Evangelicals will be delighted, and most readers will at least be intrigued.
Uncritical but detailed biography of one of America’s most influential living religious figures.
U.S. News & World Report contributing editor Sheler (Is the Bible True?, 1999) provides a needed overview of the life of Rick Warren, founder of the 25,000-member Saddleback Church and author of the mega-seller The Purpose Driven Life (2002). The author’s near-hagiography glosses over most of the criticisms of Warren, but the book is accessible and provides important background for anyone with an interest in the preacher. Beginning with a historical discussion of Warren’s Southern Baptist upbringing, Sheler covers Warren’s parentage and adolescence. An accomplished teenage preacher, Warren was ordained at age 21. After completing a seminary degree, he and his wife moved to Southern California to start a new church from scratch. Warren had carefully studied the urban American landscape for places to begin ministry and settled on the Saddleback Valley area of Orange County. Beginning with a small Bible study group he cobbled together upon arriving, he launched a church in 1980 that would reach an attendance of 200 in less than a year. As the Saddleback Church grew by the thousands during the ensuing two decades, so did Warren’s role in the American Evangelical landscape. From his work leading ministerial conferences on evangelism came the bestselling book The Purpose Driven Church, followed by The Purpose Driven Life, a publishing success of the first order. This new renown drove Warren into unexpected circles of influence, exemplified by such experiences as receiving a phone call from Benjamin Netanyahu while waiting in line at Starbucks, or delivering the invocation for Barack Obama’s inauguration. In the final chapters of the book, Sheler looks at Warren’s struggle to stay focused on ministry and to refocus in light of his success and fame.
Evangelicals will be delighted, and most readers will at least be intrigued.Pub Date: Nov. 3, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-385-52395-0
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2009
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The author's youthfulness helps to assure the inevitable comparison with the Anne Frank diary although over and above the...
Elie Wiesel spent his early years in a small Transylvanian town as one of four children.
He was the only one of the family to survive what Francois Maurois, in his introduction, calls the "human holocaust" of the persecution of the Jews, which began with the restrictions, the singularization of the yellow star, the enclosure within the ghetto, and went on to the mass deportations to the ovens of Auschwitz and Buchenwald. There are unforgettable and horrifying scenes here in this spare and sombre memoir of this experience of the hanging of a child, of his first farewell with his father who leaves him an inheritance of a knife and a spoon, and of his last goodbye at Buchenwald his father's corpse is already cold let alone the long months of survival under unconscionable conditions.
Pub Date: Jan. 16, 2006
ISBN: 0374500010
Page Count: 120
Publisher: Hill & Wang
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2006
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
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