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- The Meaning of These Days
Here is the true story of a man from India who comes to the United States to go to seminary, which he finds to be both a demanding social environment and a vigorous philosophical and theological world. After four years of seminary he gets married and completes a doctorate in philosophy. Soon he finds himself in a profound spiritual crisis teaching philosophy in an ivory tower. He hears protests in the streets for civil rights, peace, and environmental integrity. Events conspire to produce a critical turning point in his story. He finally goes into the ministry but is now forced to face the terrors of his own emotional immaturity. The lessons are hard to learn and the road is steep that leads to personal and intellectual adulthood.
The energy that drives The Meaning of These Days is the quest for personal, spiritual, and philosophical integrity in a world of suffering beings, both human and nonhuman. The author identifies with the magi, in W. B.Yeats' well-known poem of 1914, who search for "the uncontrollable mystery on the bestial floor." Religious leaders of many backgrounds and all informed seekers after Truth in today's busy marketplace of ideas will welcome a book that combines philosophy and world theology with the spiritual life in such an engaging, poetic, and novel way.
Kenneth Stephens is the author of The Meaning of These Days: Memoir of a Philosophical Pastor, which is intended for all persons, regardless of ethnic or religious background, on a spiritual journey of quest. His journey has been a broadly liberating one, one that allows oneself an infinitely expanding horizon. His website themeaningofthesedays.com includes the first seven chapters of the book. Stephens is currently working on a new book-length poetic meditation.
"The story of a human life in all its multifaceted complexity holds a fascination for all of us that a philosophical or theological treatise lacks for most. But when the life is itself bound up with ideas as well as with human passions and relationships, ambitions and disappointment, the ideas take on the human meaning they were meant to have. Stephens writes beautifully, exposing a life of suffering that is also infused with joy, a life of doubt also infused with faith."
--John B. Cobb Jr., Professor Emeritus, Claremont School of Theology
"How does life look to an international student from India who comes to the United States for seminary and graduate school training, and who remains for a career in academia and the pastorate during a time of great cultural and social change in the United States--and who has the philosophical and literary gifts to plumb the depths of that experience? This memoir by Ken Stephens tells that story in a most interesting and intriguing way, and it deserves a wide audience."
--Vernon Visick, Director, New College Madison