Tuesday, May 18, 2010

The Creative Life and the Call of the Universe

The Creative Life was Eric Butterworth's last book published in 2001. It is a little book packed with much of what he has already said many times over in other books such as The Universe is Calling published in 1993. What Butterworth does in this last book is use the well-known biblical myth, The Creation Story, and re-packaged it as a metaphysical interpretation that describes how the creative genius can be released in all of us. The exercises at the end of each chapter are tools to use and practice as a discipline that will eventually cultivate that latent genius. I liked the book. Yet, I often was reminded of the affirmations, prayer practice and examples given in The Universe is Calling. If you are new to Butterworth, and just checked out of the library The Creative Life, then in my view, you will enjoy the reading if you are at all interested in metaphysics and living a satisfying life from your own indwelling genius. However, if you have read many Butterworth books The Creative Life will be more of a refresher of vintage Butterworth which is not a bad thing.

The differences in the two books are that one is a book on prayer and the other is a book on releasing one's inner genius; one book uses many different biblical references from the Hebrew and New Testament Scriptures and the other uses Genesis 1:1-2:3 as his main reference; one book uses many examples to illustrate his points and the other uses one story to deliver his point.

Both books appear to be written for New Thought audiences, but not necessarily only New Thought. The theology is accessible to others who are open to reading and learning about ways to open spiritual pathways to a more satisfying life.

2 comments:

  1. I'd like to see you develop these ideas more fully. Your blog entry offered some good observations--especially the attempt to compare/contrast two EB books--but the effort felt a little brief. Let your mind play in the Butterworthian hedgerows and tell us what you find.

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  2. Your observation of my last post is a fair one, DrTom. My entry is brief. Butterworth is owed more than a quick review of two of his creations. Let's see what comes to me as I think more deeply about what EB was attempting to convey in both books which I enjoyed.

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