David LorimerA Quest for Wisdom
Inspiring Purpose on the Path of Life
David Lorimer, MA, PGCE, FRSA is a writer and editor who is a Founder of Character Education Scotland, Programme Director of the Scientific and Medical Network and former President of Wrekin Trust and the Swedenborg Society. Originally a merchant banker then a teacher of philosophy and modern languages at Winchester College, he is the author and editor of over a dozen books. He is a founding member of the International Futures Forum and was also a Trustee of the St Andrews Prize for the Environment and a Churchill Fellow. He is the creator of the Inspiring Purpose Values Poster Programmes, which have reached over 300,000 young people.
CONTENTS
FOREWORD xvii
PREFACE xxi
Dr Peter Fenwick
FORMATIVE BACKGROUND xxiii
PHILOSOPHY, SPIRITUALITY AND MEANING
Victor Frankl and the Human Search for Meaning 3
The Absurd and the Mysterious 13
John Moriarty Memorial Lecture-Rhythmica Mythica:
Separation and Union, Exile and Homecoming 29
The Principles of Love and Wisdom in Swedenborg
and Beinsa Douno (Peter Deunov) 45
Beinsa Douno (Peter Deunov, 1864-1944)-a Prophet
for our Times 55
Tao and the Path towards Integration 63
Cultivating a Sense of Beauty 75
The Encounter of Eastern and Western Cosmologies-
Speculations on Radhakrishnan and the "Implicate Order" 85
Consciousness and Spirituality: Widening the Scientific
Perspective 101
CONSCIOUSNESS, DEATH AND TRANSFORMATION
The Challenge of Death 115
Religious and Scientific Implications of the Near-death
and Related Experiences 119
Aspects of the Near-death Experience in the Light of the Tibetan
Book of the Dead and the Experiences of Swedenborg 127
Swedenborg and Survival 135
Swedenborg, the Soul and Modern Consciousness Studies 151
The Near-death Experience and the Perennial Wisdom 159
TAKING RESPONSIBILITY-ETHICS AND SOCIETY
A Life as an Argument: The Plight of the Individual
in Modern Society 173
The Ethic of "Reverence for Life" and the Problem of Peace 183
The Ethical Mysticism of Dag Hammarskjöld 195
Religion, Society and Spiritual Renewal in Radhakrishnan 209
Ethics and the Nature of the Human 217
Beyond Fanaticism-the "Pneumatocratic" Perspective 227
Voltaire and Russell-the Crusade against Dogma
and Fanaticism 235
The Spiritual Perspective and Political Responsibility 247
Fear of Freedom 257
Some Aspects of the German Democratic Republic 263
Towards a Culture of Love-an Ethic of Interconnectedness 269
AFTERWORD 279
BIBLIOGRAPHY 285
INDEX 305
