Guengerich enriches his book with specific human elements drawn from his pastoral career, making it accessible and even...
A pastoral look at what “God” means in the face of modernity.
Guengerich, senior minister of New York City’s All Souls Church, has lived at two opposite ends of the religious spectrum. He was raised as a conservative Mennonite but is now a pastor in the liberal Unitarian Universalist denomination. As a young man, he came to the conclusion that the biblical God of his youth was a myth and a farce. However, he soon realized that religion still had a role to play in his life and the lives of others. In the Unitarian Universalist Church, he found an outlet for his views. In this work, Guengerich proposes a nontraditional outlook on religion and faith in the modern scientific age. The author unequivocally rejects the idea of God as a supernatural being. In his view, modern science shows that there was no creator or mover of the universe, and reason and logic disprove the divinity of God as put forth in monotheistic Scriptures. However, he still proposes a “God,” defined as “the experience of being connected to all that is—all that is present, as well as all that is past and all that is possible.” As such, he writes, each of us is “the face of God in this world,” a tremendous responsibility to be lived out in community. Despite his commitment to reason, Guengerich relies on the mystical and mysterious to sell his concept of God. “Faith is something no one fully understands,” he writes. “It peers into the realm of mystery and transcendence….Faith is a commitment to live with the belief that life is a wondrous mystery.”
Guengerich enriches his book with specific human elements drawn from his pastoral career, making it accessible and even evocative. However, he is simply following in the footsteps of thinkers across time who yearned for spirituality but rejected the world of the spirit.Pub Date: May 28, 2013
ISBN: 978-0230342255
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Review Posted Online: April 20, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2013
This a book of earlier, philosophical essays concerned with the essential "absurdity" of life and the concept that- to overcome the strong tendency to suicide in every thoughtful man-one must accept life on its own terms with its values of revolt, liberty and passion. A dreary thesis- derived from and distorting the beliefs of the founders of existentialism, Jaspers, Heldegger and Kierkegaard, etc., the point of view seems peculiarly outmoded. It is based on the experience of war and the resistance, liberally laced with Andre Gide's excessive intellectualism. The younger existentialists such as Sartre and Camus, with their gift for the terse novel or intense drama, seem to have omitted from their philosophy all the deep religiosity which permeates the work of the great existentialist thinkers. This contributes to a basic lack of vitality in themselves, in these essays, and ten years after the war Camus seems unaware that the life force has healed old wounds... Largely for avant garde aesthetes and his special coterie.
Pub Date: Sept. 26, 1955
ISBN: 0679733736
Page Count: 228
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Sept. 19, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1955
Worthwhile reference stuffed with facts and illustrations.
A compendium of charts, time lines, lists and illustrations to accompany study of the Bible.
This visually appealing resource provides a wide array of illustrative and textually concise references, beginning with three sets of charts covering the Bible as a whole, the Old Testament and the New Testament. These charts cover such topics as biblical weights and measures, feasts and holidays and the 12 disciples. Most of the charts use a variety of illustrative techniques to convey lessons and provide visual interest. A worthwhile example is “How We Got the Bible,” which provides a time line of translation history, comparisons of canons among faiths and portraits of important figures in biblical translation, such as Jerome and John Wycliffe. The book then presents a section of maps, followed by diagrams to conceptualize such structures as Noah’s Ark and Solomon’s Temple. Finally, a section on Christianity, cults and other religions describes key aspects of history and doctrine for certain Christian sects and other faith traditions. Overall, the authors take a traditionalist, conservative approach. For instance, they list Moses as the author of the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Hebrew Bible) without making mention of claims to the contrary. When comparing various Christian sects and world religions, the emphasis is on doctrine and orthodox theology. Some chapters, however, may not completely align with the needs of Catholic and Orthodox churches. But the authors’ leanings are muted enough and do not detract from the work’s usefulness. As a resource, it’s well organized, inviting and visually stimulating. Even the most seasoned reader will learn something while browsing.
Worthwhile reference stuffed with facts and illustrations.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2005
ISBN: 978-1-5963-6022-8
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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