John Cowan, born in 1935, 86 years old now, four years of post graduate theological
education, careers as a Roman Catholic priest, 8 years; Episcopal Priest, 22 years, and
then 15 years as a Quaker, (where all are considered ministers,) At the same time, 10
years as a corporate educator and team builder, 15 years as an external Organization
Development Consultant, the author of 5 books. Obviously, some of the above
overlapped each other. The book titles are, The Self Reliant Manager, Small
Decencies, The Common Table, Buddhist Meditation for Christians, Hawk Rising. In all
about fifty thousand copies sold, without counting translations in 3 other countries.
Since childhood he was a prodigious reader. During the last few years he has written
essays and book reviews primarily for his extensive pool of friends. The best of these
are available to you on this website. His goal in the reviews is not only to pass on his
opinion of the book but to give you enough of a sense of it to decide to read it. In both
the reviews and the essays, he hopes to open a new door for you into the ever-widening
world of working philosophy and practical theology.
After responding to a test on vocational aptitude for the Minneapolis Gas Company as
an eighteen-year-old seeking a summer job pushing a shovel he was called in by the
vice-president of personnel who urged him to abandon his present course, quit the
seminary, and sign up for college as an engineer. Without a shred of training he had
scored in the 94 th percentile for engineering aptitude. Long after that incident he finally
doped out his major problem as a theological student and then a teacher of theology.
He approached the problem, (engineers love problems, everything is a problem, oh,
happy day) as an engineer would and as a result he found much theology, for instance
the Trinity, nonsense.) And Jesus, the fellow with the dirty feet and down to earth
honesty, a winner. (Not the Jesus shined up for the audience by followers over the later
centuries.