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Looking in the Distance: The Human Search for Meaning
 
 
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Looking in the Distance: The Human Search for Meaning (Paperback)

by Richard Holloway (Author)
4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
RRP: £7.99
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Product details

  • Paperback: 240 pages
  • Publisher: Canongate Books Ltd; New edition edition (11 Aug 2005)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 1841956031
  • ISBN-13: 978-1841956039
  • Product Dimensions: 19.2 x 12.8 x 1.8 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 95,830 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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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"

Product Description
In the twenty first century, organised religion would seem to have lost its grip on humanity, and yet people seek spiritual guidance as much as, if not even more than, ever before.. In Looking in the Distance, Richard Holloway explores and celebrates the possibilities afforded to us throughout our lives, whilst examining the fears and doubts that so often paralyse people. Meditative and highly personal, Holloway has a scholarly, well-argued thesis that both challenges and empowers. His gift is to inspire us to better understand the differing ways in which the human search for wholeness and healing can be approached.

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Looking in the Distance: The Human Search for Meaning
84% buy the item featured on this page:
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Customer Reviews

6 Reviews
5 star:
 (4)
4 star:
 (1)
3 star:
 (1)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.5 out of 5 stars (6 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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63 of 64 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars a small gem of a book, 31 Aug 2004
By Jeremy Vevers "Jeremy Vevers" (Copthorne, West Sussex United Kingdom) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: Looking In the Distance (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.
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27 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Wise, tolerant and beautiful, 27 May 2005
By Ralph Blumenau (London United Kingdom) - See all my reviews
(TOP 100 REVIEWER)   
This review is from: Looking In the Distance (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.

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21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Powerful and substantial, comprehensible and eloquent, 14 Aug 2005
By Whittaker "Whit" (Hampshire, England) - See all my reviews
Richard Holloway commences this brief and beautiful assessment of life and death with a quote of Russian philosopher, Vasilii Rozanov, "All religions will pass, but this will remain: simply sitting in a chair and looking into the distance". A haunting aphorism, all the more so for being quoted by the former Bishop of Edinburgh.

This is a highly meditative work of a man that has given a lot of thought to how one should live a meaningful, ethical life in the absence of a religion of truth. It is a coherent work, sprinkled with quotes and references to philosophers and poets in support of Holloway's gentle but powerful reasoning.

Highly recommended - 5 stars.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

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 8 months ago by Alba

5.0 out of 5 stars An engaging and thought provoking read
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. Read more
Published on 30 Jan 2007 by Ed Trotter

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

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