Spiritual seekers may wish to dip in and out of this packed examination of contemporary Christianity to find guidance.
A midlife crisis leads a man to recount his experiences with spirituality, Christianity, and “Heart Intelligence” in this meditation on questions of faith.
What does it mean to be disconnected from your own life? How can a greater awareness of the “psychospiritual dynamics of life” make people change their breakdowns into reformations? Divided into four parts, Grant’s debut book attempts to illustrate how his own spiritual journey can help people better understand their feelings, apply new interpretations of Christianity, and manifest “Heart Intelligence” in their lives. For the past 12 years, his quest has taken him everywhere from Quaker meetings to reiki classes to a nine-day “esoteric retreat.” But it isn’t until he finds the teachings of Watchman Nee, a “Christian seer,” that his ideas of Jesus and contemporary Christianity radically change. The “tree of knowledge” and the “tree of life” are referred to throughout the volume as Grant explains his discovery of Celtic Christianity (different from Roman Christianity), his work as a psycho-spiritual life coach, and the intimate process of crafting this book. The later chapters include practical applications for Heart Intelligence as well as a “call to action” to further explore the concepts and volumes that led to his own awakening. Grant’s prose feels immediate, especially as the work is written in the present tense, documenting his experiences. Some readers may become weary of this diarylike structure, as the stream-of-consciousness style makes room for an overwhelming number of epiphanies (a butterfly, a moment with his father, the influence of his foster daughter, a yoga class, a moment outside of a bank). Still, this well-informed book displays Grant’s wide knowledge of spiritual teachings, and his earnest questioning of the direction of modern Christianity should resonate with restless churchgoers. But there’s so much information presented that one wonders if more would be gleaned from well-organized essays instead of the detailed and meandering vignettes, especially when the author admits that “my words are probably for my own eyes.”
Spiritual seekers may wish to dip in and out of this packed examination of contemporary Christianity to find guidance.Pub Date: May 11, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-5434-8500-4
Page Count: 242
Publisher: Xlibris
Review Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
The author's youthfulness helps to assure the inevitable comparison with the Anne Frank diary although over and above the...
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
Well-told and admonitory.
Young-rags-to-mature-riches memoir by broker and motivational speaker Gardner.
Born and raised in the Milwaukee ghetto, the author pulled himself up from considerable disadvantage. He was fatherless, and his adored mother wasn’t always around; once, as a child, he spied her at a family funeral accompanied by a prison guard. When beautiful, evanescent Moms was there, Chris also had to deal with Freddie “I ain’t your goddamn daddy!” Triplett, one of the meanest stepfathers in recent literature. Chris did “the dozens” with the homies, boosted a bit and in the course of youthful adventure was raped. His heroes were Miles Davis, James Brown and Muhammad Ali. Meanwhile, at the behest of Moms, he developed a fondness for reading. He joined the Navy and became a medic (preparing badass Marines for proctology), and a proficient lab technician. Moving up in San Francisco, married and then divorced, he sold medical supplies. He was recruited as a trainee at Dean Witter just around the time he became a homeless single father. All his belongings in a shopping cart, Gardner sometimes slept with his young son at the office (apparently undiscovered by the night cleaning crew). The two also frequently bedded down in a public restroom. After Gardner’s talents were finally appreciated by the firm of Bear Stearns, his American Dream became real. He got the cool duds, hot car and fine ladies so coveted from afar back in the day. He even had a meeting with Nelson Mandela. Through it all, he remained a prideful parent. His own no-daddy blues are gone now.
Well-told and admonitory.Pub Date: June 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-06-074486-3
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Amistad/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2006
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