Xpiritual

About the Book

Xpiritual is a book on a pagan controversy of our days. Disguised as the craze for “spiritual secrets” what we see today is the revival of an age-old polemic: living with the hidden versus the need to seize what is hidden. Surreptitious as the glance of Lot’s wife, the search for secrets is the denial of the hidden and the emotional territory of the subliminal and privilege. Equating sacred and [the search for] secrets as antonyms, Rabbi Bonder exposes forms of fetishism and idolatry in the mind-set of consumerism and individualism. This neo-spirituality is portrayed as pornographic in essence given it is based on the abuse of image and self-absortion. Paganism is the attitude of affirming self-value by means of anthropocentric strategies that always rely either on rationalism or the esoteric. The former is manifest by indulging in self-justification and self-validation and the latter on subliminal ego messages infiltrated in the realm of the sacred. Xpiritual is the presentation of simple and age-old wisdom with a renewed inspiration for the spiritual quest of our time.

About the Author

Rabbi Nilton Bonder was trained at the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York City and lectures regularly in the United States. Born in Brazil, he is a best selling author of eighteen books in Latin America. He leads one of Brazil most influential Jewish congregations and is also active in the civil rights and ecological causes. Some of his books have been translated in Europe and Asia and five of them in the US (The Kabbalah of Food, The Kabbalah of Money, The Kabbala of Envy, Yidische Kop -- Problem Solving in Jewish Lore, Learning and Humor and Our Immoral Soul -- A Manifesto of Spiritual Disobedience) His last book published in the US has been selected among the best 20 books on Judaica on 2002 and has been included in the Best Jewish Writing of 2002 - organized by Tikkun Magazine. Our Immoral Soul was selected as the best brazilian play of 2007 by Veja Magazine, the most prestigious in the country. His latest book "Taking off Your Shoes" on an expedition with Harvard University on footsteps of Abraham, has made the best selling lists in the country. He has led workshops for main corporations like IBM, MCI, ABN-Amro, Globo Network Television, Brazilian Oil Company and delivered lectures at Boston University, New York Central Library, American Academy of Psychoanalysis, Blanton Peale Counseling Center, Open Center, San Francisco and New York, Nationaal Vakbodsmuseum, Amsterdam, Leiden University, Omega Institute, The Learning Anex, San Francisco, Libreria L'Ancora, Milão, State of the World Forum, Brandeis University, Jewish Museum, Praga, and United Nations Peace Conference.