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“Auschwitz was a dark epiphany, providing us with a terrible vision of what life is like when all sense of the sacred is lost and the human being--whoever he or she may be--is no longer revered as an inviolable mystery.”
― The Case for God
― The Case for God
“We need myths that will help us to identify with all our fellow-beings, not simply with those who belong to our ethnic, national or ideological tribe. We need myths that help us to realize the importance of compassion, which is not always regarded as sufficiently productive or efficient in our pragmatic, rational world. We need myths that help us to create a spiritual attitude, to see beyond our immediate requirements, and enable us to experience a transcendent value that challenges our solipsistic selfishness. We need myths that help us to venerate the earth as sacred once again, instead of merely using it as a 'resource.' This is crucial, because unless there is some kind of spiritual revolution that is able to keep abreast of our technological genius, we will not save our planet.”
― A Short History of Myth
― A Short History of Myth
“If it is written and read with serious attention, a novel, like a myth or any great work of art, can become an initiation that helps us to make a painful rite of passage from one phase of life, one state of mind, to another. A novel, like a myth, teaches us to see the world differently; it shows us how to look into our own hearts and to see our world from a perspective that goes beyond our own self-interest.”
― A Short History of Myth
― A Short History of Myth
“Respect only has meaning as respect for those with whom I do not agree.”
― A History of God: The 4000-Year Quest of Judaism, Christianity and Islam
― A History of God: The 4000-Year Quest of Judaism, Christianity and Islam
“Love inscribes the body-- and this is a process as excruciating as it sounds. For some of us it is literal, Kafkaesque. A selbst-verlusting that is both terrifying and pleasurable. The body does not pre-exist love, but is cast in its fires.”
― Confessions of the Fox
― Confessions of the Fox
BETH’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at BETH’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
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