A praiseful portrait of Pope Francis.
British journalist Ivereigh (Fellow, Contemporary Church History/Campion Hall, Univ. of Oxford; The Great Reformer: Francis and the Making of a Radical Pope, 2014) presents a hagiographic biography of the Francis papacy to date. In a detailed study packed with insider tidbits, the author examines various overarching issues that have affected and defined the Francis era. In addition to the inescapable issue of priestly abuse, Ivereigh also discusses such topics as Vatican finances, rehabilitation of divorced Catholics, human rights crises, and gender and sexuality controversies. An overarching theme is the problem of clericalism, which the author defines as “the perverse idea that clerics of any sort—bishops, priests, consecrated persons—are superior to non-clerics, who are treated as inferiors.” Clericalism, writes Ivereigh, has pervaded Catholicism for years and tainted it in countless ways, leading to many of the problems the church faces today. Whereas clericalism leads to a distance from those the church is meant to love, Francis is consistent in promoting “closeness” in every possible way. Ivereigh presents Francis as a nearly flawless figure, “an old Jesuit spiritual master” with “native cunning” who “truly imitates Christ.” The closest the author comes to criticizing Francis is in the chapter on the abuse crisis, in which he admits that Francis made certain missteps in his handling of specific cases. Francis’ critics, on the other hand, are “Pharisaical” examples of “naked legalism.” He even goes so far as to call them “neo-Donatists,” referring to an ancient heresy marked by a lack of mercy. Francis, “the master bridgemaker in an era of angry wall builders,” is presented as standing nearly alone against a moribund church and a misguided world. Ivereigh’s connections with church insiders—connections he does not hesitate to highlight—make for an interesting read. His lack of objectivity, however, detracts from an otherwise intriguing study.
A good read for Francis devotees but far from unbiased journalism.Pub Date: Nov. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-250-11938-4
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: Sept. 24, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2019
Categories: GENERAL BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR | BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR | PHILOSOPHY & RELIGION
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BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The authors have created a sort of anti-Book of Virtues in this encyclopedic compendium of the ways and means of power.
Everyone wants power and everyone is in a constant duplicitous game to gain more power at the expense of others, according to Greene, a screenwriter and former editor at Esquire (Elffers, a book packager, designed the volume, with its attractive marginalia). We live today as courtiers once did in royal courts: we must appear civil while attempting to crush all those around us. This power game can be played well or poorly, and in these 48 laws culled from the history and wisdom of the world’s greatest power players are the rules that must be followed to win. These laws boil down to being as ruthless, selfish, manipulative, and deceitful as possible. Each law, however, gets its own chapter: “Conceal Your Intentions,” “Always Say Less Than Necessary,” “Pose as a Friend, Work as a Spy,” and so on. Each chapter is conveniently broken down into sections on what happened to those who transgressed or observed the particular law, the key elements in this law, and ways to defensively reverse this law when it’s used against you. Quotations in the margins amplify the lesson being taught. While compelling in the way an auto accident might be, the book is simply nonsense. Rules often contradict each other. We are told, for instance, to “be conspicuous at all cost,” then told to “behave like others.” More seriously, Greene never really defines “power,” and he merely asserts, rather than offers evidence for, the Hobbesian world of all against all in which he insists we live. The world may be like this at times, but often it isn’t. To ask why this is so would be a far more useful project.
If the authors are serious, this is a silly, distasteful book. If they are not, it’s a brilliant satire.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1998
ISBN: 0-670-88146-5
Page Count: 430
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: May 20, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1998
Categories: GENERAL BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR | BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR | PHILOSOPHY & RELIGION | PSYCHOLOGY | HISTORICAL & MILITARY
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BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
Elie Wiesel spent his early years in a small Transylvanian town as one of four children.
He was the only one of the family to survive what Francois Maurois, in his introduction, calls the "human holocaust" of the persecution of the Jews, which began with the restrictions, the singularization of the yellow star, the enclosure within the ghetto, and went on to the mass deportations to the ovens of Auschwitz and Buchenwald. There are unforgettable and horrifying scenes here in this spare and sombre memoir of this experience of the hanging of a child, of his first farewell with his father who leaves him an inheritance of a knife and a spoon, and of his last goodbye at Buchenwald his father's corpse is already cold let alone the long months of survival under unconscionable conditions.
Pub Date: Jan. 16, 2006
ISBN: 0374500010
Page Count: 120
Publisher: Hill & Wang
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2006
Categories: BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR | HOLOCAUST | HISTORY | GENERAL BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR | GENERAL HISTORY
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