Complete Chapters, Excerpts and Chapter Summaries from In Search of the Loving God:

Chapter 1: Seeking a Direction. Why many spiritual seekers are dissatisfied with the church and are searching for a genuine spirituality.
Chapter 5: Jesus' Teachings - Living in the Kingdom of Heaven. A new (or very old!) way of looking at these wonderful, timeless teachings.
Chapter 19: The End of Worldliness, and the Return of Jesus to our Hearts. Interprets the book of Revelation as an allegory of living the spiritual live, rather than a prediction of the end of the world.
Part of Chapter 9: Power Games of the Western Church. This long excerpt covers the the return of civilization to Europe in Gothic times after the dark ages, followed by a reversion to barbaric horror in the form of the Inquisition and the Witch Craze. Millions of women were burned as witches while the Renaissance was taking place in a very male-dominated way. The churches refined their techniques for controling people through fear and intimidation during this time.
Part of Chapter 10: The Church is brought Under Control. This long excerpt covers the decline of the political power of the church after the Renaissance, and the way the church compensated for this by increasing its use of guilt and fear to control people - a practice it still has not renounced.
Part of Chapter 15: Defaming the Name of God - Eternal Punishment in Hell. This long excerpt is part of a chapter that systematically debunks the idea of everlasting punishment in hell. It shows this sadistic concept is not a part of the original Greek of the New Testament, but has been translated into modern Bibles.
Part of Chapter 16: Answering the Dilemmas - Reincarnation and Salvation. Up until the sixth century reincarnation was accepted by Christianity - for instance, the church father Origen clearly believed in it. Why did the church abandon this belief?

Chapter summaries and more excerpts. Summaries of all 20 chapters, and more excerpts from some of them.


Creation Hymn from the Rig Veda

Before the creation of this universe,
There was neither being nor not-being,
Neither sky nor the heavens beyond...
There was only water unfathomably deep.

There was neither death nor immortality,
Nor demarcation between night and day,
That One alone breathed in its own bliss,
And by its own power, in spite of the absolute vacuum.
Nothing else was there.

In the beginning there was darkness everywhere,
Enveloping the waters.
All that existed was void and formless.
Then, by the power of thought alone,
That One gave birth to itself.

The first born was the Creative Energy,
The primordial seed of the mind.
It is through this energy that seers,
After long searching in the inmost chambers of their hearts,
Discovered the Supreme Spirit
Which joins the seen with the unseen.

This self-shining Spirit was everywhere,
In and through the universe; above and below it.
Primal seeds were sprouting, mighty forces moving,
Pulsation below, pure energy above.

Who here knows? Who can say for sure?
When it began and from where it came -- this creation?...
He who watches everything from the highest heaven,
Only He knows -- or perhaps even He does not know!

- Translated by Mark Mason, from Chapter 18 of his book
In Search of the Loving God.

This "translation" was make by the author by comparing seven different translations from the Sanskrit to get a good feeling for the meaning, then rendering it in what he believed was the best possible way. This was most often in his own words, but some phrases from these seven translations were used when the author believed the wording was already as perfect and as poetic as it could possibly be. The sources are: Mahaul R. Copalacharya, The Heart of the Rigveda, pp. 409-418 (six translations) and Johnothan Star, Two Suns Rising, p. 4.