BOOK REVIEWS
BOOK REVIEWS:
BEYOND THE GRAVE, LOVE AND IMMORTALITY
by Floyd Vernon Chandler
AT THE FOOT OF COLD MOUNTAIN
by Phyllis Inman Barnett
JESUS WAS A LIBERAL: Reclaiming Christianity for All
by Scotty McLennan
A New Universalism for a New Century
by A. J. Mattill, Jr.
.
LIFE AFTER DEATH: THE BURDEN OF PROOF
by Deepak Chopra
Book: AWAKENING THE SOUL
by John C. Morgan
_____________________________________________________
BEYOND THE GRAVE, LOVE AND IMMORTALITY
by Floyd Vernon Chandler
BEYOND THE GRAVE, LOVE AND IMMORTALITY is a collection of sermons and articles by a
Universalist minister of many gifts. For F. Vernon Chandler, the titles of Colonel, Reverend,
and Doctor all apply. He is an ordained Unitarian Universalist minister who has served as
Parish Minister, Prison Chaplain, and Military Chaplain. Chandler has also been affiliated with
the UNIVERSALIST HERALD for many years both as Editor and Board Chair.
Chandler’s theology spans both Christian and Interfaith Universalism. He is a believer in
afterlife and, most of all, a believer in the infinite mercy of an all-loving, compassionate God.
His sermons and articles reflect a mature understanding of Universalism from early Christianity
to the present. Chandler’s sermon, “What Is Universalism?” is brief, easy-to-understand, and
one of the best explanations I have ever read.
His writing reflects a man of compassion who has lived in the real world, and the world is better
because of his work. His sermons to prisoners are especially moving and show a real
sensitivity for a forgotten segment of God’s children. Like most Universalists, he is not only an
eternal optimist but a “died-in-the-wool” Liberal. His championing of such causes as a living
wage for the working poor and environmental issues are “hard-core” and at the heart of
Universalist values. In spite of his advocacy for vegan vegetarianism, I would be happy to
march down the aisle and join his church any day!
Universalist Christians, Liberal Christians, and Unitarian Universalist theists need to read this
book.
Book reviewer: Ken R. Vincent
AT THE FOOT OF COLD MOUNTAIN
by Phyllis Inman Barnett
Phyllis Inman Barnett has recently published the book AT THE FOOT OF COLD MOUNTAIN,
A Narrative and Pictorial History of Sunburst and the Universalists at Inman’s Chapel.
It gives a small view of the rural roots of Universalism, and portrays the life of a Universalist
family in the western North Carolina mountains from the early 1850s until 1957, when Inman
Chapel was closed.
The book also provides a brief history of the area and discusses the logging community of
Sunburst to give context for the section on Friendly House, the Universalist mission at Inman’s
Chapel at the foot of Cold Mountain.
James Anderson Inman, who had struggled to keep Universalism alive in his remote mountain
community, died in 1913. The Reverend Hannah Powell, a Universalist Minister from Maine
was sent to North Carolina by the Women’s National Missionary Association in 1921 to try to
keep the small church open.
Powell’s mission programs at Inman’s Chapel operated through the 1940s and included a free
health clinic, an adult education program, a summer school, a preschool, a lending library, and
a daycare service for working women.
The epilogue contains the narrative and pictorial record of the restoration of Inman Chapel
begun in 2007.
Phyllis Barnett is a member of the Unitarian Universalist of Clearwater, Florida. It is her wish
that UUs will agree that the diverse roots of the Unitarian Universalist faith need to be shared
and preserved.
The book was published in the winter of 2009 and is available for $20.00 plus $5.00 shipping
from PigeonRiverPress@aol.com. For further information call: 727-397-0711 or 828-648-1418
or contact the author at 14800 Gulf Blvd. #202, Madeira Beach, Florida, 33708
Reviewer, Carol Simmons is a member of Outlaws Bridge Church.
Jesus was a Liberal: Reclaiming Christianity for All
by Scotty McLennan
"Why has the liberal voice been so muted in Christianity?"
This is the question which Unitarian Universalist minister Scotty McLennan poses in this lively,
informative book. McLennan is the Dean for Religious Life at Stanford University. From 1984-
2000, he was University Chaplain at Tufts. He was ordained to the Unitarian Universalist
ministry in 1975.
In this, his third book, McLennan addresses a wide audience. As a spokesman for Liberal
Christianity, he engages and criticizes, not only fundamentalist and conservative Christians,
but also atheists such as Richard Dawkins and Francis Collins. It is time to reconcile
silence and religion, McLennan says.
McClennan usefully engages the reader at the political and theological level, often by sharing
his personal story, of how he "made the journey from conservative Christianity through
atheism," to liberal Christianity.
This is not in any sense a denominational publication. From his position at Stanford, where he
is responsible for meeting the spiritual needs of that large and well established University, he
is conversant with the entire range of the religious spectrum, extending well beyond "mainline"
Christianity. A reader unfamiliar with Unitarian Universalism would not learn much about
Unitarian Universalism from reading this book. And I find this refreshing. Too
often, we Unitarian Universalists become insular, not engaging Christians of various stripes,
even including those whom McLennan would refer to as "liberal Christians."
The Epilogue is perhaps the strongest part of the book. There, McLennan, who is also a
lawyer, makes a strong closing argument for "Reclaiming Liberal Christianity." He goes after
conservative politicians who use the word "liberal" pejoratively. From there, he goes straight to
the Bible, describing how Jesus asserted his freedom from the authority of the religious
leaders in Palestine, and how Jesus lifted up the oppressed, preaching to the conservative
religious leaders that sinners who make spiritual progress "take precedence over
the religiously pure who won't recognize any authority but their own." From there, McLennan
goes on to urge liberal Christians to become activists for social and economic justice. Here, he
is entirely consistent with such leading ministers from the Universalist side of
our tradition as Richard Gilbert, who wrote The Prophetic Imperative.
Subscribers to The Universalist Herald will readily recognize the Universalist God of the 19th
century in McClennan's chapter on Christian doctrine. There, in discussing the work of a
theologian at Princeton Theological Seminary, McLennan explains that "God the parent
is experienced not as a God of absolute power and rule of force, but as one who gives both life
and love, as one who empowers by pointing to caring family relationships."
Reviewer, Tom Korson is a retired Unitarian Universalist community minister
living in Denver.
A New Universalism for a New Century
by A. J. Mattill, Jr.
Universalist Herald Publishing Company, Second Printing: 2008;
“A man before his time” is an apt phrase to describe Dr. A. J. Mattill, Jr. Very few of the
individuals who gathered for the first Universalist Convocation fully appreciated the brilliant
insight and theological thought A.J. Mattill brought to this 1990 event with his introduction of A
New Universalism for a New Century. However, interest in Mattill’s book has grown over the
years and many Universalists and Unitarian Universalists who have read Mattill have come to
identify with the ideas and concepts found in A New Universalism for a New Century.
Unfortunately, this book went out of print several years ago, and it has been difficult for
interested folks to locate a copy to read. With this second printing, many Universalists,
Unitarians, Unitarian Universalists, and other religious liberals, who have been searching for a
positive and practical religious credo to match their modern understanding of the world, now
have the opportunity to acquire a copy of this book and consider Mattill’s very meaningful and
practical contribution to religious thought.
At the heart of Mattill’s theology is Fourfold Reverence: Reverence for Truth; Reverence for
Beauty; Reverence for Life; and Reverence for the Mystery of the Universe.
The first element of his New Universalism is reverence for truth. By reverence for truth Mattill
does not mean boasting that we possess the whole truth and nothing but the truth, for our
conclusions are only approximations to truth and have only a greater or lesser degree of
probability rather than absolute certainty. Truth is too elusive for any person ever to attain
fully. Reverence for truth means a magnificent obsession for coming ever closer to truth, an all-
absorbing search for truth that is never ending. To observe a reverence for truth requires that
we become lifetime students. The greatest truth seekers are learners to their dying day,
realizing that the more they know the more they have yet to learn.
The second element of a New Universalism is a reverence for beauty. A religion without beauty
is cold and sad and incomplete. As human beings, we hunger for art, beauty, ceremony,
music, and poetry. A religion which fosters beauty, appeals to our sense of beauty, and
satisfies our hunger for beauty is to that extent a true religion and an uplifting influence to the
human spirit. Reverence for beauty means to train ourselves to see the maximum of beauty in
the world around us. Once we can see and recognize the limitless beauty all around us, then
we can contemplate this beauty until our hearts are on fire with ecstasy. Every day we can
expose ourselves to a flower or a mountain or a sunrise or a sunset. Reverence for beauty not
only means to see and contemplate beauty but it also means to cherish beauty as one of the
most valuable assets of life. Reverence for beauty is seeing and contemplating and cherishing
and creating all those sights and sounds and compositions and lives which are so excellent in
form or color or harmony or spirit.
The third basic element of a New Universalism is reverence for life. Reverence for life requires
a humane religion which is sensitive to the misery and suffering of both people and animals
and embraces both human rights and animal rights. Reverence for life requires that we honor
nature and respect nature. The non-violence of reverence for life leads to the highest
standards of conduct which are grounded in compassion and kindness which are not limited to
humanity but which embraces all living beings. Whoever is filled with boundless compassion
and kindness will respect the rights of all other living things, harm none needlessly, and help
every one so far as possible. Reverence for life requires us to exercise a sense of benevolent
kindness and loving responsibility for animals and plants and people, for all will to live and not
to die, and all of us share in the marvelous mystery of life which flows through all living things.
The fourth and final element of a New Universalism is reverence for the Mystery of the
Universe. As we meditate upon mystery, we are filled with an overwhelming emotion concerning
the inherent limits to the competence of our minds and the limits to our knowledge. We are
forced to acknowledge that there are ultimate limits to what we may know both now and
probably forevermore. Because of these limitations, we have to accept the fact that there are
unfathomable mysteries in the world which are altogether beyond our comprehension. This
Mystery of the Universe is what many, if not most, people have in mind when they refer to God.
The name “God” has long been used to symbolize the Unexplainable Mystery of the existence
of the universe, of life, and of the lawfulness governing all things. The reverential awe we
experience before the Mystery of the Universe is the fundamental religious feeling, the
permanent and irreducible hard core of religious experience. The intense emotional thrill
derived from contemplating this Mystery is the ultimate religious experience. This Mystery of
the Universe is the Tremendous Mystery or Mysterium Tremendum. Before this Tremendous
Mystery, be it personal or impersonal, we feel so utterly small and insignificant. As we meditate
on the Mystery of the Universe, we are lifted above our everyday concerns and we begin to
lose our inflated sense of our own importance. Observing a reverence for the Mystery of the
Universe creates a life-long sense of awe and wonder.
After presenting the outline of his religious philosophy, Mattill describes eleven characteristics
of a New Universalism and provides several expositions of this world view to include The
Jubilee Avowal which is a rewrite of the 1935 Washington Declaration of the Universalist
Church of America.
This is a wonderful book. Mattill’s theology is intellectually compatible with modern science and
he provides practical disciplines for the expression of his theology that are compassionate and
healing to the Earth and all its living inhabitants.
A. J. Mattill, Jr. has earned three degrees: B.A. from the University of Chicago; B.D. from
Evangelical Theological Seminary; and Ph.D. in Biblical studies and theology from Vanderbilt
University. He has done post-doctoral work in Israel, Canada, and Germany. Dr. Mattill was a
frequent contributor to the Universalist Herald in the 1980s and 1990s. He and his wife, M.E.,
are retired and live on a small farm near Gordo, Alabama where they follow a vegetarian
lifestyle and practice organic gardening.
To order a copy of the second printing of A New Universalism for a New Century, send
check or money order payable to Universalist Herald and mail to Joyce Gilbert, 70 Harper
Street, Rochester, NY 14607. Cost per copy is $10 postpaid to any US address and $12
postpaid to any international address.
Reviewer, Vernon Chandler is a military chaplain, former pastor, prison chaplain, and also a
former editor of the UNIVERSALIST HERALD.
Book Reviewed: LIFE AFTER DEATH: THE BURDEN OF PROOF
by Deepak Chopra
Sometimes we modern day Unitarian Universalists forget the original meaning of the term
“Universalism.” Universalism has its genesis in the belief of an immortal soul and the belief that
all souls were eventually reunited with that which we call God. For those of us for whom the
original meaning of Universalism and immortality remain a basis of our personal theology, you
will find in Chopra’s latest book a comforting, powerful, and insightful investigation into the
great mysteries of existence: death and eternal life.
Deepak Chopra grew up in a Hindu family in India and was later exposed to Christian
teachings via Catholic schooling. Trained as a medical doctor in both India and the United
States, Chopra bridges Eastern and Western thought in addressing the most profound
mystery: What happens when we die?
In Life After Death, Chopra draws upon recent medical discoveries, cutting-edge scientific
knowledge, quantum physics, near-death experiences (NDEs) and the wisdom of various
religious traditions to provide the reader a very hopeful glimpse into the world of
consciousness that follows the human death experience.
Chopra rejects the notion of Satan as an all-powerful opposite of God. Everything Satan
stands for is included in our own self-judgment. What we call Satan is a massive reflection of
self-judgment and is a creation of our own consciousness.
The only hell to which Chopra believes exists is psychological hell. We create our own hells.
Hell is farthest from that which we call God because hell represents the low ebb of
consciousness.
The spiritually mature person, regardless of religious faith, is someone who pursues a
meaningful life through the following: self worth; love; truth; appreciation and gratitude;
reverence; and nonviolence. To live outside these values is painful, and if intense enough,
perhaps the pain puts a person in his or her own psychological hell. When we become
disconnected from ourselves, a sense of deserving to suffer begins. Hell is the suffering you
think you deserve. When connections with that which we call God are repaired or restored, we
no longer believe we deserve punishment and we are back in the flow of life with all its healing
properties.
Although Chopra does not use the term, “Purgatory,” his writing alludes to this concept. Bad
Karma and/or low consciousness at the time of human death does have an impact upon the
souls of the departed. If we have created a psychological hell in this life, aspects of this hell
will continue in the next life.
For some souls entering the afterlife, there will be torment and suffering. Chopra calls this
hellish experience the condition of karmic suffering. However, this suffering is not eternal, but
is rather remedial and rehabilitative. This concept is very compatible with early American
Universalism.
For Chopra, death deserves to be called miraculous, a “doorway to a far more important
event—the beginning of the afterlife” and a mode of being that “can be as creative as living . . .
the cosmos that you and I are experiencing right now, with trees, plants, people, houses, cars,
stars, and galaxies, is just consciousness expressing itself at one particular frequency.
Elsewhere in space time, different planes exist simultaneously.” It is on these other planes,
created by the imagination of that which we call God, that the souls of the departed continue
the adventure of consciousness. Chopra gives numerous medical and mystical accounts to
support his belief in the continuation of the soul following the death of the human body. Life
After Death: The Burden of Proof is full of spiritual wisdom. It is a wonderful guide for life after
death exploration and it is so compatible with what Universalists have been teaching for
centuries. I highly recommend this book to UNIVERSALIST HERALD readers.
Reviewer, Vernon Chandler is a military chaplain, former pastor, prison chaplain, and also a
former editor of the UNIVERSALIST HERALD.
AWAKENING THE SOUL
by John C. Morgan
Awakening the Soul is a wonderful “download” from a seasoned minister’s soul --- a
cornucopia of thought-provoking, spiritual readings from a variety of sources, seasoned with
the hopeful message of Christian Universalism. John C. Morgan is a Christian Universalist
minister with sixteen years of pastoral experience in the theologically diverse Unitarian
Universalist denomination.
Although structured as daily devotionals, this book provides a treasure-trove of material
appropriate for Christian or interfaith ministers and lay leaders to use during group worship.
This is the stuff that “Orders of Service” are made of! Liberal Christians will be especially
delighted with the classic quotations and stories from prominent Universalists, including John
Murray and George De Benneville. One example is this from Olympia Brown (the first woman in
the United States to be ordained by a denomination): “The foundation of democracy is the
realization that every human being is a child of God…, always trusting in the one God which
ever lives and loves.”
The overall tone of the book is best described by John Morgan himself at the end of the
Preface: “In the end, it won’t matter how much you have, but rather how much you have
given. It won’t matter how much you know, but rather how much you love. And it won’t
matter how much you profess to believe, but rather how deeply you live the few enduring truths
you claim as ultimate. All the rest is discipline.”
Awakening the Soul by John C. Morgan is available from: Amazon.com and the publisher,
Skinner House Books (www.uua.org/skinner).
Reviewer, Ken R. Vincent is author of THE GOLDEN
THREAD, GOD’S PROMISE OF UNIVERSAL SALVATION.
BEYOND THE GRAVE, LOVE AND IMMORTALITY
by Floyd Vernon Chandler
AT THE FOOT OF COLD MOUNTAIN
by Phyllis Inman Barnett
JESUS WAS A LIBERAL: Reclaiming Christianity for All
by Scotty McLennan
A New Universalism for a New Century
by A. J. Mattill, Jr.
.
LIFE AFTER DEATH: THE BURDEN OF PROOF
by Deepak Chopra
Book: AWAKENING THE SOUL
by John C. Morgan
_____________________________________________________
BEYOND THE GRAVE, LOVE AND IMMORTALITY
by Floyd Vernon Chandler
BEYOND THE GRAVE, LOVE AND IMMORTALITY is a collection of sermons and articles by a
Universalist minister of many gifts. For F. Vernon Chandler, the titles of Colonel, Reverend,
and Doctor all apply. He is an ordained Unitarian Universalist minister who has served as
Parish Minister, Prison Chaplain, and Military Chaplain. Chandler has also been affiliated with
the UNIVERSALIST HERALD for many years both as Editor and Board Chair.
Chandler’s theology spans both Christian and Interfaith Universalism. He is a believer in
afterlife and, most of all, a believer in the infinite mercy of an all-loving, compassionate God.
His sermons and articles reflect a mature understanding of Universalism from early Christianity
to the present. Chandler’s sermon, “What Is Universalism?” is brief, easy-to-understand, and
one of the best explanations I have ever read.
His writing reflects a man of compassion who has lived in the real world, and the world is better
because of his work. His sermons to prisoners are especially moving and show a real
sensitivity for a forgotten segment of God’s children. Like most Universalists, he is not only an
eternal optimist but a “died-in-the-wool” Liberal. His championing of such causes as a living
wage for the working poor and environmental issues are “hard-core” and at the heart of
Universalist values. In spite of his advocacy for vegan vegetarianism, I would be happy to
march down the aisle and join his church any day!
Universalist Christians, Liberal Christians, and Unitarian Universalist theists need to read this
book.
Book reviewer: Ken R. Vincent
AT THE FOOT OF COLD MOUNTAIN
by Phyllis Inman Barnett
Phyllis Inman Barnett has recently published the book AT THE FOOT OF COLD MOUNTAIN,
A Narrative and Pictorial History of Sunburst and the Universalists at Inman’s Chapel.
It gives a small view of the rural roots of Universalism, and portrays the life of a Universalist
family in the western North Carolina mountains from the early 1850s until 1957, when Inman
Chapel was closed.
The book also provides a brief history of the area and discusses the logging community of
Sunburst to give context for the section on Friendly House, the Universalist mission at Inman’s
Chapel at the foot of Cold Mountain.
James Anderson Inman, who had struggled to keep Universalism alive in his remote mountain
community, died in 1913. The Reverend Hannah Powell, a Universalist Minister from Maine
was sent to North Carolina by the Women’s National Missionary Association in 1921 to try to
keep the small church open.
Powell’s mission programs at Inman’s Chapel operated through the 1940s and included a free
health clinic, an adult education program, a summer school, a preschool, a lending library, and
a daycare service for working women.
The epilogue contains the narrative and pictorial record of the restoration of Inman Chapel
begun in 2007.
Phyllis Barnett is a member of the Unitarian Universalist of Clearwater, Florida. It is her wish
that UUs will agree that the diverse roots of the Unitarian Universalist faith need to be shared
and preserved.
The book was published in the winter of 2009 and is available for $20.00 plus $5.00 shipping
from PigeonRiverPress@aol.com. For further information call: 727-397-0711 or 828-648-1418
or contact the author at 14800 Gulf Blvd. #202, Madeira Beach, Florida, 33708
Reviewer, Carol Simmons is a member of Outlaws Bridge Church.
Jesus was a Liberal: Reclaiming Christianity for All
by Scotty McLennan
"Why has the liberal voice been so muted in Christianity?"
This is the question which Unitarian Universalist minister Scotty McLennan poses in this lively,
informative book. McLennan is the Dean for Religious Life at Stanford University. From 1984-
2000, he was University Chaplain at Tufts. He was ordained to the Unitarian Universalist
ministry in 1975.
In this, his third book, McLennan addresses a wide audience. As a spokesman for Liberal
Christianity, he engages and criticizes, not only fundamentalist and conservative Christians,
but also atheists such as Richard Dawkins and Francis Collins. It is time to reconcile
silence and religion, McLennan says.
McClennan usefully engages the reader at the political and theological level, often by sharing
his personal story, of how he "made the journey from conservative Christianity through
atheism," to liberal Christianity.
This is not in any sense a denominational publication. From his position at Stanford, where he
is responsible for meeting the spiritual needs of that large and well established University, he
is conversant with the entire range of the religious spectrum, extending well beyond "mainline"
Christianity. A reader unfamiliar with Unitarian Universalism would not learn much about
Unitarian Universalism from reading this book. And I find this refreshing. Too
often, we Unitarian Universalists become insular, not engaging Christians of various stripes,
even including those whom McLennan would refer to as "liberal Christians."
The Epilogue is perhaps the strongest part of the book. There, McLennan, who is also a
lawyer, makes a strong closing argument for "Reclaiming Liberal Christianity." He goes after
conservative politicians who use the word "liberal" pejoratively. From there, he goes straight to
the Bible, describing how Jesus asserted his freedom from the authority of the religious
leaders in Palestine, and how Jesus lifted up the oppressed, preaching to the conservative
religious leaders that sinners who make spiritual progress "take precedence over
the religiously pure who won't recognize any authority but their own." From there, McLennan
goes on to urge liberal Christians to become activists for social and economic justice. Here, he
is entirely consistent with such leading ministers from the Universalist side of
our tradition as Richard Gilbert, who wrote The Prophetic Imperative.
Subscribers to The Universalist Herald will readily recognize the Universalist God of the 19th
century in McClennan's chapter on Christian doctrine. There, in discussing the work of a
theologian at Princeton Theological Seminary, McLennan explains that "God the parent
is experienced not as a God of absolute power and rule of force, but as one who gives both life
and love, as one who empowers by pointing to caring family relationships."
Reviewer, Tom Korson is a retired Unitarian Universalist community minister
living in Denver.
A New Universalism for a New Century
by A. J. Mattill, Jr.
Universalist Herald Publishing Company, Second Printing: 2008;
“A man before his time” is an apt phrase to describe Dr. A. J. Mattill, Jr. Very few of the
individuals who gathered for the first Universalist Convocation fully appreciated the brilliant
insight and theological thought A.J. Mattill brought to this 1990 event with his introduction of A
New Universalism for a New Century. However, interest in Mattill’s book has grown over the
years and many Universalists and Unitarian Universalists who have read Mattill have come to
identify with the ideas and concepts found in A New Universalism for a New Century.
Unfortunately, this book went out of print several years ago, and it has been difficult for
interested folks to locate a copy to read. With this second printing, many Universalists,
Unitarians, Unitarian Universalists, and other religious liberals, who have been searching for a
positive and practical religious credo to match their modern understanding of the world, now
have the opportunity to acquire a copy of this book and consider Mattill’s very meaningful and
practical contribution to religious thought.
At the heart of Mattill’s theology is Fourfold Reverence: Reverence for Truth; Reverence for
Beauty; Reverence for Life; and Reverence for the Mystery of the Universe.
The first element of his New Universalism is reverence for truth. By reverence for truth Mattill
does not mean boasting that we possess the whole truth and nothing but the truth, for our
conclusions are only approximations to truth and have only a greater or lesser degree of
probability rather than absolute certainty. Truth is too elusive for any person ever to attain
fully. Reverence for truth means a magnificent obsession for coming ever closer to truth, an all-
absorbing search for truth that is never ending. To observe a reverence for truth requires that
we become lifetime students. The greatest truth seekers are learners to their dying day,
realizing that the more they know the more they have yet to learn.
The second element of a New Universalism is a reverence for beauty. A religion without beauty
is cold and sad and incomplete. As human beings, we hunger for art, beauty, ceremony,
music, and poetry. A religion which fosters beauty, appeals to our sense of beauty, and
satisfies our hunger for beauty is to that extent a true religion and an uplifting influence to the
human spirit. Reverence for beauty means to train ourselves to see the maximum of beauty in
the world around us. Once we can see and recognize the limitless beauty all around us, then
we can contemplate this beauty until our hearts are on fire with ecstasy. Every day we can
expose ourselves to a flower or a mountain or a sunrise or a sunset. Reverence for beauty not
only means to see and contemplate beauty but it also means to cherish beauty as one of the
most valuable assets of life. Reverence for beauty is seeing and contemplating and cherishing
and creating all those sights and sounds and compositions and lives which are so excellent in
form or color or harmony or spirit.
The third basic element of a New Universalism is reverence for life. Reverence for life requires
a humane religion which is sensitive to the misery and suffering of both people and animals
and embraces both human rights and animal rights. Reverence for life requires that we honor
nature and respect nature. The non-violence of reverence for life leads to the highest
standards of conduct which are grounded in compassion and kindness which are not limited to
humanity but which embraces all living beings. Whoever is filled with boundless compassion
and kindness will respect the rights of all other living things, harm none needlessly, and help
every one so far as possible. Reverence for life requires us to exercise a sense of benevolent
kindness and loving responsibility for animals and plants and people, for all will to live and not
to die, and all of us share in the marvelous mystery of life which flows through all living things.
The fourth and final element of a New Universalism is reverence for the Mystery of the
Universe. As we meditate upon mystery, we are filled with an overwhelming emotion concerning
the inherent limits to the competence of our minds and the limits to our knowledge. We are
forced to acknowledge that there are ultimate limits to what we may know both now and
probably forevermore. Because of these limitations, we have to accept the fact that there are
unfathomable mysteries in the world which are altogether beyond our comprehension. This
Mystery of the Universe is what many, if not most, people have in mind when they refer to God.
The name “God” has long been used to symbolize the Unexplainable Mystery of the existence
of the universe, of life, and of the lawfulness governing all things. The reverential awe we
experience before the Mystery of the Universe is the fundamental religious feeling, the
permanent and irreducible hard core of religious experience. The intense emotional thrill
derived from contemplating this Mystery is the ultimate religious experience. This Mystery of
the Universe is the Tremendous Mystery or Mysterium Tremendum. Before this Tremendous
Mystery, be it personal or impersonal, we feel so utterly small and insignificant. As we meditate
on the Mystery of the Universe, we are lifted above our everyday concerns and we begin to
lose our inflated sense of our own importance. Observing a reverence for the Mystery of the
Universe creates a life-long sense of awe and wonder.
After presenting the outline of his religious philosophy, Mattill describes eleven characteristics
of a New Universalism and provides several expositions of this world view to include The
Jubilee Avowal which is a rewrite of the 1935 Washington Declaration of the Universalist
Church of America.
This is a wonderful book. Mattill’s theology is intellectually compatible with modern science and
he provides practical disciplines for the expression of his theology that are compassionate and
healing to the Earth and all its living inhabitants.
A. J. Mattill, Jr. has earned three degrees: B.A. from the University of Chicago; B.D. from
Evangelical Theological Seminary; and Ph.D. in Biblical studies and theology from Vanderbilt
University. He has done post-doctoral work in Israel, Canada, and Germany. Dr. Mattill was a
frequent contributor to the Universalist Herald in the 1980s and 1990s. He and his wife, M.E.,
are retired and live on a small farm near Gordo, Alabama where they follow a vegetarian
lifestyle and practice organic gardening.
To order a copy of the second printing of A New Universalism for a New Century, send
check or money order payable to Universalist Herald and mail to Joyce Gilbert, 70 Harper
Street, Rochester, NY 14607. Cost per copy is $10 postpaid to any US address and $12
postpaid to any international address.
Reviewer, Vernon Chandler is a military chaplain, former pastor, prison chaplain, and also a
former editor of the UNIVERSALIST HERALD.
Book Reviewed: LIFE AFTER DEATH: THE BURDEN OF PROOF
by Deepak Chopra
Sometimes we modern day Unitarian Universalists forget the original meaning of the term
“Universalism.” Universalism has its genesis in the belief of an immortal soul and the belief that
all souls were eventually reunited with that which we call God. For those of us for whom the
original meaning of Universalism and immortality remain a basis of our personal theology, you
will find in Chopra’s latest book a comforting, powerful, and insightful investigation into the
great mysteries of existence: death and eternal life.
Deepak Chopra grew up in a Hindu family in India and was later exposed to Christian
teachings via Catholic schooling. Trained as a medical doctor in both India and the United
States, Chopra bridges Eastern and Western thought in addressing the most profound
mystery: What happens when we die?
In Life After Death, Chopra draws upon recent medical discoveries, cutting-edge scientific
knowledge, quantum physics, near-death experiences (NDEs) and the wisdom of various
religious traditions to provide the reader a very hopeful glimpse into the world of
consciousness that follows the human death experience.
Chopra rejects the notion of Satan as an all-powerful opposite of God. Everything Satan
stands for is included in our own self-judgment. What we call Satan is a massive reflection of
self-judgment and is a creation of our own consciousness.
The only hell to which Chopra believes exists is psychological hell. We create our own hells.
Hell is farthest from that which we call God because hell represents the low ebb of
consciousness.
The spiritually mature person, regardless of religious faith, is someone who pursues a
meaningful life through the following: self worth; love; truth; appreciation and gratitude;
reverence; and nonviolence. To live outside these values is painful, and if intense enough,
perhaps the pain puts a person in his or her own psychological hell. When we become
disconnected from ourselves, a sense of deserving to suffer begins. Hell is the suffering you
think you deserve. When connections with that which we call God are repaired or restored, we
no longer believe we deserve punishment and we are back in the flow of life with all its healing
properties.
Although Chopra does not use the term, “Purgatory,” his writing alludes to this concept. Bad
Karma and/or low consciousness at the time of human death does have an impact upon the
souls of the departed. If we have created a psychological hell in this life, aspects of this hell
will continue in the next life.
For some souls entering the afterlife, there will be torment and suffering. Chopra calls this
hellish experience the condition of karmic suffering. However, this suffering is not eternal, but
is rather remedial and rehabilitative. This concept is very compatible with early American
Universalism.
For Chopra, death deserves to be called miraculous, a “doorway to a far more important
event—the beginning of the afterlife” and a mode of being that “can be as creative as living . . .
the cosmos that you and I are experiencing right now, with trees, plants, people, houses, cars,
stars, and galaxies, is just consciousness expressing itself at one particular frequency.
Elsewhere in space time, different planes exist simultaneously.” It is on these other planes,
created by the imagination of that which we call God, that the souls of the departed continue
the adventure of consciousness. Chopra gives numerous medical and mystical accounts to
support his belief in the continuation of the soul following the death of the human body. Life
After Death: The Burden of Proof is full of spiritual wisdom. It is a wonderful guide for life after
death exploration and it is so compatible with what Universalists have been teaching for
centuries. I highly recommend this book to UNIVERSALIST HERALD readers.
Reviewer, Vernon Chandler is a military chaplain, former pastor, prison chaplain, and also a
former editor of the UNIVERSALIST HERALD.
AWAKENING THE SOUL
by John C. Morgan
Awakening the Soul is a wonderful “download” from a seasoned minister’s soul --- a
cornucopia of thought-provoking, spiritual readings from a variety of sources, seasoned with
the hopeful message of Christian Universalism. John C. Morgan is a Christian Universalist
minister with sixteen years of pastoral experience in the theologically diverse Unitarian
Universalist denomination.
Although structured as daily devotionals, this book provides a treasure-trove of material
appropriate for Christian or interfaith ministers and lay leaders to use during group worship.
This is the stuff that “Orders of Service” are made of! Liberal Christians will be especially
delighted with the classic quotations and stories from prominent Universalists, including John
Murray and George De Benneville. One example is this from Olympia Brown (the first woman in
the United States to be ordained by a denomination): “The foundation of democracy is the
realization that every human being is a child of God…, always trusting in the one God which
ever lives and loves.”
The overall tone of the book is best described by John Morgan himself at the end of the
Preface: “In the end, it won’t matter how much you have, but rather how much you have
given. It won’t matter how much you know, but rather how much you love. And it won’t
matter how much you profess to believe, but rather how deeply you live the few enduring truths
you claim as ultimate. All the rest is discipline.”
Awakening the Soul by John C. Morgan is available from: Amazon.com and the publisher,
Skinner House Books (www.uua.org/skinner).
Reviewer, Ken R. Vincent is author of THE GOLDEN
THREAD, GOD’S PROMISE OF UNIVERSAL SALVATION.
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