An unusual, compelling read.
Vogels gives an account of his crusade for married priests.
Growing up in 1940s Germany, Vogels felt called to the Catholic priesthood. Soon after entering, however, he chafed under the realities of the celibate life. Rather than accept the Church’s mandate for clergy, Vogels took the lead from Eastern churches, local practices and the Bible itself to advocate for priests’ right to marry. Citing 1 Corinthians 9:5, he wrote and spoke extensively against mandatory celibacy, and he went so far as to marry a woman to force the Church to, in his words, “restor[e] the truly ‘Catholic,’ i.e., the all-encompassing fullness in the real sense of the word.” In his view, the right for priests to marry goes beyond marriage alone, all the way up to the Church’s relationship with God. Translated from the German, the prose is a little stilted and disjointed at times, and the course of events can sometimes be hard to follow. Despite this, Vogels’ intense study of and passion for his faith shines through, and the reader can keenly feel his torment as he is compelled to alternately give up his calling or give up romantic human connections. Rather than falling in love and then deciding to marry, Vogels' feelings for his partner and eventual marriage flow naturally from his political and religious commitment, contrary to the more relatable but suspect motivations of Catholic writers such as Thomas Merton. Though this can seem somewhat cold, the reader can see that Vogels is motivated not out of simple self-interest but from a place of faith and exegetical rigor. Of particular interest are the conspicuously slow, equivocal machinations of the Vatican that have reached strategic heights in relation to the sex abuse scandals going on today. The slowly growing movement of married priests is virtually unheard of, and Vogels’ book gives the reader an inside look at the struggles of this little-known population.
An unusual, compelling read.Pub Date: March 11, 2011
ISBN: 978-1456774714
Page Count: 172
Publisher: AuthorHouse
Review Posted Online: Nov. 10, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2011
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A moving meditation on mortality by a gifted writer whose dual perspectives of physician and patient provide a singular...
A neurosurgeon with a passion for literature tragically finds his perfect subject after his diagnosis of terminal lung cancer.
Writing isn’t brain surgery, but it’s rare when someone adept at the latter is also so accomplished at the former. Searching for meaning and purpose in his life, Kalanithi pursued a doctorate in literature and had felt certain that he wouldn’t enter the field of medicine, in which his father and other members of his family excelled. “But I couldn’t let go of the question,” he writes, after realizing that his goals “didn’t quite fit in an English department.” “Where did biology, morality, literature and philosophy intersect?” So he decided to set aside his doctoral dissertation and belatedly prepare for medical school, which “would allow me a chance to find answers that are not in books, to find a different sort of sublime, to forge relationships with the suffering, and to keep following the question of what makes human life meaningful, even in the face of death and decay.” The author’s empathy undoubtedly made him an exceptional doctor, and the precision of his prose—as well as the moral purpose underscoring it—suggests that he could have written a good book on any subject he chose. Part of what makes this book so essential is the fact that it was written under a death sentence following the diagnosis that upended his life, just as he was preparing to end his residency and attract offers at the top of his profession. Kalanithi learned he might have 10 years to live or perhaps five. Should he return to neurosurgery (he could and did), or should he write (he also did)? Should he and his wife have a baby? They did, eight months before he died, which was less than two years after the original diagnosis. “The fact of death is unsettling,” he understates. “Yet there is no other way to live.”
A moving meditation on mortality by a gifted writer whose dual perspectives of physician and patient provide a singular clarity.Pub Date: Jan. 19, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-8129-8840-6
Page Count: 248
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Sept. 29, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2015
PERSPECTIVES
Well-told and admonitory.
Young-rags-to-mature-riches memoir by broker and motivational speaker Gardner.
Born and raised in the Milwaukee ghetto, the author pulled himself up from considerable disadvantage. He was fatherless, and his adored mother wasn’t always around; once, as a child, he spied her at a family funeral accompanied by a prison guard. When beautiful, evanescent Moms was there, Chris also had to deal with Freddie “I ain’t your goddamn daddy!” Triplett, one of the meanest stepfathers in recent literature. Chris did “the dozens” with the homies, boosted a bit and in the course of youthful adventure was raped. His heroes were Miles Davis, James Brown and Muhammad Ali. Meanwhile, at the behest of Moms, he developed a fondness for reading. He joined the Navy and became a medic (preparing badass Marines for proctology), and a proficient lab technician. Moving up in San Francisco, married and then divorced, he sold medical supplies. He was recruited as a trainee at Dean Witter just around the time he became a homeless single father. All his belongings in a shopping cart, Gardner sometimes slept with his young son at the office (apparently undiscovered by the night cleaning crew). The two also frequently bedded down in a public restroom. After Gardner’s talents were finally appreciated by the firm of Bear Stearns, his American Dream became real. He got the cool duds, hot car and fine ladies so coveted from afar back in the day. He even had a meeting with Nelson Mandela. Through it all, he remained a prideful parent. His own no-daddy blues are gone now.
Well-told and admonitory.Pub Date: June 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-06-074486-3
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Amistad/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2006
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