Wisdom from World Religions: Pathways Toward Heaven on Earth

Templeton offers 200 spiritual ""laws,"" nearly half of which are his own work, with the others coming from mostly Western sources (e.g., Benjamin Franklin, St. Gregory, Norman Vincent Peale) with a smattering of ideas from Hinduism and Buddhism. Templeton structures the motivational laws into weekday readings for 40 weeks, suggesting that the book be used as a school text during the academic year. Unfortunately, it is repetitive and too long by half (do we really need separate laws for ""The tree is known by its fruits"" and ""You shall know them by their fruits""?). The attractive design, which surrounds each of Templeton's essays with additional quotations, cannot quite redeem this redundant digest of positive thinking. (Apr.)n