A forceful, if flawed and divisive, case for the purification of the church.
A Christian pastor’s call for the church to refocus its attention back toward Christ.
As the lead pastor of the Overcomers in Christ Group of Churches, with branches in Brooklyn, Newark, and Philadelphia, Guobadia has a particular passion for developing Christian apostles. In this, his seventh book, written after “the wind of God visited” him, he turns his focus to the church, writ large, which has “been soiled by strife, division, greed, self-interest, and a reluctance to declare the truth.” As someone who believes that the church is “the bride of Christ,” Guobadia is not shy in highlighting areas where it has gone astray, such as its complicity in slavery, apartheid, and the Holocaust. While highlighting the role of Black churches in serving as a historic voice of conscience within the church, the author laments that since the Protestant Reformation, it has been divided by a “proliferation of denominations,” which has diminished Christians’ “power to speak with one voice.” The book’s pleas for a “revival” take on an urgency exacerbated by the author’s belief that end times are near. Harsh reproaches, however, are met with pragmatic solutions, including promoting and training clergy who reflect leadership qualities delineated in Scripture, increasing church involvement in anti-poverty work, “capturing the youth” through campaigns targeting millennials, and, most importantly, “returning to the Cross of Christ” by following his example of prayer and sacrifice. Despite the book’s emphasis on unity and focus on church history, it does not shy away from criticizing those in the present who the author believes has led the church astray. While most would echo the book’s condemnation of racism or sexually abusive clergy, many will recoil at its critique of the Anglican Church’s endorsement of same-sex marriage and ordination of gay clergy as part of a “satanic agenda” from which “the USA in particular, needs deliverance.” In light of its homophobia, the book’s calls to “come together” ring hollow.
A forceful, if flawed and divisive, case for the purification of the church.Pub Date: Aug. 20, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-66420-060-9
Page Count: 172
Publisher: Westbow Press
Review Posted Online: March 24, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Sedaris at his darkest—and his best.
In which the veteran humorist enters middle age with fine snark but some trepidation as well.
Mortality is weighing on Sedaris (Theft by Finding: Diaries 1977-2002, 2017, etc.), much of it his own, professional narcissist that he is. Watching an elderly man have a bowel accident on a plane, he dreaded the day when he would be the target of teenagers’ jokes “as they raise their phones to take my picture from behind.” A skin tumor troubled him, but so did the doctor who told him he couldn’t keep it once it was removed. “But it’s my tumor,” he insisted. “I made it.” (Eventually, he found a semitrained doctor to remove and give him the lipoma, which he proceeded to feed to a turtle.) The deaths of others are much on the author’s mind as well: He contemplates the suicide of his sister Tiffany, his alcoholic mother’s death, and his cantankerous father’s erratic behavior. His contemplation of his mother’s drinking—and his family’s denial of it—makes for some of the most poignant writing in the book: The sound of her putting ice in a rocks glass increasingly sounded “like a trigger being cocked.” Despite the gloom, however, frivolity still abides in the Sedaris clan. His summer home on the Carolina coast, which he dubbed the Sea Section, overspills with irreverent bantering between him and his siblings as his long-suffering partner, Hugh, looks on. Sedaris hasn’t lost his capacity for bemused observations of the people he encounters. For example, cashiers who say “have a blessed day” make him feel “like you’ve been sprayed against your will with God cologne.” But bad news has sharpened the author’s humor, and this book is defined by a persistent, engaging bafflement over how seriously or unseriously to take life when it’s increasingly filled with Trump and funerals.
Sedaris at his darkest—and his best.Pub Date: May 29, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-316-39238-9
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Feb. 19, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2018
PROFILES
In this highly learned yet accessible book, Robinson offers believers fresh insight into a well-studied text.
A deeply thoughtful exploration of the first book of the Bible.
In this illuminating work of biblical analysis, Pulitzer Prize–winning novelist Robinson, whose Gilead series contains a variety of Christian themes, takes readers on a dedicated layperson’s journey through the Book of Genesis. The author meanders delightfully through the text, ruminating on one tale after another while searching for themes and mining for universal truths. Robinson approaches Genesis with a reverence and level of faith uncommon to modern mainstream writers, yet she’s also equipped with the appropriate tools for cogent criticism. Throughout this luminous exegesis, which will appeal to all practicing Christians, the author discusses overarching themes in Genesis. First is the benevolence of God. Robinson points out that “to say that God is the good creator of a good creation” sets the God of Genesis in opposition to the gods of other ancient creation stories, who range from indifferent to evil. This goodness carries through the entirety of Genesis, demonstrated through grace. “Grace tempers judgment,” writes the author, noting that despite well-deserved instances of wrath or punishment, God relents time after time. Another overarching theme is the interplay between God’s providence and humanity’s independence. Across the Book of Genesis, otherwise ordinary people make decisions that will affect the future in significant ways, yet events are consistently steered by God’s omnipotence. For instance, Joseph is sold into slavery by his brothers, and that action has reverberated throughout the history of all Jewish people. Robinson indirectly asks readers to consider where the line is between the actions of God and the actions of creation. “He chose to let us be,” she concludes, “to let time yield what it will—within the vast latitude granted by providence.”
In this highly learned yet accessible book, Robinson offers believers fresh insight into a well-studied text.Pub Date: March 12, 2024
ISBN: 9780374299408
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Oct. 14, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2023
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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