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Carregando... Daoism: A Beginner's Guide (Beginner's Guides)de James Miller
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From T'ai Chi to the Ming Dynasty, this is an engrossing guide to the elusive Chinese tradition of Daoism. Spanning the centuries and crossing the globe, this engaging introduction covers everything Daoist, from the religion of the ancients to 21st century T'ai Chi and meditation. Complete with a timeline of Daoist history and a full glossary, Daoism: A Beginner's Guide will prove invaluable not only to students, but also to general readers who wish to learn more about the origins and nature of a profound tradition, and about its role and relevance in our fast-moving 21st century existence. Não foram encontradas descrições de bibliotecas. |
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Google Books — Carregando... GênerosClassificação decimal de Dewey (CDD)299.514Religions Other Religions By Region/Civilization Of Asian Origin Religions of Chinese Origin TaoismClassificação da Biblioteca do Congresso dos E.U.A. (LCC)AvaliaçãoMédia:
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The book is marred by a number of faults.
1. the author doesn't understand Daoism at all. Reading this book is rather like reading a cookery book consisting of recipes for meat dishes only, written by a life-long vegetarian.
2. The author displays a crashing lack of discrimination, seemingly unable to distinguish between real Daoist practices and the New Age bullshit sold by enterprising Asians to gullible Americans, proving the old adage that there's one born every minute.
3. The text is marred by the really annoying habit academics have of putting bizarre citations in brackets. I mean, I can see the importance of attributing original ideas to those who originated them -credit given where credit due and all that- but when the idea being credited to someone else is of such asinine banality, of such generality as to be completely unremarkable, what's the point? Books are often made of paper (Blockhead 2001, p. 23).
4. By these methods the author fakes an objectivity which is entirely spurious. It gradually becomes clear that Miller is working under a religious outlook, rather than a secular one. For example, we have this sentence in which Miller slips in one of the favourite arguments used by proponents of Intelligent Design (an oxymoron if ever there was one): This principle of communication is perhaps an article of faith for Daoists in the same way that science is based on the faith that the world is fundamentally explainable. Sneaky huh? And then later we get this astounding comment:This view is largely a cultural by-product of modern individualism and the myth of the separation of church and state ..... wait a minute, the myth? The MYTH? Since when did it become a myth and not a principle, a reality?
Whether this religiosity is Miller's own distorted view, or whether this is just indicative of the general way discourse about Other thought systems has been corrupted by the dastardly rhetorical tricks of the American religious right, it's pretty damn stupid.
So, James Miller, big bitchslap from me on this one, yeah? Oh, and I want my four days back. ( )