A well-researched, if not particularly revelatory, case against Roman Catholicism.
Lugger presents a theological case against the Roman Catholic Church in this nonfiction work.
This book begins with a central question that has dogged Christianity for more than two millennia: If Jesus came to save the lost, “who among us may be considered lost?” According to the author, a former Lutheran who began studying Christian history following his marriage to a woman of a different denomination, the definition of lost may very well extend to any “member of Christ’s body who continually worships in a denomination.” Anticipating a five-volume series that explores the “non-Christian beliefs” of some of the world’s largest Christian denominations, this first volume focuses on the Roman Catholic Church. Drawing on the “authority of Scripture,” the book’s case against Catholicism argues that many of its central tenets, from the veneration of Mary to priestly authority in the confessional booth, are largely absent from the Bible. Lugger observes that many distinctive aspects of Catholicism, including its use of holy water, the doctrine of purgatory, the celibacy of the clergy, and infant baptism, were developed hundreds of years after Christ’s time on Earth. This is historically true, though Catholic readers may defer to their belief in tradition in addition to scriptural authority. The book’s central argument against Catholicism lies in interpretations of Scripture and theological approaches that conflict with the author’s perspective of sola Scriptura. As detailed and well-versed in Christian history and doctrine as the book may be (it boasts an impressive 19 pages of bibliographic and reference citations), it is ultimately a rehashing of the same arguments against Catholicism that have been around since the Protestant Revolution. Ultimately, while straightforward and detailed in its nearly 400 pages of critique, the book offers nothing that wasn’t already written in the 1500s by like-minded Protestants.
A well-researched, if not particularly revelatory, case against Roman Catholicism.Pub Date: Feb. 20, 2023
ISBN: 9781665577748
Page Count: 396
Publisher: AuthorHouse
Review Posted Online: June 22, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
An ebullient nature lover’s paean to birds.
A charming bird journey with the bestselling author.
In his introduction to Tan’s “nature journal,” David Allen Sibley, the acclaimed ornithologist, nails the spirit of this book: a “collection of delightfully quirky, thoughtful, and personal observations of birds in sketches and words.” For years, Tan has looked out on her California backyard “paradise”—oaks, periwinkle vines, birch, Japanese maple, fuchsia shrubs—observing more than 60 species of birds, and she fashions her findings into delightful and approachable journal excerpts, accompanied by her gorgeous color sketches. As the entries—“a record of my life”—move along, the author becomes more adept at identifying and capturing them with words and pencils. Her first entry is September 16, 2017: Shortly after putting up hummingbird feeders, one of the tiny, delicate creatures landed on her hand and fed. “We have a relationship,” she writes. “I am in love.” By August 2018, her backyard “has become a menagerie of fledglings…all learning to fly.” Day by day, she has continued to learn more about the birds, their activities, and how she should relate to them; she also admits mistakes when they occur. In December 2018, she was excited to observe a Townsend’s Warbler—“Omigod! It’s looking at me. Displeased expression.” Battling pesky squirrels, Tan deployed Hot Pepper Suet to keep them away, and she deterred crows by hanging a fake one upside down. The author also declared war on outdoor cats when she learned they kill more than 1 billion birds per year. In May 2019, she notes that she spends $250 per month on beetle larvae. In June 2019, she confesses “spending more hours a day staring at birds than writing. How can I not?” Her last entry, on December 15, 2022, celebrates when an eating bird pauses, “looks and acknowledges I am there.”
An ebullient nature lover’s paean to birds.Pub Date: April 23, 2024
ISBN: 9780593536131
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Jan. 19, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.
The veteran actor, comedian, and banjo player teams up with the acclaimed illustrator to create a unique book of cartoons that communicates their personalities.
Martin, also a prolific author, has always been intrigued by the cartoons strewn throughout the pages of the New Yorker. So when he was presented with the opportunity to work with Bliss, who has been a staff cartoonist at the magazine since 1997, he seized the moment. “The idea of a one-panel image with or without a caption mystified me,” he writes. “I felt like, yeah, sometimes I’m funny, but there are these other weird freaks who are actually funny.” Once the duo agreed to work together, they established their creative process, which consisted of working forward and backward: “Forwards was me conceiving of several cartoon images and captions, and Harry would select his favorites; backwards was Harry sending me sketched or fully drawn cartoons for dialogue or banners.” Sometimes, he writes, “the perfect joke occurs two seconds before deadline.” There are several cartoons depicting this method, including a humorous multipanel piece highlighting their first meeting called “They Meet,” in which Martin thinks to himself, “He’ll never be able to translate my delicate and finely honed droll notions.” In the next panel, Bliss thinks, “I’m sure he won’t understand that the comic art form is way more subtle than his blunt-force humor.” The team collaborated for a year and created 150 cartoons featuring an array of topics, “from dogs and cats to outer space and art museums.” A witty creation of a bovine family sitting down to a gourmet meal and one of Dumbo getting his comeuppance highlight the duo’s comedic talent. What also makes this project successful is the team’s keen understanding of human behavior as viewed through their unconventional comedic minds.
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.Pub Date: Nov. 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-26289-9
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2020
PERSPECTIVES
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