The Simple Road: A Handbook for the Contemporary Seeker

Harris (founder and president, University of Philosophical Research) distills the basics of New Thought theology, a universalist belief system that finds shared wisdom in major world religions and argues that people's thoughts and connections with the divine control their health and well-being. Harris covers healing, demonic forces, free will, guilt, sacrifice, forgiveness, and love, leaning heavily into Christianity, but also including Judaism, Hinduism, Taoism, and Buddhism%E2%80%94all undergirded with a strong dose of scientific rationality. While the simple style is easy to understand, at times it sounds archaic%E2%80%94"let us not be weaklings," the use of "man" or "mankind" to stand for humankind, and the unshaken belief in the inevitability of human progress%E2%80%94yet the book, written in part to renew the movement's intellectual vigor, accords easily with current beliefs in the power of positive thinking, the desire to eradicate guilt, and the hope to align science and religion. The orthodox of any faith might find issues to quarrel with, but the book nevertheless provides a coherent spiritual worldview for the non-sectarian modern seeker. (Sept.)