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Fearless Engagement Book: Four Arrows

The academic, clergy, and process theologian, Terry Biddington in the UK, just posted a note about his experience reading my first draft of a ms. Here it is:

A new book on Fearlessness

Posted on July 11, 2017 by terrybiddington

I’ve just finished a peer-review of Canadian philosopher of fear R Michael Fisher’s new book:

Fearless Engagement in the Life and Work of Four Arrows: An Indigenous-based Social Transformer, publisher: Peter Lang 2018

 It’s a study of the life of Four Arrows – an Indigenous educator also known as Dr Don Trent Jacobs https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Arrows

It’s a highly unusual book that takes the reader on a journey into the worldview of both Four Arrows and Fisher from fearless to fearlessness, courage and bravery. The thesis is that fear has become socialised to the point where we no longer recognise its influence in our lives, thinking and society.  So Fisher speaks of fearism – like racism or sexism: invisible, insidious and infectious. But for both Fours Arrows and Fisher fear isn’t the opposite of love (like ‘perfect love casts out fear’) but on a continuous spectrum with it. They point out that, while there are plenty of good studies about the impact of fear on our lives, there is no equivalent history of the world’s fearlessness teachings.

And it is Fisher’s life mission to achieve this. See for a good start, his The World’s Fearlessness Teachings (University Press of America, 2010).

https://terrybiddington.wordpress.com/2017/07/11/a-new-book-on-fearlessness/

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