Carol R. Murphy

Murphy takes a philosophical approach to questions of comparative religion, addressing many topics form the nature of religious assertions, to the relationship of culture and religion, and how various religions balance such polarities as Ought and Being, or immanence and transcendence. The text is very dense, and addresses many aspects of religion. Her point emerges, to both plumb the depths of one's own religion and open to the visions of other religions. There is valuable material here if show more this kind of philosophical density fits your taste and interest. show less

The author of a round dozen of Pendle Hill pamphlets, Carol Murphy has written much on meditation, a process which drew her into theory and eluded her in practice. Recently she was presented with an opportunity to work in earnest on T'ai Chi Ch'uan -- the Chinese art of meditation in movement. Could she stop being the chronic spectator, the thinker about, and for once, do it? The present pamphlet tells the story.

This is a very dense and jumbled philosophical approach to the question of how to make moral decisions in what can be complicated dilemmas, that surprisingly comes up with a good answer. It should get four stars for its answer, but only one for a style that is a struggle to read and to identify any clear conclusion. Her point seems to be that the morality of holiness sees the situation sacramentally, afire with God. The holiness of all means that the means IS the end.

This pamphlet is purportedly about meditation, but it meanders, with no observable point or argument and no message. Full of words and non-sequiturs, but it has a few good quotes, such as T. S. Eliot: "The only wisdom we can hope to acquire is the wisdom of humility. Humility is endless." Ste. Jeanne de Chantal: "The great method of prayer is to have none. If in going to prayer one can form in oneself a pure capacity for receiving the spirit of God, that will suffice for all method."