A short but often engaging overview and interpretation of scriptural prophecies.
A spiritual guidebook centering on the biblical genealogy of Jesus Christ.
Peters’ short, telegraphic nonfiction debut differs from most books about Jesus by concentrating less on his deeds and sayings while he was on Earth performing his ministry and more on the long-prophesied path that he took to get there. Using a variety of Bible study guides, Peters takes readers back to the beginning of the book of Genesis and traces the threads of Old Testament prophecies; Peters and his cited authorities say that these prophecies look forward to the later arrival of Jesus—“the ultimate saving sacrifice for all humanity.” All the traditional metaphorical readings are present in these pages, including one addressing the famous Old Testament story of Abraham and Isaac, in which God’s command to Abraham to sacrifice his son is said to prefigure Jesus’ New Testament story. The author periodically digresses to deliver what he calls “a bit of sermonizing,” branching out from scriptural analyses to tackle broader questions, such as, “Are you doing evil in the sight of the Lord?” Peters’ target audience of fellow Christians will find much food for thought in these pages. However, some may have problems with some of Peters’ apologetics, as when he says that the Gospels of Matthew and Luke offer different versions of Jesus’ genealogy because “Matthew was writing for a Jewish audience and Luke was writing for a Gentile audience.” Also, when the author invokes “the incredible willingness of God to forgive those who do evil in His sight,” it’s hard to imagine a reading of the Old Testament that would fully support such a claim. Still, Peters says that he hopes that his book will cement the faith of his readers, and his friendly narrative style is likely to help make that happen.
A short but often engaging overview and interpretation of scriptural prophecies.Pub Date: Sept. 5, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-5168-4515-6
Page Count: 116
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: April 12, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
If the authors are serious, this is a silly, distasteful book. If they are not, it’s a brilliant satire.
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 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1998
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
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
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