Books

Explore Dr. Xavier's insightful work encompassing spirituality, psychiatry, religion, history, current affairs, and conscience.

Conscience, Spirituality, and Religion

Evade Extremisms and Enjoy an Enriched Life with an Axial Age Perspective

Life is stressful and complicated. We deal with good and bad choices, competing desires, and contradictory influences, pressures, and ideals. We are fortunate to have a reliable guide, our conscience, if properly used. It is our opportunity and responsibility to understand and utilize it. In today's world, we look around and wonder, with all the clearly wrong choices people are making, where is that good old inner voice? Delve into this book and understand the past through critical historical accounts, most particularly the pivotal Axial Age, when society progressed from mythical beliefs and tribalism to using reason, the Golden Rule, and moderation. Such progress needs to be revived and become widespread. See how the past gives us hope, even now, for a future where we can all flourish.

PRAISE and ENDORSEMENTS

“The combination of psychiatric insight and spiritual wisdom in Dr. Xavier’s book, Conscience, Spirituality, and Religion, is extremely useful for individuals and communities.”
—Richard Rohr, OFM, Founder, The Center for Action and Contemplation

“During the six hundred years of the Axial Age, from 800 to 200 BCE, humanity underwent a spiritual revolution, shifting from tribalist magic to universalist ethics based on the Golden Rule. Sadly, a counter-revolution followed, culminating in today’s religious nationalism fueling a global rise of fascism. Dr. N. S. Xavier’s Conscience, Spirituality, and Religion is a clarion call for a new axial turning to a post-tribal spirituality and a return to the Golden Rule as our ethical North Star.”
—Rami Shapiro, author of The Golden Rule and the Games People Play

PRAISE and ENDORSEMENTS

“This is a wonderful book, teaching about the true meaning of conscience. Theology, philosophy and history are brought together in an illuminative work. Clearly written, this book defines the difference between conscience and superego. This book offers a broad perspective on the dynamics of good and evil. When you finish the book, you will be deeply enriched about living the good life of conscience.”
—Arthur M. Freeman III, MD, Former Chairman of Psychiatry Department, Louisiana State University Medical School

“In this new book Dr. Xavier addresses many urgent needs of society and of individuals in our world today. He shows that from the Axial Age until our own time, conscience and spirituality have been closely connected in many religions and in communities of people who are ‘spiritual but not religious.’ Dr. Xavier emphasizes the importance of conscience in the Christian faith, and he shows that conscience plays a significant role in enhancing the fruit of the Spirit in the lives of Christians and promotes non-violence. He brings together what he has learned about conscience from his clinical practice and extensive research into a wide range of historical understandings of conscience. I believe that is just the kind of book about conscience that is needed at this time.”
—Fisher Humphreys, Professor of Divinity, Emeritus, Samford University, Birmingham

“Thanks to Dr. Xavier’s ground-breaking book, I can now differentiate the ‘true inner voice of conscience’ from the ‘fake inner voice of superego!’ I strongly recommend this psychological gem of a book to all readers interested in understanding the intricacies of the human mind.”
—Uma Majmudar, Retired, Emory University

“As I read this book, I realized there doesn’t seem to be much available material on what conscience actually is and how important it is. Dr. Xavier has the background for this writing. In this book, he focuses in depth on conscience, spirituality, and religions, and on history, especially on the very important Axial Age.”
—Douglas M. Carpenter, Retired Episcopal Priest

“I heartily recommend Conscience, Spirituality, and Religion, the latest enlightening and uplifting book by N.S. Xavier. As a retired university professor, my courses in journalism, media management, and media law were based in the moral/ethical imperatives of these professions, which, basically, comes down to understanding the role of conscience. Dr. Xavier has written a thorough analysis on conscience that is accessible to general readers. This book is a must read for anyone who seeks to understand the importance of conscience in human relations.”
—Randall K. Scott, Chair Emeritus, Department of Communications, University of Montevallo

“I have known Dr. Xavier for many years and have read his books. He is very passionate and knowledgeable about conscience, religions, and mental health, and he is very competent on writing and teaching about religions and mental health. There is a great need for such a book as this in a world of so much conflict and confusion.”
—Clarence E. McDanal Jr., MD, Retired Child Psychiatrist

“This book is a fascinating read. I am a retired substance abuse counselor and soon discovered that my clients were most in need of moral rules to follow. Conscience influences every attempt to improve one’s life. Dr. Xavier follows the thread of conscience through the history of religion and philosophy. His book highlights the pitfalls of believing in any person or movement that is not firmly grounded in conscience. Without conscience, religions or political organizations soon devolve into cults. This book is a powerful statement on the importance of conscience in the pursuit of spirituality in everyday life.”
— Marc’a D. Scott, Retired Substance Abuse Counselor

“This book is as timely as today’s news headlines. From international conflict to hometown protests, people have the opportunity to employ either tribal opinions or relationship-building behaviors informed by a conscience of ethical considerations. My thoughts are influenced by forty-seven years’ experience of professionally working with groups and individuals who were pursuing personal changes in their daily lives in order to more effectively cope with stress in regard to spiritual formation, substance addiction, and mental disorders. Xavier makes clear how we can progressively change our values, communication, and behaviors from ‘parroting’ mimicked responses of the superego to ethically based responses of an informed conscience. Xavier’s concepts are simple enough to benefit the educationally challenged, yet profound enough to inform the college graduate. The subject matter is not limited in its relevance to our current generation only as some passing fad book. It is perpetual in its relevance. I can see this book being utilized across a broad spectrum of both professional and nonprofessional readers, who seek to improve their problem-solving skills.”
—Ira Blanchard Jr.

“As our current environment seems to spawn more and more disunity, disharmony, and outright hostility toward each other, there is no better time for an in-depth probing of the value of conscience. Arising out of spirituality and psychology, conscience allows one to address and overcome imbedded biases and customs which impede our ability to live with each other in peace and harmony. Dr. Xavier has explored in greater detail the value of conscience which, as a psychiatrist and student of world religions, he has explored and written about for more than three decades. This book is not only informative and insightful but written to engage the reader in their own quest for a more honest and direct approach in relating with other people.”
—Gregory T. Bittner, Canon Lawyer

“This book is a gentle call to conscientious living with reference to ‘Beatitudes’ as tools to incorporate into our daily living practices. The relevance of this book is extreme as it offers a clear solution for our age of conflicts across the globe, with a glimpse of perhaps a second Axial Age. Dr. Xavier, as a psychiatrist and with depth of his knowledge of history of world religions, coupled with decades of experiential wisdom, offers his perspectives on current world affairs and calls for individual reflection in pursuit of relinquishing hate, prejudice, and violence in order to promote justice and harmony for a peaceful world.”
—Esther Vegesina, Psychiatric Nurse

“Many of us come across the word conscience but when one asks around it is an eye-opening surprise that hardly anyone does justice to its meaning and perceives the depth of its implications. The way Dr. Xavier wrote in his book, the concept of conscience is as if the creator has installed a sacred temple in every individual. Any religion with conscience is a system of peace and justice while without invoking conscience, and practicing religion with superego, in Dr. Xavier’s description, religion is a destructive cult. This is a well overdue book.”
—Saleem I. Naviwala, MD, Consultant Otolaryngology, UPMC Memorial Hospital

“This book provides an all-encompassing overview and offers concrete practical tools that are demonstrated to help misguided individuals and crowds to rediscover the essential ingredients of a healthy, meaningful, and rewarding life. Through observation, empathic listening, and fearless thinking he has identified distorted or absent spiritual concepts as a major source of individual and collective suffering which he faced in encounters with his patients. He describes a practical approach to helping people and society to recover from our contemporary ailments of anger, hate, addictions, egocentricity, and group-think, to name a few, which all seem to be fed by illusions. Using St. Paul’s discrimination between ‘works of the flesh’ (basically ‘sin,’ addictions, self-centeredness) and ‘fruits of the Spirit,’ he defines the latter as positive spiritual attributes and forces that help individuals and groups of people alike to ‘snap out of illusions,’ redirect their life goals, and apply the tools presented. This includes faith, hope, love, compassion, and forgiveness, among others. These tools are distilled from an encyclopedic array of historical, religious, philosophical, psychiatric, and literary sources, which make his book a joy to read.”
—Godehard Oepen, MD, Psychiatrist, Grayson and Associates

“Dr. Xavier’s universal understanding of the mind traverses time and space in an epic quest searching for what binds us all—the root of our uniqueness, the heart of our emotions, and the importance of our interconnectedness—a relational model of transformation which challenges us to interpersonal and intrapersonal growth. Through the lens of the fruits of the Spirit, Dr. Xavier unlocks understanding our consciences through this ancient text.”
—Julie Conrady, Minister, Unitarian Universalist Church of Birmingham

“One of the great epochs of our world concluded in a revolutionary shift in society and ethics as a result of the evolutionary exploration in beingness. Dr. Xavier’s work on this subject, drawing insights from the great philosophical, spiritual, and psychological traditions calls us inward to find a new shore. By returning to the big questions of being, Dr. Xavier points us back to a reality we are still attempting to define with words but is still common to us all regardless of our religious affiliation. This is a powerful and timely work that the world needs to read.”
—Jesse Eugene Herriott, Unity of Birmingham

“Dr. Xavier, a retired psychiatrist and an author of several books on comparative religions, spirituality, and the role of conscience is eminently qualified to write this very timely book. He has a deep understanding of human psychological needs as well as the various world religions and philosophical traditions.”
—Kapil Desai, Retired Engineer