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
Faith-based poetry that aims to inspire.
The word “triumph” can signify both the act of obtaining a victory and the victory itself and the 37 poems and four prose pieces that comprise this book each aim to tap into the duality of the title’s meaning, offering the reader snapshots of success—or the ways in which to obtain it. In clear, unadorned language and simple imagery, the poems reassure the reader that life’s struggles and difficulties will not last forever: the thorn-covered path will eventually clear, as it does in “False Premise”, and the darkness will end with a new light, as in “The Raven Banished”. These hope-laden poems encourage the reader to escape the chaos and violence of the modern world by seeking emotional and spiritual sustenance. For Bell, this nourishment and the calm that accompanies it can only come from faith in God: “My will and mine alone had caused my pain; / Apart from God, I sought for peace in vain”. As a result what transpires is a collection filled with poems depicting domestic refuge (“The Dream”), springtime renewal (“Spring At Last”, “Fragrance”) and recapitulations of the New Testament stories of Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection (“It Is Finished”, “Different”, “Judas” and “Rejoice”). Less successful are the four short prose pieces that close the collection, primarily due to their heavy-handed retelling of the biblical tales of Joseph, Pilate and the prodigal son. While this collection offers very little that is new or daring in terms of language and form—limiting itself to a comfort zone of free verse, rhyming couplets and haiku—it does tap into universal questions about our existence. Many may find the heavy Christian message in this volume limiting but readers of a similar mindset to Bell’s may discover that this book sparks spiritual contemplation and personal reflection. A collection with admirable intent.
Pub Date: April 30, 2010
ISBN: 978-1-4415-4232-8
Page Count: 56
Publisher: Xlibris
Review Posted Online: June 21, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
An engaging, if sometimes spotty, history of the Jews who resided in the Iberian Peninsula until their expulsion from Spain in 1492 and from Portugal in 1497. A distinguished scholar and author of many books on modern Jewish history (A History of the Jews in America, 1992), Sachar has done little, if any, original research here, but he nicely synthesizes secondary sources. He shows how the late medieval Convivencia—the period of Jewish-Islamic mutual tolerance and cultural cross-fertilization—gave way to the nationwide pogroms of 1391, in which 30,000 Jews were killed (4,000 in Seville alone). Following this violence, the Inquisition that began in the late 15th century, and the expulsions, Sephardic Jews spread throughout the Mediterranean littoral and the Ottoman Empire, as well as to Holland, England, the Western Hemisphere (in the 16th and 17th centuries, the Inquisition's long arm pursued conversos—crypto- Jews who professed to be practicing Christians—to such places as Lima and Mexico City), and beyond. In almost every country where they settled, the Sephardim incorporated their pride in and yearning for Spain in a distinctive Jewish language, Ladino. Sachar's strengths include succinct and informative discussions of Sephardic communal and intellectual history, his excellent unfolding of the Inquisition's complex history, and his many colorful anecdotes of the Sephardic ``rich and famous.'' However, his coverage of the middle class and poor, of Sephardic women, and of the early modern period (16501850) is weak and, occasionally, embarrassingly clichÇd (he claims that ``by the eighteenth century, the Jews of Italy had become superstitious, neurotic, timorous''). Finally, he ``takes a stab'' at discussing the contemporary Sephardic communities of Israel and France (but not, puzzlingly, of the US, where about 200,000 Sephardim live), but this too is so brief as to be greatly inadequate. A more detailed and comprehensive history of Sephardic Jewry waits to be written. For now, Farewell Espa§a provides a quick introduction that, if a little light in terms of scholarship, contains a fluid and often fascinating narrative.
Pub Date: Oct. 11, 1994
ISBN: 0-679-40960-2
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1994
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