The Father's Business and the Spiritual Cross

bookshelf

The Father's Business and the Spiritual Cross

Name: The Father's Business and the Spiritual Cross
Author: Festus Enumah
ISBN: 978-0692228562

by Festus Enumah ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 29, 2014

A careful, well-grounded explication of the Christian Passion narrative.

bookshelf

Enumah (The Innocent Blood and Judas Iscariot, 2002) presents a treatise that focuses on the miracle at the very heart of Christianity: the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Like many scholars and theologians before him, Enumah raises essential questions in this book: Why did God allow Jesus to be crucified? What was the higher purpose of the tragedy? What does it mean for Christians today? After initially establishing a clever framing device, echoing the Acts of the Apostles (with comments addressed to “most excellent Theophilus”), the book settles into a close and quite learned exploration of the death and Resurrection of Jesus, as depicted in the four canonical Gospels and the Acts and Epistles. Overall, this fast-paced, extensively researched work aims to clarify God’s “business,” which is ultimately to “create humans as spiritual beings” through the death and Resurrection of his son. Enumah has his version of St. Paul say that this treatise is “for the general public and for people of all religions,” but it’s obviously exclusively for believing Christians. The author asserts that Jesus’ Crucifixion was the completion of God’s “business,” furnishing mankind with a variety of “spiritual tools” that can be found through diligent study of the Gospels. “You must search for these tools yourself,” Enumah tells readers, but he offers a great deal of help, mixing confident textual analysis with personal anecdotes gleaned from his career as a surgeon. He also tells the story of the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem, and of how Jesus’ provocative, antagonizing acts against the Jewish authorities were designed to prompt them to take action, so that his Father’s “business” could be fulfilled in the Holy City. In this way, Enumah notes, Jesus’ death and Resurrection comprised a “metaphysical drama” that washed humanity clean of sin. The author’s narrative, delivered in clear, emphatic prose, is straightforward enough to be useful to Christians who are new to textual exegesis, but it will also be thought-provoking for those who know their Scripture well.

A careful, well-grounded explication of the Christian Passion narrative.

Pub Date: Aug. 29, 2014

ISBN: 978-0692228562

Page Count: 364

Publisher: CreateSpace

Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2014

Review Program: Kirkus Indie

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

bookshelf

NUTCRACKER

by E.T.A. Hoffmann ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 28, 1996

bookshelf

This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)

Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996

ISBN: 0-15-100227-4

Page Count: 136

Publisher: Harcourt

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER AND THE MOUSE KING
by E.T.A. Hoffmann ; adapted by Natalie Andrewson ; illustrated by Natalie Andrewson

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER
by E.T.A. Hoffmann & illustrated by Julie Paschkis

bookshelf

TO THE ONE I LOVE THE BEST

EPISODES FROM THE LIFE OF LADY MENDL (ELSIE DE WOLFE)

by Ludwig Bemelmans ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 23, 1955

bookshelf

An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.