© 1997 Meredith Sprunger
© 1997 The Christian Fellowship of Students of The Urantia Book
| Significant Books: The Real Jesus by Luke Timothy Johnson | Spring 1997 — Index | Sermon: Recognizing the Goodness of God |
Eric Fellman
Haper, SanFrancisco, 1996, 237 pp.
Eric Fellman worked with Norman Vincent Peale in the nine years before his death as editor-in-chief at the Peale Center for Christian Living. In 1992 he was named President and CEO of the Peale Center. Dr. Peale’s book The Power of Positive Thinking sold more than twenty-five million copies worldwide and popularized the importance of positive thinking in all areas of life.
In this book Fellman points to spiritual resources as the key to the effectiveness of positive thinking. “Through the years many people have copied and expanded on Dr. Peale’s techniques, often leaving his spiritual emphasis out of their work,” Fellman observes. “But Dr. Peale was convinced, and he convinced me, that no amount of selfbelief, self-talk, attitude adjustment, or other technique, can be of lasting benefit unless a person understands and maximizes the spiritual element that stands behind the technique.” (p. 1)
“The failure to pursue spiritual potential in this country is grounded in the unique American confusion of the word spiritual with the word religious…But religion is not spirituality. Simply defined, spirituality concerns matters of the spirit; it describes the inevitable search all human beings undertake to answer their questions about a Supreme Being or Higher Power…Religion on the other hand, is any person-made system that defines a particular method of conducting that search. Spirituality is based on our innate longing, while religion is based on rules and regulations set out to define (and sometimes control) that longing.” (p. 11)
Fellman builds a basic life pyramid of key spiritual values that are simple to ennumerate, such as faith, hope, and love, but are often difficult to actualize. The cornerstones of this pyramid are simplicity, inner quality, and divinity. The superstructure involves building belief into faith, optimism into hope, and kindness into love. Building on this framework we can strengthen the mental, emotional, and physical aspects of our personality structure. Using imagination and imaging, we can master our minds by the power of spiritual reality and grow through focus and commitment to these values in the actualization of service.
I found Eric Fellman’s presentation of these classic spiritual disciplines to be interesting and insightful, and the life-situations he uses to illustrate these techniques of spiritual growth are stimulating and inspiring.
| Significant Books: The Real Jesus by Luke Timothy Johnson | Spring 1997 — Index | Sermon: Recognizing the Goodness of God |