Free Kindle Baseball As A Road To God: Seeing Beyond The Game ebooks Download
A love letter to America’s most beloved sport and an exploration of the deeper dimensions it revealsFor more than a decade, New York University president John Sexton has used baseball to illustrate the elements of a spiritual life in a wildly popular course at NYU. Using great works of baseball literature as well as the actual game’s fantastic moments, its legendary characters, and its routine rituals―from the long-sought triumph of the 1955 Brooklyn Dodgers to the heroic achievements of players like the saintly Christy Mathewson and the sinful Ty Cobb to the loving intimacy of a game of catch between a father and son―Sexton teaches that through the game we can touch the spiritual dimensions of life.Baseball as a Road to God is about the elements of our lives that lie beyond what can be captured in words alone―ineffable truths that we know by experience rather than by logic or analysis. Applying the inquiry usually reserved for the study of religion to the secular activity of baseball, Sexton reveals a surprising amount of common ground between the game and what we all recognize as religion: sacred places and times, faith and doubt, blessings and curses, and more.In thought-provoking, beautifully rendered prose, Baseball as a Road to God elegantly demonstrates that baseball is more than a game or even a national pastime: It can be a road to a deeper and more meaningful life.
Audio CD
Publisher: Brilliance Audio; Unabridged edition (March 4, 2014)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1469261006
ISBN-13: 978-1469261003
Product Dimensions: 6.5 x 0.6 x 5.5 inches
Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (91 customer reviews)
Best Sellers Rank: #1,598,709 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #176 in Books > Books on CD > Sports & Outdoors #1775 in Books > Books on CD > Nonfiction #2743 in Books > Books on CD > Religion & Spirituality > General
Besides attending 15-20 ballgames every year for the past 40+ years and watching at least one game--and sometimes two or three--virtually every day during the season, I also typically read at least a dozen baseball books per year, sometimes more. This is my favorite baseball book for this year, and, indeed, probably for the recent past. Be forewarned, however. It's not a light read. While the author writes beautifully, at times his writing style is a bit too academic for most readers. It's a book to be read in small doses, and savored.The author, who is the president of NYU and who teaches a course on the subject of baseball as a road to God, writes about both baseball and religion. Many of the elements associated with baseball, faith, doubt, conversion, and miracles, just to name a few, are also elements associated with the religious experience. This book, which presents many of these common elements in innings, as in a 9-inning ballgame, explains how baseball evokes the essence of religion. Nonetheless, the author admits that, for many people, baseball is not only not THE road to God, it's not even A road to God.If you're a numbers cruncher type of baseball fan, you may not enjoy this book, which speaks more towards a loftier view of baseball, the meaning of the game. But if, you're a baseball fan, like me, who loves to see the beauty and majesty of the game, someone who loves to see the big picture, you'll probably love this book.If you love to read about baseball, you'll probably love the appendix, which provides a long list of books and articles assigned for the author's NYU course over the years. Lots of baseball books to add to the wishlist.I have a few minor gripes with this book. Sometimes, the book is a bit too academic for me.
The author John Sexton is not only the president of New York University (NYU), but he also still teaches a full schedule which is almost unheard of. "More" importantly... he has an absolute lifelong love affair with baseball... as many of us do. Like the author, I was a kid in New York who grew up loving the Brooklyn Dodgers... though for both of us "loving" would not be a strong enough description. After a forward by another Brooklyn Dodger loving child from that exact time frame, Doris Kearns Goodwin, sets the stage for the premise of this book... the reader is transported back in time to the most beautiful... magical... exalted day... in the history of the Brooklyn Dodgers... October 4, 1955... the day in infamy when it was no longer "WAIT-TILL-NEXT-YEAR" for Brooklyn's beloved "Bums" and their fans. The author shares a personal, humorous story of how he and his friend "Dougie" "knelt and prayed with all the intensity we could muster, grasping between us in dynamic tension each end of a twelve-inch crucifix we had removed from the wall." When young Johnny Podres got the last Yankee batter out and the unattainable "NEXT-YEAR" was the here and now... Dougie let go of the crucifix to throw his arms up in victory... "the laws of physics drove the head of Christ into the author's mouth chipping his front tooth"...And thus starts the author's literary quest to link in every way imaginable... baseball and religion. Though the baseball stories throughout time... are lovingly shared by the author... and any old-time fan like me... will applaud the telling...but a believable broad brush bridge between the two is never effectively made in this reader's opinion.Baseball miracles that range everywhere from the 1914 "miracle" Braves...
Baseball as a Road to God: Seeing Beyond the Game The Zen of Seeing: Seeing/Drawing as Meditation Seeing Trees: Discover the Extraordinary Secrets of Everyday Trees (Seeing Series) The League of Outsider Baseball: An Illustrated History of Baseball's Forgotten Heroes The Kurious Kid Presents: Baseball: Awesome Amazing Spectacular Facts & Photos of Baseball The Everything Kids' Baseball Book: From Baseball's History to Today's Favorite Players--With Lots of Home Run Fun in Between! Baseball Card Price Guide (Beckett Baseball Card Price Guide) The Official Beckett Price Guide to Baseball Cards 2010, Edition #30 (Beckett Official Price Guide to Baseball Card) Rob Neyer's Big Book of Baseball Blunders: A Complete Guide to the Worst Decisions and Stupidest Moments in Baseball History Line Drives: 100 Contemporary Baseball Poems (Writing Baseball) Baseball Maverick: How Sandy Alderson Revolutionized Baseball and Revived the Mets Will Big League Baseball Survive?: Globalization, the End of Television, Youth Sports, and the Future of Major League Baseball Mexican American Baseball in Orange County (Images of Baseball) Seeing the Real You at Last: Life and Love on the Road with Bob Dylan Road to Seeing The Outward Mindset: Seeing Beyond Ourselves Cross-Platform Game Programming (Game Development) (Charles River Media Game Development) Dressing & Cooking Wild Game: From Field to Table: Big Game, Small Game, Upland Birds & Waterfowl (The Complete Hunter) Game Feel: A Game Designer's Guide to Virtual Sensation (Morgan Kaufmann Game Design Books) Video Game Addiction: The Cure to The Game Addiction (Addiction Recovery, Addictions, Video Game Addiction, Online Gaming Addiction)
