Carefully researched but basically slanted story of one year in the life of a ``typical'' American Catholic parish. Between May 1993 and May 1994 Shapiro, a South Africanborn magazine editor and former Anglican clergyman, conducted more than 150 hours of taped interviews and attended services and meetings, both social and educational, at St. Paul's parish, Kenmore, N.Y. The result reads like a novel but is in fact a kind of documentary, with just a few name changes and about 20 characters, among whom Shapiro moves back and forth, interspersing his text with quotations from Vatican pronouncements, which he uses to spice his clearly confrontational approach. The Catholics we meet are mostly likable and discontented, such as Judy, an adult religious educator weighing her feminist views against Catholic belief, and Father Don, a young priest who leaves the Church for his male lover. Shapiro gives his material some measure of continuity by focusing on the regular group classes for would-be Catholics, and he graphically describes conflicts in both instructors and students as they move toward baptism at Easter. The reader is left wondering how the Catholic Church—or at least St. Paul's parish—carries on, as hardly anyone actually appears to believe in any meaningful way. Shapiro sees Catholicism as an alienating system that imposes its doctrinal and moral positions on people who are more or less bewildered and spiritually passive. In Shapiro's scenario, Pope John Paul (whose speeches are described as ``spiel'') frequently plays a kind of Grand Inquisitor role, especially with his 1993 reaffirmation that moral values have objective as well as subjective force. Our author presents the disaffected as heroic dissidents who are loyal to their consciences, and most of the clergy as well-fed cynics, while the token orthodox layperson looks like a clever, albeit well-intentioned, apparatchik. The author's polemical tone throughout must raise doubts about the reliability of his work. (Author tour)
Pub Date: March 1, 1996
ISBN: 0-385-47293-5
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1996
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
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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