A searching, intelligent spiritual memoir.
A thought-provoking, sometimes surprising account of a female intellectual's passion for Mormon prophet Joseph Smith and her near-conversion to the faith.
Since her childhood, author and documentarian Barnes (Double Lives, 1981, etc.) has nursed “a persistent religious drive.” Born into a family where religion was more ritual than the expression of true faith, she eventually began a “slow mosey” through Unitarianism, ecstatic Protestantism, Zen Buddhism and spiritual practices that verged on worship of the supernatural. By 2003, Barnes had developed an especially profound fascination with Smith. Her interest manifested first as a treatment for a PBS documentary about Smith's life, then evolved into a full-blown love for the man and his work. “His exuberant arc from boy conjurer into frontier prophet with gold plates gave me the most intense delight of which I was capable,” she writes. Smith's many contradictions showed Barnes that God and irony could coexist, but more importantly, that God had “a touchingly, meltingly, divinely irreverent sense of humor.” As she continued to explore the Mormon faith, she discovered that she was not the first in her family to have been touched by Smith's teachings. Both maternal and paternal relatives had converted to Mormonism, and one had even become one of Brigham Young’s many wives. Ultimately, though, Barnes could not make the commitment to becoming a Mormon. While the author clearly idolizes Smith, she is not an apologist for him.
A searching, intelligent spiritual memoir.Pub Date: Aug. 16, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-58542-925-7
Page Count: 288
Publisher: TarcherPerigee
Review Posted Online: June 20, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2012
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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