An absorbing reflection on humanity’s eternal quest for explanations.
Egdall, a lecturer on physics, grapples with the conflict between science and religion in this nonfiction work.
Born to Ashkenazi Jewish parents, the author’s relationship with religion has always been paradoxical. His mother was “conservative in belief,” while his father was an avowed agnostic who enjoyed ham sandwiches. As a 12-year-old, Egdall wanted to be a rabbi, but while in Hebrew school he found the story of Jonah and the whale to be too fantastical. Locked in a lifelong “personal conflict with religion,” the author turned to science “to find ‘the Truth’ of the universe.” Now a retired aerospace program manager, he still vacillates between “atheist and believer,” noting that a career devoted to exploring the cosmos has failed to adequately uncover the mysteries of life, as quantum mechanics and the complexities of space and time possess “a mysticism beyond religion.” In this book, Egdall not only reflects on his own experiences, but offers a history of humanity’s struggle to reconcile faith and reason. Divided into six parts, the book begins with the development of religion in the Near East, from the Ziggurat of Ur to the monotheism of ancient Hebrews. The next section examines a philosophical shift in ancient Greece, when thinkers like Socrates and Plato turned to geometry and astronomy to offer alternative cosmological models. The third and fourth sections discuss the rise of Christianity and Islam. The book concludes with sections devoted to the Enlightenment and the rise of scientific reason, from Sir Isaac Newton and Charles Darwin to Albert Einstein and contemporary astrophysicists. As in his first book, Einstein Relatively Simple: Our Universe Explained in Everyday Language (2014), Egdall is particularly adept at distilling complex ideas into an engaging writing style that sacrifices neither accessibility nor scholarly rigor. While true believers and staunch atheists often speak in black and white absolutes, Egdall relishes shades of grey that will challenge readers of all convictions.
An absorbing reflection on humanity’s eternal quest for explanations.Pub Date: Sept. 23, 2022
ISBN: 9789811251382
Page Count: 512
Publisher: World Scientific Publishing Co
Review Posted Online: March 24, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A pleasure for fans of old-school historical narratives.
Avuncular observations on matters historical from the late popularizer of the past.
McCullough made a fine career of storytelling his way through past events and the great men (and occasional woman) of long-ago American history. In that regard, to say nothing of his eschewing modern technology in favor of the typewriter (“I love the way the bell rings every time I swing the carriage lever”), he might be thought of as belonging to a past age himself. In this set of occasional pieces, including various speeches and genial essays on what to read and how to write, he strikes a strong tone as an old-fashioned moralist: “Indifference to history isn’t just ignorant, it’s rude,” he thunders. “It’s a form of ingratitude.” There are some charming reminiscences in here. One concerns cajoling his way into a meeting with Arthur Schlesinger in order to pitch a speech to presidential candidate John F. Kennedy: Where Richard Nixon “has no character and no convictions,” he opined, Kennedy “is appealing to our best instincts.” McCullough allows that it wasn’t the strongest of ideas, but Schlesinger told him to write up a speech anyway, and when it got to Kennedy, “he gave a speech in which there was one paragraph that had once sentence written by me.” Some of McCullough’s appreciations here are of writers who are not much read these days, such as Herman Wouk and Paul Horgan; a long piece concerns a president who’s been largely lost in the shuffle too, Harry Truman, whose decision to drop the atomic bomb on Japan McCullough defends. At his best here, McCullough uses history as a way to orient thinking about the present, and with luck to good ends: “I am a short-range pessimist and a long-range optimist. I sincerely believe that we may be on the way to a very different and far better time.”
A pleasure for fans of old-school historical narratives.Pub Date: Sept. 16, 2025
ISBN: 9781668098998
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: June 26, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
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
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