Accomplished survey of today’s most gifted evangelical Christians coming of age.
Compelling examination of a seven-year-old institution created to educate the Christian right.
Journalist Rosin explores the people and ideals behind Patrick Henry College, a northern Virginia school founded by evangelical activist Michael Farris. Patrick Henry caters mainly to home-schooled students and is devoted to reclaiming American culture for Christianity. Rosin introduces several of the college’s students, ranging from a couple who did not kiss until their wedding day to a slightly rebellious former student of dance, boxed in by Patrick Henry’s rules. All are bright, driven and courteous to a fault. Their lives are set against a backdrop of rigid rules and the turmoil of forays into Washington culture. Their young college is portrayed as struggling to find its identity and path—how best to mix evangelical Christianity with the classical liberal arts, how to groom students for success in politics, law and media while continuing to emphasize their almost sheltered form of faith. Rosin does not set out to write an exposé or to push an agenda of her own, and she succeeds admirably in allowing the reader to experience this place and its people first-hand, with a critical eye but without preconception or prejudice. The book also provides a dispassionate introduction to conservative Christianity in America through discussions of creationism, evangelical views on politics, the role of home schooling, etc. Mostly she offers a personal look at a unique generation: “They are the children of Ralph Reed—ambitious, entitled, and fearful, above all, of being irrelevant.” Like it or not, look for a Patrick Henry alum at a state-house race near you.
Accomplished survey of today’s most gifted evangelical Christians coming of age.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2007
ISBN: 978-0-15-101262-6
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2007
BOOK REVIEW
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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