Disclosures: Symbols, Worlds, Selves

Antonio R. Gualtieri’s book Disclosures offers a provocative exploration of what religion is and how it works in the lives of people. The interpretation of religion that runs through this book asserts that it entails participation in a symbol system that creates selfhood because the symbols communicate a vision of reality and a value system that responds to the threats and crises of life. In today’s secular world, it is important to note that vision of reality cannot be reduced to belief in God. First, because believing is not primarily what religious people do, and second because one can have a religious worldview that does not entail gods and supernatural beings.Disclosures is written in an episodic style comprised of analytic reflection and personal narrative drawing on extensive travels in diverse cultures. It begins by delineating the various symbolic forms in which religions find expression, like myth, rituals, doctrines and social organization. It then sets out to interpret the meaning of this symbolic world. This entails showing how the symbols of religion disclose their users’ understanding of human existence, the historical process, the natural environment, ultimate powers and values. The result of these wide-ranging explorations is a theoretically illuminating and existentially engaging reflection on life’s most vexing questions and transformative possibilities.