Marcus Braybrooke: Beacons of the Light – 100 holy people who have shaped the history of humanity
O-Books. ISBN 978-1-84694-185-6
http://www.o-books.com/book/detail/370/Beacons-of-the-Light
“Marcus Braybrooke has for over forty years played a significant role in the growing worldwide interfaith movement. He is President of the World Congress of Faiths, Co-Founder of the Three Faiths Forum, a Peace Councillor and a Patron of the International Interfaith Centre at Oxford. He has travelled widely to share in many interfaith gatherings. He is also the author of over forty books on religion and prayer.
Marcus Braybrooke is a retired clergyman in the Anglican Dorchester-on-Thames Team Ministry.”
His choice I suspect is also determined by his own religious background namely Christianity.
So don’t expect people like Aleister Crowley in his list of 100 of Holy People.
He does include people like ‘Adam & Eve’ though.
Despite the bias it is an interesting book and made me also wonder “what constitutes a ‘holy person’.”?
In a book of 600 pages each person is allotted on average about six pages. Which is enough to whet ones appetite and want to find out more about the person in question, or not as the case may be. Fortunately Marcus has been wise enough to include further references at the end of each chapter. It is also a history of people who are have indeed influenced humanity over the last 2000 years. From Adam & Eve to Muhammad, from Wesley to Rosemary Ruether, it is an interesting peek into the lives of those who stood up for what they believed.
