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 enlarge | Author: Deepak Chopra
Publisher: Harmony
Category: Book
List Price: $24.00
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Rating:  86 reviews
Sales Rank: 1035
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 256
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.2
Dimensions (in): 9.6 x 6.6 x 1.2
ISBN: 0307338312
Dewey Decimal Number: 232
EAN: 9780307338310
ASIN: 0307338312
Publication Date: February 19, 2008
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| Customer Reviews:
 Have It Your Way May 18, 2008
29 out of 32 found this review helpful
Having grown up with a Protestant Christian background but having also expanded my viewpoint of Christianity to what some might call a more gnostic approach (I prefer not to label my spiritual leanings), I was intrigued by this new title from Deepak Chopra. I sensed that his discussion would be a blend of East meets West, and I was correct. I was particularly attracted by the subtitle, "The Christ We Cannot Ignore", as I thought it might introduce some new perspective based on his original thought processes. Although it is a compelling subtitle, I did not really find that theme explored in any way I was not already familiar with.
I am always interested in ideas that reference the early gnostic Christians and the documents known as the Nag Hamadi Library. The author uses many references to the Gospel of Thomas, which is part of the Nag Hamadi collection dating from 390 AD. After a discussion about the history and nature of gnosticism (or what is known about it based on the discovery of these ancient texts) he concludes at the end of the chapter titled "I am the Light" that "In the gospels themselves lie the materials for an inner journey that will be richer than anything offered by the Gnostics."
Having several Fundamentalist siblings I also realize that his arguments would not find an audience with them, partly because he makes liberal use of the Gospel of Thomas, which they do not consider part of the teachings of Jesus, and also because he makes conjectures about the meaning of scripture based on his own ideas and spiritual insight.
Let me say that I agree with his approach. I believe everyone needs to wake up and discern spiritual truth for themselves. Yet I know from personal experience that his message is unlikely to find receptive audiences among traditional Christians, who seem absolutely convinced that the only spiritual information given to us was in ancient times, never to be modified,updated or clarified by others who may be equally as receptive of spirit as those who first penned the ancient writings. And yet the subtitle suggested, at least to me, that this book might be able to do just that.
For those who have been on an independent spiritual path, or involved with the teachings of the Unity Church or the clairvoyant readings of Edgar Cayce, the ideas in this book will not be new, but the reader will find support for his or her own views in the author's presentation.
I was surprised to find that Deepak had a rather eclectic religious background, with considerable exposure to Christianity during his childhood in India. This lends him credibility but as I said already, his approach will most likely find receptive minds only among those who are already exploring spirituality outside the boundaries of traditional Christianity.
The first half of the book provides quotes from the New Testament and the Gospel of Thomas, along with his ideas about the meaning of the verses presented. His references mix it up, using the Gospel of Thomas freely, as if its authority is as widely accepted as the rest of the New Testament. While scholars have agreed that this may be the only book of either the Nag Hamadi collection or the Dead Sea scrolls that nearly made it into the canonical Bible, it is not accepted by many people, particularly the traditionalists I have described above. In my opinion, these are the very people who should be the ones "The Christ We Cannot Ignore" is targeting its message toward.
I enjoyed the second half of the book the most, in which he expounded on his own ideas about how to apply the teachings of Jesus, and upon the implications of repressed feeling and the damaging effect many Christian emotional archetypes produce. In fact I strongly related to it.
I found this book to be an interesting discussion of Christianity and the teachings of Jesus, yet at times a bit tedious. That said, as another voice that speaks out to show Jesus as a mystical and enlightened spiritual master, I applaud Deepak's effort. He has obviously done a lot of research, whether or not you agree with his conclusions.
Moonstone Star White is the author of High Way from Hell: Using Emotion to Fan the Fire of Enlightment.
 Jesus misrepresented again... May 15, 2008
9 out of 49 found this review helpful
I find it disturbing and ironic that Chopra uses the name of Jesus to sell books and completely ignorantly misrepresent Christianity. From what I can gather Chopra holds the beliefs that there is no "one" truth and a bunch of other mumbo jumbo. In that case, then how can he think that believing in everything is the "one" truth. This thinking completely contradicts itself. It is self refuting and not logical thought. All religions contradict each other. Either "one" religion/truth is correct, or "all" are wrong. There is no middle ground.
Jesus was and is a real person - all man and all God. He came to save us from our sin because he loves us. The hundreds of eye witnesses in the book of Acts saw first hand that Jesus was crucified and did indeed rise from the dead. There are thousands of ancient bible manuscripts that have been compared to each other and to our modern day translated bibles which hold to be 99% accurate. If you are willing to do the research, I would suggest buying "The Case for Christianity" by Lee Strobel, a former atheist.
OH COME ON.... May 12, 2008
5 out of 53 found this review helpful
Chopra writing a book about Jesus and the Bible would be like me writing a book about Buddism, Hunduism, or dare I say, the caste system in India. Come on people, look a little deeper and you will see they are both utterly ridiculous.
 Nothing new here . . . April 28, 2008
4 out of 18 found this review helpful
I didn't find anything new or revolutionary in this book that I've not read elsewhere over the years, although in the last chapter I did find one thing I wasn't expecting . . . Liberty University is churning out Evangelical lawyers who are getting absorbed into the Bush administration. This wasn't news either, but I was pleasantly surprised to see it written within the context of this book. While it may be closing the barn door a little late, this is surely something we should all be paying attention to! I applaud Chopra for including this in the book.
Offensive Christian Bashing April 28, 2008
25 out of 86 found this review helpful
Bullying is defined by the victim and never by the bully. So, please, do not rate or comment on this review unless you are a "born-again" Christian who reads the Bible daily, attends church weekly, and have baptized your family and at least two others (as Abraham was expecting from Lot) - or - you want to leave your condolences and apologize. If you're not a Christian, then this book is not a direct insult to you and you should keep silent (if you have any manners). Not that I expect it - I see anyone who dares post a one star rating gets an overwhelming "not helpful" rating with many just told Christians all look alike, they deserve the beating, and just to lie back, open up, and enjoy it - how typical!
To deconstruct Christianity, Chopra finds it necessary to undermine the credibility of the Gospels but then somehow turns around to use those same "unreliable" Gospels (quoting Matthew 42 times, Luke 28 times, John 27 times, and Mark 5 times) to create his hot-off-the-presses brand new Jesus. His resulting "Third" Jesus is really the "kidnapped" Jesus, just a figment of a small imagination, for which there is no evidence. "So unknown that even the most devout Christians don't expect he exists," states the book, until, that is, Chopra made him up. Chopra does not in any way set out to tell the facts of a life but only to convert unbelievers to his own divinity. He claims that a self-seeking Catholic Church invented Christ, but his greatest well of evidence is one already heavily used this days by the new age movement: "I said to myself." Concerning his motives: He's just wants blood for the psychopathic pleasure of a paying audience. He's the type who'll gladly charge $25,000 for a lecture on the ill effects on materialism and then drive his green Jaguar back to his $2.5 million house in La Jolla, CA. No divinity or messiah here (just an old fashioned lynching - it's not the first time Jesus has been hung from a tree) and his latest "I am" isn't!
While this newer and much smaller Jesus (as Chopra always has been) seems easy to ignore, he (and he) shouldn't be. If the same statements, so blinded by hate, envy, and a new age "light" where only wholly supportive reviews are permitted validation were made about any other race, minority, or religion, the person (and any follower) making them would be correctly branded as a narrow-minded, bigoted, hate monger while figuratively stoned in the mainstream media. But, picking on Christianity has unfortunately become a safe target for any kind of abuse these days. Chopra claims Christians are "people who hate" and have "made a lie of Jesus's (sic) promises." Chopra's (and his fan's) intolerance and laughable poor reasoning are no new consciousness... in fact, nothing new at all.
Chopra once claimed on Larry King after the 2004 Tsunami there's evidence the Earth is a living being (even though its creator is not) that speaks a secret language. Then, Chopra made the miraculous claim that no animals anywhere were harmed (here are three official quotes for anyone who is not already laughing: "thousands of dead animals - the smell is overwhelming," "there are tens of thousands of dead animals," "the human bodies are mixed in with dead animals like dogs, fish, cats, and goats") due to a connection to the Earth's language and stated 230,000 people died only because man had lost this consciousness. Doesn't he have this connection - why didn't he warn us? What, no profit or truth in it?
As a doctor (BTW, if Indian Ayurveda and TM are such miraculous cures against aging and the American lifestyle is so unhealthy, why do Americans live 10 years longer than Indians whose country is rated 134th in overall health by the WHO?), he has often been criticized for displaying a severe lack of understanding of genetics and neurology while still willing to state opinions in such areas (much like his willingness to translate the Bible despite admitting he doesn't understand it). The criticisms of his pseudoscience medical advice by mainstream professionals became so great 15 years ago that Chopra tried suing the editor of the Journal of the American Medical Association and the AMA for $194 million (who knows how this number was calculated), but the suit was dismissed. Then in 1998, Chopra was awarded the satirical lg Nobel Prize in physics for "his unique interpretation of quantum physics as it applies to life, liberty, and the pursuit of economic happiness." Well, I also used to be greatly amused by Chopra - he was always good for a few laughs. But, after reading this book, I'm not laughing any more.
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