Hunting Magic Eels, Richard Beck
Hunting Magic Eels, Richard Beck
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Hunting Magic Eels
Recovering an Enchanted Faith in a Skeptical Age

Author: Richard Beck

Narrator: William Sarris

Unabridged: 6 hr 1 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 04/13/2021


Synopsis

We live in a secular age, a world dominated by science and technology. Increasing numbers of us don't believe in God anymore. We don't expect miracles. We've grown up and left those fairytales behind, culturally and personally.

Yet five hundred years ago the world was very much enchanted. It was a world where God existed and the devil was real. It was a world full of angels and demons. It was a world of holy wells and magical eels. But since the Protestant Reformation and the beginning of the Enlightenment, the world, in the West at least, has become increasingly disenchanted.

While this might be taken as evidence of a crisis of belief, Richard Beck argues it's actually a crisis of attention. God hasn't gone anywhere, but we've lost our capacity to see God.

The rising tide of disenchantment has profoundly changed our religious imaginations and led to a loss of the holy expectation that we can be interrupted by the sacred and divine. But it doesn't have to be this way. With attention and an intentional and cultivated capacity to experience God as a living, vital presence in our lives, Hunting Magic Eels shows us we can cultivate an enchanted faith in a skeptical age.

About Richard Beck

Richard Beck is professor of psychology at Abilene Christian University in Abilene, Texas, and a popular blogger and speaker. He is the author of several books, most recently Trains, Jesus, and Murder: The Gospel According to Johnny Cash and Stranger God: Meeting Jesus in Disguise. His published research also covers topics as diverse as the psychology of profanity and why Christian bookstore art is so bad. Beck leads a Bible study each week for inmates at a maximum-security prison. Richard lives in Abilene, Texas.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Steve on October 26, 2021

I found that the introductory chapters did a good enough job diagnosing the problem of modernity, of disenchantment and the need for reenchantment.  This problem is not new to me and is one of the largest reasons for me to be drawn toward Orthodoxy. I've found the topic much better covered elsewhere......more

Goodreads review by Anna on September 06, 2023

Really enjoyed the book! Mainly gave 4 instead of 5 stars because he gets a bit repetitive. But his overall premise is great and his diagnoses of the modern Ache is especially gripping. The modern man is full of longing, disenchantment, and skepticism and needs the fulfillment found in the enchanted......more

Goodreads review by Robert on January 21, 2024

It is said that we live in an increasingly secular world, what some call a disenchanted world. There is much truth to this idea. However, even as institutional religion is on the decline in North America and Europe, that doesn't mean people have lost interest in spiritual things. Thus, we see increa......more

Goodreads review by Grant on January 17, 2025

This is a beautiful book. I’d highly recommend for anyone feeling disillusioned or disenchanted with faith. Christianity is weird; let’s embrace the wonder.......more

Goodreads review by Joan on February 20, 2022

Beck believes Western civilization has been moving from an enchanted world toward a secular, scientific, skeptical and disenchanted world. (284/334) God is everywhere but we don't see it. “This pervasive disenchantment, which affects Christians as much as nonbelievers, poses the single greatest thre......more