A Voice for Independent Authors

“You can kill a book quicker by your silence than by a bad review.”
― E.A. Bucchianeri

REVIEWING TODAY: GENESIS BY STEFAN EMUNDS

This intriguing and refreshingly unique book, Genesis, by Stefan Emunds, is an admirable attempt to marry insightful, alternative translations of the ancient Hebrew language with the ineffable wisdom of spiritual enlightenment in order to make the interpretation of Genesis better serve its original purpose: to inspire. The elusiveness of translative certainty allows, for better or worse – depending on the spiritual capacity of the reader – a greater flexibility of interpretation and understanding than does a more fundamentally-oriented approach, especially that of a more literal-based present-day Christianity. The difficulty, of course, lies in the choice of alternative interpretations, thus requiring a different measuring rod by which to gauge the probability of its accuracy. One can only aspire to determine for oneself how well the author succeeds at doing this.

The point, and primary focus of Stefan Emunds Genesis is best revealed by this particularly cogent statement: “Hence, religious-spiritual scriptures aren’t concerned with truth, but rather with illumination, meaning access to other realities or states of mind.” To be sure, he uses the word ‘truth’ here a bit unconventionally. He does not mean to pursue the current political nihilism of ‘false facts.’ He seems instead to be alluding to the ineffability of ‘truth,’ the impossibility of converting spiritual truth to word in any meaningful or accurately intellectual way. Instead, his purpose is to – by inspiration – give one’s ability to understand higher things a living access to the truth. The word inspire can mean: to fill with life or living truth. That is what Emunds attempts to do in Genesis. For many, he will succeed at this new treatment of the Bible’s oldest book. At minimum, he makes a fascinating and fully credible linkage to the depths of ancient esoteric wisdom. This alone adds new life to Genesis.