These books are intended primarily for young people. The young people face severe existential issues, which often make life intolerable for them. These books help them overcome these issues by helping them obtain a perspective that transcends their familiar views of life and build up a successful life on a strong foundation.
We build up our life upon a view of life. We inherit our view of life from our ancestors just as we inherit our language and culture. A view of life answers the basic questions of life such as:
- Who are we?
- Why do we live?
- How are we related to each other?
- How are we related to the world?
- How are we related to the ultimate reality?
Our view of life consists of our own answers to such questions. A view of life and a way of life we build upon it together is called a religion or a culture according to the context.
A view of life is as dynamic as a language. It keeps on changing and undergoes transformations just like a language. That is why we are surrounded by multiple worldviews at any time just as there are multiple languages.
In spite of the multiplicity of life-views, the one we adopt from our parents first becomes our mother life-view like a mother tongue. It becomes a part of us just like our mother tongue. Just as we learn more languages in addition to our mother tongue, we get exposed to several other views of life. However, they never become a part of us just as our mother life-view does. We use our mother tongue as easily as we breathe, but we never find such ease with the new languages we learn. This is true about our mother life-view as well.
To someone who passes from childhood to youth, life offers several challenges. In addition to finding a means of living and a life partner, one has to have a strong view of life as the foundation to life. The mother life-view becomes one of several views, and one is forced to choose from many. Some of those views might look contradictory to each other, so choosing one may mean rejecting another one. Rejecting a life-view is very painful if it happens to be the mother life-view.
The Eastern Orthodox Christian view of life is my mother life-view. Regular morning and evening family prayer, and weekly church worship and religious education watered this view of life. As soon as I started going to school, I became aware of other views of life. Among my teachers and classmates were those who belonged to Hindu and Islam religions. A pastor in a Pentecost church who used to visit our home now and then and a Capuchin father I saw occasionally made me aware of different views of life within Christian view of life. By the time I was in High school, I began to get familiar with the materialist view of life, which was the foundation of the then science. All these different views of life gave me different answers to the questions of life I asked. Some of them looked better than my mother life-view. But none of them could give me satisfactory answers to a number of my questions. I was going through tremendous mental struggle in those days, and I consider myself fortunate that I could continue with my life.
I engaged in reading and in writing books as a part of my quest for the truth of life. I believe that most of the people have to go through severe mental struggle as I did. My books are meant to help those young people who go through such struggles when they face various views of life. They help the young people overcome the struggle by obtaining a higher viewpoint from where they can look at the various views of life. They explain how one can keep a religious view of life and also a scientific view of life. They also explain how one can be a Christian while being open to the views of other religions. They explain how someone can get along with the coworkers and neighbors who hold apparently contradictory views of life. They explain in simple language how someone can be Christian without revolting against other religions.
An Orientation to our Life, a fictitious conversation in a setting 2000 years ago between a Rabbi and some young people, answers some basic questions of life. A God with a wider Heart, a book of Bible stories, elevates the reader to a higher vision of life. An Adventure Trip with God, a meditation of thirty of the most beautiful psalms, invites the readers to face life as an adventure.
These books can be used in a variety of settings such as personal meditation, family prayer, youth Bible study etc. I earnestly seek your help to promote these books among your family, friends, and neighbors. These books might be a good gift item for birthdays, weddings, and graduations. Please take the initiative to get a copy of these books for your church library. Please read and email me your comments. You may also post your comments in Amazon.com. Your comments will encourage others to read these books.
A copy of these books cost only $5.50 at this time. This is only its printing cost. I could make them available at such a low cost because I decided to give up any financial gain as the author. I can arrange to make these books available at an even lower price for those who are willing to buy at least ten copies at a time. Email me for more information.
1 comment:
What is impressive is your conviction about the need for truth you are seeking. And the generosity with which you are sharing that truth in it's entirety, albeit in the form of parables and thought provoking essays, to fellow truth seekers.
Vineeth John MD
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