 2009 by Dr. H. A. Jones
4.0 out of 5 stars
All relative
It's hard to rate this book - the first half is a 5 star read, both sensible and transcendent. Relative to this, the second half disappoints, being merely sensible. Read more
Published on 7 Nov 2008 by Alba
3.0 out of 5 stars
Thoughtful but ultimately unfulfilling
For the most part, elegantly written and filled with telling quotations that lead you in search of their sources. Read more
Published on 14 Nov 2005 by S. Gray
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
|
|
Look for similar items by category
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
