Few, if any, thinkers and writers today would have the
imagination, the breadth of knowledge, the literary skill,
and-yes-the audacity to conceive of a powerful, secular
alternative to the Bible. But that is exactly what A.C.
Grayling has done by creating a non-religious Bible, drawn
from the wealth of secular literature and philosophy in both
Western and Eastern traditions, using the same techniques of
editing, redaction, and adaptation that produced the holy
books of the Judaeo-Christian and Islamic religions. The
Good Book consciously takes its design and presentation from
the Bible, in its beauty of language and arrangement into
short chapters and verses for ease of reading and
quotability, offering to the non-religious seeker all the
wisdom, insight, solace, inspiration, and perspective of
secular humanist traditions that are older, far richer and
more various than Christianity. Organized in 12 main
sections----Genesis, Histories, Widsom, The Sages, Parables,
Consolations, Lamentations, Proverbs, Songs, Epistles, Acts,
and the Good----The Good Book opens with meditations on the
origin and progress of the world and human life in it, then
devotes attention to the question of how life should be
lived, how we relate to one another, and how vicissitudes
are to be faced and joys appreciated. Incorporating the
writing of Herodotus and Lucretius, Confucius and Mencius,
Seneca and Cicero, Montaigne, Bacon, and so many others, The
Good Book will fulfill its audacious purpose in every way.