Introductions
A Story about God
“Change your mind – change your life.”
Matthew D Harding is a philosophical consultant who runs Hybris Think Tank. In an online interview Harding states that Introductions…A Story about God will affect its readers because “it comes at a time when the world really needs to have a better understanding of God.” The book won Honorable Mention in the London Book and New England Book Festivals. Harding envisions a sequel to this intriguing novel in which mystical ideas about reality and its relationship to the divine blossom out of a chance meeting in an airport.
Alex Walker, an ambitious young process consultant, finds the only a seat in a crowded airport, between an old man and a beautiful young woman–but there is a book on the chair. Alex picks up the book and asks the old man and the attractive woman if it belongs to either of them. Thus he establishes communication with the “green eyed girl…hers were the kind of eyes that allowed you to know that it is possible to stare into the soul of another being and get temporarily lost, pulled into their world…”
But this is no ordinary boy-meets-girl saga. Alex is intrigued by the book because of an inexplicable “coincidence:” his own business card is stuck in its pages. The book’s antique binding and its magical title–A Story about God–draw him in, and he is quickly caught up in its supernatural cosmology. The authors of the book-within-a-book introduce the reader to a parallel world within the normal world, in which ignorant beings living in a deep mist are made more fully conscious by enlightened ones like the authors themselves and a God-like being, Adonae, who continually learns and upgrades the normal world by sharing his own story of creativity and knowledge.
When he finishes reading the book-within-a-book, Alex, now in line to board his flight, passes the book on to the “green-eyed goddess.” As the real book ends, we realize that she too will be swept up in its core message: “Don’t just be content to exist.” Discovery is dynamic and creative. It’s what God does.
This title is for speculators and dreamers. It both suffers from and is at times enhanced by rapid-fire, comic-book changes in type-face. Its mildly surreal, enchanting New Age spirituality will leave some readers scratching their heads, which would seem to be the author’s intention.
Reviewed by
Barbara Bamberger Scott
Disclosure: This article is not an endorsement, but a review. The publisher of this book provided free copies of the book and paid a small fee to have their book reviewed by a professional reviewer. Foreword Reviews and Clarion Reviews make no guarantee that the publisher will receive a positive review. Foreword Magazine, Inc. is disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.
