A religious treatise that makes a novel connection between the words of Genesis and a call for a more egalitarian society.
Repsher (The Common Sense Life, 2015, etc.) provides an in-depth look at the first chapter of the biblical Book of Genesis and related extrapolations for modern living.
When one reads the first chapter of Genesis, what does one come away with? How does one grapple with the creation of night and day occurring before the creation of the moon and sun? What does it say about the human relationship with nature? The author explores these and many other topics as he takes readers far beyond the Genesis story. After pointing out that many people turn away from the Bible after the difficult opening, he argues for a more rigorous, kindhearted examination—one that leads to an understanding that’s “astonishingly relevant for our 21st century.” To that end, he draws on a cornucopia of sources, including authors from ancient times (such as the Jewish scholar Josephus, who “recognized that allegorical interpretations can be tricky”), analysis of language (“Biblical Hebrew binds both past and future together”), and other portions of the Bible, such as Deuteronomy. The result is a focus on Genesis as “a world created to live in harmony with itself and its Creator.” The author stresses “compassion as the basis for every endeavor,” and says that the allegorical significance of Genesis is not, for instance, one of human dominion over nature; it is instead an indication that “The Bible associates thriving, healthy vegetation with human salvation,” he says. The book provides a contrast to more literal biblical interpretations, and it will prove refreshing for readers eager to see the face of humanity in the early portions of the Old Testament. Although the author’s modern references, such as the “Great Recession” of 2008, may feel dated to some readers, his work is commendable for its extensive mixture of material. Drawing a connection between the biblical creation and advice that one should “Take time to be well-informed about varying points of view for current issues” is no easy task. The book’s train of logic is sound, though certainly open for debate, and likely to conjure a wealth of ideas.
A religious treatise that makes a novel connection between the words of Genesis and a call for a more egalitarian society.Pub Date: July 29, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-5035-8432-7
Page Count: 248
Publisher: Xlibris
Review Posted Online: March 29, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
If the authors are serious, this is a silly, distasteful book. If they are not, it’s a brilliant satire.
The authors have created a sort of anti-Book of Virtues in this encyclopedic compendium of the ways and means of power.
Everyone wants power and everyone is in a constant duplicitous game to gain more power at the expense of others, according to Greene, a screenwriter and former editor at Esquire (Elffers, a book packager, designed the volume, with its attractive marginalia). We live today as courtiers once did in royal courts: we must appear civil while attempting to crush all those around us. This power game can be played well or poorly, and in these 48 laws culled from the history and wisdom of the world’s greatest power players are the rules that must be followed to win. These laws boil down to being as ruthless, selfish, manipulative, and deceitful as possible. Each law, however, gets its own chapter: “Conceal Your Intentions,” “Always Say Less Than Necessary,” “Pose as a Friend, Work as a Spy,” and so on. Each chapter is conveniently broken down into sections on what happened to those who transgressed or observed the particular law, the key elements in this law, and ways to defensively reverse this law when it’s used against you. Quotations in the margins amplify the lesson being taught. While compelling in the way an auto accident might be, the book is simply nonsense. Rules often contradict each other. We are told, for instance, to “be conspicuous at all cost,” then told to “behave like others.” More seriously, Greene never really defines “power,” and he merely asserts, rather than offers evidence for, the Hobbesian world of all against all in which he insists we live. The world may be like this at times, but often it isn’t. To ask why this is so would be a far more useful project.
If the authors are serious, this is a silly, distasteful book. If they are not, it’s a brilliant satire.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1998
ISBN: 0-670-88146-5
Page Count: 430
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1998
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
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
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
bookshelf
