A hefty, erudite examination of a crucial turning point in modern history.
Sprawling history of “an age that believed in the infinite advance of knowledge, endured the infinite emptiness of a universe without purpose, and succored a pantheon of new gods.”
Beginning with Emerson’s famed address to Harvard Divinity School in 1838—in which the philosopher “deliberately provoked the divines by contrasting ‘the Church with the Soul,’ and in a manner reflecting dimly on the Church and radiantly on the Soul”—Green explores the manifold ways in which traditional Western religion was challenged in the decades that followed by advances in science, contact with other cultures, social and political challenges, and the sheer power of individual personalities. “This is the age of the Religious Revolution,” he writes. “It is also the age of science and race. This is the age of the Religious Revolution because it is the age of science and race.” Indeed, science and race, in their broadest definitions, undergird most of this history, as Western intellectuals and spiritual leaders grappled with everything from Darwin’s theory of evolution to growing obsessions with the culture of India. Spiritualism, “the West’s first post-Christian faith,” plays an important part in this story, but only a part. More broadly, Green delivers a history of the 19th-century revolt against tradition, when feminism began to find its voice and both sexuality and socialism became more mainstream. These and many other changes found corollaries in the spiritual lives of intellectuals, especially, but regular folks as well. The author offers us intriguing glimpses into the lives, work, and interactions of such leading lights as Thoreau, Whitman, Marx, Baudelaire, and Freud, to name just a few. Green’s reach is perhaps too ambitious, and his prose and storytelling style are sometimes overheated. Still, his book is an interesting examination of how nascent globalism and resentful political machinations affected the spiritual tenor of the 19th century and laid the groundwork for movements in the 20th century.
A hefty, erudite examination of a crucial turning point in modern history.Pub Date: April 19, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-374-24883-3
Page Count: 464
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: March 10, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
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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