Involution-An Odyssey Reconciling Science to God
Description
<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
The characters for Pieces were something my grandmother and I brainstormed together fifteen years ago, when I was just in middle school. She was a writer herself once, even attending college in New York City briefly while in her twenties to study journalism, though she's never been published. Literature and writing was something we bonded over early on, and she has always been a fan of my writing, and promised me one day I would see it published.
Earlier this year, however, she was diagnosed with the early stages of Alzheimer's, and I knew that if I wanted her to read the story she helped me come up with fifteen years ago, I'd have to take it off the shelf and make it happen. I am so proud and grateful that I'll be able to put a copy in her hands now.
Reviews
<font face="Tahoma">"By rights, a debut novel should be flawed. But, if you’re looking for shortcomings in <em>Pieces</em>, the initial offering from newcomer Julia Dudek, your search may be as fruitless as that of Diogenes. Starting slow, and building speed like a steam locomotive with its engine stoked by a madman, <em>Pieces</em> is not only compelling, but is unrelenting. Its characters are fully drawn, its plot as sophisticated as any in recent memory, and its ability to draw the reader in is unparalleled. This thriller packs a wallop worthy of any literary heavyweight. If this is just the beginning, the future can only be of star magnitude. Can’t wait for more!" <br /><br />- Joe Perrone Jr., author of <em>As the Twig is Bent</em> and <em>Opening Day</em></font>
