The Humanist Fellowship of San Diego

Book Club

Unless otherwise noted, the book club will meet on the third Thursday of every month.  You must confirm your attendance and call for the location of the meeting, as it may change from month-to-month depending upon the participants.

OCTOBER BOOK CLUB SELECTION

FEET OF CLAY: SAINTS, SINNERS & MADMEN: A STUDY OF GURUS

by Anthony Storr

“All authorities, whether political or spiritual, should be distrusted, and extremely authoritarian characters who divide the world into "us" and "them", who preach that there is only one way forward, or who believe that they are surrounded by enemies, are particularly to be avoided. It is not necessary to be dogmatic to be effective. The charisma of certainty is a snare which entraps the child who is latent in all of us.” (Anthony Storr, from “Feet of Clay”)

Every generation has its charismatic spiritual leaders, its gurus. Some are true saints while others conceal unspeakable depravity. Anthony Storr, Oxford professor of psychiatry, analyzes an interesting array of gurus and finds many commonalities among them--an isolated childhood, a need for certainty, a demand for obedience. He also elucidates aspects of this psychological profile in various intellectual, artistic, and political figures of history. This eye-opening book invokes a larger issue: in our search for guidance and truth, when and why do we cross the line from reasoned inquirer to unquestioning follower?

REVIEWS

"Feet of Clay is a powerful and engaging account of individuals, who, for better or worse, have exerted and iinfluence over the lives of others that is virually beyond comprehension. Anthony Storr's gift is to make the incomprehensible comprehensible, and to do it ina way that is provocative, eloquent, and illuminationg."

-- Kay Redfield Jamison, Professor of Psychiarty, Johns Hopkins University

"Don't overlook this book--this is one of the finest overviews of the wide range of gurus in history and what they had in common. Disentangling the psychological influences on the guru and the follower is a very difficult trick, and Storr's illuminating review not only draws very clear pictures of the lives and work of many of these figures, but adds several chapters at the end which beautifully analyze in a dispassionate and tolerant spirit the sense and the absurdity in the ideas of both the gurus and their followers. Since we all have the drives which energize this arena it is a public service to elucidate what is happening with the clarity and perspective that Storr achieves. It should be a enormous help to anybody researching the field and a solace to anybody caught in it and trying to escape confusion. A fascinating topic brightly illuminated."

-- Anthony L. (reviewer on Amazon.com website)

AUTHOR BIO

Anthony Storr was a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, a Fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, and an Emeritus Fellow of Green College, Oxford.

Storr's particular gift for rendering difficult concepts accessible, as well as his lucid, immensely readable style, made his books as appealing to lay people as to professionals, and his sales reflected this. All but two of his 12 titles have remained in print, of which the most notable were The Dynamics Of Creation (1972), Jung (1973), The Art Of Psychotherapy (1979), Solitude (1989), Freud (1989), his favourite, Music And The Mind (1993), and Feet Of Clay (1996). Storr’s books were translated into 24 languages, including Korean and Malaysian, and he was especially charmed when Solitude was translated into Chinese for the republic of Inner Mongolia.

Dr. Storr died in 2001.

Used hardbound and paperback editions of Feet of Clay are available on Amazon.com

SEPTEMBER BOOK CLUB SELECTION

THE STILLBORN GOD: RELIGION, POLITICS, AND THE MODERN WEST

by Mark Lilla

Religious passions are again driving world politics. The quest to bring political life under God's authority has been revived, confounding expectations of a secular future. In this major book, Mark Lilla reveals the sources of this age-old quest -- and its surprising role in shaping Western thought.

The story could not be more timely. Most civilizations in history have been organized on the basis of a political theology -- a myth or revelation about the correct ordering of society. Yet due to a crisis in Western Christendom nearly 500 years ago, a novel intellectual challenge to political theology arose in Europe. By portraying religion as an expression of human nature, not a divine gift, modern Western thinkers found a way to free politics from God's authority and build barriers against destructive religious passions.

But the temptations of political theology are always present, even in the West. As Lilla vividly shows, the urge to reconnect politics to religion remained strong and took novel forms in modern European thought. By the Second World War a forceful political messianism had arisen, justifying the most deadly ideologies of the age.

Making us question what we thought we knew about religion, politics, and the fate of civilizations, Lilla reminds us of the modern West's unique trajectory and what is required to remain on it.

REVIEWS:

"Mark Lilla is a master of the history of ideas. The Stillborn God is a study of the relation of religion to politics, as to which has the highest authority. The Enlightenment tradition posited a great separation between the two, but that liberal view has come under repeated challenge over the centuries. Lilla follows this story with lucidity and elegance, and his conclusions challenge many of our assumptions about the modern world. The Stillborn God will be a landmark in political philosophy."

-- Daniel Bell, Henry Ford Professor of Social Sciences Emeritus, Harvard University

"Mark Lilla's elegant and erudite book is a masterwork of modern secularism. Like all the greatest secularists, Lilla is mesmerized by religion, and cannot live with it or without it. The Stillborn God is a history of ideas haunted by the consequences of ideas, a cautionary tale about philosophy in the world. And in our God-addled age, this rich and lucid study of theology and politics is even a public service."

-- Leon Wieseltier, an American writer, critic, and literary editor of the magazine, The New Republic

"The Stillborn God is a profound meditation on our contemporary condition, offering hope guided by wisdom."

-- Alan Wolfe, Director of the Boisi Center for Religion and American Public Life, Boston College

Buy used copies of The Stillborn God: Religion, Politics, and the Modern West for as low as $0.87 on Amazon.Com

AUGUST BOOK CLUB SELECTION

Thursday, August 19, 2010 at 7:00 PM

THE CORPORATION: THE PATHOLOGICAL PURSUIT OF PROFIT AND POWER

by Joel Bakan

Eminent Canadian law professor and legal theorist Joel Bakan contends the modern business corporation is created by law to function like a psychopathic personality. The book was written during the making of THE CORPORATION (co-created with Mark Achbar) and formed the basis of the research and writing for the film.

Beginning with its origins in the sixteenth century, Bakan traces the corporation's rise to dominance. In what Simon and Schuster describes as "the most revolutionary assessment of the corporation since Peter Drucker's early works", The Corporation makes the following claims:

•    Corporations are required by law to elevate their own interests above those of others, making them prone to prey upon and exploit others without regard for legal rules or moral limits.

•    Corporate social responsibility, though sometimes yielding positive results, most often serves to mask the corporation's true character, not to change it.

•    The corporation's unbridled self interest victimizes individuals, the environment, and even shareholders, and can cause corporations to self-destruct, as recent Wall Street scandals reveal.

•    Despite its flawed character, governments have freed the corporation from legal constraints through deregulation, and granted it ever greater power over society through privatization.

Bakan urges restoration of the corporation's original purpose, to serve the public interest, and calls for re-establishment of democratic control over the institution. Concrete, pragmatic, and realistic reforms are proposed. A groundbreaking book filled with big ideas and fascinating stories, The Corporation is original, provocative and informative.

REVIEWS

"This fine book was virtually begging to be written. With lucidity and verve, expert knowledge and incisive analysis, Joel Bakan unveils the history and the character of a devilish instrument that has been created and is nurtured by powerful modern states. They have endowed their creature with the rights of persons -- and by now, rights far exceeding persons of flesh and blood -- but a person that is pathological by nature and by law, and systematically crushes democracy, freedom, rights, and the natural human instincts on which a decent life and even human survival depends: the modern corporation. This incisive study should be read carefully, and pondered. And it should be a stimulus to constructive action -- not at all beyond our means, as the author outlines."

-- Noam Chomsky , Ph.D., Professor of linguistics, MIT

"Bakan's "The Corporation" is one of those rare books that opens up a new world. It's message is compelling-- and more important now than ever. With exquisite historical evocations and incisive contemporary examples, the author challenges us to recognize the flaws inherent in the very nature of the corporation and the practical possibilities for reform. You will want to have the book at hand for frequent reference for many years to come."

-- Robert Monks, deputy chairman of Hermes Focus Asset Management and corporate governance advisor

JULY BOOK CLUB SELECTION

Thursday, July 15, 2010 at 7:00 PM

Salvation Boulevard

by Larry Beinhart

From the Edgar Award-winning novelist and author of Wag the Dog and The Librarian comes a new mystery novel about a private investigator and a case that tests his courage, character and soul. The victim is an atheist professor, the main suspect—who has confessed and is in custody—a Muslim foreign student, the defense attorney a Jew and the detective a born-again Christian.

As P.I. Carl Van Wagener gets deeper and deeper into the investigation of the death of Professor Nathaniel MacLeod, his most basic beliefs and relationships are tried and his world is turned upside down.

Salvation Boulevard is a page-turning thriller in the tradition of John Grisham and Richard Condon that grapples with the ecstatic and entropic nature of religious faith in contemporary America.

"In Orwellian times, fiction is often the only way to get the truth out. We are approaching such times in the United States, and Larry Beinhart masterfully alerts us to what depths our government has sunk. Salvation Boulevard is a quick paced and heart wrenching call to arms against the excesses our government has foisted upon 'we the people.'" —Ambassador Joseph Wilson

About the author:

Larry Beinhart is an award-winning novelist who lives in Woodstock, New York. He is the author of Wag the Dog and last year's acclaimed novel The Librarian. His articles have appeared in The New York Times, the International Herald Tribune, The Washington Post, The Baltimore Sun, The Chicago Tribune and the Los Angeles Times. He was the Raymond Chandler Fulbright Scholar at Oxford University. He is a regularly featured blogger on The Huffington Post. He currently lives in Woodstock, New York with his wife and two children.

JUNE BOOK CLUB SELECTION

by Sir Alan Bullock

Vice Chancellor of Oxford University and a Fellow of the British Academy

Humanism is universally recognized as one of the most basic concepts in the development of Western civilization, and yet the meaning of the term itself is far from clear. By following an historical rather than an analytical approach, the author demonstrates that it is possible to make sense of the different meanings which have been attributed to humanism, and to place them within a coherent framework.

The book begins with the Renaissance, showing through the work of several key figures how the rediscovery of the artistic glories and the scientific and philosophical achievements of ancient Greece and Rome led to an intellectual and artistic reaffirmation of the importance of humankind.

The author next analyzes the 18th century Enlightenment, again as expressed by the most significant writers, scientists, artists and philosophers of the period. The third chapter is devoted to the 19th century, characterized by the impact of the Industrial Revolution, by advances in science and economic theory, by neoclassicism and romanticism in the arts, and by rival versions of the humanist tradition.

Building on this historical foundation, Bullock goes on to identify the elements of a new humanism in the 20th century before the crisis which threatened to overwhelm it between 1933 and 1945. In his final chapter he examines possible answers to the question, "Has humanism a future?"

MAY BOOK CLUB SELECTION

Thursday, May 27, 2010 at 7:00 PM

Elmer Gantry

by Sinclair Lewis

Sinclair Lewis’s Elmer Gantry (New York, 1927) is a ferocious satire against Protestant fundamentalist religion in the American Midwest. It tells the story of a hypocritical, corrupt, but very successful preacher named Elmer Gantry. Elmer starts his career as a Baptist and then joins up with a charismatic but equally unprincipled female revivalist preacher. After her death, he joins the Methodist Church. Amoral and relentlessly ambitious, Elmer builds a statewide and national reputation as a fiery preacher who never tires of denouncing vice, while at the same time feeling no need to curb his own vices, particularly adultery.

Besides being an effective satire targeted against religious hypocrisy, Elmer Gantry provides insight into the clash of cultural forces in America in the 1920s. During this period, traditional religious believers were deeply disturbed by the encroachments made on faith by science and secularism. They also decried the growth within the church of the “higher criticism,” that sought to understand the Bible based on modern methods of scholarship.

On publication, Elmer Gantry had a sensational reception. So scandalous was Lewis’s portrayal of religion that the novel was banned in several cities and denounced from pulpits across the nation. The famous evangelist Billy Sunday called Lewis “Satan’s cohort.”

Over seventy-five years after it first appeared, Elmer Gantry still has power to shock as well as amuse.

[This is the novel upon which the Academy-award winning film "Elmer Gantry" (starring Burt Lancaster) was based]

APRIL BOOK CLUB SELECTION

Thursday, April 15, 2010 at 7:00 PM

Idiot America: How Stupidity Became a Virtue in the Land of the Free

By Charles P. Pierce

Charles Pierce’s Idiot America is a lively and, dare I say, intelligent study of this ongoing assault on gray matter. “We’ve chosen up sides on everything,” he asserts, “fashioning our public lives as though we were making up a fantasy baseball team.” This new civil war almost always boils down to a clash between intellect and feeling, or what Mr. Pierce labels the Gut. “The Gut is a moron, as anyone who’s ever tossed a golf club, punched a wall, or kicked a lawn mower knows,” he writes. “The Gut is the roiling repository of dark and ancient fears.” The problem is, it currently has a stranglehold on a hefty slice of our major media—talk radio—as well as that traveling circus known as the G.O.P.

People who believe that the educated intellect should guide public policy are liable to rely on facts, science and logic as their weapons of choice. Their general is James Madison, who, according to Mr. Pierce, “considered self-government no less a science than botany. It required an informed and educated and enlightened populace, or else all the delicate mechanisms of the system would come apart.” Team Gut, however, relies on bluster, superstition and bullying to wage its campaigns. Its field commanders are broadcasters like Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh, who deploy a battle plan Mr. Pierce calls the “Three Great Premises of Idiot America.” The first of these states that a theory need only sell books or elevate ratings in order to be deemed valid. The second maintains that “anything can be true if someone says it loudly enough.” And finally, a fact is defined as “that which enough people believe. Truth is determined by how fervently they believe it.”

MARCH BOOK CLUB SELECTION

by Chalmers Johnson

A staggering tale of American hubris and self-destruction

In Nemesis, the third installment in his “Blowback” trilogy, Chalmers Johnson analyzes U.S. imperial overreach and the threat it poses to the republic — to our very democracy. He offers a striking description of the trap that the grandiose dreams of America’s leaders have led us into. Drawing comparisons to the Roman and British empires, Johnson explores in vivid detail the likely unintended consequences of our dependence on a permanent war economy. What does it mean when a nation’s main intelligence organization becomes the president's private army? Or when the globe's sole hyperpower, no longer capable of paying for the vaulting ambitions of its leaders, becomes the greatest hyper-debtor of all time? Or when dreams of domination take off for the heavens?

A staggering tale of American hubris, Nemesis details the world of secrecy surrounding Capitol Hill from government-sanctioned domestic spying, to unacknowledged CIA prisons, to the dubious budgeting to back it all up. Johnson documents the crippling militarism that has left what was once the greatest industrial power in the world producing mainly weaponry and the corruption of a toothless Congress that is undermining checks and balances so crucial to American democracy. In his stunning conclusion, Johnson suggests that a coming financial bankruptcy could herald the breakdown of constitutional government in America — a crisis that may ultimately prove to be the only path to a renewed nation.

Bill Moyers: “There's one book in particular I would put in everybody's stocking if I could. It's not new - it was actually published three years ago. But I read it again this month, and found its message more relevant than ever. This is it: NEMESIS: THE LAST DAYS OF THE AMERICAN REPUBLIC.”

FEBRUARY BOOK CLUB SELECTION

Thursday, February 18, 2010 at 7:00 PM

by Lewis Carroll; edited by Martin Gardner

"Clarkson Potter published The Annotated Alice in 1960, and Gardner published the sequel More Annotated Alice in 1990. Here, Gardner combines and expands both to produce The Definitive Edition. This presents the full texts of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Through the Looking-Glass, and "The Wasp in a Wig," a "suppressed" chapter of Looking-Glass. Each of these texts is accompanied by a lengthy marginal commentary that identifies historical and literary references and allusions, explains Carroll's logical and mathematical puzzles, and interprets colloquialisms and idiomatic expressions. Gardner's commentary is sufficiently detailed to be informative without burdening Alice with excessive pedantic baggage. The Definitive Edition also includes Tenniel's original illustrations and an exhaustive annotated list by David Shaefer of Alice on the screen. This is a happy contribution to those who appreciate Lewis Carroll."

-Thomas L. Cooksey, Armstrong State Coll., Savannah, GA

JANUARY BOOK CLUB SELECTION

God is Not Great:  How Religion Poisons Everything

by Christopher Hitchens