An engrossing, rigorous, and argumentative study of Christian violence.
A debut spiritual book offers a discourse on the iniquities Christians have committed over the centuries.
Willis opens Chapter 1 with some flat declarations: that Christianity is the most homicidal religion in the history of the world, and that Christians have slain no fewer than half a billion men, women, children, and infants. As the author puts it, if all these victims were stacked one on top of the other like cordwood, the “Tower of Death” would rise halfway to the moon. The author insists that Christians who kill or torture on behalf of their government are directly disobeying the commands of Jesus. Rather, these Christians are following an authority-friendly version of Christianity compounded by three men: the Apostle Paul, Roman Emperor Constantine the Great, and the seminal Christian theologian St. Augustine of Hippo. All of them promulgated a version of Christianity that was willing or even eager to serve secular authority. “This was their respective egos,” Willis writes, “which responded to Jesus of Nazareth as they thought they should, but not as he commanded and expected.” The author fills the pages of his work with text, ample footnotes, many translations, and plenty of bulleted points. The print book’s larger format accommodates the various notes some Christian readers will want to make.
Despite his formidable erudition, Willis often comes across as a tiresome crank. His points are well documented but sometimes hugely elaborated; his footnotes sprawl over 80% of some pages; and his paragraph-long sentences frequently dissolve into mere rants. Even so, his book is an enormously diligent work of scholarship. His recurrent discussions of the nuances of translating the Greek are always illuminating, and his examinations of Christian Scripture are searching and extremely well grounded. And his central contention, that the endless violence and murders by Christians in the last 1,700 years are contradictory to the true teachings of Jesus, is an intriguing argument and conversation starter. The author, who believes in God and loves the biblical Jesus, is engagingly scornful of Christian behavior, calling genocide “the rule of Christian-European American history” and pointing out the “chapters written in blood by the hands of Christians who said they were Christians while they shed blood.” The reach of Willis’ research is consistently impressive and often surprising, ranging from obscure first-century authors to Aleister Crowley, the so-called “Beast of the Apocalypse,” with an enormous number of secondary references thrown in along the way. At the heart of the account is, of course, Jesus, who, Willis insists, “was not some idealistic, dreamy-eyed religious leader uttering shallow words from a deluded mind,” but rather a figure teaching hard-learned moral lessons that ran counter to human nature. Although the author often indulges in overlong explanations (his particular weakness is psychology), his book will captivate Christians and non-Christians alike.
An engrossing, rigorous, and argumentative study of Christian violence.Pub Date: Nov. 29, 2019
ISBN: 978-1684712281
Page Count: 330
Publisher: Lulu Publishing Services
Review Posted Online: Aug. 31, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.
Greed, depravity, and serial murder in 1920s Oklahoma.
During that time, enrolled members of the Osage Indian nation were among the wealthiest people per capita in the world. The rich oil fields beneath their reservation brought millions of dollars into the tribe annually, distributed to tribal members holding "headrights" that could not be bought or sold but only inherited. This vast wealth attracted the attention of unscrupulous whites who found ways to divert it to themselves by marrying Osage women or by having Osage declared legally incompetent so the whites could fleece them through the administration of their estates. For some, however, these deceptive tactics were not enough, and a plague of violent death—by shooting, poison, orchestrated automobile accident, and bombing—began to decimate the Osage in what they came to call the "Reign of Terror." Corrupt and incompetent law enforcement and judicial systems ensured that the perpetrators were never found or punished until the young J. Edgar Hoover saw cracking these cases as a means of burnishing the reputation of the newly professionalized FBI. Bestselling New Yorkerstaff writer Grann (The Devil and Sherlock Holmes: Tales of Murder, Madness, and Obsession, 2010, etc.) follows Special Agent Tom White and his assistants as they track the killers of one extended Osage family through a closed local culture of greed, bigotry, and lies in pursuit of protection for the survivors and justice for the dead. But he doesn't stop there; relying almost entirely on primary and unpublished sources, the author goes on to expose a web of conspiracy and corruption that extended far wider than even the FBI ever suspected. This page-turner surges forward with the pacing of a true-crime thriller, elevated by Grann's crisp and evocative prose and enhanced by dozens of period photographs.
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.Pub Date: April 18, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-385-53424-6
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2017
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
A determined if self-regarding portrait of a candidate striving to define herself and her campaign on her own terms.
An insider’s chronicle of a pivotal presidential campaign.
Several months into the mounting political upheaval of Donald Trump’s second term and following a wave of bestselling political exposés, most notably Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson’s Original Sin on Joe Biden’s health and late decision to step down, former Vice President Harris offers her own account of the consequential months surrounding Biden’s withdrawal and her swift campaign for the presidency. Structured as brief chapters with countdown headers from 107 days to Election Day, the book recounts the campaign’s daily rigors: vetting a running mate, navigating back-to-back rallies, preparing for the convention and the debate with Trump, and deflecting obstacles in the form of both Trump’s camp and Biden’s faltering team. Harris aims to set the record straight on issues that have remained hotly debated. While acknowledging Biden’s advancing decline, she also highlights his foreign-policy steadiness: “His years of experience in foreign policy clearly showed….He was always focused, always commander in chief in that room.” More blame is placed on his inner circle, especially Jill Biden, whom Harris faults for pushing him beyond his limits—“the people who knew him best, should have realized that any campaign was a bridge too far.” Throughout, she highlights her own qualifications and dismisses suggestions that an open contest might have better served the party: “If they thought I was down with a mini primary or some other half-baked procedure, I was quick to disabuse them.” Facing Trump’s increasingly unhinged behavior, Harris never openly doubts her ability to confront him. Yet she doesn’t fully persuade the reader that she had the capacity to counter his dominance, suggesting instead that her defeat stemmed from a lack of time—a theme underscored by the urgency of the book’s title. If not entirely sanguine about the future, she maintains a clear-eyed view of the damage already done: “Perhaps so much damage that we will have to re-create our government…something leaner, swifter, and much more efficient.”
A determined if self-regarding portrait of a candidate striving to define herself and her campaign on her own terms.Pub Date: Sept. 23, 2025
ISBN: 9781668211656
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Sept. 23, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PERSPECTIVES
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