Ron Ramsay

Ron Ramsay is a minister of the Uniting Church in Australia, currently semi-retired and working part-time supplying in vacant parishes. He has a degree in Divinity and a Master's degree in Literary Studies majoring in world religions and mysticism and he has written this book called "Through a Glass Darkly" based on an article he had published in 1988. It is non-fiction theological/ philosophical in fiction form - a "faction" is how one publisher described it. It is the story of his own search for a way to reconcile the personal God of theism with the Impersonal Absolute of most mysticism - to build a bridge between 'East' and 'West' (in a sense).

In sixteen years of research and monitoring new releases, he has not become aware of any other theory that bridges the gap and reconciles these two understandings of Ultimate Reality while keeping the two in balance. Because this theory involves a 'paradigm shift' in our understanding of time, he has called it the 'Dual Paradigm' Theory of Spirituality. He first thought of this theory when he was doing his Master's in 1984. He entered it in an interstate competition where it was highly commended and he was urged to publish it. Consequently he had a condensed version published in the 'Asian Journal of Theology' October 1988 as an article called "God in Time and Eternity".

He was accepted by Griffith University to do a PhD on the subject but was transferred away from Brisbane. So he has written a full-length book on the subject in order to give his idea wider exposure and have it exposed to critical examination by the public. The book seeks to impart the theory as a 'tale of scholarly research and personal spiritual crisis' as his agent calls it. His agent is also of the opinion that he has a 'fine, light, easily readable style of writing' with good dialogue and characterization. It may not have 'swash-buckling' action but there is a bit of tension and mystery with the telephone 'stalking' by a nuisance caller.

He is well qualified to expound a theory that seeks to bring the major religions of the world to a more tolerant appreciation of one another: He had a dramatic spiritual conversion to theistic Christianity at the age of 21 but has also had a kind of mystical experience while learning and practising meditation; as a Protestant student for the ministry he was not exposed to the study of philosophical mysticism and was therefore able to study it in an unbiased fashion; he is a minister of the Uniting Church of Australia and has been engaged in ecumenical pursuits. He has lectured to Catholic, Anglican and Uniting Church students on comparative religion, inter-faith dialogue and his own theory.