A solid defense of modern, progressive Christianity from a unique perspective.
A memoir and argument for a more inclusive version of Christianity.
Thomas explores her experiences as the daughter of Indian immigrants, growing up as an evangelical Christian in a community largely separate from the broader American culture. She also delves into her own faith journey from evangelicalism to progressive, mainline Christianity. The author’s family belongs to an ancient Christian tradition that can be traced to the first century C.E. and to the missionary efforts of the Apostle Thomas. However, her family’s own particular brand of Christianity was also influenced by 20th-century evangelicals. Thomas spent her youth immersed in a faith life that exacerbated her senses of shame and low self-worth. Growing up a cultural Indian in the U.S. also made her youth difficult to navigate, as she felt like an outsider in her own land. As Thomas matured, her views became more progressive and she found herself at odds with the faith of her family and childhood. However, she notes that she found room in the Christian tradition for her own, burgeoning faith direction. It was not an easy transition. “When I left evangelicalism,” she notes, “I felt like I was entering a wilderness in the darkest hours of the night.…The terror was ominous and total; all I felt was dread.” In time, however, she found faith in a Christianity less defined by belief systems than by a generous view of both sin (incorporating social issues more than mere rule following) and salvation (a possible healing for humanity as a whole). “A roomier understanding of sin requires an equally roomy vision of salvation,” she writes. Through a Christianity rooted in unrestrained readings of scripture and open to moral and ethical paradoxes, Thomas discovered a way to retain her faith and reaffirm her identity.
A solid defense of modern, progressive Christianity from a unique perspective.Pub Date: March 19, 2024
ISBN: 9781506481456
Page Count: 184
Publisher: Broadleaf Books
Review Posted Online: Jan. 25, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2024
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
A pleasure for fans of old-school historical narratives.
Avuncular observations on matters historical from the late popularizer of the past.
McCullough made a fine career of storytelling his way through past events and the great men (and occasional woman) of long-ago American history. In that regard, to say nothing of his eschewing modern technology in favor of the typewriter (“I love the way the bell rings every time I swing the carriage lever”), he might be thought of as belonging to a past age himself. In this set of occasional pieces, including various speeches and genial essays on what to read and how to write, he strikes a strong tone as an old-fashioned moralist: “Indifference to history isn’t just ignorant, it’s rude,” he thunders. “It’s a form of ingratitude.” There are some charming reminiscences in here. One concerns cajoling his way into a meeting with Arthur Schlesinger in order to pitch a speech to presidential candidate John F. Kennedy: Where Richard Nixon “has no character and no convictions,” he opined, Kennedy “is appealing to our best instincts.” McCullough allows that it wasn’t the strongest of ideas, but Schlesinger told him to write up a speech anyway, and when it got to Kennedy, “he gave a speech in which there was one paragraph that had once sentence written by me.” Some of McCullough’s appreciations here are of writers who are not much read these days, such as Herman Wouk and Paul Horgan; a long piece concerns a president who’s been largely lost in the shuffle too, Harry Truman, whose decision to drop the atomic bomb on Japan McCullough defends. At his best here, McCullough uses history as a way to orient thinking about the present, and with luck to good ends: “I am a short-range pessimist and a long-range optimist. I sincerely believe that we may be on the way to a very different and far better time.”
A pleasure for fans of old-school historical narratives.Pub Date: Sept. 16, 2025
ISBN: 9781668098998
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: June 26, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2025
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