Krista Tippett

I misjudged this at first blush. Just goes to show you need to go beyond first impressions sometimes.

That said the book is a little deceiving in its concept and execution. Except for one of the chapters, Tippett is not really interested in discussing science and spirituality, she's interested in science and most of all how science has challenged religion in modern thinking. Most of the scientists and artists interviewed were either agnostic or atheist, whether they admitted it in the show more interview or not. Therefore, the conversation really revolved around the condescending notion that we really don't know everything and therefore our little fictions around faith should be tolerated because they are useful sometimes, in terms of health, for instance, and otherwise harmless. To me this is scientists, who think they know better, talking down to the masses. Call a spade a spade for heaven's sake (pun intended).

To me quantum uncertainty principles and limitations like the speed of light don't imply wiggle room for faith in something somehow outside the physical world. [a:Polkinghorne J. C.|5848212|Polkinghorne J. C.|https://www.goodreads.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-d9f6a4a5badfda0f69e70cc94d962125.png] is the only interviewee that actually addresses the dichotomy of religion and science and the challenges science makes on a life that includes spirituality.

All that aside, the conversations were interesting and the science engaging. At times the thing was a little too touchy-feely for me. show less

Impulse buy at Tuesday Books in Williamston. Clearly the intersection between modern physics and religion is on my mind lately. This book is a collection of interviews by Tippett with leading scientists. Not all are physicists, there are also medical doctors, scientists studying revenge, stress, depression. Tippett asks these scientists on the cutting edge of their respective fields how their developing understanding affects their understanding of religion and the universe. So it serves as a show more sort of sampler of the current world of science.

There's a lot that I really liked about this book. I appreciated the variety even as I tended to be more interested in the physicists and the chapter on Darwin and evolution. I really loved the interview with V.V. Raman, whose Hindi beliefs appreciate multiple ways of knowing, asking, understanding.

At the same time, this book had me frequently grinding my teeth. If someone said something that Tippett found particularly insightful, you were going to know all about it. Certainly it would appear in the transcript of the interview, of course. But additionally, each interview was proceeded by an introduction. Not just an introduction of the person being interviewed, because that appeared in the chapter itself. But an introduction before the chapter, that summarized the work of the interviewee, the interview itself, and touched on individual points and sometimes quotes from the interview. Then also there was an introduction to the entire book that did the same things. By the time you're reading those engaging points within the interviews, you're (or at least I) was like, "Yes, Yes! I remember the time!"

As I complained to everyone within earshot, it was suggested to me multiple times that I just skip the introductions, but that's cheating, and I couldn't force myself to do it. Seriously. Did she write the book over many months and forget that she had already quoted exactly that excerpt before? Could Penguin, in this age of e-books and cost-cutting, just not be bothered to assign this book an editor?

All the repetition made me feel like I'd easily be able to find all the interesting ideas that sparked things in my brain, but now I can't. One of these days, I'll get over my aversion to marking books. (At least some books.)

Despite my frustration, and despite the occasional tripping of my woo-alarm, I highly recommend this book. Just maybe, you know, skip the introductions. show less

As a rule, this is not the kind of book I usually read, but events unfolded in such a way that my long Sunday drives, it so happened, were the time slot of her NPR program of the same name (it is now known as On Being). It turned out to be a forum of sorts, animated by faith, but touching on physics, science, history, belief systems, and, most important, the vicissitudes that roil the human heart (or soul?). Most of my 'reading' of this tome were 'audio' in nature, making it possible to hear show more her guests speaking in their own voices. Her chapters pertaining to the nature of time, internecine religious conflicts, and her grandfather's fundamentalism as opposed to her ecumanicism were provocative. show less

You get the feeling that Krista Tippett was overwhelmed by what she was trying to accomplish. One gets the sense that she is 1) Trying to pull together all ideas that she has discussed in the years that she has had the privilege of talking spirituality with some of the most lucid, intelligent, and articulate people in religion and 2) Do some cathartic spiritual mind cleansing and 3) Try to weave the two threads together.

The enormity of her enterprise is evidenced by the confusion in the show more structure of the book and the poorly executed organization. This is true of course, only if you are reading the book as a book. I didn't really understand the key until I was well into the book. The key is that one need to read the book as an extended conversation, or better yet, as an extended essay and rumination on theology, and peripherally, the impact that theology has had on her life.

The theological discussion was extremely successful. It opened up deep wounds and it presented wonderful ideas and complex viewpoints clearly and succinctly, much like the radio show. The only drawback with this aspect of the book is that the book is not a comprehensive book, so she was not able to delve into the intricacies of the thoughts as much as she did with the radio program. So a basic understanding of the people of whom she speaks of is almost a necessity.

Yet it was also substantial reading. It calls for all of your attention. The breadth of the book, the coverage of the religious landscape, the depth of the potential side trips, are all so very tempting and intellectually stimulating. I found myself thinking about the discourse and I also found myself laying the book down to take notes and to sit and think aloud, trying to digest all the implication brought up. It is certainly not light reading, but it is reading that is good for the soul. She said herself that she felt like she was running out of words, and you can sense the urgency in her writing towards the end. You can hear her thinking: so much to say, so few pages.

The interjection of her own personal struggles with religion and her own burgeoning spiritual journey was less successfully treated. It wasn't that the interjections were unwelcome. It is because Krista picked and chose through her personal history to make certain points. I won't begrudge her right to do that, it takes an immense amount of courage to do something like this, but her choice of using limited exposure of her personal journey caused some awkwardness in reading that made me wonder if it was wise to even bring the subject up.

It is a Faustian bargain I think; not delving into the personal would have made for a less personal and perhaps less interesting narrative; but not delving into the personal would have also smoothed out a lot of the awkward transitions with her ruminations. Someone who did a much better job of laying her spiritual and emotional life out for all to see is Elizabeth Gilbert in "Eat, Pray, Love", but I doubt anyone would have that kind of courage to reveal as much of herself as she did. In the end, I think the exposure of her own personal journey was symmetric with what she had to say about her belief in a personal kind of theological discussion, one that incorporates the personal account of the spiritual which makes the discussion all the more acceptable and creates better understanding of each other's faith. That point was made, but not well.

In summary, this is not a quick summer read by the pool. You need to pay attention, and despite some rough edges and minor imperfections, you will be rewarded with a fascinating and broad rumination about the search for purpose and meaning. show less