To begin with, Wildblood possesses the exceptional ability to tackle sophisticated topics in a simple manner. And he achieves this without sacrificing profound insights. This in itself makes Remember the Creator a rare and refreshing book.
In addition, Wildblood's focus on truth is steeped in wisdom and sincerity. You will not find any convoluted logic or weak argumentation here. Nor will you encounter esoteric waffle nestled in confusing rhetorical flourishes that require a degree in theology to unravel. What you will find instead is a measured, yet earnest and astute appeal to the senses, reason, and faith. Wildblood motivates the reader to think widely and deeply about a range of religious and spiritual issues without alienating or distancing the reader in any way.
If I were forced to reduce my thoughts about Remember The Creator to a single phrase, I would, rather enthusiastically, affix the stale and unoriginal "must read" moniker to the book. Remember The Creator really is a "must read" for the simple reason that it tackles the ultimate problem of our time and place - the problem of a world that has forgotten God. Within the context of this bleak and barren landscape, Wildblood's firm, determined, and convincing reminder to remember the creator arrives like a much-needed rain blessing our scorched and parched soil.
Remember The Creator is a solid book and, as paradoxical as it sounds, it is this solidity that makes the book so difficult to review. This difficulty is due, in part, to the nature of the book itself - that is, it is a volume of essays. Each essay is a polished gem that easily stands on its own, but they are most effective when taken together and treated as a whole. As a whole, the book addresses and develops an overarching theme - one that is both crucial and pertinent to our own time and place - remembering the reality of God.
Part of the book explores the validity and claims of New Age and non-Western spiritual assumptions and approaches. Though Wildblood finds truth in many of these approaches, he respectfully and non-disparagingly concludes that they pale in comparison to the truth Christ offers. In other words, Buddhist and Advaita doctrines contain truth, but Wildblood holds the truth of Christianity as truer.
Of course, Wildblood refers here to real, essential Christianity, not the inadequate, over-wordly, spiritually-faded Christianity most traditional Christian institutions currently promulgate. Our task, Wildblood contends, is to re-establish a personal connection to this essence - the only essence that speaks to both the transcendent and the immanent aspects of our religious consciousness and, conclusively, the full potential of our spiritual development and progress.
In a recent blog post on his Meeting the Masters blog, Wildblood offers the following reflections on his book:
My second book Remember the Creator was an attempt to come to terms with these ideas and demonstrate that Christ is the foundation of truth and that what he taught takes us more deeply into the mind and heart of God than anything else. His life shows us the path to follow if we would fulfil God's will for us. This is not to escape creation for an uncreated absolute of perfect stillness and peace but to transform creation and raise it up, through the medium of our own self, into the light of God. The key to this is an understanding that suffering is not a universal evil from which we need to escape but a means of spiritual redemption through transforming it by self-sacrifice in love. Other spiritual approaches talk of love because they must but it is only through the path laid out by Christ that true spiritual love can be known. Without Christ we might have a generalised sort of compassion but we would not have love.
Several essays in Remember The Creator deal with this "generalised sort of compassion", a phrase that well reflects the confused zeitgeist of our times. In these essays, Wildblood demonstrates and elucidates a keen sensitivity to and understanding of why people choose to forget and reject God; but he minces no words about the wrongness of such attitudes.
He tackles sophistry and fallacy head-on and reveals the errors in both by astutely referring back to basic principles. These basic principles, Wildblood contends, are not only vital, but also utterly undeniable. Forgetting these basic principles or, worse, intentionally rejecting them at the individual and collective level is the root cause of so much of our current malaise - a malaise that can be only be remedied by remembering God, who is the basic principle from which all other principles stem.
What makes Remember The Creator so heartening and uplifting is Wildblood's talent for separating sense from nonsense, and separating sense from lesser sense. In the end, the arguments and explanations he provides do not simply make sense - they are sense. That is, they are firmly rooted in the reality of the Creator and in Creation, immediately accessible to all those with eyes to see and ears to hear.
Wildblood concludes his book with the following paragraph:
God the Creator is real. He dwells in the innermost depth of your heart and above the highest heaven. He is your Father and his Being itself. His name is I AM and his nature is love. He sits with you as you read these lines. Remember him.
I like this paragraph; it perfectly encapsulates the basic principle I alluded to above. This basic principle, this fundamental reality, permeates every line of the book in a manner that is both comforting and inspiring.
In reference to the author, Bruce Charlton has noted, "In a better world, William Wildblood would be recognised as a national treasure."
I couldn't agree more.
For me, reading Remember The Creator was akin to having a deep and meaningful conversation with a kindred spirit. I am convinced that other readers will feel the same after picking up this book - regardless of where they are in their spiritual and religious journeys. And for those who have yet to embark on the journey, this book offers a good place to start. Remember The Creator. It's not just a title, but an essential first step of the best journey you can hope to take in this mortal life.
Five stars. Highly recommended.
Please visit William Wildblood's blog for more information about how to acquire Remember the Creator.