The Little Book of Atheist Spirituality (edition 2007)

Comte-Sponville finds the spiritual while jettisoning the supernatural, finds morality without the motivation of fear or guilt. A short, but thorough work on a big subject. ( )

This kind of book is necessay. Its central message, that the transcendent and - yes, whisper it - the spiritual can be divorced from the dogma and metaphysical baggage of organised religion is a good one. Unfortunately, books cannot be rated entirely by the necessity of their message - they also have to assessed as something to be read, or, in some cases, endured.

I don't mean to say that the author is a bad writer (quite the opposite in fact); rather, that the subject is inherently indescribable. This becomes most plain in the third section of the book where he gets down to describing the nature of his (non-religious) spiritual experiences. Overly long, this string of 'oceanic-feeling-at-the-centre-of-totality' style statements soon becomes tediously repetitive. Actually, to be fair, I did understand what he was talking about. Indeed, at its best, the very experience of reading can itself resemble his description: the melting away of self, of current surroundings, and the total absorbtion into characters, narrative or argument. Ironically, however, the sheer tedium induced by this barrage of gnomic sentences meant I had no chance of actually enjoying the very experience he was describing.

Even so, there was plenty to like about this book, including a very succinct and clear overview of the arguments relating to the existence of god. However, these have all been related in greater detail and with equal clarity elsewhere, and in any case don't really constitute the unique focus of this book. In the end, I find myself in the highly unusual situation of entirely agreeing with the author, while simultaneously having little wish to read his book. ( )

Either due to my own cognitive limitations, or the fact that the book is a translation into English from its original French, I had difficulty fully comprehending some of the more nuanced and abstract points the author makes. The section that I found most enlightening was the second chapter, in which Comte-Sponville discusses his main arguments against the existence of a God. The other chapters were in turns understandable and obtuse, in my opinion. ( )

For the life of me, I still don't know what "spirituality" is, or why it should be desirable. This book left me with an overwhelming feeling of "yes, but so what?" ( )

A "Little Book" perhaps, but not a quick read. This book provides a picture of a spirituality removed from a religious context. The result is elegant and moving. Comte-Sponville is able to put into words experience that is profound. ( )