All Things Are Full of Gods

The Mysteries of Mind and Life

By: David Bentley Hart

Narrated by: Rachael Beresford

In a blossoming garden located far outside all worlds, a group of aging Greek gods have gathered to discuss the nature of existence, the mystery of mind, and whether there is a transcendent God from whom all things come. Turning to Eros, Psyche asks, "Do you see this flower, my love?"

So begins David Bentley Hart's exploration of the mystery of consciousness. He systematically subjects the mechanical view of nature that has prevailed in Western culture for four centuries to dialectical interrogation. He argues through the gods' exchanges that the foundation of all reality is spiritual or mental rather than material. The structures of mind, organic life, and even language attest to an infinite act of intelligence in all things that we may as well call God.

Engaging contemporary debates on the philosophy of mind, free will, revolutions in physics and biology, the history of science, computational models of mind, artificial intelligence, information theory, linguistics, cultural disenchantment, and the metaphysics of nature, Hart calls listeners back to an enchanted world in which nature is the residence of mysterious and vital intelligences. He suggests that there is a very special wisdom to be gained when we, in Psyche's words, "devote more time to the contemplation of living things and less to the fabrication of machines."

©2024 David Bentley Hart (P)2024 Tantor

Playing Chess.

Reading this book felt like watching a master chess player locked in an intense battle with himself, each move calculated over days, while I stood at a distance, captivated yet completely unaware of what the rules even are.

I suppose this is a book meant for minds sharper than mine. But the little I did grasp was absolutely magnificent.

Beautifully written, but all characters speak with the same vocabulary

The characters have no noticeable divergence in their speech patterns. This is the reason I dislike fiction. Fortunately the matters at hand are worth the consistency. Great book.

Wow

What a trip. Greek gods having a high level philosophical conversation about what matters most is a tour de force. Loved it.

Pressingly Important Diagnosis of Modern Materialism

It's difficult to summarize such a complex and thorough treatise on what is essentially a Socratic dialogue that pits modern physicalism against Platonism. What I can say is that this book will keep you thinking. It may force you to reread, or explore the context of various ideas presented within. And, if you still to the end, it will give you a profound diagnosis of why modernity is so disenchanted, so enslaved to production and consumerism, and why mankind is simultaneously destroying itself and Mother Nature.

This book is extremely timely and necessary. It contains within it what I feel are THE philosophical and metaphysical answers to our current plight.

My only critiques are as follows:

The vocal performer was wonderful and did a good job, but since this book is basically written like a play, the fact that she did all the voices was at times confusing. It could sometimes bedifficult to recall who was supposed to be speaking. This, again, is not the fault of the narrator, who was a very good reader.

Lastly, I found it a bit odd that the book treats the disenchantment of the world as a sudden phenomenon taking place only within the scientific community 400 years ago. I think it would have been more accurate, and more honest, to trace the problem to Christianity and its insistence that the world is not a good thing, and that God is wholly Other from it. It would also have been nice to draw attention to how Christians violently persecuted the animistic worldview of ancient and medieval Europeans, even to the point of violence and systemic erasure. Our current dilemma isn't a sudden physicalists phenomenon. Modern physicalism may simply be the hideous grandchild of ominous Christian attitudes.

It's all in the mind

Beautiful narration of an argument for metaphysical idealism in the form of a platonic dialogue. There is a minor editorial oversight in the second chapter of Day 1, where the narrator announces the end the book. The interruption is trivial, and no content is lost. What is the book about? "We're talking about Infinite Mind as the ground and end of all things, and about individual minds and bodies as finite contractions or irisations or crystallizations or radiations of that more original reality." (I had to look up irisations.) And more.

This is classic Hart - putting a torch to the dogma of mechanistic materialism while, maybe more than ever before, revealing who he believes God to be. As a Christian who learns from other traditions, I found his upanishadic reasonings a veritable feast. This book pairs well with his The Experience of God, That All Shall be Saved, and, most likely, his future work on monistic Christology (see his Stanton lectures online). Hart is giving us an astounding vision of reality. All Things Are Full of Gods is the philosophical work of a lifetime.