Fresh and accessible approach to church history.
A dozen disparate churches that exemplify the story of the Christian faith.
Anglican priest Butler-Gallie explores Christianity through an examination of 12 churches. The churches that Butler-Gallie has chosen to highlight span the globe, but more importantly exemplify various aspects of Christian life and culture through time. This is no tour guide’s introduction to famous buildings; instead, the author utilizes these churches as stepping stones from which to pursue stories and uncover truisms about the Christian faith. Each church is selected for specific reasons, as entrées into deeper discussions. For instance, Canterbury Cathedral in England, site of the brutal murder of Thomas Becket in 1170, leads the author into a discussion of the role of violence throughout Christian history. The Templo de Las Américas, in the Dominican Republic, site of the first simple church erected by Christopher Columbus and his settlers in 1494, serves as a focal point for discussing the spread of Christianity to the Western Hemisphere and the cultural clashes that came with it. Butler-Gallie’s thought-provoking work takes the reader to both famous and little-known churches in places as diverse as Ethiopia, Greece, and Japan. “These churches,” the author notes, meaning all the churches these 12 represent, “are where the intimate and the universal meet.” Indeed, Butler-Gallie’s approach delves into the personal stories of individual believers, many of them ordinary Christians, while also looking for the essence of what Christianity is from the perspective of a believer and a historian. The attempt, though sometimes winding and drawn out, leads the reader along a thoughtful, humane, and open-minded journey across time and place to discover the Christian faith at its best, worst, and most mundane. It’s a trip worth taking.
Fresh and accessible approach to church history.Pub Date: Aug. 26, 2025
ISBN: 9781668074473
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Avid Reader Press
Review Posted Online: May 3, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2025
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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