Ivey’s apologetics will convince few skeptics, but likeminded readers will find it a useful tool.
This daily devotional work offers the words of Jesus Christ as recorded in the Bible, along with commentary and suggested prayers.
As many other 365-day devotional guides have done previously, this book provides a biblical extract each day, a reflection on its meaning, and an accompanying prayer. Here, the quotations are limited to the words of Jesus, which, in some printings of the New Testament, are rendered in red lettering—hence the title. The quotations can be quite short, from a line or two to long passages that Ivey (Science, Philosophy, and Jesus Christ, 2015, etc.) discusses over several days. As in his previous works, Ivey aims to prove the truth of Scripture through Christian apologetics, “wherein one seeks hard evidence…that the message of the Bible is valid.” But the book’s notion of hard evidence seems suspect as an investigation that seeks only validity is an exercise in confirmation bias. The book cherry-picks evidence, for example, when it praises Albert Einstein’s understanding of space-time and writes that he “contributed massively to the apologetics of the Biblical God.” But in 1954, near the end of his life, Einstein wrote that “The word God is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weaknesses, the Bible a collection of honourable, but still primitive legends.” The book never grapples with such contradictions, nor does it seem to take other religions’ claims of truth seriously. It airily dismisses the entire edifice of Hinduism, for example, because “one can believe almost anything and call themselves a Hindu.” Ivey’s commentary, however, does offer some thoughtful insights that readers may appreciate; for example, when Jesus’ own family wants to speak to him while he’s preaching, he replies (in Luke 8:21), “My mother and my brothers are these who hear the word of God and do it.” Interestingly, Ivey sympathizes with the relatives, using the passage to talk about isolation; the accompanying prayer asks the Lord to “help us to realize that others may subsist in a world of loneliness that we perhaps could not bear.”
Ivey’s apologetics will convince few skeptics, but likeminded readers will find it a useful tool.Pub Date: Oct. 4, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-5393-0885-0
Page Count: 446
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Jan. 2, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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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