Guarded by Mystery: Meaning in a Postmodern Age Critique - Book Report/Review Example

Critical Analysis of Walsh's: Guarded by Mystery: Meaning in a Postmodern Age Book Review Critical Analysis of Walsh's: Guarded by Mystery: Meaning in a Postmodern Age Guarded by Mystery: Meaning in a Postmodern Age is a book written by David Walsh in 1950 and was written in English. The book was published by Catholic University of America press in the year 1999 in Washington D.C. The author, David Walsh was a politics professor at the Catholic University of America. Additionally, he was an expert writer who wrote various works that includes; The Growth of the Liberal Soul, After Ideology: Recovering the Spiritual Foundations of Freedom, and The Third Millennium. From the above works, David proved to be a very good author because he produced quality work that impressed many individuals. In the book, Guarded by Mystery: Meaning in a Postmodern Age, his work is considered to be an apologia about the reality of God. Furthermore, it also illustrates God’ grounding of the existence of human beings on both the socio-political and personal levels to justify in a period of postmodern. The book largely reveals an era of a great interest in spirituality. Most productions of music, books and paraphernalia support ways of spirit thus striking phenomenon. According to research, people have come to admit that the authority of science and rational thought are not enough proof to the sense of life. The research therefore has always been continuous. According to the research findings, fundamentalist and evangelical churches are the most growing churches worldwide. The main reason behind this growth is due to failure of the current forms of life. The current cultures have technical prowess and are experienced as void of confusion and misery. The only way of survival as elaborated in the book, is to leap over the whole perspective of modernism in order to identify oneself in a secure place filled with divinely revealed faith. According to the Author’s argument, the difficulty of dealing with such a situation is the fact that neither olden time religions nor the present time religions have successfully enable people to leap out of today’s world. However, the book, Guarded by Mystery: Meaning in a Postmodern Age, talks about the means of discovering a way in order to link the rational order of the modern world and a spirituality pointing ahead of it. The text is also regarded to be a current meditation on a matter that has been disturbing the condition of human beings for quite a while. The book was mainly likely meant for all individuals whom have always been confused by the disconnection between two confusing worlds that they live in. David describes how their knowledge of spiritual sincerity is very important in the modern world. He further explains how the world itself is dependent on the foundation of spiritual illumination that they had made within themselves. In the book, Guarded by Mystery, David tries to present a meaning to the post modern period. He also presents hope in a world full of hopelessness and relativism and, further claims that that is not all that is present in life. Additionally, he explained that there is something unique beyond life that humans look for and strive to achieve. David therefore presents a good summary of the post-modern thought by illustrating that there are a lot of things beside what is observed in the world. This book is interesting and very pleasant to read hence, is recommended to anybody. According to my view, it seems the book was written for the postmodern thinkers though it includes everyone. It is very important and useful for individuals who search for the real meaning of life. The book is well written regarding how the author places things in their perspective and makes them applicable to daily life. The author appears to be repetitive in his work. However, in every part repeated, the idea is approached from a dissimilar angle in order to make his point clearer. Considering the illustrations, descriptions and explanations of David throughout his book, I can say that the main topic being discussed throughout the book is transcendence. This is because, human beings are directed towards something beyond their life, something considered much greater than them. This thing therefore, is the only thing that differentiates human beings from animals. Consequently, these differences and uniqueness of human beings raises the questions about what the differences are and what they really mean. David stated that there is something that makes us live and look ahead to the future (1). It is clear that every living thing observed by human beings has a beginning and an end according to their observation. Hence, Walsh explains that if death was the only thing to look forward to, there would be no reason to live. Though, we still have some reasons to continue living despite the fact that death is the main thing that awaits us. David, together with other Christians believes that this encouragement and motivation is the hope people have in life after death. The inspiration therefore, makes people to continue living despite of the challenges and difficulties they may encounter (1). David’s also confirmed that our lives appear to be a wide preparation for something unknown. The thing we seem to be preparing for is also considered great than anything that human being has ever seen or experienced (1). Suppose this kind of belief, of preparation, did not exist, again, there would be no good reason or encouragement to life according to Walsh. He further explains that there are several great things and experiences being encountered in life though they all come to an end. Therefore, he explains that there might be something much greater than those experienced in life that humans look forward to and also that inspires them to continue living. Walsh stated that, “The complexity is the fact that meaning is always ahead of us; if not, we find that it is below our real objectives as human beings” (19). This statement explains the reason why we continue to live searching for the meaning. We can only find the meaning when we live because it is beyond us according to the statement. In case the meaning was not ahead, there would be reason or motivation of living in order to search for it. David tries to illustrate that the search for meaning, is the main thing that makes life meaningful (p.12). In addition, the search for meaning gives each and every person a great reason to live (12). It also encourages us to look forward to the future and motivates us to try and make good out of the life. The experiences one meets in life enables him to realize who he really is and the reason why he exists. This, enables him to look himself and beyond him towards the transcendent. This strategy explains that one is not complete as long as he continues living on earth. However, this kind of life involves search, change and improvement from stage to stage (10). This can be explained best from a statement in the book that explains that what we want to be and how we intend to accomplish it becomes apparent if we decide to follow the promptings within us. Change is one of the important things that take part in human’s lives. Change of perspective makes the biggest difference in beings. Change of perspective is greater because it enables one to analyze the world in a different manner and point of view. This helps one in seeing forward and makes him strive for the transcendent after realizing its importance (p.3). The most important thing to realize is that the perspective of life changes throughout the life journey. Besides seeking to know the meaning and life beyond them, humans also seek to know the truth. In the struggle to seek the truth, they are faced with various challenges and difficulties. For instance, Walsh explains that in life, one is free to follow the principles of his choice but he is not free to think after choosing them. However, he can change his principles later when the principles are contradictory to his experiences. The book also reveals human beings as a part of a community, apart from being individuals who quest for meaning, truth and life beyond. David explains that all human beings share something in common. They are similar in appearance, are directed toward the same direction and originated from the same foundation which is believed to be God. The source from which they originate is not clearly comprehendible to them thus giving them a clear reason to seek it even though they do not know it. Due to the uniqueness of our origin, we believe that God, who is the reason behind our existance, is much greater than us and that He is the truth that we all seek (p.8). He is therefore the source of moral order, meaning that there is only one absolute truth as illustrated in David’s statement that the moral direction is suspected not to be one option (p.9). Furthermore, he explains that missing the truth means missing the point. Hence, missing the truth complicates the life of humans since the truth gives us meaning and purpose to live. The truth makes us become complete human beings according to the author’s argument. He also illustrates that we are not forced to seek reality since we have a right to do our will. Regarding the moral order, Walsh explains that moral order directs us and it also makes us free (p.22). He explains that we are being directed heading to what is beyond us and beyond what is in life. The truth however is the key player in our lives that pulls the heart as we detect that it is something very important in our lives. From Walsh point of view, humans are not free in making decisions. This is because he claims that people’s lives would have no meaning, and humanity would end if they were free from decision making and from responsibility. Similarly, he explained that in case we knew everything about life and humans, we would cease to have freedom since the search ends with it (p.11). Walsh’s analogy on human freedom is very interesting as he correlate our freedom in life towards time. He stated that, “similar to a clock, the means of evaluating, separating and using time, gave us power over time, so that in turn, became a control standing over and influencing the manner in which we should live (p.14). Thus, in order to utilize time, we have to conform to time” he related this to the moral order which is created by God. The information reveals that God gives freedom to beings in order to choose the right from the wrong. The book also speaks about technology, that today; technology is highly increasing therefore, preoccupying most individual’s minds. This confuses the world because it creates a false sense of meaning. It also gives us no sense of searching for meaning making it difficult to penetrate through our hearts. In order for the meaning to be present in our lives, we need to open our hearts but due to false cases of technology, this will definitely be ruined (p.123). Walsh explained that even though technology is considered important, it is a product of human work. Therefore, no matter how hard we try to make more technological gadgets and machines to make work easier, none of them can be compared to human beings (p.17). Meaning, no machine can be made to replace beings. Even though we struggle to create human-like machines, our mission will never be accomplished according to David. He elaborated that if we could be created, our existence would be useless because there would be no difference between the created objects and us. This fact gives man dignity because he will never be related to his creation thus making him a superior to his creation. More importantly, Walsh explained that even though human beings are the same, and originates from the same source, they have different characters and qualities. Therefore, no one can claim that he knows the other completely since there is more about each person than can be observed. Additionally, human beings are constantly changing and are capable of transforming from what they are. For instance, in some situations where one is expected to make a choice, he can either choose evil or good. David explains that human beings are greater than what they do, greater than their actions (p.29). He says that this is a fact because we can always reverse our actions. According to Walsh, we do realize that life is not what we see but there is more behind it and we can discover this because we already knew it. There is nothing on the earth’s surface that can direct us towards what is beyond life according to Walsh argument. However, he explains that the desire to know what is beyond us is what represents us towards transcendent (p.76). Walsh mainly presents his book; Guarded by Mystery to a period when many people had lost their hope in humanity and were eagerly seeking to understand the meaning of life. This book hence, gives hope to such people through God, Christianity and through the transcendent. Work cited Walsh, David. Guarded by Mystery. Catholic Univ of Amer Press, 1999. Print. Read More