The picture on the cover page clearly conveys, as the author believes, the theme and the spirit of the book. Yes, a piece of rock here is being hammered and chiseled out to create a particular sculpture. Interestingly, the sculptor himself emerges out of his own efforts to chisel it out. Similarly, the ideas and the insights in this book are given to the readers and they have to situate these ideas in their own life-situations, to find out what they mean to them. They have to draw their own lessons... and lo and behold, there will emerge, in a way, their own book!
In today's ultra modern world, people have no time to "think" or to "reflect"; for them time is money; but unfortunately they don't seem to realize that what runs on the dial of a clock are not just the hands of the clock but their very life! Due to lack of introspection and interiorization, the deeper dimension in life is lost and they end up absolutizing what is relative and relativizing what is absolute, but in both the cases they are the losers! The author, therefore, has purposefully left the book without a title and he is very much interested in what the readers are going to gain personally from the book. Therefore, the freedom and the of giving a title is meaningfully left to the readers themselves, and that justifies the title of the book: A BOOK THAT CANNOT BE TITLED (by the author, of course).
Fr. S. Stephen Jayard, a Catholic Priest of the Diocese of Tiruchirapalli, Tamil Nadu, India, is a Professor at Jnana- Deepa Vidyapeeth (Papal Athanaeum), Pune, India. He holds a Doctoral Degree in Philosophy of Science. He undertook his post-doctoral research in the USA and Canada. He has been a visiting professor at the International Institute of Information Technology (Hyderabad, India) and Sogang University (Seoul, South Korea). He lectures at several Institutes of Higher Education, presents papers at the national and international conferences, preaches retreats and holds seminars on motivation and management at Colleges and Parishes, in India and abroad. He has published several research papers in the national and international journals. His books include: Annai Mariyavin Bhakti Muyarchi - Arthamum and Aazhamum (2005); Marian Devotion - Meaning and Message (2007); Sella Vazhi Sellave (2008); Thalaipida Mudiyatha Nool (2011); Towards a Theory of Rationality in Science-A Plea for Reasonableness (2012); and Mary for Modern Times (2014).
Title sounds different and novel?... Well, it is given, not just for the sake of novelty and creativity, but, as I believe, it depicts the very nature and the purpose of the book.
Usually the title of a book reveals the gist of the things that are discussed in the book and it gives the nature of the insights or the direction in which the book is said to move. From the title one can guess, to a certain extent, as to what is discussed in the book and what we can expect from it. In fact, one often decides whether to read the book or not, based on its title.
But I have deliberately given such a title to this book, not just to stimulate the readers' curiosity; it is, indeed, a real struggle for me to choose a title for the book, because I value "the thoughts that are going to arise in the minds of the readers, the convictions that would get strengthened and the practical life-styles that they are going to chalk out after reading my book" - I value these more than my own insights and interpretations that I have shared here in this book. What the readers are going to derive by situating what I have written into their contexts, experience and expertise is more important than what I have actually presented here. The reflections and the interpretations under each theme are presented here to evoke the readers to consider them seriously. The various themes in the book focus on t our ordinary day-to-day life-situations, casual comments, usual occurrences, and taken-for-granted attitudes, our un-reflected approaches to people and incidents -I try to reflect on them and present to you.
Of course, the interpretations and the reflections that I give here, emerge from my limited experiences and academic knowledge, convictions and assumptions. I cannot expect that my interpretations to be the best, the final and absolute ones. If I do so, that would reveal not only my arrogance, but also my ignorance (in fact, any sense of arrogance, I am convinced, is an emergent of some sort of ignorance).
**Contents and Sample Pages**
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