Fiction/Metaphysical
Ecumensus: The Next Vision
Clifford Lane Mark
iUniverse
2008
ISBN: 978-0-595-46219-3
Soft cover
331 pages
In the metaphysical novel, Ecumensus: The Next Vision, author Clifford Lane Mark gently offers an alternative view of religion and spirituality. In this story, the deficiencies inherent in organized religion and rigid belief systems are exposed. Mark suggests an internal approach to faith that leads to full individual development: "There is no limit to what I can do when I am not caught up in being a limited version of me."
The story opens in the fall of 2009 in an Albuquerque, New Mexico office where Project 4000 is being planned by a diverse group of professionals. Project 4000 is a meeting of seven Master Teachers who will decide the new direction of faith and religion in the lives of mankind. The meeting is to be held in June 2010. Thomas Walls is the manager in charge of the project, which ultimately includes an archaeologist, secretary, transcriptionist, testing specialist, and an Acoma Native American. The program is initiated by Russell Layne, a former publishing tycoon who was inspired by a guru he encountered in India and a Catholic priest from New Mexico. It is the priest who supplies Layne with the Seven File, a list of seven statements that provide clues about the Master Teachers who will attend the meeting.
During the seven months of planning, the Project 4000 staff become close to the Acoma leader, Jack, who approves their use of the Acoma Pueblo for the big event. Jack becomes a part of the planning team and participates in the weekly meetings, which include chanting, mediation, and visualization in addition to brain-storming about the seven clues and the details of housing and feeding the Teachers as well as advertising the event.
The characters openly speculate about the purpose of the meeting and what its outcome will be. There are many discussions about the role of religion in a life of faith and how the symbols and rituals of organized religion have become the actual objects of worship. There are also in depth talks about so called "universal truths" and the negative impact they can have on followers:
"...these people take their limited understanding and call it a universal truth or parade it around as the ‘only truth,' or the ‘real truth.' They try to foist it on others and put it on television and dismiss those who see it differently or disagree. Then they fight wars over their little truth or shun people or sever family ties and quit speaking to each other. They even kill for it."
When the meeting convenes in June, the seven Master Teachers find their own way to the Acoma Pueblo, and so do thousands of seekers. The meeting culminates in the development of seven mantras and seven understandings designed to spark a change in perception about how faith is to be experienced and taught during the next two thousand years.
Mark has written a beautiful story that incorporates religious and historical facts into an innovative view of spirituality. Ecumensus: The Next Vision will challenge readers to consider a broader understanding of the universal truths that dominate their lives. I highly recommend it.
Melissa Levine
For Independent Professional Book Reviewers
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