A MIDDLE WAY: The Secular/Spiritual Road to Wholeness

by Duke Robinson

This book speaks to thoughtful, informed people who want to be real in the twenty-first century. Rather than try to reconcile science and religion, the author tracks a path between the two, latching onto the positive dimensions of each while avoiding the shortcomings of both. The book offers grounding, integrity, balance, and liberation to those who feel disconnected for having given up what they used to believe and now believe nothing or just about anything; those who feel unanchored, knowing that what they were taught as children doesn't hold water any more; those who are afraid to face the real world we know today, because they don't understand it and have always needed to be right about everything; those whose feel intellectually shaky, fragile or fractured, because their worldviews, based on sentimental religion or secular science, are full of holes; those who know that to abide intellectual contradiction is unhealthy, yet continue to live one day a week believing in the “enchanted forest” world of their religion and live the other six days as if the natural, cause-and-effect world is real; those who are nervous about closed-minded science and yet can't swallow traditional, supernatural religion; those who gave up sentimental religion for all its silly, superstitious beliefs but have found nothing to replace the warmth and deep sense of belonging it once gave them; and those who are as fanatical about their secularism, or scientism, as the worst of religious zealots. From the start, Robinson provides you with helpful information. At the same time, he sets you free to pursue your own take on things and decide who you are going to be in the midst of the spiritual human family and the mind-blowing cosmos.

264 pages, Paperback

First published April 4, 2014

About the author

Author Writing in Retirement

Reviews

[Julia Simpson-Urrutia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Robinson is so even-handed and nonjudgmental in his presentation of the faiths held by mankind that he won my immediate respect. He demonstrates the rifts that have driven science and religion apart from one another. He makes a cogent argument for a spiritual secularism that integrates science and faith while affirming internal consistency in belief. Although the thesis is not new, Robinson’s text is highly rational, easy to comprehend and hard to fault. It has broad audience appeal since it can work with any religion and has a calm, egalitarian approach.