The Heart of Wisdom: A Philosophy of Spiritual Life [Hardcover]

The Heart of Wisdom explores the intersection of philosophy and spirituality. Though spirituality is a concept often viewed with skepticism by philosophers and others, spiritual concerns are prominent in many peoples lives, whether or not they ascribe to a religious creed. This book examines spiritual concepts like generosity, suffering, and joy, incorporating the various perspectives of great philosophers, including Nietzsche, Aristotle, and Derrida, as well as Eastern wisdom traditions, including Buddhism and Vedanta philosophy.Richard White is professor of Philosophy at Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska. Born in London, U.K., he earned a B.A. in Philosophy and Literature at Warwick University and a Ph.D. at SUNY, Stony Brook. He is the author of four previous books, including Radical Virtues (2008) and Love's Philosophy (2001).

In a time when so many philosophical works on religion are predictable and simplistic, Richard White's The Heart of Wisdom is fresh and invigorating. By approaching the topic of spirituality in light of the virtues, White is able to ask new questions (or perhaps lead a new readership to ask very old questions), and the answers he discovers are full of wisdom. This is a delightfully insightful book. Richard L. Kyte, Viterbo University

White (Creighton Univ.) provides an investigation into the spiritual life and takes the uncommon, higher-elevation viewpoint of an overview of spirituality itself and its manifestation through different religions without overtly promoting one over the other. Rather than providing yet another critique of spiritual ideas, White gives a scaled-down phenomenological account of how people interact with each other and the world in a larger, deeper way; this is the essence of spirituality. What makes this approach interesting is that he focuses on the themes in the order of their emergence at the conceptual and experiential level. The book starts with suffering: a passive reaction to the world tlS}