Catholic-ometer: 4.5 of 5
Enjoyability: 2.5 of 5
Let me start this off by just saying the number one problem with this book. Its title is wrong. A good title for this book would have been "the stages to salvation" or something else that paints it as what it really is; a study of the experiences of a few saints in their spiritual development.
Why is this a problem? Because chances are, if you pick up a book entitled "the fulfillment of all desire," you are doing so because you have very big desires and are looking for a way to fulfill them. At no point does this book take that tack; at least not directly.
This is a big problem for this book, but it's not the only one. The second big problem is that like most modern students of theology, the author seems to assume that he's talking to other theologians, and doesn't take the time to properly-define his terms; terms like "God," "love," "truth," "peace," "worldly," and "sin." Without the proper definitions of these terms, an amateur will find himself easily thrown by the complex and contradictory-sounded ideas contained herein, and may even be in danger of losing their faith from reading this book.
I hate having to do this, because I've heard good things about Ralph Martin, and all he's done for the modern church, but this book is certainly not for beginners. In fact, I strongly suggest reading at least the first three sections of the Summa Theologica (the ones having to do with sacred doctrine and God,) before even attempting to read this, mainly because those segments contain pivotal information about the nature of God, which is neccesary for deriving any real benefit from this book.
To start with, Ralph Martin's study of the levels of holiness found in the lives of the saints should be taken as just that; a study. It contains no doctrine of the church, nor any moral guidance of any sort; only the experiences and writings of various saints, regarding their personal journeys of spiritual growth. Unfortunately, these descriptions of perfect holiness can lead people to feel hopeless and despairing over not being holy enough, which probably wasn't the intent, nor should it be taken as such. This element made the book harder to enjoy, but I would still have given it five stars, if not for this next point.
The book frequently states that our emotional attachments to God and worldly things have some bearing on our eternal souls. This is not true. God is the source of all truth, and because of that, he trades only in truthful things. By and large, human emotions are entirely subjective, so while it's certainly beneficial if you can link your emotions to God, it's not required for admission into paradise.
What is required, is that we link our will to his. The will is a very different thing from both the emotions and the intellect, because our will is what we use to make decisions. This is why God can command us to "love the Lord your God." He wouldn't give us the command to love him unless we could do it on command, and we cannot change our feelings when someone commands us to.
Frankly, I'm still waiting for the English word "love" to be totally abandoned by Christians, because it has so many definitions, that it no longer carries the meaning that we need it to. The word I prefer to use is always "charity." Charity is not emotional. It's a choice; a decision of beneficence and service, which we make with our will; not our feelings.
The objective of the Catholic faith is not to somehow emote with God on some supernatural level; it's to pledge ourselves continually to the benefit of others, in obedience to his command, so that he, in his infinite justice and mercy, can pledge himself to our benefit.
This is my third major problem with the book. It may have been written by a man, but for the life of me, I wouldn't have been able to tell. Emotions and relationships pop up all over this book, which, without heavy re-interpretation of those terms, comes off as being extremely womany.
Ultimately, had I been an amateur Catholic, picking this book up, without any previous knowledge of theology, my impression would have been this; "the author of this book thinks that God is an emotional, abusive father figure who's waiting for us all to get enough stockholme syndrome to love him in spite of it. Furthermore, if we can't completely give up our feelings, wills, fears, desires, and everything else that makes us unique and distinct from him, we're all going to be stuck in Hell."
Fortunately, I do know better than to think this, but a mere five years ago, this is what I actually would have thought.
As I said, so many of this book's problems could have been solved by just using more clear logic and less hearsay, and defining its terms a little better. As things are, I think that this book, while not specifically unfaithful, is very dangerous in the hands of amateurs, and could even inspire a pathological fear of Heaven in the unprepared.
To help prevent this, I'm going to be adding a few blog posts in the near future called "Why are you Afraid of Heaven?" In these, I'll explore all the possible reasons to be afraid of Heaven, and why each one is unfounded, but I won't do that here.
In short, don't take this as the bible, since it's not completely right. You might get something out of it; I know I did, but it wasn't a pleasant read.
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