An intellectual and provocative perspective challenging Christians and others to reconsider the confines of spiritual...
In the latest installment of the publisher’s enterprising Queer Action/Queer Ideas series, queer Episcopal priest and political strategist Edman brings a fresh approach to the ongoing conundrum between the LGBTQ community and Christianity.
With clarity and a confident narrative tone, the author argues that the Christian religion is inherently queer in and of itself, just as “priestliness” is an integral part of who she is. In her thought-provoking book, she first explores the ideology behind the queer population’s rejection of morally complex binaries and how the spiritual path of Christianity is positively a queer one. With great reverence, Edman incorporates personal experiences and examples into her examination of the similarities that both Christianity and queer constructs share in terms of identity, sensorial touch, controversy, and more. The author then further recognizes the benefits of the queer experience both historically and contemporarily in terms of healthy pride and public awareness (coming out) and how it can fortify and reinvigorate the Christian faith. She urges Christians to “observe queer virtue and learn from it” and to utilize it as a powerful model of unity and equality rather than to engage in the religious deprecation of queer people. Sadly, for many, Christianity has become the “face of intolerance.” In order to enact positive change regarding its perception, Edman believes a radical, queering perspective could stimulate and renew interest. In the author’s estimation, to challenge religious tradition by expanding its boundaries can only broaden its reach, deepen its core message, and beautify its prism of devotion. Edman’s sense of enthusiasm and clarity around her persuasive message of spiritual solidarity are consistently crisp and wondrous. Throughout her appeal for attitudinal evolution, she hopes her exchange of ideas “stirs up a little burst of excitement” and spurs some warm, rapturous conversation on the nature of queerness in Christianity.
An intellectual and provocative perspective challenging Christians and others to reconsider the confines of spiritual interconnection, harmony, and progressive inclusion in modern religion.Pub Date: May 17, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-8070-6134-3
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Beacon Press
Review Posted Online: March 7, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2016
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
For Howard Zinn, long-time civil rights and anti-war activist, history and ideology have a lot in common. Since he thinks that everything is in someone's interest, the historian—Zinn posits—has to figure out whose interests he or she is defining/defending/reconstructing (hence one of his previous books, The Politics of History). Zinn has no doubts about where he stands in this "people's history": "it is a history disrespectful of governments and respectful of people's movements of resistance." So what we get here, instead of the usual survey of wars, presidents, and institutions, is a survey of the usual rebellions, strikes, and protest movements. Zinn starts out by depicting the arrival of Columbus in North America from the standpoint of the Indians (which amounts to their standpoint as constructed from the observations of the Europeans); and, after easily establishing the cultural disharmony that ensued, he goes on to the importation of slaves into the colonies. Add the laborers and indentured servants that followed, plus women and later immigrants, and you have Zinn's amorphous constituency. To hear Zinn tell it, all anyone did in America at any time was to oppress or be oppressed; and so he obscures as much as his hated mainstream historical foes do—only in Zinn's case there is that absurd presumption that virtually everything that came to pass was the work of ruling-class planning: this amounts to one great indictment for conspiracy. Despite surface similarities, this is not a social history, since we get no sense of the fabric of life. Instead of negating the one-sided histories he detests, Zinn has merely reversed the image; the distortion remains.
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 1979
ISBN: 0061965588
Page Count: 772
Publisher: Harper & Row
Review Posted Online: May 26, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1979
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