Abstract

Keen is dependent upon Norman O. Brown's Dionysian vision of reality in his description of the phenomenon of wonder. In a sense Keen's book is nothing more than a theological restatement of Brown's Love's Body in didactic and conceptual fashion. But the author argues persuasively that our vision of reality is much too dependent upon the Greek rational model, so that we become chained to ideas and can never be ourselves. From a Christian perspective, Keen argues, this is wrong. Christ came to free men to be themselves--not to be slaves to ideas of themselves. The author uses much of the contemporary materials derived from the post-existentialistic mode of philosophizing. He discusses with appreciation Kazantzakis, Alan Watts, Nietzsche, Ayn Rand, MacLuhan, Merleau-Ponty, and others, whom he feels have attempted to pose a conception of reality that is characterized by "openness, availability, epistemological humility in the face of the mystery of being, and the ability to admire and be grateful."--W. A. J.