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Review List
Matthew Manera’s Review of This is Real and You Are Completely Unprepared. The Days of Awe as a Journey of Transformation by Rabbi Alan Lew (296.43 LEW)
Matthew Manera’s Review of Barkley’s Apology in Modern English July 2025
Matthew Manera’s Review of Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl June 2025
Matthew Manera’s Review of This is Real and You Are Completely Unprepared. The Days of Awe as a Journey of Transformation by Rabbi Alan Lew (296.43 LEW)
At first glance, this is a book about the Jewish High Holidays, and, of course, it is. But though it addresses the specific holidays, from Tisha B’Av [the day of mourning for the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem] to Sukkot [the autumnal harvest festival], it speaks to anyone who is concerned with spiritual transformation.
All significant religious texts will overlap in some degree when it comes to the most substantial understanding of what the relationship between the human and the divine, or between a disciple and a teacher, is (Rabbi Alan Lew, before becoming a Rabbi, spent ten years as a committed practitioner of Zen Buddhist meditation). For example, in the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna says to Arjuna, “No matter by what path men approach Me [you can read “Me” to be your own understanding of God], they are made welcome. For all paths no matter how diverse lead straight to Me. All paths are mine, notwithstanding by what names they may be called.” And when the Buddha was addressing the inhabitants of the small town of Kesaputta, he said, “Now, look you Kalamas, do not be led by reports of religious texts, nor by mere logic or inference, nor by considering appearances, nor by the delight in speculative opinions, nor by seeming possibilities, nor by the idea: ‘this is our teacher.’ But, O Kalamas, when you know by yourselves that certain things are unwholesome and wrong and bad, then give them up […] And when you know for yourselves that certain things are wholesome and good, then accept them and follow them.” This reminds me of two passages from George Fox’s Journals: he said about his faith, “And this I knew experimentally,” and about the teachings of Christ, “You will say, Christ saith this, and the apostles say this; but what canst thou say?”
Here are some passages (some quoted directly; some paraphrased) from the book that might entice you into engaging in a dialogue with it:
• Spiritual practice will not change what happens to us; rather, it will change us.
• [with reference to being called to account for our actions, feeling that we are ready and confident to do so, but finding that we are, unexpectedly, completely unprepared] “And [this sense of being completely unprepared] is real whether you believe in God or not. Perhaps God made it real and perhaps God did not. Perhaps God created this pageant of judgment and choice, of transformation, of life and death. Perhaps God created the Book of Life and the Book of Death, Teshuvah and the blowing of the shofar. Or perhaps these are all just inventions of human culture. It makes no difference. It is equally real in any case.”
• “Perhaps God made the reality that all this human culture seeks to articulate. Perhaps God made a profoundly mixed world, a world in which every second confronts us with a choice between blessings and curses, life and death; a world in which our choices have indelible consequences; a world in which life and death, blessings and curses, choose us, seek us, find us every moment. And we live with the consequences of our choices. And perhaps we have chosen arbitrary spiritual language to express these things, or perhaps God made human culture so that we would express these things precisely as we have in every detail. It makes no difference. What makes a difference is that it’s real and it is happening right now and it is happening to us, and it is utterly inescapable, and we are completely unprepared. This moment is before us with its choices, and the consequences of our past choices are before us, as is the possibility of our transformation.”
• “The first thing we do during the High Holidays is come together; we stand together before God as a single spiritual unit. […] We heal one another by being together. We give each other hope.”
• “Most of us only embark on the difficult and wrenching path of transformation when we feel we have no choice but to do so, when we feel as if our backs are to the wall, when the circumstances of our lives have pushed us to the point of a significant leave-taking, when we have suffered loss or death, divorce or unemployment. Transformation is just too hard for us to volunteer for. […] We are in the predicament that has brought us to the point of transformation because God has driven us there. In other words, that predicament is part of the process. It is a gift, the agent of our turning. […] Transformation is not something that happens once and for all time. […] Transformation does not have a beginning, a middle, or an end. […] And it may never be clear to us that the work of transformation has borne fruit […] Real spiritual transformation invariably takes a long time to manifest itself in our lives.”
• [Lew quotes from Shunryu Suzuki, in his book Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind] “If your mind is empty, it is always ready for anything; it is open to everything. n the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities; in the expert’s mind there are few […] In the beginner’s mind there is no thought, ‘I have attained something.’ All self-centred thoughts limit our vast mind. When we have no thoughts of achievement, no thought of self, we are true beginners.”
• “Every spiritual tradition I am aware of speaks of a kind of layered mindfulness, a sensibility that works up and out of the body, to the heart and then to the mind and then finally to the soul. The Buddhist sutra On Mindfulness describes this kind of layered grid of awareness, and the Kabala, the Jewish mystical tradition, speaks of it too.”
• “None of us is whole by ourselves. A spiritual community is one in which we find wholeness, completion with others. What we lack is provided by somebody else.”
• [on death] “We are born and we die, and nothing that happens in between is nearly as important as these two fundamental facts of life. […] Once life is over, it is clear that it has taken up no time or space at all. […] What lives on of the people we have loved and lost? What breaks our hearts when we think of them? What do we miss so much that it aches? Precisely that suchness, that unspeakable, ineffable, intangible quality, which takes up no space at all and which never did.”
• “What is the core of our life? Are we living by it? Are we moving toward it? We shouldn’t wait until the moment of our death to seek the answers. At the moment of death, there may be nothing we can do about it but feel regret. But if we seek answers now, we can act in the coming year to bring ourselves closer to our core.”
• “We can’t control sickness, old age, or death. We are terrified of them. But as Sharon Salzberg asks, what would we fear if we experienced ourselves to be part of the whole of nature, moving and changing, being born and dying? What would we fear if we understood that our bodies were joined with the planet in a continual, rhythmic exchange of matter and energy?”
• “Joy is a deep release of the soul, and it includes death and pain. Joy is any feeling fully felt, any experience we give our whole being to.”
• “Every moment of my life, I am inescapably hammered into place by everything that has ever happened since the creation of the universe, and every moment I am free to act in a way that will alter the course of that great flow of being forever.”
Matthew Manera’s Review of “Barkley’s Apology in Modern English (289.6 BAR)” July 2025
“What I have written comes more from what I have heard with the ears of my soul. I have declared what my inward eyes have seen and what my hands have handled of the Word of Life. It is what has been inwardly manifested to me of the things of God.” So writes Robert Barclay at the beginning of his Apology, which consists of fifteen theological theses, or propositions, published in 1676 in Latin, then in English in 1678. It should be noted that this edition of the Apology is rendered into modern English by Dean Freiday and is an abridged and edited edition, which some scholars have criticized in parts for misrepresentation of Barclay’s ideas. Barclay makes many references to Christ, which, given the beginnings of Quakerism in the Christian tradition, is inescapable. However, for those Quakers who do not consider themselves bound by the Christian tradition, one can read “Christ” as “Spirit,” and still find these propositions speak to their condition.
Proposition 1, “The True Foundation of Knowledge,” serves as an introduction to the following fourteen propositions: “Since the height of all happiness is the true knowledge of God, it is primary and essential that this foundation of knowledge be properly understood and believed.”
In Proposition 2: “Inward and Unmediated Revelation,” Barclay insists that divine inward revelations and inward illuminations are “absolutely necessary for the building up of true faith” and “possess their own clarity and serve as their own evidence.”
As for the Scriptures, which he addresses in Proposition 3, they are “only a declaration of the source, and not the source itself” and “are not to be considered the principal foundation of all truth and knowledge,” but only “as a secondary rule that is subordinate to the Spirit.”
In Proposition 4, “The Condition of Man in the Fall,” Barclay argues against the Augustinian-based concept of original sin, writing that “we do not impute the evil seed to infants until they have actually been joined to it by their own transgression.”
Freiday puts Propositions 5 and 6 (“The Universal Redemption by Christ, and also the Saving and Spiritual Light by which Every Man is Enlightened”) together in one chapter. Proposition 5 refers to the Fall of Man (Proposition 4) by pointing out “the real light which enlightens every man,” which is Christ, and according to John 1:9, “is no less universal than the seed of sin, being purchased by his death who tasted death for everyone.” In Proposition 6, Barclay argues that “the universality of Christ’s saving death” is available to everyone in every time: “Just as many of the ancient philosophers may have been saved, so may some of those today whom providence has placed in remote parts of the world where the knowledge of history [i.e. the historical Jesus] is lacking, be made partakers of the divine mystery if they do not resist the manifestation of grace which is given to everyone for his benefit. […] The benefit of [Christ’s] suffering is extended not only to those who have a well-defined outward knowledge of his death and sufferings, […] but even to those who by some unavoidable accident were excluded from the benefit of this knowledge.”
Proposition 7 deals with Justification, which Barclay defines as “the formation of Christ within us, from which good works follow as naturally as fruit from a fruitful tree.” We are justified, therefore, “not by works produced by our own wills, or by good works themselves, but by Christ, who is not only the gift and the giver, but the cause which produces these effects in us.”
Perfection [or The Achievement of Spiritual Maturity] is the theme of Proposition 8. Barclay makes clear that by Perfection, he means something “that is proportional to a man’s requirements.” When, in this state of relative perfection, one “is no longer able to obey any suggestions or temptations toward evil, but is freed from sin and the transgression of the law of God, and in that respect is perfect.”
Proposition 9, “Perseverance in the Faith and the Possibility of Falling from Grace,” is the consequent counterpart to Proposition 8, in that “even though this gift of the inward grace of God is sufficient to bring about salvation, yet for those who resist it, it not only may become their condemnation, but does. […] Nevertheless, it is possible to achieve […] an increase and stability in the truth in this life that total apostasy is impossible.”
Ministry, the subject of Proposition 10, presents Barclay’s, and Quakers’, understanding of how ministry should be understood: “Every evangelist and every Christian pastor ought to be led and directed in his labour in the work of the gospel by the leadings, motions, and drawings of God’s light. These should govern not only the place where, but the persons to whom he speaks, and the time when he should speak. […] Those who have received this holy and unspotted gift [of ministering] have received it without cost and should give it without charge.” One should keep in mind that, at the time Barclay is writing, itinerant ministers, especially among Quakers, were common.
In Proposition 11, “Worship,” Barclay writes of all those Quakers who are not called to be itinerant ministers, while hearkening back to the subject of Proposition 2: “True and acceptable worship of God stems from the inward and unmediated moving and drawing of his own Spirit. It is not limited by places, times, or persons. […] We should be moved by the secret stimulation and inspiration which the Spirit of God provides in our hearts.”
Barclay addresses Baptism in Proposition 12, by citing Ephesians 4:5 and 1 Peter 3:21: “Just as there is ‘one Lord, and one faith,’ so is there ‘one baptism,’ which is ‘an appeal to God for a clear conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.’” He points out, as well, that “the baptism of infants, however, is [unlike the figurative baptism of John] a mere human tradition, for which neither precept nor practice is to be found anywhere in scripture.”
Communion, another of the Christian sacraments, like Baptism, is the subject of Proposition 12: “The communion of the body and blood of Christ is inward and spiritual. It is by participation in his flesh and blood that the inward man is nourished daily in the hearts of those in whom Christ dwells.”
Proposition 14, “Concerning Civil Power [“the power of the Civil Magistrate” in the original] in Matters Purely Religious and Pertaining to the Conscience,” argues that one’s own conscience, derived from God, is to be regarded more highly than any civil power: “The power and dominion of the conscience are the province of God, and he alone can properly instruct and govern it. No one whatsoever may lawfully force the consciences of others regardless of the authority or office he bears in the government of this world.” That being said, this is “always subject to the provision that no man, under pretense of conscience, may prejudice the life or property of his neighbour, or do anything that is destructive to human society or inconsistent with its welfare.”
Lastly, Proposition 15 deals with “Vain and Empty Customs and Pursuits.” “The chief purpose of all religion,” writes Barclay, “is to redeem men from the spirit and vain pursuits of this world, and to lead them into inward communion with God. All vain and empty customs and habits [for example, “taking one’s hat off to another person, bowing or cringing], whether of word or deed, should be rejected by those who have come to fear the Lord [fear being understood as awe].”
Review: Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl (150.195 FRA) by Matthew Manera June 2025
This book by Frankl, a leading European psychiatrist in the mid-twentieth century, originally written in 1946, is in three parts: “Experiences in a Concentration Camp; “Logotherapy in a Nutshell”; and “The Case for Tragic Optimism,” a postscript written in 1984.
Part One: Experiences in a Concentration Camp
Frankl explains at the outset that this section answers the question, “How was everyday life in a concentration camp reflected in the mind of the average prisoner?” He observes that there were three phases of the inmate’s mental reactions to camp life: “the period following his admission; the period when he is well entrenched in camp routine; and the period following his release and liberation.”
The first phase was characterized by shock, which was soon followed by a “delusion of reprieve,” in which the prisoner believes that he will be “reprieved at the very last minute.” Eventually, as Frankl says of himself as a prisoner, “I struck out my whole former life,” for “the illusions some of us still had were destroyed one by one, and then, quite unexpectedly, most of us were overcome by a grim sense of humour.” The second phase was one of “relative apathy in which [the prisoner] achieved a kind of emotional death” which made him “insensitive to daily and hourly beatings.” In spite of this, “it was possible for spiritual life to deepen.” It was in this phase that Frankl came to realize three things: that “love is the ultimate and the highest goal to which man can aspire”; “that everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way”; and that “if there is a meaning in life at all, then there must be a meaning in suffering.” As Nietzsche wrote, “He who has a why to live for can bear with almost any how.” In the third phase, “what was happening to the liberated prisoners could be called ‘depersonalization.’ Everything appeared unreal, unlikely, as in a dream. We could not believe it was true.” On being set free, “only slowly could these men be guided back to the commonplace truth that no one has the right to do wrong, not even if wrong has been done to them.” “Two other fundamental experiences threatened to damage the character of the liberated prisoner: bitterness and disillusionment when he returned to his former life.” nd, finally, “The crowning experience of all, for the homecoming man, is the wonderful feeling that, after all he has suffered, there is nothing he need fear any more—except his God.”
Part Two: Logotherapy in a Nutshell
Part One, concerning his life in a concentration camp, is a kind of preface to Part Two, an explanation of Logotherapy, which Frankl developed and which is the most important part of the book. Logos denotes meaning. Logotherapy, then, “focuses on the meaning of human existence as well as on man’s search for such a meaning.” It speaks of a will to meaning, as opposed to the Freudian will to pleasure, and the Adlerian will to power. Frankl argues that mental hygiene depends not on an achievement of equilibrium, but rather on “the striving and struggling for a worthwhile goal, a freely chosen task.” This, he calls noö-dynamics (noös meaning “mind”): “the existential dynamics in a polar field of tension where one pole is represented by a meaning that is to be fulfilled and the other pole by the man who has to fulfill it.” “What matters […] is not the meaning of life in general but rather the specific meaning of a person’s life at a given moment.” In the end, it is the responsibility of each person to answer for their own life. The categorical imperative of logotherapy is, “Live as if you were living already for the second time and as if you had acted the first time as wrongly as you are about to act now.”
Frankl says that, according to logotherapy, we can discover the meaning in life (a meaning that always changes, but never ceases to be) in three ways: “(1) by creating a work or doing a deed; (2) by experiencing something or encountering someone (no one can become fully aware of the very essence of another human being unless he loves him); and (3) by the attitude we take toward unavoidable suffering.”
He also argues against what he calls “pan-determinism”: “the view of man which disregards his capacity to take a stand toward any conditions whatsoever (biological, psychological and sociological conditions, or the product of heredity and environment). Man is not fully conditioned and determined but rather determines himself whether he gives in to conditions or stands up to them.”
Part Three: The Case for a Tragic Optimism
Much of this chapter repeats points he made in Part Two. He does introduce, however, the concept of tragic optimism, which, according to Frankl, means that “one is, and remains, optimistic in spite of […] those aspects of human existence which may be circumscribed by: (1) pain; (2) guilt; and (3) death.” One must have optimism in the human potential which allows for: “(1) turning suffering into a human achievement and accomplishment; (2) deriving from guilt the opportunity to change oneself for the better; and (3) deriving from life’s transitoriness an incentive to take responsible action.”
Lastly, Proposition 15 deals with “Vain and Empty Customs and Pursuits.” “The chief purpose of all religion,” writes Barclay, “is to redeem men from the spirit and vain pursuits of this world, and to lead them into inward communion with God. All vain and empty customs and habits [for example, “taking one’s hat off to another person, bowing or cringing], whether of word or deed, should be rejected by those who have come to fear the Lord [fear being understood as awe].”