Wills has good reason to share his own reading and study of the Quran with a populace largely ignorant of its contents, but...
Pulitzer Prize–winning author Wills (Emeritus, History/Northwestern Univ.; The Future of the Catholic Church with Pope Francis, 2015, etc.) defends the Quran in this layperson’s review.
Looking at the sacred text of Islam with unashamedly Western and inexpert eyes, the author finds that little of what most non-Muslims think about the book is true. In the first quarter of the book, Wills explains the impetus for studying the Quran: the West’s many post–9/11 blunders in the Middle East. The author does not mince words, arguing that the conservatives in the George W. Bush administration rushed into a war with a people, culture, and religion they failed to understand. Given an age of ignorance and fear, writes Wills, “it is time for us to learn about the real Islam, beginning with its source book.” The author goes on to explore various aspects of the Quran, often comparing it to the Old Testament and often pointing out popular misconceptions and quotes taken out of context in the West. While being clear that “the terrorists in modern Islam are not knowledgeable of their own religion in either profession or practice,” Wills focuses not on Muslims who misread the text but on Westerners who misread it or, more to the point, never read it at all. He points out that in cases of less-than-kind passages, Christianity and Judaism have such lines of scripture of their own (such as prohibitions against apostasy). Wills goes further to note that harsh acts described by the Quran have been equaled or even surpassed in Christian history as well. Compare, he suggests, the Quranic rule about amputating a hand or foot with the realities of 16th-century tortures and executions of heretics in England.
Wills has good reason to share his own reading and study of the Quran with a populace largely ignorant of its contents, but he does so in a vacuum, unattached from the many cultural expressions of this sacred text’s adherents.Pub Date: Oct. 3, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-101-98102-3
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Aug. 21, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Non-sensationalist religious food for thought.
A scholarly examination of the theory that Hebrew versions of the Book of Matthew indicate that Jesus, or Yeshua, had beliefs similar to that of the Karaites.
Gordon, a Karaite Jew or Hebrew Scripturalist, lays out the necessary background of Pharisaic Judaism and the basic tenets of Karaite Judaism, and outlines previous scholarship on Shem-Tov’s medieval copy of an ancient Hebrew text of Matthew. He also presents linguistic support for Hebrew as the original language for the Gospel of Matthew, then picks apart minor differences between the Hebrew and Greek in several key verses. These slight differences could lead to major new interpretations of Jesus’s directives, namely that he was upholding Old Testament law and speaking against the “reforms” of the Pharisees, not attempting to replace the laws of Moses. Gordon’s discussion of Jesus’s beliefs touches on one of the earliest issues facing the Christian church–whether or not Mosaic law remains applicable post-Messiah. The author’s neutrality in such a touchy subject area is admirable, although not entirely surprising considering that the outcome of the Christian debate doesn’t directly affect him. Gordon focuses on Jesus as a Jew, not his finding’s implications for the Christian church. While the author’s research stands on its own, his conclusions are open to debate. Those with little background in Judaism and biblical study will likely be overwhelmed, but Gordon’s experience as a lecturer comes through as he attempts to make a difficult topic accessible. Extensive indices, appendices, glossary and bibliography provide guidance through the pages of Hebrew history and Talmud-filled footnotes. However, the author’s study is better suited for groups of Karaite Jews, Messianic Jews and scholars interested in studying who Jesus was as a man.
Non-sensationalist religious food for thought.Pub Date: Jan. 1, 2005
ISBN: 978-0-976-263-708
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A poor contribution to a serious subject, this may indeed illustrate just how badly Catholic religious life misshapes one’s...
A short and rather smarmy reconsideration of the traditional Catholic doctrines regarding marriage and celibacy, written by ex-priest Kennedy (My Brother Joseph, 1997, etc.).
The universal overthrow of sexual taboos that took place during the latter half of the 20th century, anticipated by Freudian psychology and made possible by the development of chemical contraceptives and penicillin, came as a great surprise to just about everybody. Religious leaders, in particular, were caught with their pants down by this turn of events: Most of them (and especially the Catholics, who were predominantly celibate) had never bothered to devote a great deal of thought to sexuality from a specifically religious perspective—relying instead on appeals to natural law (among Catholics), tribal custom (for Muslims), or purification rites (within Judaism). The sexual revolution pulled the rug out from beneath all of these authorities, however, leaving many of the clergy with no idea where they were now to stand. Kennedy, who left the Catholic priesthood in the late 1960s, displays this disorientation (from which he has apparently never recovered) on every page of his study. Although he is quite specific in his condemnation of the traditional Catholic approach (to contraception, masturbation, divorce, etc.), his rage seems to be fueled by mists: He never bothers to articulate the grounds (either intellectual or religious) upon which his dissent is based, and he seems equally unable to put forward any “positive” approach to the subject—beyond vague talk of “unhealed wounds” and some silly, postmodern analogizing (e.g., Pope John Paul as the Fisher King) that sounds like a Leo Buscaglia script written by Joseph Campbell. “The priest is the wounded mythic figure, the wounded seeker of the Grail . . . whose infection and pain arise from that deep and unattended estrangement in the spiritual institution—the Church from this world, Spirit from Nature, the terrible price of a divided image of personality.”
A poor contribution to a serious subject, this may indeed illustrate just how badly Catholic religious life misshapes one’s understanding of sexual life—although probably not in the way the author intended.Pub Date: May 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-312-26637-5
Page Count: 144
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2001
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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