A thoughtful, bighearted book of inspirational stories.
Cates (The Doorway to Hope, 2015, etc.) offers a book of devotions for practical Christians.
For some people, Christianity can often feel like a belief system that’s suitable only for the sanitized world of Sunday church pews; elsewhere, where life’s problems are messier than those found in homilies, faith can seem less applicable. Cates attempts to remedy that here in a book of devotions for Christians who are already acquainted with the grit of the wider world. These pieces, he says, are “meant to startle the reader from complacency, creating dialogues with aspects of ourselves and those we love that are controversial. In doing so, they are also meant to begin the process of healing.” Divided into sections on “Love,” “Diversity,” “Morality,” “Hope,” and “Holy Days,” the devotions are intended to be read one per week throughout the year. Each contains a “dialogue” or story followed by a passage from Scripture and a concluding discussion section that ties them together. Cates draws the stories generally from his own life, including his work as a therapist for troubled adolescents. Many are anecdotes about various people whom he’s encountered, from domestic terrorists to Amish sewing-circle members to defrocked Catholic priests. Cates is a talented storyteller, and his dialogues often delve into strange and surprising places. It helps that he’s led a life that’s varied enough to include so many engaging scenarios; more impressive, however, is the way that Cates manages to tie his stories in with his thematic material, probing the liminal spaces in which faith, theology, and human flaws sit uneasily beside one another: “I once heard ‘Amazing Grace’ sung at a Klan rally,” he recalls in one devotion, “to accompany the burning of three crosses. It occurred to me that God does love these people, regardless. It also occurred to me that I’m awfully glad I’m not God.” Readers seeking a less dogmatic, more empathetic discussion of Christianity—one truly concerned with the downtrodden, the marginalized, the needy, and the dispossessed—will find much of interest here. He writes about “those who have slashed their own raw edges into the psyches and live with these scars,” and his audience will likely include those who are similarly marked.
A thoughtful, bighearted book of inspirational stories.Pub Date: Aug. 9, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-5151-5320-7
Page Count: 204
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Nov. 10, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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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