A fervent compilation of thoughts on God, politics, and religion.
A deeply religious debut book offers advice and insights on how to live a faith-based life.
In his abstract work on religion and spirituality, Muza strings together a series of short sections featuring his reflections on how to get closer to God in one’s daily life. The text resembles a lyrical essay and integrates elements of poetry and self-help books. There is no narrative arc in these pages. Rather, the volume is more akin to a collection of aphorisms or an exploration of Muza’s own religious philosophy. In fact, the About the Author section reveals that he “composed numerous religious gospels” before his eyesight failed. In some passages, the author discusses the path to success. In the section “The Gospel,” he writes: “Go to bed and hold a piece of bread in your heart, and then you will have Jesus when you awake. An unforgiving spirit holds back the power in your life. Right thinking opens the door to success.” Other times, Muza dispenses general advice, as in the section “Forgiveness,” when he urges his audience to “be slow to anger and quick to forgive, and you will have friends as long as you live.” Much of the book is dedicated to connecting Muza’s political and religious beliefs, some of which are controversial. He tells readers: “Abortion is a mortal sin. Our moral values are out of control. Families are being destroyed….Sin flourishes, running rampant. It’s Sodom and Gomorrah all over again. Armageddon is at our door.” In another instance he writes: “Rock music and artists pledge their lives to the destruction of family values and mortals, promoting sex, violent acts, and drug experimentation. Youth crazes that seem innocent and cute—Pokemon, Digimon, Teletubbies, Harry Potter, video games, Furbys, action figures, and toys—are evil.” Some readers may disagree with his strong views on these issues. Eventually, his voice softens and he makes a point that many readers should embrace: “To make yourself whole, do something that is good and unselfish.” While the book meanders at times, readers who share the author’s political and spiritual beliefs should find some useful advice.
A fervent compilation of thoughts on God, politics, and religion.Pub Date: Sept. 26, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-5320-0466-7
Page Count: 164
Publisher: iUniverse
Review Posted Online: Jan. 31, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
BOOK REVIEW
An erudite and artful, though frustratingly restrained, look at Old Testament stories.
The Book of Genesis as imagined by a veteran voice of underground comics.
R. Crumb’s pass at the opening chapters of the Bible isn’t nearly the act of heresy the comic artist’s reputation might suggest. In fact, the creator of Fritz the Cat and Mr. Natural is fastidiously respectful. Crumb took pains to preserve every word of Genesis—drawing from numerous source texts, but mainly Robert Alter’s translation, The Five Books of Moses (2004)—and he clearly did his homework on the clothing, shelter and landscapes that surrounded Noah, Abraham and Isaac. This dedication to faithful representation makes the book, as Crumb writes in his introduction, a “straight illustration job, with no intention to ridicule or make visual jokes.” But his efforts are in their own way irreverent, and Crumb feels no particular need to deify even the most divine characters. God Himself is not much taller than Adam and Eve, and instead of omnisciently imparting orders and judgment He stands beside them in Eden, speaking to them directly. Jacob wrestles not with an angel, as is so often depicted in paintings, but with a man who looks not much different from himself. The women are uniformly Crumbian, voluptuous Earth goddesses who are both sexualized and strong-willed. (The endnotes offer a close study of the kinds of power women wielded in Genesis.) The downside of fitting all the text in is that many pages are packed tight with small panels, and too rarely—as with the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah—does Crumb expand his lens and treat signature events dramatically. Even the Flood is fairly restrained, though the exodus of the animals from the Ark is beautifully detailed. The author’s respect for Genesis is admirable, but it may leave readers wishing he had taken a few more chances with his interpretation, as when he draws the serpent in the Garden of Eden as a provocative half-man/half-lizard. On the whole, though, the book is largely a tribute to Crumb’s immense talents as a draftsman and stubborn adherence to the script.
An erudite and artful, though frustratingly restrained, look at Old Testament stories.Pub Date: Oct. 19, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-393-06102-4
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Norton
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2009
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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