What does it mean to be human? Does this search for identity take us only inward—into investigations about the nature of our minds and our ways of thinking—or does it tend to draw any willing seeker beyond himself, perhaps to spirituality, to religion, or to deep reflections on the divine?
In The Mind and Philosophy of Man in His Search for the Divine, author I. G. Soorma explores religious themes and traditions from around the world as he dwells on the identity, journey, and ultimate destination of humankind. As a cross-cultural approach to philosophy and religion, it encourages us to think critically and introspectively as we engage in like discussions with others. The Mind and Philosophy of Man in His Search for the Divine is a highly original survey of great ideas from the classics, and it places mystical and Islamic and Sufist works as equals alongside the traditional European and East Asian canon. Soorma references and comments on the great masterpieces of philosophy, religion, nature, art, and psychology—the Bible and the Qu’ran, Rumi and Shakespeare, Goethe and Hafez, and Confucius and Plato—as he asks us to embrace the challenging ideas and notions that are shared across these supposedly disparate works.
Placing these great works in a dialogue with each other creates a lively discussion which will stimulate the seeker of knowledge to come to his or her own understanding of life, the universe, and human destiny. Such an invigorating elixir is particularly welcome in a technological age in which intense, prolonged reading has become a less crucial element in the formation of one’s understanding of the world—and in which specialization has supplanted broad general education and thoughtful reflection.
