cover image God: The Short Version

God: The Short Version

Peter Lundstrom, Pete Lundstrom, . . IPG/Trafalgar Sq. Publishing, $7.95 (96pp) ISBN 978-0-7459-5312-0

For an explanation of God that covers the holy waterfront of world religious thought, it doesn't get much shorter than this. Lundstrom, who did commercial writing for Apple and Microsoft, tackles the low-tech but highly complex topic of God in less than 100 handbook-sized pages. After two uneven introductory chapters (not everyone will agree that the object of our deepest desires is God, or that God is spirit and also inscrutable), Lundstrom does a decent job of providing a general picture of the ways that Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity and Islam as well as pantheists and pagans imagine the Absolute that some call God. Although the project requires considerable distillation, Lundstrom does not conclude that all religions say the same thing about God. His warning against the “magical” appropriation of God's power for ourselves is interesting but strays from the topic into reflections on the human condition as inherently imperfect; he also digresses about the importance of hope. Though a bit idiosyncratic, the style is chatty and inviting, providing an easy read on a difficult subject. (Dec.)