Confession time: Me and Christianity have not always been best chums. Part of this book is a good explanation as to why not.

Freke and Gandy have written a number of books on world mysticism, and especially on the mystical roots of Christianity, and they’re worth checking out. This one, though, gets to the nitty-gritty of exactly what the problem is with religion in the world today.

It’s not between religions. It’s not even between religion and science. It’s between two basically opposing views.

There’s inner, personal, direct experience of Reality (call it what you like) – which always leads to the realization that we are all One, and consequently to greater love and compassion for our fellow beings. And then there’s the view that one group is privileged with the only, absolute Truth, and that everyone else is deluded, evil, and should be silenced and/or punished.

You can guess which one of those was behind my earlier troubles with Christianity. Although, to be fair, that wasn’t the only place I encountered that attitude – at one time I had dealings with some Buddhists who were like that, which wasn’t nice at all – but also to be fair, I’ve encountered other Christians who truly did exemplify the compassion of Christ. And people of other religious paths who did likewise. That’s the thing; it’s not the name, it’s the attitude, and the real experience that underlies it.

In the first part of the book, Freke and Gandy go through the big three monotheistic faiths, look at their origins and discover some fairly unpleasant stuff about the lies, violence and cruelty that went into making ‘organized’ Christianity, Judaism and Islam what they have been. If you were brought up in any of those faiths, it makes for depressing reading.

But…Part 2 is the interesting bit. Because it’s all about letting go of the literalism and experiencing Reality, oneness, and love – as they are, beyond the dogma. And that is a whole spiritual adventure in itself.

Tim Freke’s website is worth a look, as he has much more on this. Plus, he’s one of the few esoteric authors I’ve come across who actually bothered to send a nice reply when I emailed him. Now I just have to make it to one of his workshops…