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79th out of 80 books
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35 voters
The Good Book: A Humanist Bible
Few, if any, thinkers and writers today would have the imagination, the breadth of knowledge, the literary skill, and-yes-the audacity to conceive of a powerful, secular alternative to the Bible. But that is exactly what A.C. Grayling has done by creating a non-religious Bible, drawn from the wealth of secular literature and philosophy in both Western and Eastern tradition...more
Hardcover, First US Edition, 597 pages
Published
March 29th 2011
by Walker & Company
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As the book is structured like The Bible, this may take me a while to read, but I'm enjoying the eloquent language and mediations on life and wisdom I have read thus far. A couple verses I particularly appreciated are:
"The wise would rather be least among the best than first among the worst: As they have said, be rather a tail to a lion than a head to a jackal."
"Passion may offer a quickened sense of life, may give the ecstasy and the sorrow of love...Of such wisdom, the poetic passion, the de...more
"The wise would rather be least among the best than first among the worst: As they have said, be rather a tail to a lion than a head to a jackal."
"Passion may offer a quickened sense of life, may give the ecstasy and the sorrow of love...Of such wisdom, the poetic passion, the de...more
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In a sense this book is a kind of benchmark. It encapsulates many excellent examples of secular norms and values which could very well stand for true and excellent human values suitable for any walk of life, without succumbing to the usually more punitive values espoused by many religions. Graylings sources are many and varied, and global in their extent. There are no gods here, nor angels and/or demons: just human beings, offering advice and interpretations about our human existence and how to...more
Apr 15, 2011
Preston Page
is currently reading it
This 700 page book is written in the same format as the Bible with the modern numbering of sections of the bible. While the title listed in the add is "The Good Book: A Secular Bible," The title appearing on my copies are, "The Good Book: A Humanist Bible." The author states his reasons for the book in the first section of the book entitled, ‘Epistle to the Reader.” He states in this epistle that the reader, “becomes more than they were before,” and that none should come to harm.
The books chapt...more
The books chapt...more
A.C. Grayling tries exhaustively to bring biblical richness to the cause of secular philosophy--a laudable goal. But even to this skeptic, his book is dry and sleep-inducing. It's too self-consciously biblical in flavor and structure, and it uses tales from ancient Athens as moral fables akin to those in the Old Testament. Even chapter headings have names like "Genesis, Wisdom, Parables, Lamentations, Proverbs", etc. I liked perusing through the Proverbs. But the overall project, despite it's wi...more
Jun 02, 2011
Ernest
is currently reading it
This is a great book to have on your bedside table. It'll probably take me a long time to finish this as I rather prefer to jump around different parts of it every now and then. I found a number of editing errors too (e.g. spelling, numbering), which I hope would be corrected in future editions.
During one Q&A session (here: http://www.carnegiecouncil.org/resour...), a guy asked whether he could read the Christian bible side-by-side along with this book... Well, of course you can! While we'r...more
During one Q&A session (here: http://www.carnegiecouncil.org/resour...), a guy asked whether he could read the Christian bible side-by-side along with this book... Well, of course you can! While we'r...more
May 07, 2012
Shaeda
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
atheism-religion-philosophy
I've only read the first few pages so far (Genesis) and the description of how things began (scientifically) is awesome. Highly recommended.
A philosophy mash up. I don't mind the scripture feel, however, not knowing who said what, when, and under what historical context, is slightly annoying. Also happens to be one of my complaints about religious scripture.
Thus far, at Lamentations. I am enjoying the writing with one caveat. From my personal point of view, with a rewrite, it would be nice to have less male centric vocabulary. It is already being taken out of context and distanced from its authors, why not update the language to be...more
Thus far, at Lamentations. I am enjoying the writing with one caveat. From my personal point of view, with a rewrite, it would be nice to have less male centric vocabulary. It is already being taken out of context and distanced from its authors, why not update the language to be...more
The Good Book: a secular Bible
AC Grayling
Reviewed By Lloyd Geering | Published NZ Listener on June 27, 2011
By accident, I recently heard AC Grayling being interviewed on Radio New Zealand National’s Saturday Morning with Kim Hill. Grayling holds a chair of philosophy at Birkbeck College in London and is president of the British Humanist Association. I warmed to what he said because I agree with his assertion that the humanist tradition has a long, widespread and noble history. To demonstrate th...more
AC Grayling
Reviewed By Lloyd Geering | Published NZ Listener on June 27, 2011
By accident, I recently heard AC Grayling being interviewed on Radio New Zealand National’s Saturday Morning with Kim Hill. Grayling holds a chair of philosophy at Birkbeck College in London and is president of the British Humanist Association. I warmed to what he said because I agree with his assertion that the humanist tradition has a long, widespread and noble history. To demonstrate th...more
I didn't know what to expect with this book, and don't know what to think of it. I've gathered that it's a conglomeration of various schools of thought, Eastern wisdom, Roman and Greek philosophy, and I'm sure there's some Ben Franklin paraphrasing in there. After 15 minutes of flipping through it, I checked it back in. I'm not sure why he felt Humanists/Secularists needed a bible of their own, and if we did want a compendium of this sort of wisdom, it would be much more valuable to footnote the...more
A rather bland compendium of decontextualised and deliberately unreferenced quotations and platitudes with pretentions to providing a kind of alternative 'bible' for atheists of the British liberal ilk. As a collection of what the author claims to be great 'non-religious' wisdom of the ages (with a strong preponderance of Ancient Greek and Roman material) it is pretty dull and ordinary. A demonstration that historical context is of the essence.
A great idea, a compendium of healthy secular thought but to take those thoughts, mash them up together and then present them as a pseudo-bible in a horrible cod-bible language and no ability to work out who said what makes it a pretty poor book.
A proper humanist Bible would probably look nothing like the Holy Bible, indeed I think they wrote a humanist Bible and called it the Encyclopedia.
A proper humanist Bible would probably look nothing like the Holy Bible, indeed I think they wrote a humanist Bible and called it the Encyclopedia.
I heard an interview with Grayling on the radio and the book sounded great. Was disappointed to find that it's not an anthology of the sources but essentially a ground up rewrite, with no references back to the originals. Sorry I didn't get it out from the library first before buying it.
Had this book been fictitious, Borges would have written an excellent review of it, and he might have even incorporated it into one of his stories.
Sadly, however, this book is real.
It is more fun, and thought-provoking, to read about the book than to actually read the book. It's completely unreadable.
I like Grayling a lot. I read a number of his books, and they were all great. If this is the first time you've come across his writing, please don't judge the rest of his work by this one misstep.
Sadly, however, this book is real.
It is more fun, and thought-provoking, to read about the book than to actually read the book. It's completely unreadable.
I like Grayling a lot. I read a number of his books, and they were all great. If this is the first time you've come across his writing, please don't judge the rest of his work by this one misstep.
Sep 20, 2012
Steven Dunn
marked it as to-read
I am going to read you and then laugh at your existence. But it'll be one of those intellectual laughs, where I just finish the last page and ponder why I even spent the money to buy the book. Did the same thing with the God Delusion.
Channel 4 News just interviewed Grayling, featuring this new book. And here is a Guardian article.
Interesting concept but I just couldn't get past the first several pages. I was hoping for something a little more inspirational and I found the writing style way too dry.
I enjoy sitting down at odd times with this collection and reading at my leisure. This represents the great works that humans can produce.
I enjoyed some chapters but did not like the layout which is boring like the Bible.
Jun 09, 2011
Ursula Moertl
is currently reading it
Just started reading The Good Book. I'm on page 50 and so far I love it.
I loved the idea of this book, but the execution leaves a lot to be desired, personally. While structuring the book like a Bible is an interesting approach, stripping the context away from the original writing weakens the meaning and, most frustrating of all, the lack of any sort of reference to the original author just made me give up on the whole thing. I page through it occasionally, but it's far from a frequent reference, which is what I'd hoped it might be.
I really liked this and was surprised. I did not know what to expect. I have just skimmed through and since it is a library book it has to go back. I will probably buy a copy so I can pick it up and read whenever the feeling strikes. It seems to combine many scientific disciplines along with good story-telling in a bible format. I was afraid it would be snide or snarky but, there is none of that.
I did not like it. To write an alternative to the Bible, and then write it in a pretentious bible-like format seemed self-defeating from the get-go.
Is Mr. Grayling intelligent?
Yes.
Is he well-versed in literature?
Yes.
Is this book too long and boring?
Yes.
There are many, many books on Humanism.
This is not one I would suggest to people.
Is Mr. Grayling intelligent?
Yes.
Is he well-versed in literature?
Yes.
Is this book too long and boring?
Yes.
There are many, many books on Humanism.
This is not one I would suggest to people.
Interesting concept
The "Look Inside" feature on Amazon was extremely useful in realizing that I don't want to spend time, attention, effort, or money on this anytime soon after all.
Heavy on the ancient stuff, and longer than it needs to be, but still worth reading.
It was indeed a good book. As with the Bible, I read it in stages. I now keep it nearby for reference. It has much to offer for words on any subject, with an ethos that I can embrace.
Haven't read all of it but skipped around and read a ton on my roadtrip this weekend. Loving it a lot. The parables are fantastic, as are the proverbs.
Oct 23, 2012
Mar
marked it as to-read
It's really The Good Book: A Humanist Bible. Expect this book to be in open status for a while, as it's quite long.
A great book to read for a mediation. Grayling is considered the velvet atheist.
Not surprisingly he got a bit bogged down in ancient Greece!
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Anthony Clifford Grayling, FRSA, FRSL (born 3 April 1949) is a British philosopher and author. He is Professor of Philosophy at Birkbeck, University of London and a supernumerary fellow of St Anne's College, Oxford. He has an MA and a DPhil from Oxford, and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and the Royal Society of Arts.
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“The wise say that our failure is to form habits: for habit is the mark of a stereotyped world,”
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