A well-researched (if skewed toward Evangelical Protestantism) study of first-century Christianity.
A Christian author calls for a return to the old ways in this debut nonfiction work.
“The first century was the best of church history,” Collazo declares in the book’s opening lines. Despite being an era of extreme persecution of Christians within the Roman Empire, the apostles laid the groundwork, both in their theology and their actions, that continue to serve as a model for Christians today. Applying a first-century model of Christianity, per the author, this book is “a call to action to do away with ‘church’ as we know it.” Describing his theology as “Paleo-orthodox,” Collazo details the teachings and practices of the early church fathers from a distinctly Evangelical Protestant perspective. Thus, not only is a historical rendering of Roman Catholicism largely eschewed, but so too are other interpretations of first-century Christianity that reject the Trinity, emphasize Gentile observations of Jewish legal traditions, and promulgate other nonevangelical beliefs. Organized thematically, the author’s analysis surveys first-century Christian beliefs across a range of more than 20 topics that span from baptism and the Holy Spirit to marriage and human nature. Though more scholarly minded readers, as well as those from Catholic or Orthodox perspectives, may prefer less engagement with evangelical sources, the text is supported by more than 500 endnotes and a 14-page bibliography. Collazo has a firm grasp on Christian doctrine and biblical exegesis and writes in an accessible style geared toward “the average churchgoer,” as he aims to bridge “the worlds of white-collar academia with blue-collar industry.” The author’s emphasis on engaging lay readers who may be unfamiliar with the context of first-century Christianity or the nuancesof evangelical theology is evidenced by the inclusion of a multi-page glossary and an ample assortment of charts, images, and other visual aids. While Christians of other traditions may disagree with the book’s conclusions, Collazo generally avoids strawman arguments and keeps his critiques fair and civil.
A well-researched (if skewed toward Evangelical Protestantism) study of first-century Christianity.Pub Date: March 20, 2025
ISBN: 9798309463763
Page Count: 252
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 6, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.
Greed, depravity, and serial murder in 1920s Oklahoma.
During that time, enrolled members of the Osage Indian nation were among the wealthiest people per capita in the world. The rich oil fields beneath their reservation brought millions of dollars into the tribe annually, distributed to tribal members holding "headrights" that could not be bought or sold but only inherited. This vast wealth attracted the attention of unscrupulous whites who found ways to divert it to themselves by marrying Osage women or by having Osage declared legally incompetent so the whites could fleece them through the administration of their estates. For some, however, these deceptive tactics were not enough, and a plague of violent death—by shooting, poison, orchestrated automobile accident, and bombing—began to decimate the Osage in what they came to call the "Reign of Terror." Corrupt and incompetent law enforcement and judicial systems ensured that the perpetrators were never found or punished until the young J. Edgar Hoover saw cracking these cases as a means of burnishing the reputation of the newly professionalized FBI. Bestselling New Yorkerstaff writer Grann (The Devil and Sherlock Holmes: Tales of Murder, Madness, and Obsession, 2010, etc.) follows Special Agent Tom White and his assistants as they track the killers of one extended Osage family through a closed local culture of greed, bigotry, and lies in pursuit of protection for the survivors and justice for the dead. But he doesn't stop there; relying almost entirely on primary and unpublished sources, the author goes on to expose a web of conspiracy and corruption that extended far wider than even the FBI ever suspected. This page-turner surges forward with the pacing of a true-crime thriller, elevated by Grann's crisp and evocative prose and enhanced by dozens of period photographs.
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.Pub Date: April 18, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-385-53424-6
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2017
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
Essential reading for any Twain buff and student of American literature.
A decidedly warts-and-all portrait of the man many consider to be America’s greatest writer.
It makes sense that distinguished biographer Chernow (Washington: A Life and Alexander Hamilton) has followed up his life of Ulysses S. Grant with one of Mark Twain: Twain, after all, pulled Grant out of near bankruptcy by publishing the ex-president’s Civil War memoir under extremely favorable royalty terms. The act reflected Twain’s inborn generosity and his near pathological fear of poverty, the prime mover for the constant activity that characterized the author’s life. As Chernow writes, Twain was “a protean figure who played the role of printer, pilot, miner, journalist, novelist, platform artist, toastmaster, publisher, art patron, pundit, polemicist, inventor, crusader, investor, and maverick.” He was also slippery: Twain left his beloved Mississippi River for the Nevada gold fields as a deserter from the Confederate militia, moved farther west to California to avoid being jailed for feuding, took up his pseudonym to stay a step ahead of anyone looking for Samuel Clemens, especially creditors. Twain’s flaws were many in his own day. Problematic in our own time is a casual racism that faded as he grew older (charting that “evolution in matters of racial tolerance” is one of the great strengths of Chernow’s book). Harder to explain away is Twain’s well-known but discomfiting attraction to adolescent and even preadolescent girls, recruiting “angel-fish” to keep him company and angrily declaring when asked, “It isn’t the public’s affair.” While Twain emerges from Chernow’s pages as the masterful—if sometimes wrathful and vengeful—writer that he is now widely recognized to be, he had other complexities, among them a certain gullibility as a businessman that kept that much-feared poverty often close to his door, as well as an overarchingly gloomy view of the human condition that seemed incongruous with his reputation, then and now, as a humanist.
Essential reading for any Twain buff and student of American literature.Pub Date: May 13, 2025
ISBN: 9780525561729
Page Count: 1200
Publisher: Penguin Press
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2025
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