A forthright call for Christians to pursue a more private and personal relationship with God.
Demaree’s nonfiction debut offers an exposé of what he sees as the personality cult surrounding American preacher Billy Graham.
The crux of this book’s opening segment is a full-throated condemnation of the message and ministry of a revered figure in American religious circles: the hugely popular televangelist Graham. The author attacks Graham’s familiar exhortation to go to church in order to “get right with God” on multiple grounds, primarily contending that “Telling others to go to church and seek a group of people is the opposite of telling them to go to God and seek Him.” He scornfully refers to Graham’s congregants as “biligramites,” programmed to fill up “pretentious” megachurches and pay pastors handsomely for the privilege. He’s aware of the generational reach of Graham’s long tenure, pointing out that “biligramite children are nurtured and polished in hypocrisy.” Demaree himself is a proponent of a “God within” philosophy that dispenses with most public and communal aspects of Christian faith, in favor of private, inner contemplation: “When we are alone with God,” he writes, “we can easily pray deeply and sincerely,” whereas churchgoing Christians tend to “trust in their fortresses to save them.” The author lays out the keys to “spiritual joy” in the book’s middle section, telling his readers that it represents the “supreme value” in the Bible. Overall, Demaree’s book is as unexpected as it is fascinating. The narrative drive of its clearheaded spiritual advice, however, is muddled considerably by the book’s final segment, which purports to give “scientific certainties” for the existence of the Christian God. Instead, it falls back on old claims that God is the author of all morality and that all concepts of “right” and “wrong” ultimately derive from him. Such notions may have non-Christians, and particularly atheists, rolling their eyes, but it’s unlikely that they’re the book’s target audience.
A forthright call for Christians to pursue a more private and personal relationship with God.Pub Date: Nov. 29, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-5194-3813-3
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Fellowship Books
Review Posted Online: April 21, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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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