Questions remain, but Freeman does a good job in forcing a reexamination of this crucial turning point.
A chronicle of one significant year in Christian history.
In 381, Emperor Theodosius decreed that all subjects of the Roman Empire were required to believe in the Christian Trinity. That same year, the First Council of Constantinople brought together Christian leaders to codify this belief in the Trinity as correct and accepted doctrine. Historians have taught for centuries that the Christian church harmoniously and all but simultaneously came to the decision that the Trinity was indeed true and orthodox belief, but Freeman (The Closing of the Western Mind, 2003, etc.) emphatically disagrees. Debate over the Trinity and over the nature of Christ was still quite alive during this period, he asserts. Theodosius, largely for reasons of state security, squelched this debate through official edicts, overlaid with a veneer of doctrinal concord through the Council of Constantinople. The author frames his argument as being about the freedom of intellectual debate and the free exchange of ideas. Before 381, he avers, the Greek tradition of open intellectual discourse and the Roman tradition of religious tolerance marked the empire and, indeed, all of the Western world. After 381, both traditions would be extinguished for more than 1,000 years. “The tragedy of Theodosius’ imposition and its aftermath lay in the elimination of discussion,” writes Freeman, “not only of spiritual matters but across the whole spectrum of human knowledge.” He stops short of passing judgment on Theodosius or any of the other personalities involved in this lively period. Instead, he hopes to see them in context, rather than as the two-dimensional characters history has long depicted.
Questions remain, but Freeman does a good job in forcing a reexamination of this crucial turning point.Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2009
ISBN: 978-1-59020-171-8
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Overlook
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2008
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
This learned and insightful approach to talking about God is a theological education in itself. Miles, a former Jesuit and member of the editorial board at the Los Angeles Times, undertakes here the audacious task of weaving the conflicting threads of God's self-revelations in the Hebrew Bible into an often-gripping story. Rather than attempting to synthesize his material, Miles allows his protagonist to develop and change over a millennium of relating to the people of Israel. Miles traces God's metamorphosis from creator to destroyer, friend of the family, liberator, lawgiver, conqueror, Holy One, and so on. Central to the story is Miles's contention that a monotheistic deity can only find self-expression through the mirror of communicating with its creation. Thus, Miles's God can be a loving but stern creator, disappointed enough in humans to regret their creation and seek to end their lives in a great flood, but merciful enough to begin anew with them time and again. In that complex interplay, Miles finds his central theme—God's eventual reconciliation with His creatures. Even when the story is at its nadir, with the people of Israel subjugated by the Babylonians and the Assyrians, God remains faithful and eventually seeks to include other peoples in the fold. The story is a fine one in most respects, but Miles tends to highlight the attractive parts of the portrait that have made their way into the American unconscious (such as the ``peaceable kingdom'' of Isaiah) while neglecting some of the messier ones (e.g., the attempted annihilation of indigenous tribal groups in ancient Israel). Also, structuring the story around the three-part progression of the Hebrew Bible (Law, Prophets, Writings) makes for a strong first two-thirds, but the last part is long and repetitive. A flawed but able telling of a story that's not easy to comprehend, much less articulate. (First printing of 35,000; Book-of-the-Month Club/Quality Paperback Book Club selections; author tour)
Pub Date: April 14, 1995
ISBN: 0-679-41833-4
Page Count: 464
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1995
Accounts of dreams, waking visions, and near-death experiences featuring the figure of Jesus, with a running commentary by psychotherapist Sparrow. Sparrow (Lucid Dreams, not reviewed) believes that many people dream of Jesus and that these dreams play an important role in their psychological growth. Here he offers a large number of personal testimonies, based on more than five years of research in the United States. He divides his material into seven chapters, dealing with such topics as initial encounters with the Christ figure, physical and emotional healings, and confrontations bringing about a change of attitude during the experience itself. We read of visions in which individuals are personally addressed by Jesus and inundated with light, and of healings, as in the case of a woman who, after her dream of Jesus, found she could experience orgasm without fear. The reports are brief, and Sparrow's text links them together, as he points up significant themes and inspirational lessons. His book is a celebration of the kind of American religiosity that values individual experience more than the experience and wisdom handed down through the centuries of tradition. Sparrow's Jesus can be whoever we want him to be, the Buddha, or even a ``luminous form'' of ourselves. The result is a vapid, androgynous figure in flowing robes who essentially reassures. Sparrow fudges when he claims that he is not writing theology but goes on to equate his stories uncritically with the New Testament appearances of Jesus. Furthermore, he mentions such Christian teachers as St. Teresa of Avila and St. Ignatius Loyola but refers neither to their important criteria for evaluating visions nor to their warnings against the very real psychological and spiritual danger of delusion in such matters. Superficial treatment of a significant religious and psychological theme.
Pub Date: March 15, 1995
ISBN: 0-553-09713-X
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Bantam
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1995
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