An illuminating introduction to earth science that deftly bridges the divide between faith and reason.
A Christian minister and scientist uses Earth’s natural wonders as a lens to explore his faith.
In this debut book, Salloum draws inspiration from biblical passages that suggest “the natural world, with all its orderliness, beauty, and variety…is much more than matter and energy.” Indeed, while the author joins many Christians in interpreting the books of the Bible as God’s “inspired written words,” he urges fellow believers to return to complementary notions that argue that God uses “His visible Creation as one of His principal vehicles by which to convey something ineffable, namely knowledge of Himself.” As an Anglican minister who taught high school and university-level geography and earth science for more than half a century, Salloum masterfully blends a solid understanding of Christian theology with scientific expertise. While inspired by the author’s faith, the book’s narrative mostly focuses on the scientific principles that make life on Earth possible. As such, this is an effective primer, particularly for scientifically skeptical Christians, on the fundamentals of earth science, including geology, meteorology, and oceanography, as well as the basic principles of astronomy, physics, and biology. An ample assortment of photographs, maps, and diagrams complements Salloum’s writing, which exemplifies the patient, confident guidance of a veteran classroom teacher. Peppered throughout the book’s planetary lessons are Bible verses and inspirational quotes by Christian thinkers like C.S. Lewis that remind readers of the volume’s religious motivations without devolving into the arguments deployed by Christian fundamentalists against established science. Perhaps most impressively, the work does not reject scientific consensus, nor does it avoid difficult topics, particularly how an orderly world created by God is also a place of constant natural disasters, from floods and hurricanes to earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. The author’s occasional anecdotes about his personal travels and experiences are a bit self-indulgent. But overall, the book offers concise, well-researched, and valuable explanations of how the planet physically works, which will be of use to readers—regardless of their religion—interested in the basics of earth science.
An illuminating introduction to earth science that deftly bridges the divide between faith and reason.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: 978-1-03-912630-5
Page Count: 344
Publisher: FriesenPress
Review Posted Online: April 11, 2022
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
A very welcome instance of philosophy that can help readers live a good life.
A teacher and scholar of Buddhism offers a formally varied account of the available rewards of solitude.
“As Mother Ayahuasca takes me in her arms, I realize that last night I vomited up my attachment to Buddhism. In passing out, I died. In coming to, I was, so to speak, reborn. I no longer have to fight these battles, I repeat to myself. I am no longer a combatant in the dharma wars. It feels as if the course of my life has shifted onto another vector, like a train shunted off its familiar track onto a new trajectory.” Readers of Batchelor’s previous books (Secular Buddhism: Imagining the Dharma in an Uncertain World, 2017, etc.) will recognize in this passage the culmination of his decadeslong shift away from the religious commitments of Buddhism toward an ecumenical and homegrown philosophy of life. Writing in a variety of modes—memoir, history, collage, essay, biography, and meditation instruction—the author doesn’t argue for his approach to solitude as much as offer it for contemplation. Essentially, Batchelor implies that if you read what Buddha said here and what Montaigne said there, and if you consider something the author has noticed, and if you reflect on your own experience, you have the possibility to improve the quality of your life. For introspective readers, it’s easy to hear in this approach a direct response to Pascal’s claim that “all of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone.” Batchelor wants to relieve us of this inability by offering his example of how to do just that. “Solitude is an art. Mental training is needed to refine and stabilize it,” he writes. “When you practice solitude, you dedicate yourself to the care of the soul.” Whatever a soul is, the author goes a long way toward soothing it.
A very welcome instance of philosophy that can help readers live a good life.Pub Date: Feb. 18, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-300-25093-0
Page Count: 200
Publisher: Yale Univ.
Review Posted Online: Nov. 24, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2019
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