by John Gravino ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 9, 2015
A worthy read for anyone interested in the modern relevance of Christian teaching.
A bold defense of Christianity against its most ardent critics, the New Atheists.
Besieged both by scandal and the rise of a vociferous group of critics, the Catholic Church has, in the eyes of many, failed to mount a strong defense of itself. In his first book, Gravino takes it upon himself to do precisely that. He focuses on the increasingly popular contention that celibacy, as a form of unhealthy sexual repression, caused the difficulties the church has had with pedophiles. First, the author argues that there is no clearly observed causal connection between Christian sexual morality and the transgressions of some of its priests; the connection, one often drawn by the church’s detractors, is more the expression of a cultural prejudice than an empirical inference. Also, Gravino says that a Christian moral psychology is actually the key to human flourishing and what is now generally referred to as mental health. The practice of self-control regarding one’s desires, including sexual activity, is a principal instrument of happiness as it is understood in spiritual terms. Afflictions that have plagued contemporary society—sexually transmitted diseases, unplanned pregnancy, obesity, etc.—are all results of a lack of self-restraint, which Gravino says is the result of spiritual decline. According to Gravino, the popularity of Freudian psychology, which looks at sexual expression as ungovernable, plays a key part in the libertinism that now presents itself as an alternative to Christian teaching. The entire study is painstakingly researched and meticulously documented as well as carefully argued. Gravino presents his case in the spirit of the natural law teachings of St. Thomas Aquinas, eschewing a facile reliance upon scriptural authority in favor of an appeal to rational demonstration. “I contend that the Bible contributes genuine knowledge to the understanding of our species. And I furthermore insist,” Gravino writes, “that when science wanders into the terrain of our species and contradicts the truths of the Bible, it does so at a terrible cost, decreasing knowledge rather than increasing it.” The author’s tone can be a bit peremptory at times, undermining his philosophical and scholarly caution. However, his is a clear and principled defense of the church that is arguably superior to anything the institution has offered on its own behalf.
A worthy read for anyone interested in the modern relevance of Christian teaching.Pub Date: July 9, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-5153-8086-3
Page Count: 284
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Sept. 23, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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by Albert Camus ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 26, 1955
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
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by Stephen Batchelor ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 18, 2020
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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