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Raymond Barfield

Raymond Barfield

About

Raymond Barfield is a pediatric oncologist at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina.  He also teaches philosophy in Duke's Divinity School.  He has published a book of poetry called Life In the Blind Spot, as well as a book of philosophy from Cambridge University Presscalled The Ancient Quarrel Between Poetry and Philosophy.  His novel The Book of Colors was published in Spring 2015.  Ray directs the Pediatric Quality of Life and Palliative Care Program for Duke Children’s Hospital, and was the founding director of the Duke Divinity School initiative in Theology, Medicine, and Culture.  In his free time he likes to play guitar, run, and skydive.

Involution-An Odyssey Reconciling Science to God

Involution-An Odyssey Reconciling Science to God

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<p>“<em>We are not human beings having a spiritual experience; we are spiritual beings having a human experience.”(</em>Teilhard de Chardin<em>)</em></p><p><span style="line-height:1.6em;"><em>Involution-An Odyssey Reconciling Science to God </em> is as layered as a French cassoulet, as diverting, satisfying and as rich. Each reader will spoon this book differently. On the surface it seems to be a simple and light-hearted poetic journey through the history of Western thought, dominantly scientific, but enriched with painting and music. Beneath that surface is the sauce of a new evolutionary idea, involution; the informing of all matter by consciousness, encoded and communicating throughout the natural world. A book about the cathedral of consciousness could have used any language to paint it, but science is perhaps most in need of new vision, and its chronology is already familiar.</span></p><p><span style="line-height:1.6em;">The author offers a bold alternative vision of both science and creation: she suggests that science has been incrementally the recovery of memory, the memory of evolution/involution</span><em style="line-height:1.6em;">.</em></p><p>“<em> Involution proposes that humans carry within them the history of the universe, which is (re)discovered by the individual genius when the time is ripe. All is stored within our DNA and awaits revelation. Such piecemeal revelations set our finite lives in an eternal chain of co-creation and these new leaps of discovery are compared to mystical experience</em>” (From a reviewer)</p><p>Each unique contributor served the collective and universal return to holism and unity. Thus the geniuses of the scientific journey, like the spiritual visionaries alongside, have threaded the rosary of science with the beads of inspiration, and through them returned Man to his spiritual nature and origin.</p><p><span style="line-height:1.6em;">The separation between experience and the rational intellect of science has, by modelling memory as theory, separated its understanding from the consciousness of all, and perceives mind and matter as separate, God and Man as distinct. This work is a dance towards their re-unification: Saints and scientists break the same bread.</span></p><p><span style="line-height:1.6em;">All of time and all the disciplines of science are needed for the evidence. Through swift (and sometimes sparring) Cantos of dialogue between Reason and Soul, Philippa Rees takes the reader on a monumental journey through the history of everything – with the evolution of man as one side of the coin and involution the other.  The poetic narrative is augmented by learned and extensive footnotes offering background knowledge which in themselves are fascinating. In effect there are two books, offering a right and left brain approach. The twin spirals of a DNA shaped book intertwine external and internal and find, between them, one journey, Man’s recovery of Himself., and (hopefully) the Creation’s recovery of a nobler Man.</span></p><p><span style="line-height:1.6em;">From the same review “</span><em style="line-height:1.6em;">The reader who finishes the book will not be the same as the one who began it. New ideas will expand the mind but more profoundly, the deep, moving power of the verse will affect the heart.</em></p><p><em>(Marianne Rankin: Director of Communications, Alister Hardy Trust)</em></p><p> </p>

Story Behind The Book

Raymond Barfield is a pediatric oncologist at Duke University School of Medicine and an associate professor of philosophy at Duke Divinity School. Ray has a book out from Cambridge University Press, The Ancient Quarrel between Poetry and Philosophy, and he’s working on a nonfiction trade book that explores the intersection of spirituality, philosophy and science. He also has a book of poetry that was just published in October. It’s his work with low-income African American children at Duke University Hospital and his previous experience in the ERs of Atlanta and Memphis inner-city hospitals that make him so familiar with the protagonist in The Book of Colors. Ray says he has met Yslea many times and her voice is embedded in his head.

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<div style="width:780px;float:left;margin:0px 0px 30px;padding:0px;clear:both;font-size:12px;font-family:'Trebuchet MS', 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;line-height:normal;"> <h3 style="float:left;margin:0px;padding:0px;"><img alt="OUR BOOKS" border="0" height="17" src="http://unbridledbooks.com/img/book/our_books.png" width="110" /></h3> <div style="float:right;text-align:right;margin:0px;padding:0px;"> <p style="margin:0px 0px 8px;padding:0px;text-transform:uppercase;"><a href="http://unbridledbooks.com/our_books#catalog" style="color:rgb(51,153,204);">SEE COMPLETE ON-LINE CATALOG&quot;</a></p> <p style="margin:0px 0px 8px;padding:0px;text-transform:uppercase;"><a href="http://visitor.constantcontact.com/d.jsp?m=1101296604517&amp;p=oi" style="color:rgb(51,153,204);">SIGN UP FOR OUR NEWSLETTER</a></p> </div> </div> <div style="width:780px;float:left;margin:0px 0px 20px;padding:0px;clear:both;font-family:'Trebuchet MS', 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;line-height:normal;"> <div class="image" style="float:left;width:380px;margin:0px;padding:0px;"><img alt="The Book of Colors" border="0" height="570" src="http://www.unbridledbooks.com/images/uploads/books/BookofColors_lrg.jpg" style="margin:0px;float:left;" width="380" /><div style="width:380px;float:left;margin:20px 0px 100px;padding:0px;"> <h3 style="margin:0px 0px 5px;padding:0px;float:none;"><img alt="READER/BOOKSELLERS TOOLS" border="0" height="12" src="http://unbridledbooks.com/img/book/tools_header.png" style="margin:0px 0px 5px;float:none;padding:0px;" width="185" /></h3> <p style="margin:0px 0px 10px;padding:0px;font-family:'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, sans-serif;font-size:12px;font-style:italic;color:rgb(102,102,102);clear:both;">Take a look at our Bookseller Kits: marketing materials to help you display and/or to hand sell your favorite Unbridled titles, from reading guides to posters, and more!</p> <br /><a href="" style="color:rgb(51,153,204);"><img alt="Goodreads discussion" border="0" height="14" src="http://unbridledbooks.com/img/general/goodreads2.png" style="margin:0px;float:left;" width="70" /></a><a href="" style="color:rgb(51,153,204);"><img alt="LibraryThing discussion" border="0" height="14" src="http://unbridledbooks.com/img/general/librarything2.png" style="margin:0px;float:left;" width="70" /></a><a href="" style="color:rgb(51,153,204);"><img alt="Shelfari discussion" border="0" height="14" src="http://unbridledbooks.com/img/general/shelfari2.png" style="margin:0px;float:left;" width="70" /></a><br />   <p style="margin:0px 0px 10px;padding:0px;font-family:'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, sans-serif;font-size:12px;font-style:italic;color:rgb(102,102,102);clear:both;"> </p> </div> <div class="pressquotes" style="margin:0px 0px 100px;padding:0px;font-family:'Times New Roman', Times, serif;font-size:16px;line-height:20px;font-style:italic;color:rgb(102,102,102);float:left;clear:both;"> <h3 style="margin:0px 0px 10px;padding:0px;"><img alt="WHAT READERS ARE SAYING:" border="0" height="13" src="http://unbridledbooks.com/img/book/readers_header.png" style="margin:0px;float:none;" width="217" /></h3> <p style="margin:0px 0px 10px;padding:0px;width:370px;">“Yslea is a keen-eyed young woman with a wandering mind who picks up on fine details of the little things of life…. A beautifully written debut”—<b>BOOKLIST</b></p> <p style="margin:0px 0px 10px;padding:0px;width:370px;">“In the traditions of Toni Morrison and Flannery O’Connor, Raymond Barfield presents a gorgeous and dismaying human tapestry from the edges of Southern society. … An ethereal story of poverty and redemption that ends with a phoenix-like flourish and abounds with grace.” — <b>Foreword Reviews</b></p> <p style="margin:0px 0px 10px;padding:0px;width:370px;">“I just finished THE BOOK OF COLORS. I cried at the end, which I almost never do, not because it was sad but because it was so sweet and clear and beautifully written ... different in a really wonderful way.”— <b>Cathy Langer, The Tattered Cover bookstore. </b></p> <p style="margin:0px 0px 10px;padding:0px;width:370px;">“Barfield’s The Book of Colors is a remarkable debut, a story told by a young woman whose nearly-perfect voice evokes Flannery O’Connor’s characters when they are simultaneously in a state of chaos and grace.” — <b>Wayne Caldwell</b></p> <p style="margin:0px 0px 10px;padding:0px;width:370px;">“I was lucky enough to see the first draft of The Book of Colors, and the beautiful strength of both the author and the main character has stayed with me a very long time. Kudos to Unbridled for bringing two powerful voices to light.”—<b>Carl Lennertz</b></p> <p style="margin:0px 0px 10px;padding:0px;width:370px;">“Yslea’s world is small, but it embraces an immense universe of wonderments, bright emotions, slant thoughts and patterns that only she can discover. In The Book of Colors Raymond Barfield reveals a story like no other I have experienced, inexorably dark in circumstance but triumphantly luminous in spirit. ‘We are made up of pieces but somehow we feel whole.’ That wholeness is celebrated in these brave pages. They seized upon me like an angelic visitation. What a wonderful novel!” — <b>Fred Chappell</b></p> </div> </div> </div>