Accounts of dreams, waking visions, and near-death experiences featuring the figure of Jesus, with a running commentary by psychotherapist Sparrow. Sparrow (Lucid Dreams, not reviewed) believes that many people dream of Jesus and that these dreams play an important role in their psychological growth. Here he offers a large number of personal testimonies, based on more than five years of research in the United States. He divides his material into seven chapters, dealing with such topics as initial encounters with the Christ figure, physical and emotional healings, and confrontations bringing about a change of attitude during the experience itself. We read of visions in which individuals are personally addressed by Jesus and inundated with light, and of healings, as in the case of a woman who, after her dream of Jesus, found she could experience orgasm without fear. The reports are brief, and Sparrow's text links them together, as he points up significant themes and inspirational lessons. His book is a celebration of the kind of American religiosity that values individual experience more than the experience and wisdom handed down through the centuries of tradition. Sparrow's Jesus can be whoever we want him to be, the Buddha, or even a ``luminous form'' of ourselves. The result is a vapid, androgynous figure in flowing robes who essentially reassures. Sparrow fudges when he claims that he is not writing theology but goes on to equate his stories uncritically with the New Testament appearances of Jesus. Furthermore, he mentions such Christian teachers as St. Teresa of Avila and St. Ignatius Loyola but refers neither to their important criteria for evaluating visions nor to their warnings against the very real psychological and spiritual danger of delusion in such matters. Superficial treatment of a significant religious and psychological theme.
Pub Date: March 15, 1995
ISBN: 0-553-09713-X
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Bantam
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1995
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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