What do you think?
Rate this book
The Secular Mind
Does the business of daily living distance us from life's mysteries? Do most Americans value spiritual thinking more as a hobby than as an all-encompassing approach to life? Will the concept of the soul be defunct after the next few generations? Child psychiatrist and best-selling author Robert Coles offers a profound meditation on how secular culture has settled into the hearts and minds of Americans. This book is a sweeping essay on the shift from religious control over Western society to the scientific dominance of the mind. Interwoven into the story is Coles's personal quest for understanding how the sense of the sacred has stood firm in the lives of individuals--both the famous and everyday people whom he has known--even as they have struggled with doubt.
As a student, Coles questioned Paul Tillich on the meaning of the "secular mind," and his fascination with the perceived opposition between secular and sacred intensified over the years. This book recounts conversations Coles has had with such figures as Anna Freud, Karen Horney, William Carlos Williams, Walker Percy, and Dorothy Day. Their words dramatize the frustration and the joy of living in both the secular and sacred realms. Coles masterfully draws on a variety of literary sources that trace the relationship of the sacred and the the stories of Abraham and Moses, the writings of St. Paul, Augustine, Kierkegaard, Darwin, and Freud, and the fiction of George Eliot, Hardy, Meredith, Flannery O'Connor, and Huxley. Ever since biblical times, Coles shows us, the relationship between these two realms has thrived on conflict and accommodation.
Coles also notes that psychoanalysis was first viewed as a rival to religion in terms of getting a handle on inner truths. He provocatively demonstrates how psychoanalysis has either been incorporated into the thinking of many religious denominations or become a type of religion in itself. How will people in the next millennium deal with advances in chemistry and neurology? Will these sciences surpass psychoanalysis in controlling how we think and feel? This book is for anyone who has wondered about the fate of the soul and our ability to seek out the sacred in our constantly changing world.
As a student, Coles questioned Paul Tillich on the meaning of the "secular mind," and his fascination with the perceived opposition between secular and sacred intensified over the years. This book recounts conversations Coles has had with such figures as Anna Freud, Karen Horney, William Carlos Williams, Walker Percy, and Dorothy Day. Their words dramatize the frustration and the joy of living in both the secular and sacred realms. Coles masterfully draws on a variety of literary sources that trace the relationship of the sacred and the the stories of Abraham and Moses, the writings of St. Paul, Augustine, Kierkegaard, Darwin, and Freud, and the fiction of George Eliot, Hardy, Meredith, Flannery O'Connor, and Huxley. Ever since biblical times, Coles shows us, the relationship between these two realms has thrived on conflict and accommodation.
Coles also notes that psychoanalysis was first viewed as a rival to religion in terms of getting a handle on inner truths. He provocatively demonstrates how psychoanalysis has either been incorporated into the thinking of many religious denominations or become a type of religion in itself. How will people in the next millennium deal with advances in chemistry and neurology? Will these sciences surpass psychoanalysis in controlling how we think and feel? This book is for anyone who has wondered about the fate of the soul and our ability to seek out the sacred in our constantly changing world.
200 pages, Hardcover
First published March 1, 1999
4 people are currently reading
57 people want to read
About the author
Robert Coles
244 books77 followersChild psychiatrist, author, Harvard professor.
Robert Coles is a professor of psychiatry and medical humanities at the Harvard Medical School, a research psychiatrist for the Harvard University Health Services, and the James Agee Professor of Social Ethics at Harvard College.
Robert Coles is a professor of psychiatry and medical humanities at the Harvard Medical School, a research psychiatrist for the Harvard University Health Services, and the James Agee Professor of Social Ethics at Harvard College.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
October 9, 2022
This book took me awhile to read, and I found myself slow to connect with it, but the amount of dog-eared pages, especially in the second half, evidences that it ended up being very insightful. This is a book for those who would like to hear a Harvard Prof engaging a range of sources, scientific, literary, and cultural, as he contemplates secularism and faith. Coles engages the likes of Kierkegaard, Frued, Walker Percy, Orwell, and Dorothy Day in the same lines of thought, which is rare. You also get the sense that he not only knows their work, but knows it (and even THEM in some cases) well.
December 20, 2013
When Harvard psychiatrist Robert Coles thinks out loud, as he does through much of "The Secular Mind," his wending contemplation on sacred and secular thought, the rewards are profound, but very hard won.
The four essays in this collection consider the way mankind's concern with the material world has pushed against the craving for transcendence, for contact with something beyond, even God. As Coles humbly admits, the terms of this conversation are frustratingly slippery. His argument, to quote Emily Dickinson, "stands beyond / Invisible, as Music - / But positive, as Sound."
The first essay, "Secularism in the Biblical Tradition," considers the story of Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his son as a sign of obedience to God. For Coles, and the Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard, whom he considers at length, this remarkable story epitomizes the sacred thought that is outside the realm of logic, reasonableness, or "our ordinary ethical standards."
He argues that the contemporary world has grown so secular, so concerned with the cares of this world, that it no longer tolerates the intensity, the passion, or even the language of those Old Testament voices who felt full of sacred fire. To speak of today's moral decline with even mild indignation or outrage is to risk being labeled uptight or "consigned to the ranks of the mentally unsettled or worse."
Quoting extensively from his interviews with Dorothy Day, founder of the Catholic Worker movement, he recalls her lamenting, "In our secular world there's plenty of room for social or cultural criticism, so long as it is secular in nature." To invoke God's name with any sincerity or to refer to the most elemental spiritual desires as a motivating factor in one's work is to become a quaint embarrassment.
"Secular minds," Coles claims, are "unable to fathom the workings ... of the mind tied significantly to the sacred." But that inability, he goes on, generates a tremendous response from the secular mind. His next three essays present a sweeping analysis of 19th- and 20th-century literature, science, and politics - all the various ways mankind has designed to explain the material world in its own terms.
Particularly illuminating is Coles's analysis of George Elliot's novels. "She is taking the measure," he writes, "of a world becoming more conclusively secular - where once great and constant consideration was given to the 'image of God,' now the mind of man commanded the major attention of people who may have attended church regularly, but who looked less upward toward the heavens than directly in a nearby mirror."
One of the many remarkable aspects of the book is hearing this famous psychiatrist express such deep reservations about Sigmund Freud, particularly Freud's dismissive attitude toward religious faith. In lengthy conversations with Anna Freud, Coles admires her father's analysis of the human mind - and even depends on basic Freudian terms for much of his discussion. But he deeply regrets the way psychoanalysis, like other sciences, quickly became a new orthodoxy to replace the religious orthodoxy it rejected.
His final essay is less intellectually demanding, but it's the most thought-provoking. Quoting at length from a conversation with one of his students, Coles encourages us to consider the unsettling future of a culture whose sciences will someday claim to understand everything about the nature of thought.
Already, he notes with concern, psychiatric drugs are used as "elegant levers" to adjust people's moods and personalities. Surely the time will come when, "as Freud anticipated, 'mind' will increasingly become 'matter,' a move from metapsychological inquiry to medical applications and interventions tied to a materialist comprehension of how the brain works."
His graduate student wonders, "Will there always be a 'me' who wonders about what she's doing, and why, or will the 'me' or the 'you' get lost in all the understanding or control we have over the way the brain works?" It's a pleasure to be in the presence of a man so smart and yet still capable of being rendered speechless by a student's sincere philosophical concerns. There are no conclusions here, but following Coles's considerations is worth the effort.
http://www.csmonitor.com/1999/0408/p1...
The four essays in this collection consider the way mankind's concern with the material world has pushed against the craving for transcendence, for contact with something beyond, even God. As Coles humbly admits, the terms of this conversation are frustratingly slippery. His argument, to quote Emily Dickinson, "stands beyond / Invisible, as Music - / But positive, as Sound."
The first essay, "Secularism in the Biblical Tradition," considers the story of Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his son as a sign of obedience to God. For Coles, and the Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard, whom he considers at length, this remarkable story epitomizes the sacred thought that is outside the realm of logic, reasonableness, or "our ordinary ethical standards."
He argues that the contemporary world has grown so secular, so concerned with the cares of this world, that it no longer tolerates the intensity, the passion, or even the language of those Old Testament voices who felt full of sacred fire. To speak of today's moral decline with even mild indignation or outrage is to risk being labeled uptight or "consigned to the ranks of the mentally unsettled or worse."
Quoting extensively from his interviews with Dorothy Day, founder of the Catholic Worker movement, he recalls her lamenting, "In our secular world there's plenty of room for social or cultural criticism, so long as it is secular in nature." To invoke God's name with any sincerity or to refer to the most elemental spiritual desires as a motivating factor in one's work is to become a quaint embarrassment.
"Secular minds," Coles claims, are "unable to fathom the workings ... of the mind tied significantly to the sacred." But that inability, he goes on, generates a tremendous response from the secular mind. His next three essays present a sweeping analysis of 19th- and 20th-century literature, science, and politics - all the various ways mankind has designed to explain the material world in its own terms.
Particularly illuminating is Coles's analysis of George Elliot's novels. "She is taking the measure," he writes, "of a world becoming more conclusively secular - where once great and constant consideration was given to the 'image of God,' now the mind of man commanded the major attention of people who may have attended church regularly, but who looked less upward toward the heavens than directly in a nearby mirror."
One of the many remarkable aspects of the book is hearing this famous psychiatrist express such deep reservations about Sigmund Freud, particularly Freud's dismissive attitude toward religious faith. In lengthy conversations with Anna Freud, Coles admires her father's analysis of the human mind - and even depends on basic Freudian terms for much of his discussion. But he deeply regrets the way psychoanalysis, like other sciences, quickly became a new orthodoxy to replace the religious orthodoxy it rejected.
His final essay is less intellectually demanding, but it's the most thought-provoking. Quoting at length from a conversation with one of his students, Coles encourages us to consider the unsettling future of a culture whose sciences will someday claim to understand everything about the nature of thought.
Already, he notes with concern, psychiatric drugs are used as "elegant levers" to adjust people's moods and personalities. Surely the time will come when, "as Freud anticipated, 'mind' will increasingly become 'matter,' a move from metapsychological inquiry to medical applications and interventions tied to a materialist comprehension of how the brain works."
His graduate student wonders, "Will there always be a 'me' who wonders about what she's doing, and why, or will the 'me' or the 'you' get lost in all the understanding or control we have over the way the brain works?" It's a pleasure to be in the presence of a man so smart and yet still capable of being rendered speechless by a student's sincere philosophical concerns. There are no conclusions here, but following Coles's considerations is worth the effort.
http://www.csmonitor.com/1999/0408/p1...
February 20, 2012
Amazon review:
Does the business of daily living distance us from life's mysteries? Do most Americans value spiritual thinking more as a hobby than as an all-encompassing approach to life? Will the concept of the soul be defunct after the next few generations? Child psychiatrist and best-selling author Robert Coles offers a profound meditation on how secular culture has settled into the hearts and minds of Americans. This book is a sweeping essay on the shift from religious control over Western society to the scientific dominance of the mind. Interwoven into the story is Coles's personal quest for understanding how the sense of the sacred has stood firm in the lives of individuals--both the famous and everyday people whom he has known--even as they have struggled with doubt.
As a student, Coles questioned Paul Tillich on the meaning of the "secular mind," and his fascination with the perceived opposition between secular and sacred intensified over the years. This book recounts conversations Coles has had with such figures as Anna Freud, Karen Horney, William Carlos Williams, Walker Percy, and Dorothy Day. Their words dramatize the frustration and the joy of living in both the secular and sacred realms. Coles masterfully draws on a variety of literary sources that trace the relationship of the sacred and the secular: the stories of Abraham and Moses, the writings of St. Paul, Augustine, Kierkegaard, Darwin, and Freud, and the fiction of George Eliot, Hardy, Meredith, Flannery O'Connor, and Huxley. Ever since biblical times, Coles shows us, the relationship between these two realms has thrived on conflict and accommodation.
Coles also notes that psychoanalysis was first viewed as a rival to religion in terms of getting a handle on inner truths. He provocatively demonstrates how psychoanalysis has either been incorporated into the thinking of many religious denominations or become a type of religion in itself. How will people in the next millennium deal with advances in chemistry and neurology? Will these sciences surpass psychoanalysis in controlling how we think and feel? This book is for anyone who has wondered about the fate of the soul and our ability to seek out the sacred in our constantly changing world.
Does the business of daily living distance us from life's mysteries? Do most Americans value spiritual thinking more as a hobby than as an all-encompassing approach to life? Will the concept of the soul be defunct after the next few generations? Child psychiatrist and best-selling author Robert Coles offers a profound meditation on how secular culture has settled into the hearts and minds of Americans. This book is a sweeping essay on the shift from religious control over Western society to the scientific dominance of the mind. Interwoven into the story is Coles's personal quest for understanding how the sense of the sacred has stood firm in the lives of individuals--both the famous and everyday people whom he has known--even as they have struggled with doubt.
As a student, Coles questioned Paul Tillich on the meaning of the "secular mind," and his fascination with the perceived opposition between secular and sacred intensified over the years. This book recounts conversations Coles has had with such figures as Anna Freud, Karen Horney, William Carlos Williams, Walker Percy, and Dorothy Day. Their words dramatize the frustration and the joy of living in both the secular and sacred realms. Coles masterfully draws on a variety of literary sources that trace the relationship of the sacred and the secular: the stories of Abraham and Moses, the writings of St. Paul, Augustine, Kierkegaard, Darwin, and Freud, and the fiction of George Eliot, Hardy, Meredith, Flannery O'Connor, and Huxley. Ever since biblical times, Coles shows us, the relationship between these two realms has thrived on conflict and accommodation.
Coles also notes that psychoanalysis was first viewed as a rival to religion in terms of getting a handle on inner truths. He provocatively demonstrates how psychoanalysis has either been incorporated into the thinking of many religious denominations or become a type of religion in itself. How will people in the next millennium deal with advances in chemistry and neurology? Will these sciences surpass psychoanalysis in controlling how we think and feel? This book is for anyone who has wondered about the fate of the soul and our ability to seek out the sacred in our constantly changing world.
December 29, 2017
I continue to struggle with processing these types of books. I enjoyed reading about Coles and his ideas more than I enjoyed reading his book itself. I found the writing to be quite convoluted. This book is a collection of 4 essays and the premise is decent, the book is short enough, and the ideas should be easy enough to follow, but it was just hard for me to process. Coles traces how humankind was more dependent on a deity for guidance in the past(he starts with Old Testament times and Abraham) and has progressed over time to be more dependent on human reason and therefore on oneself rather than on community. He uses many literary and psychological examples (Freud, Eliot, Hardy, Percy etc.) to trace this transformation. I found a comment by one woman very interesting--in her youth she prayed for God's revelation to her so she could do His will and follow His plan for her life; now she finds she is talking to herself in prayer asking God to support her plans and family.
August 27, 2022
I found the book hard to put down, although it was not quite what I expected. I think the style and content of the book manage to bring the reader to more consciously realize the fuzzy boundary where the sacred and secular always seem to meet for the amphibious creatures we humans are.
October 14, 2012
I have enormous respect for the work and writing of Robert Coles. This book, The Secular Mind however, would have benefited from better editing and more focus. As it is, the writing style is slippery. Each sentence is loaded with subordinate clauses layered one upon the other. More than once I felt like I was listening to a story by Grandpa Simpson.
Dr. Coles has much to say on the topic of the secular mind. His careful readings of Thomas Hardy, George Eliot and Flannery O'Connor combined with his reminiscing about his encounters with Walker Percy, Anna Freud and William Carlos Williams make for an enjoyable read. To get the most out of his insight I would need to diagram each essay and sadly, at this time, it doesn't seem worth the time.
Dr. Coles has much to say on the topic of the secular mind. His careful readings of Thomas Hardy, George Eliot and Flannery O'Connor combined with his reminiscing about his encounters with Walker Percy, Anna Freud and William Carlos Williams make for an enjoyable read. To get the most out of his insight I would need to diagram each essay and sadly, at this time, it doesn't seem worth the time.
July 8, 2009
coles tackles everything from st. paul to blade runner in this reflection on modern morality, faith, and society.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews