by Aleta You ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 25, 2014
A detailed, didactic guide to Scripture for daily study and devotion, sidestepping sanctimony in favor of thoughtful tips...
Approaching religion with an academic sensibility, this autobiographical guide advocates the Bible as a text for intensive study, one to be regularly revisited by the faithful.
With a background in traditional Western philosophy, You develops her spiritual guide as a supplement to the postdoctoral academics that left her hungry for true wisdom. She builds the book by establishing principles that progress from macro concepts lifted from specific passages of the Bible to everyday manifestations of faith, such as her explanation of the Holy Spirit as it reveals itself in people’s free will to be “born again” as a Christian and even in some believers’ abilities to speak in tongues. You demonstrates the breadth of her biblical knowledge by referencing numerous, often lesser-known stories from the Bible, including Asa as proof that God protects loyal followers and Abigail to show the benefits of trusting God completely. Chapters often begin with an anecdote from You’s spiritual journey—for instance, a harrowing evening when her car was shot by a crossbow on a dark back road in New Jersey—that segues into a Christian tenet; in this case, relying on spiritual strength in the face of the devil. Though her chapter on the devil and confronting evil comes off as dogma, You generally elucidates the significance of “what a person chooses to believe” over the mere fact of whether a person has faith. For the most part, her emphasis on positive belief reconciles born-again Christianity with what can be seen as the retributive aspects of organized religion. Each chapter ends with enumerated points for daily practice, with related Scripture cataloged in book-ending indexes. You’s friendly tone evokes small-group study, more personable than a pastor preaching from the pulpit. With an erudite approach to religion, You encourages regular, in-depth study of the Bible, keeping with her professorial perspective on spirituality.
A detailed, didactic guide to Scripture for daily study and devotion, sidestepping sanctimony in favor of thoughtful tips and reader-friendly resources.Pub Date: June 25, 2014
ISBN: 978-1490303697
Page Count: 220
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Nov. 28, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Share your opinion of this book
by Albert Camus ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 26, 1955
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
Share your opinion of this book
More by Albert Camus
BOOK REVIEW
by Albert Camus ; translated by Justin O'Brien & Sandra Smith
BOOK REVIEW
by Albert Camus ; translated by Ellen Conroy Kennedy & Justin O'Brien
BOOK REVIEW
by Albert Camus translated by Arthur Goldhammer edited by Alice Kaplan
by Stephen Batchelor ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 18, 2020
A very welcome instance of philosophy that can help readers live a good life.
A teacher and scholar of Buddhism offers a formally varied account of the available rewards of solitude.
“As Mother Ayahuasca takes me in her arms, I realize that last night I vomited up my attachment to Buddhism. In passing out, I died. In coming to, I was, so to speak, reborn. I no longer have to fight these battles, I repeat to myself. I am no longer a combatant in the dharma wars. It feels as if the course of my life has shifted onto another vector, like a train shunted off its familiar track onto a new trajectory.” Readers of Batchelor’s previous books (Secular Buddhism: Imagining the Dharma in an Uncertain World, 2017, etc.) will recognize in this passage the culmination of his decadeslong shift away from the religious commitments of Buddhism toward an ecumenical and homegrown philosophy of life. Writing in a variety of modes—memoir, history, collage, essay, biography, and meditation instruction—the author doesn’t argue for his approach to solitude as much as offer it for contemplation. Essentially, Batchelor implies that if you read what Buddha said here and what Montaigne said there, and if you consider something the author has noticed, and if you reflect on your own experience, you have the possibility to improve the quality of your life. For introspective readers, it’s easy to hear in this approach a direct response to Pascal’s claim that “all of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone.” Batchelor wants to relieve us of this inability by offering his example of how to do just that. “Solitude is an art. Mental training is needed to refine and stabilize it,” he writes. “When you practice solitude, you dedicate yourself to the care of the soul.” Whatever a soul is, the author goes a long way toward soothing it.
A very welcome instance of philosophy that can help readers live a good life.Pub Date: Feb. 18, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-300-25093-0
Page Count: 200
Publisher: Yale Univ.
Review Posted Online: Nov. 24, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2019
Share your opinion of this book
More by Stephen Batchelor
BOOK REVIEW
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Hey there, book lover.
We’re glad you found a book that interests you!
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Don’t fret. We’ll find you.