My first exposure to Goleman was hearing him speak a few years ago. He struck me has thinking about the same things I regularly think about, so I finally picked up the book.
I have no first hand knowledge of Goleman's faith walk, but his logic tracks well as he discusses the phenomena that you've probably noticed over the years - the smartest people do not always acheive the highest success, and sometimes the most successful people can't do two digit multiplication but seem to have a golden aura about them that leads them to success. IQ certainly has some bearing on what we achieve, but there's more, even from a phsychological perspective.
Although written from a secular position, some of what he writes has profound spiritual application. For instance, he writes about Data, the lifelike android on Star Trek who is incapable of feeling emotion and has ongoing difficulties because of it. Goleman writes:
"Our humanity is most evident in our feelings. Data seeks to feel, knowing something essential is missing....The lesson of Data's yearning for yearning itself is that the higher values of the human heart - faith, hope, devotion, love - are missing entirely from the coldy cognitive view."There is something to be said about yearning for yearing....desiring to feel, sense, experience on a level that transcends brick, mortar, flesh and bone. It's the beauty of spiritual hunger...that a hunger points to a reality that exists. I am encouraged this morning that even fully aware of our barren heart, we encounter more of God than the man who is unaware of his.
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