Perennial Wisdom for the Spiritually Independent: Sacred Teachings—Annotated & Explained: Sacred Teachings―Annotated & Explained

by Rami M. Shapiro

A “bible” for the religiously unaffiliated, weaving sacred texts from the world’s major religions into a coherent exploration of the core questions at the heart of every religion’s search, with insightful commentary on using these texts in our daily lives.

Genres: Spirituality, Nonfiction, Religion, Philosophy, Judaism

336 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 10, 2013

About the author

Rami Shapiro is one of the most innovative rabbis of the last thirty years. An award-winning author of two dozen books on religion and spirituality, he received rabbinical ordination from the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion and holds a PhD from Union Graduate School. A congregational rabbi for twenty years, for the last fifteen he has been writing, leading retreats, co-directing One River Wisdom School, blogging at rabbirami.com, and writing a regular column for Spirituality and Health magazine called "Roadside Assistance for the Spiritual Traveler."

Reviews

[Rick Weber · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was surprised by the many common themes of the world's religions described in this book. I learned a great deal about Christianity that I didn't know before, especially about the teachings of Jesus that are difficult to understand. The book led me to be more impatient with those religious people who believe that their religion is the one true religion and everybody else is wrong.

[Lauren Davis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Terrific book, full of deep wisdom to meditate and ponder for a long time.

[Luke · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked what this does and it is a really cool concept which spurs some interesting thoughts, however I don't think this is quite as "non-religious"/centrist as Shapiro claims. The majority of the work feels like Judaism mushed with Hinduism with a bit of East Asian thought sprinkled in and most of the quotes he draws in therefore come from these thoughts. It feels like a very Western approach to even believe that these questions exist or need to be answered, much less to answer them with such solid claims. With that said, I will still come back to this over time because he does put a lot of interesting thought forward and I am glad to have had the seeds planted in my head.

[Gerald · Rating 5 out of 5]

A really powerfully thought provoking way to look at and our relationship to God. Lots of absorption for me.

[Cathy D · Rating 3 out of 5]

The readings were more interesting to me than the commentary.