Thomas Moore's "Dark Eros" has a clear agenda to achieve -- to show that Sade was a genius who saw the reality of the human mind and emotional needs. Unfortunately this agenda clouds his logic at times and limits the quotations and questions he addresses in his book. If you haven't read Sade yourself, please do so before you get this book then judge the comments and theories promoted in this book. This is not to say that Moore analysis is poor or completely incorrect, just that by being so focused on finding the genius in Sade and the sadism in everyday life he is blinded to historical and gender questions and evidence to answer these questions.

Over the years the Grand Marquis has been receiving a pretty bad rap. Has he been misunderstood? What Thomas Moore shows in this book is that without the dark side we would not have the bright side, the light. There is a purpose for the dark; it can be both instructive and healing. If you plan on reading anything by de Sade, read this book first. If you are a firm believer that everything is black or white, good or bad, this book might change the way you think. And isn't that what books are for?

For now, i would only like to thank you for your insight into the Marquis De Sade and i have not read the recommended book yet. Suffice it to say i was about to slip back into the depravity he has gifted us with. I am into bondage and sadomasochism and i've recently seen the movie "Quills". It gave me the thirst again....for the perversion and depravity of the mind...for the pain and the pleasure intermingled. I was searching for anything ABOUT the Marquis.....but i started to get drawn into the ones BY the Marquis. Until i saw your review, and i wanted to say thank you for that. Because, now i will start the research with the recommended book and post my review. I have a feeling you've helped me tremendously, how much you may never know.

The Soul of Sex is a wonderful follow up to Soul Mates. I am constantly amazed by Moore. How does a Catholic Priest have such good insight into the Inner Sanctum of relationships, when his own faith appears to distance itself from that? Whatever way he does it, Moore succeeds yet again.

This is not light reading but it does touch the parts that most other authors fail to reach. In this category I exclude the inspiring "THE Autobiography of Jesus of Nazareth..." by Richard Patton. Both these authors deal with taboo religious subjects in a seemingly unbiased fashion that illuminates without emotional persuasion (the touch-stone of many a great writer). It appears that Moore has 'discovered' Tantra which Patton has already gone into in some considerable depth. Am I wrong or are there more writers today dealing with profound paradox's? Where were the Deepak Chopra's and Richard Patton's twenty years ago? Moore works from within the 'system' yet clearly wants us to question it. I loved this book and would love to see the look on Moore's ecclesiastical colleagues when they see it. This is a great book for those times when you KNOW you are not going to be interrupted. It needs concentration but the journey is well worth it.

In "The Soul of Sex," Thomas Moore presents a view of human sexuality which transcends our narrow-minded Western tendencies to view it (and almost everything else) as either good or evil, black or white, right or wrong, sacred or profane. The Western world is slowly waking up to the realization that we cannot separate the body from the mind and the spirit. Our sexuality is tightly woven with all three, and cannot be dismissed and stuffed away under the guise of "morality" (as so many of our so-called "leaders" would have us do.) Sex is central to our being. Moore's belief that accepting, embracing and celebrating our sexuality can be accomplished without decending into the tawdry images of pornography was a revelation for me. However the book is difficult, sometimes rambling and a bit New Age-esque at times. It's best to read it one chapter at a time and allow the ideas and images to take root before reading further. "The Soul of Sex" has been very useful to me in my journey to overcome emotional and sexual problems resulting from a repressive, guilt- and shame-ridden Southern Baptist upbringing. I strongly recommend it to others who are likewise suffering, and anyone who simply wants to deepen their understanding of sex and soul.

Spiritual writers have always assumed we're trying to get to some loftier plane than this one, where there's lots of love but no sensuality. A sort of endless group hug, perhaps. Without entwining sex with its sentimental partner, love, this book examines the deeper meaning and life-affirming need behind our fascination with sex. Thomas Moore isn't the easiest writer to understand, I find I have to switch to some more lyrical level of my brain to follow him, but his elliptical style fits this subject well. And it's a hidden subject, one that vanishes if you look at it too directly. For all the joy and depth that sex brings to our lives, we treat it rather shoddily, plastering it with coyness, burying it in morality, or handing it off to biologists for dissection. The danger lies not in the concealment, for the elusiveness adds to the intrigue and mystery, but in thinking that we can separate sexuality and sensuality from the fabric of our lives.

The editors of this book add an interesting note at the end on the subject of the translation of the text. They point out that the sayings of Jesus contained in the book represent a 'paraphrase' since the principal of 'dynamic equivalence' was followed in producing their work. They do not seek a word-for-word translation but rather an overall meaning. Many scholars may be turned off by this approach.

The arguments for the existence of THE LOST GOSPEL Q put forth by Marcus Borg in the Preface are the most interesting and provocative part of this book. It is easy to understand why the work of the Jesus Seminar is challenged by skeptics. However, I do think it is important not to dismiss it too quickly before it receives the attention and scrutiny it deserves. THE LOST GOSPEL Q is a serious attempt to shed light on the historical Jesus.

This book is based on the theory that the Gospel of Mark was written before any of the other synoptic Gospels. The Gospels of Matthew and Luke were then written with the help of those from Mark and another unknown source which is called the Gospel Q. In 1838 a German noticed that there were many sayings of Jesus which were common to Matthew and Luke but not included in Mark. The Lost Gospel Q is comprised of these sayings. Adding fuel to the argument was the discovery in 1945 near the Upper Nile River in Egypt of a codex called the Gospel of Thomas. It contained 114 sayings of Jesus. Over one-third of these sayings were similar to those found in the Lost Gospel Q.

If you accept the idea of the probable existence of Q, then you can look forward to reading sayings of Jesus which were recorded and used by some of His earliest followers less than two decades after His death and resurrection.

Not to put the previous reviewer down, but which culture hasn't studied the constelations ("fixed stars") & plenets ("wandering stars") for centuries?

This is a great book. The wording is very practical and down to earth. The subject matter in most of these chapters is formidable (given the limited space), and allows dialog between the reader & writer. What I enjoyed the most was not the diversity that was braught to the book, but the depth of knowledge that was braught to it. The chapter written about Chinese "Five-Element" Astroloy was my favorite. For more info about "this stuff"; I recomend anything written by DEREK WALTERS.

Now if you'll me let complane (which is what most of the critiques on Amazon.com do), I'll share with you what I don't like about most practicing astrologers. Most people (including Fagan) try to dispute the validity of using one Zodiac over another (sidereal vs. tropical). But the fact is that some Zodiacs don't even use the ecliptic! Incuding Chinese astrology. Or the Nakshatras, which most western astrologers "throw in"! And this is my point, that these Zodiacs are a cration. Our creation! And that's what makes astrology valid! Remember Arroyo. Don't forget Arroyo. He said, "If astrology is in fact an emination of universal mind or 'Collective Unconscious' or anything like that, then instead of imposing foreign dogma on astrology, I would say, let us open our eyes to what astrology already is! Let's acknowledge its inherent, extremely sophisticated, psychological [soulful] dimentions. It's all there. It's a tremendous tool, a language of consciousness and inner experience... This is one reason why traditional astrology has become quite meaningless to many of us; the astrology has not for the most part evolved to keep pace with our growth [in] consciousness. And it's why every culture has it's own astrology-the consciousness of that culture determines what level of understanding they can have of astrology."

I really need to emphisise this feeling I have about these truths! It seems as though all we need to do is look up and astrology becomes valid, alive because we are!

For another "good read" try The Origin of The Zodiac by Rupert Gleadow.

This is a book about astrology from China, India and Tibet. I do not know of any other book in which there are so many different astrological techniques from the East. Everything is clearly explained. In this book, you will find the wisdom of the sages of the East who have spotted the stars and planets for centuries. Now you can learn about their insights.

I found this book absolutely fascinating. Very hard to put down as he methodically debunks all but a few popular procedures for people with heart problems. The author examines numerous, medically accepted treatments for ailing hearts, including: bypass surgery, angioplasty, treating high cholesterol, blood thinners, defribulation and others. He paints a picture of a greedy AMA and associated members of the medical fraternity. All but two of the medical procedures he reviews have sufficient clinical statistics to make them the treatment of choice for extending life. The two, blood thinners and defribulation are the only ones, he believes, that indeed are the best choice of treatment for the conditions given. He paints a picture of a medical establishment that is fooling the public and growing rich with unnecessary surgery or high priced medical treatments that are life threatening themselves.

A very sobering look at one of mankinds great killers that allows few patients to have all the information they need to make the proper decisions in life threatening situations. A picture of money grubbing medical professionals who cut and prescribe based on a robot like following of their medical professional society dogma.

I haven't been able to find any books rebutting Mr. Moores allegations. On the other hand, I have read many sad stories of the cost of treatment and deaths of many. I only hope one does not find themselves in one of these life threatening situations. Even your trusted medical professional may not have the information they need when you have a serious problem. A sorry state, if true.

There is probably no book more important in current literature than Mr. Moore's Book.

The fact that it is out of print tells a vast story about the forces at work.

Heart disease is still the number one killer -- about half of all Americans die from it. The orthodox truth about heart disease has changed but only slightly over the past twenty years -- the "truth" still is that heart disease is claimed to be caused by cholesterol that is too high, that the proper solution is eat a diet that is low in cholesterol, which means low on zero eggs and butter, and that only when people fail on this diet should they then consider going on to a life-time of the most profitable drugs in the history of pharmaceuticals -- a cholesterol-lowering drug. These drugs are currently selling at the rate of about $10 billion per year, and the recent government announcement that about 300% more people should be on these drugs adds to the importance of this subject.

Mr. Moore actually read the so-called scientific reports on which this vast deception is based -- the original reports of the Framingham Studies. These studies were very often falsely reported as finding that cholesterol in the diet caused cholesterol in the blood (Moore proved that these studies claimed the opposite, despite how they were publicized). These Framingham Sudies then "showed" that high cholesterol in the blood led to death by heart disease. Mr. Moore found, within the very reports used to support these false claims, the truth that has never been reported.

The current theory of heart disease, and certainly the entire methodology of treatment is a farce -- easily proven by looking at less than a dozen different facts that cannot be refuted.

Bypass surgery, currently on the hit list by the drug companies, was positioned as the last recourse for those who "failed" on the no-egg diet, and who didn't respond (as, of course, they would not) to the cholesterol-lowering drugs -- those who failed on these two early treatments would be caught in the safety net of bypass surgery.

Bypass surgery is also demolished in Moore's book, but who is reading?

Bypass surgery has been the most profitable surgery in the history of medicine.

Now that the drug companies have a new generation of cholesterol-lowering drugs, and are posed to collect money from more than 30 million Americans who have the "disease" of high cholesterol, the master planners can and will move bypass surgery out of the scene -- using up the money spent there for drugs.

If you are avoiding eggs and butter, then you have not read this book, and you have swallowed the lies put out with billions of dollars of false promotional claims.

Find and read a copy of this important Book.

William Roper's biography of Sir Thomas More provides an intimate account of More's life from his own son-in-law, who himself lived with the Saint for sixteen years. So, from this first-hand source of More's life comes an intimate, unique and fascinating narrative of the principle events of his life; but mostly, the events described begin shortly before his elevation to Lord Chancellor, so for anyone looking for insight on More's early life, this work is not the one. Although, on the other hand, for anyone seeking to find a dramatic account of More's tragic but heroic fate, or for anyone just looking to find a collective bevy of More's wise old sayings, Roper's work will be of inestimable value. The only drawbacks to Roper's biography is that it is short, lacks scholarship, and fails in general to surface a clear portrayal of Thomas More's life and overall character. Furthermore, with this in mind, it can easily be imagined how much more we would know of him if someone with much more depth and perspective as an author sought to comprise biography of Sir Thomas More instead. However, had Roper not written at all, it may equally be envisaged how much we would have lost More's life. So, in the end, Roper's work pays off for the details he provides, and for the fact that his familiarity with More engenders a certain level of confidence and reasonable reliability as a whole. William Roper's work is indispensable for anyone serious about the study of Sir Thomas More.

he did many differnt thing. but he is weak to god,and strong to society. so, he keep the relision and make the new society.

This is a rather short book. It gave a few insights here and there. Perhaps I didn't understand it as deeply as I should have, but I finished reading this book feeling a bit empty handed. Perhaps I read through it too quickly. Apparently, the publishers must have seen something about it that they thought worthy. As a book loving, yet frugal consumer, I would recommend borrowing this book from the library, if possible. Then, if you think it worthy of your possession, then you can buy it later.

Thomas Moore, better known for books such as 'Care of the Soul' and 'Soul Mates', compiled this brief collection of meditations, aptly entitled 'Meditations: On the Monk Who Dwells in Daily Life'. Most of us obviously do not live in monasteries; few of us even consider monastic spirituality or practice in our daily lives.

Moore was slated early for a life of reflection, but soured on religious practice and observance early. He entered a preparatory seminary at age 13 to become a priest, but found that the tendency toward authoritarianism was a bit too much (a common trait with prophets and saints throughout much of history).

'When I finally left the order, I left most of religion behind. I lived as an agnostic of sorts for a while. In my monastery days I had studied music seriously and had written and directed a considerable amount of music, and so, once out of the order, I planned on the life of an academic musician. Unexpectedly, my love of theology and religion stayed with me.'

Having put some distance between the formal structures and his own life, over time he has come to an important realisation.

'In my life now both the priesthood and the monastic life are made of subtle stuff--not literal ways of life, but possibilities powdered so finely that they have become values, nuances, styles, and elements of character giving my life a certain tone and colour.'

Moore's meditative reflections are each less than one page long, which make them ideal both for rapid study (recommended only if you're going to come back to them later) as well as for small, bite-sized meditative morsels to slowly appreciate and inwardly digest.

'The monk lives according to the advice of Marsilio Ficino--partly in time, partly in eternity. Whatever is done is never fully of this world, and yet it's always in this world. We could all live partly out of this world, and perhaps discover the limits of worldly law and convention.'

In talking of different themes -- silence, hospitality, charity, prayer, music, God, humanity -- Moore interjects insights of his own and those he has inherited from friends, mentors, teachers, and history.

This book makes a perfect gift book; a wonderful, thoughtful book for short meditations; it is a great thing to carry around for reflective periods during the day.

Sometimes a monk, used to chanting, will suddenly strike upon a note that lingers, that stays with the soul in the ear for longer than usual. Perhaps this is the voice of God speaking. As we go about our daily lives, perhaps the common detail that assumes a new proportion -- has a little more resonance -- is God's way of trying to speak to us.

Let this book be an opening to that awareness.

this book, the Education of the Heart, is translated in Chinese. When I read this book, I am enjoyed. it is not book than can read at once, but you could read it every time. In this book, the greatest man ask me what is the soul,and how to care of it. sometimes, I feel so tire that can't do anything, and by reading this book, I could gain the power for my life. Well, I like this book. I hope you like it too.

Not bad! Has a good study outline and organisation with all required objectives of the test. Pretty good detailed examples in chapters, Review exercies a little weak, but review questions are good. Using this book, the Books On Line from the product and all the 70-299 example tests i could find on line, I past 70-229 test comfortably....

- This is a great book for studying and for reference around the office. I used it for the exam (and passed); my co-workers use it as a general reference at work.
- As usual, Que did a great job editing. I found two mistakes, but they were very minor.
- The sample questions / practice exam could use some re-working, but if you read this book through, the exam should not be too much hassle.

Great book for the 70-229 exam. Passed this exam in less than 20 minutes with 909/1000 thanks to this book. Highly recommended.

Moore addresses a very important question: How can we bring back magic into our lives? We are used to living in a rational, practical society, argues the author, with the result that we have neither time, nor ability to stop, think, and savor the strangeness and beauty of things. We have over-rationalized our existence to the point where spirituality suffers. Some things, the authors counsels are, well... not very practical. Can we really afford to keep old and dilapidated buildings because they can enchant us when we intentionally romanticize them? But the utility of Moore's book lies in learning how to accept what is and endow it with spirit, magic, and meaning. Even if we must grow up, we need not give up the romantic spirit that makes life fascinating.

En una sociedad donde la pérdida de la fantasía está matando el espíritu del hombre, surge un libro que se atreve a hablar del alma en la naturaleza y en la cultura, y de la recuperación del asombro en nuestra vida diaria. El encantamiento es un poder del alma, una condición que nos permite conectarnos amorosa e íntimamente con el mundo que habitamos y con la gente que compone nuestra familia y nuestra comunidad. El alma humana tiene una necesidad absoluta e inexorable de encantamiento.
Thomas Moore nos invita, a través de estas páginas, a explorar nuestra vida cotidiana -en el trabajo, la naturaleza, los negocios, el hogar- y redescubrir todo lo que ella tiene de sagrado y maravilloso. (Ed. Sudamericana)

In this book, Moore builds on the material expressed in his earlier books, Care of the Soul and Soul-Mates, by considering the essentials of art, culture and society. A thought-provoking and re-energising read, without overt self-disclosure, false pretensions or weak, misguided self-illusions. Moore skillfully weaves his own special web of spiritual significance that stretches beyond our culture itself: by going straight to the centre of all human experience. An intellectually modest, yet soulfully rigorous book that is still highly capable of having literary and philosophical relevance to even the simplest of considerations. It's also a great interpretation of much of our long-forgotten human thought and endeavours from our past, present and the future, as well as allows you to realistically think about your own, unique cherished experiences yet to come.