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
A football star’s bracing account of his battle for racial equality—and how powerful forces arrayed against him.
A principled athlete strives for social justice.
Kaepernick forthrightly details the activism that earned him global renown but cost him his NFL career. In 2016, the San Francisco 49ers quarterback “was filled with disgust” after police shootings of fellow Black men in several American cities. Before a preseason game, he made a spontaneous decision: “It hit me in that moment that I should find a seat” during the national anthem. He did the same at two more games before reporters noticed. Kaepernick will forever be associated with “taking a knee” during the anthem, but he credits Eric Reid—a teammate who agreed with Kaepernick’s message—for suggesting that they kneel together during subsequent anthems. The protest changed everything for Kaepernick. President Trump vilified him. Kaepernick and his wife received death threats. And though he’d taken the 49ers to a Super Bowl, no teams would sign him. He will likely make news for his take on Jay-Z, whose lucrative partnership with the NFL was criticized as an attempt to launder the league’s reputation. Visiting Africa, where Kaepernick learns about “African leaders who willingly sold their own people to the enslavers,” he “couldn’t help but to think about Jay-Z and the NFL.” In opening chapters, Kaepernick recalls suffering traumatic racial abuse as a child. Being in “white spaces”—he was adopted by white parents—placed him “under a microscope every minute of every day.” He isn’t always nuanced, depicting some people he disagrees with as cartoonishly clueless. But his writing about how college and pro teams “lied” to him about injuries underlines his “feeling of being a disposable commodity.” A decade has passed since Kaepernick played in the NFL, but he stays fit in case “a team needing a QB” calls.
A football star’s bracing account of his battle for racial equality—and how powerful forces arrayed against him.Pub Date: Sept. 15, 2026
ISBN: 9781538777879
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Legacy Lit/Hachette
Review Posted Online: June 15, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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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