by David Samford ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 31, 2017
A thought-provoking guide to a spiritually charged holiday tune.
A reconsideration of the meaning of Christmas via a close reading of a familiar carol.
Debut author Samford laments the commercialization of Christmas and believes it obscures the true meaning of the holiday. In an effort to rediscover Christmas’ spiritual significance, he undertakes a meticulous interpretation of the well-known carol, “The Twelve Days of Christmas.” It turns out, says Samford, to be brimming with symbolic meaning and amounts to a kind of love letter to God, the “true love” referenced throughout. For example, the reference to a partridge, a bird famously protective of its young, evokes Jesus’ devotion to mankind, just as the pear tree is a reminder of the cross, a sign of Jesus’ sacrifice. The reference to “eight maids a milking” is an oblique emblem of the eight blessings or Beatitudes offered by Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew, resolutions that inspire searching self-reflection and a more intimate relationship with God. Further, the mention of “eleven pipers piping” signals the 11 apostles of Jesus—Judas is excluded for his betrayal—understood as exemplars of faithfulness. The author uses each line in the carol as a portal into a deeper discussion of Scripture, commenting synoptically on the whole of the Bible. In its entirety, the song’s meaning, Samford contends, crystallizes when situated in the grander context of the Christian belief in salvation, and it functions as a grateful homage to Jesus Christ. The point of the book, according to the author, is to help others realize the fathomless depth of God’s love and re-emphasize that Christ is the center of Christmas. Samford writes clearly and informally, carefully explaining both the song and its biblical references. This is not a scholarly study—those in search of a more rigorous, academic analysis should look elsewhere—but it still achieves exegetical seriousness. Samford unambiguously addresses himself to other believing Christians, and as a result, he can be somewhat strident philosophically: “Some would dismiss the exquisite nature of the universe as the result of time and chance, but the obvious explanation is that creation is covered with God’s fingerprints and testifies to his existence.”
A thought-provoking guide to a spiritually charged holiday tune.Pub Date: July 31, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-5127-9356-7
Page Count: 142
Publisher: Westbow Press
Review Posted Online: Dec. 1, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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by Albert Camus ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 26, 1955
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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by Stephen Batchelor ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 18, 2020
A very welcome instance of philosophy that can help readers live a good life.
A teacher and scholar of Buddhism offers a formally varied account of the available rewards of solitude.
“As Mother Ayahuasca takes me in her arms, I realize that last night I vomited up my attachment to Buddhism. In passing out, I died. In coming to, I was, so to speak, reborn. I no longer have to fight these battles, I repeat to myself. I am no longer a combatant in the dharma wars. It feels as if the course of my life has shifted onto another vector, like a train shunted off its familiar track onto a new trajectory.” Readers of Batchelor’s previous books (Secular Buddhism: Imagining the Dharma in an Uncertain World, 2017, etc.) will recognize in this passage the culmination of his decadeslong shift away from the religious commitments of Buddhism toward an ecumenical and homegrown philosophy of life. Writing in a variety of modes—memoir, history, collage, essay, biography, and meditation instruction—the author doesn’t argue for his approach to solitude as much as offer it for contemplation. Essentially, Batchelor implies that if you read what Buddha said here and what Montaigne said there, and if you consider something the author has noticed, and if you reflect on your own experience, you have the possibility to improve the quality of your life. For introspective readers, it’s easy to hear in this approach a direct response to Pascal’s claim that “all of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone.” Batchelor wants to relieve us of this inability by offering his example of how to do just that. “Solitude is an art. Mental training is needed to refine and stabilize it,” he writes. “When you practice solitude, you dedicate yourself to the care of the soul.” Whatever a soul is, the author goes a long way toward soothing it.
A very welcome instance of philosophy that can help readers live a good life.Pub Date: Feb. 18, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-300-25093-0
Page Count: 200
Publisher: Yale Univ.
Review Posted Online: Nov. 24, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2019
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