Intriguing study of the “Christmas star” but in need of further scientific backing.
Debut writer and former science teacher Baron tackles the ancient mystery of the Christmas star—the astronomical phenomenon recorded in the Bible as having heralded the birth of Jesus Christ.
Baron used star-chart software from NASA to study the placement of the sun, moon, and planets in the skies over a period of years around the probable birth of Christ. Instead of studying the placements of these objects in the nighttime sky, as many have traditionally done, she looked instead at the sky at or before dawn. She took this approach because the Bible quotes an angel as saying “this day” a savior is born, as opposed to “this night.” Baron concludes that a series of 10 events in the year 4 C.E. would have signaled the coming of a divine king to astronomers of the era. Among these signs would have been an eclipse of Saturn by the sun and two solar eclipses. The final sign would have been Saturn rising while Venus and Mars stayed below the horizon. Therefore, “the final beaconing ‘star’…was actually the planet Saturn.” In addition to this astronomical information and hand-drawn charts to show the placements of these astronomical bodies, Baron also provides a primer on astronomy itself, a synopsis of celestial symbolism for various peoples of the era, and a discussion concerning the possible identity of the wise men, or Magi, who came in search of the Christ child. Baron’s work is lucid and provides excellent food for thought. She is to be especially commended for thinking outside the box on what is a long-standing point of argument among experts on astronomy, astrology, and biblical history. What Baron lacks is the professional credibility to drive her conclusions from the realm of lay theory to that of scientific theory. Her research unfortunately lacks the imprimatur of a scientific institution, which leaves the reader susceptible to doubt.
Intriguing study of the “Christmas star” but in need of further scientific backing.Pub Date: Sept. 8, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-4776-8397-2
Page Count: 164
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Oct. 31, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
If the authors are serious, this is a silly, distasteful book. If they are not, it’s a brilliant satire.
The authors have created a sort of anti-Book of Virtues in this encyclopedic compendium of the ways and means of power.
Everyone wants power and everyone is in a constant duplicitous game to gain more power at the expense of others, according to Greene, a screenwriter and former editor at Esquire (Elffers, a book packager, designed the volume, with its attractive marginalia). We live today as courtiers once did in royal courts: we must appear civil while attempting to crush all those around us. This power game can be played well or poorly, and in these 48 laws culled from the history and wisdom of the world’s greatest power players are the rules that must be followed to win. These laws boil down to being as ruthless, selfish, manipulative, and deceitful as possible. Each law, however, gets its own chapter: “Conceal Your Intentions,” “Always Say Less Than Necessary,” “Pose as a Friend, Work as a Spy,” and so on. Each chapter is conveniently broken down into sections on what happened to those who transgressed or observed the particular law, the key elements in this law, and ways to defensively reverse this law when it’s used against you. Quotations in the margins amplify the lesson being taught. While compelling in the way an auto accident might be, the book is simply nonsense. Rules often contradict each other. We are told, for instance, to “be conspicuous at all cost,” then told to “behave like others.” More seriously, Greene never really defines “power,” and he merely asserts, rather than offers evidence for, the Hobbesian world of all against all in which he insists we live. The world may be like this at times, but often it isn’t. To ask why this is so would be a far more useful project.
If the authors are serious, this is a silly, distasteful book. If they are not, it’s a brilliant satire.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1998
ISBN: 0-670-88146-5
Page Count: 430
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1998
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
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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