Lectures on the philosophy of religion: Spiritual Religion

(New York Times Book Review)

Forty years in the wilderness transformed Hebrew slaves into the Jewish people. In the long wandering to the promised land, much happened that the Bible did not record. Volume Three collects the legends about events that occurred during the exodus, events of struggle and anger, and of wonder and awe.

In this clear and provocative account of the epistemology of religious experience, William P. Alston argues that the perception of God-his term for direct experiential awareness of God-makes a major contribution to the grounds of religious belief. Surveying the variety of reported direct experiences of God, Alston demonstrates that a person can be justified in holding certain beliefs about God on the basis of mystical experience.

What if imagination and art are not, as many of us might think, the frosting on life but the fountainhead of human experience? What if our logic and science derive from art forms, rather than the other way around? In this trenchant volume, Rollo May helps all of us find those creative impulses that, once liberated, offer new possibilities for achievement. A renowned therapist and inspiring guide, Dr. May draws on his experience to show how we can break out of old patterns in our lives.

The normal, eternal, absolute idea - in its eternal existence - in and of itself - is God in his eternity or eternity before the creation of the world, and outside the world.