A. C. Grayling is one of the present day's great philosophers. He is also an atheist. His "Good Book" is the result of 30 years of gathering together from over one thousand texts by several hundred of the great thinkers of the past. From these Grayling has selected, redacted, paraphrased,interpolated and arranged into a book that provides inspiration, wisdom, consolation, good advice and commentary on the human condition in a non-religious way. In a touch of irony, the book is arranged into 14 constituent books divided into numbered verses similar to the structure of that "other" Bible.The titles, content and order of constituent books themselves also reflect that "other" Bible.It begins with Genesis and there follows Wisdom, Lamentations, Sages, Songs, Proverbs, Acts, Epistles etc. The great difference from that "other" Bible is that the resulting distilled wisdom is non- religious. There are no rules commanded by a monarchical, anthropomorphic deity; no promises of heaven, no threats of hell,just the inspiring distillation of wisdom from the sages of past times.The range and diversity of these is staggering. In this morning's portion I detected reflections of Shakespeare, Ecclesiastes and the Omar Khayyam!Grayling's "Secular Bible" (its alternative title) is not a book to attempt to read from page one through to the end. It is a book to refer to and select from when the need is felt for guidance, inspiration, comfort, consolation,commentary on the human condition, etc - in a similar way to the way the religious consult their particular bibles. As such I recommend it wholeheartedly. "The Good Book" is unique - in the true sense of the word. To my knowledge, there is none other like it.
