A friendly, stimulating Christian guide to combining thought and faith in order to live a more fulfilled life.
A holistic look at the intersection of the spiritual and scientific world, playfully cast as a primer for a final exam.
In this engaging, enormously readable debut work of nonfiction, Figueroa-Otero urges his readers to “[d]elve deeper into the concept of life as a prison created by our own mind,” in order to work their way closer to “life’s archetypal questions,” such as “Who am I? Where do I come from? Where do I go from here?” The book’s explanations of scientific facts—including the Big Bang, the nature of antimatter and dark energy, Einstein’s theory of relativity and quantum mechanics—are fluent and approachable. Its well-designed layout includes highlighted passages and eye-catching marginal illustrations. The author presents many explanations with a wry, tongue-in-cheek bemusement that underscores his doubt about some of science’s certainties. He artfully juxtaposes them with a more spiritual point of view, which centers on the essence of the universe; Figueroa-Otero initially characterizes that essence as “Love,” but quickly narrows it considerably to the love of an explicitly Christian God. The book weighs the wonders of science and nature against this divine love in which, Figueroa-Otero says, “Jesus represents the human manifestation of the Holy Spirit which is the force of Love that God left us after his Son left.” Such explications, despite frequent allusions to Jewish and Buddhist writings, will likely exclude many readers from taking this final exam, let alone passing it. But for Christian readers, the book’s concluding chapters will prove interesting, as they steadily expand the biblical dictum, “Love thy neighbor as thyself,” into a concept of “Compassionate Intelligence” that manifests when “love guides reason to the definite realization of our holographic and supportive universe.”
A friendly, stimulating Christian guide to combining thought and faith in order to live a more fulfilled life.Pub Date: Feb. 5, 2014
ISBN: 978-0991150632
Page Count: 98
Publisher: Coqui Antiaging Solutions, Incorporated
Review Posted Online: May 9, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.
Pub Date: Feb. 23, 1955
ISBN: 0670717797
Page Count: -
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1955
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