by James P. Byrd ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 1, 2021
Civil War buffs and Scripture enthusiasts alike will find this book to be a uniquely worthwhile reading experience.
A fresh exploration of the Bible’s role in the Civil War.
Byrd, a professor of American religious history at Vanderbilt Divinity School, provides a useful, original contribution to the vast library of Civil War history, focusing not merely on faith or religion in the context of the war, but on the Bible itself. Given the depth of religious fervor and level of biblical literacy that marked American society during the war years, the author is able to tap into a deep well of cultural riches and historical insights. “The American Civil War was not primarily a war over the Bible,” writes Byrd in the epilogue, “but for many Americans it was a biblical war,” and he points out several times that Lincoln once noted how both the North and the South “read the same Bible.” Both sides did indeed read the same Scriptures, and while both believed the Scriptures supported their views, they offered wildly differing interpretations. Byrd also shows how the Bible was a central point of reference for nearly everyone in Civil War society, from enlisted men to officers, abolitionists to proponents of slavery, politicians to, of course, clergy. Old Testament references, many of which are obscure today, were used widely by both sides of the conflict to interpret the contemporary events and find the direction of God’s favor. The Bible was used to prove, understand, or explain everything, from White supremacy to the reasons for specific military defeats to the assassination of Lincoln. As the war carried on, the language of sacrifice found throughout the Bible saturated Americans’ understanding of the conflict. “We misunderstand the Bible’s role in the war…if we devalue the biblical images of sacrifice,” writes the author, whose eye-opening analysis shows how, through sacrifice and atonement, Americans from both sides found meaning in the carnage of war.
Civil War buffs and Scripture enthusiasts alike will find this book to be a uniquely worthwhile reading experience.Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-19-090279-7
Page Count: 392
Publisher: Oxford Univ.
Review Posted Online: Dec. 14, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2021
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by Marilynne Robinson ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 12, 2024
In this highly learned yet accessible book, Robinson offers believers fresh insight into a well-studied text.
A deeply thoughtful exploration of the first book of the Bible.
In this illuminating work of biblical analysis, Pulitzer Prize–winning novelist Robinson, whose Gilead series contains a variety of Christian themes, takes readers on a dedicated layperson’s journey through the Book of Genesis. The author meanders delightfully through the text, ruminating on one tale after another while searching for themes and mining for universal truths. Robinson approaches Genesis with a reverence and level of faith uncommon to modern mainstream writers, yet she’s also equipped with the appropriate tools for cogent criticism. Throughout this luminous exegesis, which will appeal to all practicing Christians, the author discusses overarching themes in Genesis. First is the benevolence of God. Robinson points out that “to say that God is the good creator of a good creation” sets the God of Genesis in opposition to the gods of other ancient creation stories, who range from indifferent to evil. This goodness carries through the entirety of Genesis, demonstrated through grace. “Grace tempers judgment,” writes the author, noting that despite well-deserved instances of wrath or punishment, God relents time after time. Another overarching theme is the interplay between God’s providence and humanity’s independence. Across the Book of Genesis, otherwise ordinary people make decisions that will affect the future in significant ways, yet events are consistently steered by God’s omnipotence. For instance, Joseph is sold into slavery by his brothers, and that action has reverberated throughout the history of all Jewish people. Robinson indirectly asks readers to consider where the line is between the actions of God and the actions of creation. “He chose to let us be,” she concludes, “to let time yield what it will—within the vast latitude granted by providence.”
In this highly learned yet accessible book, Robinson offers believers fresh insight into a well-studied text.Pub Date: March 12, 2024
ISBN: 9780374299408
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Oct. 14, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2023
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by Tom Clavin ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 21, 2020
Buffs of the Old West will enjoy Clavin’s careful research and vivid writing.
Rootin’-tootin’ history of the dry-gulchers, horn-swogglers, and outright killers who populated the Wild West’s wildest city in the late 19th century.
The stories of Wyatt Earp and company, the shootout at the O.K. Corral, and Geronimo and the Apache Wars are all well known. Clavin, who has written books on Dodge City and Wild Bill Hickok, delivers a solid narrative that usefully links significant events—making allies of white enemies, for instance, in facing down the Apache threat, rustling from Mexico, and other ethnically charged circumstances. The author is a touch revisionist, in the modern fashion, in noting that the Earps and Clantons weren’t as bloodthirsty as popular culture has made them out to be. For example, Wyatt and Bat Masterson “took the ‘peace’ in peace officer literally and knew that the way to tame the notorious town was not to outkill the bad guys but to intimidate them, sometimes with the help of a gun barrel to the skull.” Indeed, while some of the Clantons and some of the Earps died violently, most—Wyatt, Bat, Doc Holliday—died of cancer and other ailments, if only a few of old age. Clavin complicates the story by reminding readers that the Earps weren’t really the law in Tombstone and sometimes fell on the other side of the line and that the ordinary citizens of Tombstone and other famed Western venues valued order and peace and weren’t particularly keen on gunfighters and their mischief. Still, updating the old notion that the Earp myth is the American Iliad, the author is at his best when he delineates those fraught spasms of violence. “It is never a good sign for law-abiding citizens,” he writes at one high point, “to see Johnny Ringo rush into town, both him and his horse all in a lather.” Indeed not, even if Ringo wound up killing himself and law-abiding Tombstone faded into obscurity when the silver played out.
Buffs of the Old West will enjoy Clavin’s careful research and vivid writing.Pub Date: April 21, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-21458-4
Page Count: 400
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Jan. 19, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2020
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