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The Unexpected Way [Paperback]

Paul Williams (Author)
3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)

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Product details

  • Paperback: 264 pages
  • Publisher: Continuum International Publishing Group Ltd. (9 May 2002)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0567088308
  • ISBN-13: 978-0567088307
  • Product Dimensions: 21.1 x 13.7 x 2 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 437,597 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Product Description

Product Description

There are Christians who in mid-life decide to abandon their Christian faith and become Buddhists. Paul Williams did the opposite. After 20 years spent practising and teaching Tibetan Buddhism in Britain, scholar and broadcaster Paul Williams astonished his family and friends in 1999 by converting to Roman Catholicism. Williams explains why he joined a Church that many Buddhists and others might regard as a repressed and outdated way of life and belief. He argues that being a Catholic in the modern world is no less rational than being a Buddhist, and may in many respects, be more so.

About the Author

Paul Williams is Professor of Indian and Tibetan Philosophy, Co-director of the Centre for Buddhist Studies, Head of the Department of Theology and Religious Studies. University of Bristol and the current President of the UK Association for Buddhist Studies.

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Customer Reviews

3 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
3.7 out of 5 stars (3 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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23 of 28 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Readable and profound, 9 Mar 2003
By Joseph Shaw (Oxford, United Kingdom) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: The Unexpected Way (Paperback)
'The Unexpected Way' is a fascinating and thoughtful account of the author's conversion from Budhism to Catholicism, approaching it not only from a personal point of view, but also from a philosophical perspective. He explains what led his to Buddhism in the first place, the important spiritual and philosophical differences between it and Christianity, and why he ultimately decided that the Christian claims and view of life was preferable. In the course of the book he tackles the nature of God in the theistic religions; the nature of the 'self'; animals and reincarnation; the problem of evil; and the claims of a historical Church.

Williams is a long-standing Budhist scholar, and his perspective on these issues, while personal, is heartfelt and profound. The book is well written and often humorous. The attractiveness of Eastern religions has never been greater in the west, and anyone interested either in them or in their growing role in western culture would do well to read this book.

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28 of 35 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars An unexpected journey: Williams' conversion, 5 Jun 2002
By A Customer
This review is from: The Unexpected Way (Paperback)
This a charming, original and beautifully written account of an unexpected journey from Buddhism to Catholicism. Based on reasoned reflection, the book conveys a property of honesty, integrity and quest whoch makes it unusual. Usually, conversions are of Catholics moving to Buddhism, but this work is an exception in working in the opposite direction. The product of a major Buddhist thinker, the book is striking in its reflections about why he left and what he found in Catholicism. It is a stimulating,unusual and moving work that marks it out as a minor classic of spirituality.
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12 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing, 15 Mar 2006
By David Welsh (Oslo, Norway) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   
This review is from: The Unexpected Way (Paperback)
As a practising Buddhist, I was very much looking forward to reading this book. I had expected someone with Paul Williams' depth and breadth of experience of Buddhism who had decided to leave the faith (and embrace Catholicism of all things!) would have some really interesting and thought-provoking things to say. It was not to be.

Whilst he does make a few interesting points, he habitually distorts Buddhist teaching and practice in quite serious ways to fit his criticisms. For example, he repeatedly characterises Buddhism as being essentially concerned with the self, which anyone with more than a passing acquaintence with Buddhism will recognise as patently false. This is especially perplexing as Paul Williams has written one of the most celebrated textbooks on Mahayana Buddhism - and the central ideal of the Mahayana is that you practice Buddhism in order to be better equipped to serve all living beings!

I would recommend this book only to those who already have a good depth of knowledge of the Buddha's teaching, as what Williams says about it really needs to be read quite critically.

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