ignore Wallis—even if he is repeating many a lesson that those familiar with his work will already have learned.
The evangelical activist and writer (and editor of Sojourners), who has long defined the Christian Left, offers
autobiographical snapshots and a call to action. Wallis believes that the US is about to witness the eruption of a new kind of activism—one motivated by "spiritual values" rather than anger. Like so many in our 12-step age, Wallis is explicitly how-to, providing 15 easy-to-digest steps to activism. Buried beneath the formulaic packaging, though, are some insightful nuggets. In Lesson 5 ("Recognize the Three Faces of Poverty"), Wallis, long known for his work on behalf of the poor, urges readers to consider how material, spiritual, and civic poverty—not just the widening gap between rich and poor but also the decline in voting and the degeneration of political debate—are ruining the public life of the nation. In Lesson 6, he reminds would-be activists to "Listen to Those Closest to the Problem"—the poor themselves. In Lesson 7 ("Get to the Heart of the Matter"), Wallis takes on welfare reform, the market economy, and racism. Throughout, he reminds readers of just how much potential religion has to bring about social and political change—although this discussion is not helped by tired calls for increased ecumenism and horizontal (instead of, you guessed it, vertical) leadership. Wallis ends on an optimistic note: The transformation from disenchanted politics to spiritually infused politics (and the transformation from indifferent churches to churches committed to economic and social justice) is, in his view, well under way. Nothing particularly fresh, but with so few voices expressing similar commitments to ending poverty, we can’t afford to
ignore Wallis—even if he is repeating many a lesson that those familiar with his work will already have learned.Pub Date: March 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-375-50176-2
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2000
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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