A patient, cerebral approach for Christians looking to eliminate the stresses that keep them from what they truly want.
A psychological exploration of Christian faith.
For his nonfiction debut, Coles applies his experience as a psychotherapist to the task of addressing some fundamental questions about living in the modern era: specifically, how to separate the stress and distractions of life from what really matters, how to avoid making the same mistakes over and over in one’s personal life, and, especially, how to understand the concept of love—its strengths, its challenges, and its risks. He advocates an interdisciplinary approach that borrows from many disparate fields, seeking a psychology that’s more in tune with the soul while also noting that “religion also needs to embrace and learn from psychology more.” The main focus of this interdisciplinary approach is on the frenetic state of the modern mind and spirit. Year after year, Coles contends, people add a little bit more exhaustion to their lives, leading to a day-to-day existence that’s full of stress, which is compounded by a loss of perspective. These create a feedback situation, he says, in which people become their own worst enemies when it comes to seeing what’s truly important: “People who have to win all the time,” he writes, “don’t know what it’s like to get past arrogance and to experience a situation free of a need that will never be met.” Throughout, he effectively uses hypotheticals and real-world examples to underscore the idea that people always have choices—specifically, that they always have the ability to decide which of their inner angels to heed. As a result, the book offers an engaging and invigorating message throughout. It’s muddled only slightly by a few of the author’s assertions, such as the bewildering, unsupported claim that “the Bible tells us not to be stressed.” For the most part, however, this is a readable and well-sourced look at how Christianity can work in a complicated and unhealthily nervous world.
A patient, cerebral approach for Christians looking to eliminate the stresses that keep them from what they truly want.Pub Date: Nov. 28, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-5127-6636-3
Page Count: 146
Publisher: Westbow Press
Review Posted Online: April 3, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Worthwhile reference stuffed with facts and illustrations.
A compendium of charts, time lines, lists and illustrations to accompany study of the Bible.
This visually appealing resource provides a wide array of illustrative and textually concise references, beginning with three sets of charts covering the Bible as a whole, the Old Testament and the New Testament. These charts cover such topics as biblical weights and measures, feasts and holidays and the 12 disciples. Most of the charts use a variety of illustrative techniques to convey lessons and provide visual interest. A worthwhile example is “How We Got the Bible,” which provides a time line of translation history, comparisons of canons among faiths and portraits of important figures in biblical translation, such as Jerome and John Wycliffe. The book then presents a section of maps, followed by diagrams to conceptualize such structures as Noah’s Ark and Solomon’s Temple. Finally, a section on Christianity, cults and other religions describes key aspects of history and doctrine for certain Christian sects and other faith traditions. Overall, the authors take a traditionalist, conservative approach. For instance, they list Moses as the author of the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Hebrew Bible) without making mention of claims to the contrary. When comparing various Christian sects and world religions, the emphasis is on doctrine and orthodox theology. Some chapters, however, may not completely align with the needs of Catholic and Orthodox churches. But the authors’ leanings are muted enough and do not detract from the work’s usefulness. As a resource, it’s well organized, inviting and visually stimulating. Even the most seasoned reader will learn something while browsing.
Worthwhile reference stuffed with facts and illustrations.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2005
ISBN: 978-1-5963-6022-8
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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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