Celtic polytheism, Christian monotheism, and scientific rationalism, all tied neatly together into an Irish arabesque.
A natty physical and spiritual geography of Ireland’s holy Mount Brandon.
For the last three decades, the author has spent part of each year in his house on Ireland’s Dingle Peninsula at the foot of Mount Brandon. Hundreds of times he has made the pilgrimage to the summit. This is not a purely recreational climb; science writer Raymo (The Path, 2003, etc.) experiences it as a foray into a slice of the Celtic soul as well as a walk through geological time. He sees the mountain as “a great, black, boggy, cloud-capped hump rising from the sea”; Gaelic is still spoken on its flanks, and there is a scraggy wildness to the glens. The writer may be questing after the symbolic side of Brandon, but his eyes are ever peeled at the lay of the land, and there are some lovely descriptions of his treks: once he made his way between ancient remnants of mountainside fortifications in the company of a dozen red admiral butterflies. He is also attuned to the mountain’s associations as a refuge from invaders and enclosure laws, as well as a solitary vigil post for saints. These associations make for fascinating reading because they illustrate the singular fusion of faiths that characterized a certain period in Irish history, when monotheism and polytheism overlapped and “what Celtic Christianity offered Europe was a religion of celebration and praise, in which God is manifest in every element of everyday life.” Further back still, Raymo details how the tilt of the Earth’s axis relative to the Sun gave rise to early paganism, standing stones, and stone circles. He has found his own space between “a religion—continental Christianity—that preached the fallen state of nature, on the one hand, and an exaggerated Enlightenment rationalism that saw nature as little more than an object of dispassionate investigation.”
Celtic polytheism, Christian monotheism, and scientific rationalism, all tied neatly together into an Irish arabesque.Pub Date: May 1, 2004
ISBN: 0-8027-1433-1
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Walker
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2004
Worthwhile reference stuffed with facts and illustrations.
A compendium of charts, time lines, lists and illustrations to accompany study of the Bible.
This visually appealing resource provides a wide array of illustrative and textually concise references, beginning with three sets of charts covering the Bible as a whole, the Old Testament and the New Testament. These charts cover such topics as biblical weights and measures, feasts and holidays and the 12 disciples. Most of the charts use a variety of illustrative techniques to convey lessons and provide visual interest. A worthwhile example is “How We Got the Bible,” which provides a time line of translation history, comparisons of canons among faiths and portraits of important figures in biblical translation, such as Jerome and John Wycliffe. The book then presents a section of maps, followed by diagrams to conceptualize such structures as Noah’s Ark and Solomon’s Temple. Finally, a section on Christianity, cults and other religions describes key aspects of history and doctrine for certain Christian sects and other faith traditions. Overall, the authors take a traditionalist, conservative approach. For instance, they list Moses as the author of the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Hebrew Bible) without making mention of claims to the contrary. When comparing various Christian sects and world religions, the emphasis is on doctrine and orthodox theology. Some chapters, however, may not completely align with the needs of Catholic and Orthodox churches. But the authors’ leanings are muted enough and do not detract from the work’s usefulness. As a resource, it’s well organized, inviting and visually stimulating. Even the most seasoned reader will learn something while browsing.
Worthwhile reference stuffed with facts and illustrations.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2005
ISBN: 978-1-5963-6022-8
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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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