Friends in High Places

Book excerpt: In Friends in High Places, historical theologian Tom Shepherd takes you journeying through time to meet your long-lost relatives of the Western religious heritage. Mystics like Pseudo-Dionysius, John Scotus Erigena, Meister Eckhart and the first Quaker, George Fox. Deep thinkers like Philo Judaeus, Origen of Alexandria and pagan martyr Hypatia. Sunny optimists like Pelagius, who lost his argument with St. Augustine over the goodness of humanity only after the fall of Rome rattled the ancient world and made positive thinking seem positively naïve. Shepherd introduces an impressive entourage of mystics and metaphysical thinkers--to include Ralph Waldo Emerson, Mary Baker Eddy, Emma Curtis Hopkins, Paul Tillich, and Teilhard de Chardin--and gives the reader a taste of their writings. Just a sampler, not a full course meal. You'll find such delight in these brief profiles, you'll come away refreshed and ready to tackle life in the modern world.