Prematurely Saved: And Other Varieties of the Religious Experience

by John Garvey

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0872431509
• ISBN13: 9780872431508
• Release Date: January 1986
• Publisher: Templegate Publishers
• Length: 124 Pages
• Weight: 0.39 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 5.5" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

Why do we want to be right? What is Truth?

I found Garvey's short book of essays insightful. Some of it is rather dated, being first published in 1986, but the general theme of the work is perennial. The following is from the introduction and is a better summary than I can come up with: "What is this book about? It has been said by more than one writer that you write in order to find out what you think, and in going over several years' worth of writing I see a movement toward Orthodox Christianity, coupled with a belief that that orthodoxy has little to do with the certainties which some people demand of religion. This should not lead us to a secular resignation, or to a belief that because we cannot always be certain we must act without clear conviction. Rather, we should see that the need to be right (which is often a part of the quest for certainty) has very little to do with love for the truth. It is rather a way of shoring up the ego, even a way of protecting ourselves from the message of Christianity, which involves a transformation more thorough than many of us would like, at least at the level of consciousness to which we are most accustomed. True spirituality involves an awakening, a sharpening of awareness, and this goes against the grain of our culture, which seems to be built on distraction and violence. The forms of liturgy and spirituality which we need will in that sense be counter-cultural and involve a protest- a willingness to be unfashionable and to question the certainties of liberal and conservative Christianity alike."I would recommend Henri Nouwen's "Compassion", Merton's "New Seeds of Contemplation" and the true account of one such follower of Christ, "Father Arseny".