by Jon Valset ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 16, 2011
A confident, sure-footed reading of the New Testament that challenges believers.
Awards & Accolades
Our Verdict
GET IT
An incisive, unorthodox investigation of Scripture.
Valset’s thorough reading of the New Testament is worthy of any academic standard. In his sprawling commentary, he explores a wide variety of scriptural passages with great acuity. The book opens with an abridged world history leading up to the New Testament, including Greek and other historical references. The conclusions Valset reaches, however, are not expected ones. Indeed, he sets out to question, if not disprove, many of Christianity’s most basic assumptions regarding the New Testament. Some of his findings may seem mundane, such as arguing that there is no scriptural substantiation that Jesus’ feet were nailed during the Crucifixion. But he goes on to tackle far heavier subjects. For instance, Valset takes issue with the divine attributes assigned to the Holy Spirit, pointing out that the Spirit was not a favorite topic of the early Gospel authors and that it was Paul who made the Spirit an important point of theology. Again and again, Valset alludes to inconsistencies in accounts by the writers of the New Testament, at one point shouting in exasperation: “How disheartening it is to encounter clashing versions of the inerrant word of God at every turn! Did any of the authors of the Christian canonical books ever care to write only what he knew was absolutely the truth?” In the end, Valset concludes that Jesus was merely a man, misled by his religious zeal into tempting fate. “In his last minutes of lucidity,” Valset writes, “Jesus must have been painfully aware that his entire life had been wasted pursuing a hopeless dream.” The author comes to the same conclusions as many other secular scholars over the past two centuries, though he does so in a manner more focused on literary criticism than most. To a Christian audience, Valset’s pharisaical work may raise eyebrows, while his unwavering attack upon language leaves no room within the text for literary license or even personality.
A confident, sure-footed reading of the New Testament that challenges believers.Pub Date: May 16, 2011
ISBN: 978-1-4502-8930-6
Page Count: 704
Publisher: iUniverse
Review Posted Online: April 21, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Share your opinion of this book
by Marilynne Robinson ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 12, 2024
In this highly learned yet accessible book, Robinson offers believers fresh insight into a well-studied text.
A deeply thoughtful exploration of the first book of the Bible.
In this illuminating work of biblical analysis, Pulitzer Prize–winning novelist Robinson, whose Gilead series contains a variety of Christian themes, takes readers on a dedicated layperson’s journey through the Book of Genesis. The author meanders delightfully through the text, ruminating on one tale after another while searching for themes and mining for universal truths. Robinson approaches Genesis with a reverence and level of faith uncommon to modern mainstream writers, yet she’s also equipped with the appropriate tools for cogent criticism. Throughout this luminous exegesis, which will appeal to all practicing Christians, the author discusses overarching themes in Genesis. First is the benevolence of God. Robinson points out that “to say that God is the good creator of a good creation” sets the God of Genesis in opposition to the gods of other ancient creation stories, who range from indifferent to evil. This goodness carries through the entirety of Genesis, demonstrated through grace. “Grace tempers judgment,” writes the author, noting that despite well-deserved instances of wrath or punishment, God relents time after time. Another overarching theme is the interplay between God’s providence and humanity’s independence. Across the Book of Genesis, otherwise ordinary people make decisions that will affect the future in significant ways, yet events are consistently steered by God’s omnipotence. For instance, Joseph is sold into slavery by his brothers, and that action has reverberated throughout the history of all Jewish people. Robinson indirectly asks readers to consider where the line is between the actions of God and the actions of creation. “He chose to let us be,” she concludes, “to let time yield what it will—within the vast latitude granted by providence.”
In this highly learned yet accessible book, Robinson offers believers fresh insight into a well-studied text.Pub Date: March 12, 2024
ISBN: 9780374299408
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Oct. 14, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2023
Share your opinion of this book
More by Marilynne Robinson
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
Share your opinion of this book
More by Albert Camus
BOOK REVIEW
by Albert Camus ; translated by Justin O'Brien & Sandra Smith
BOOK REVIEW
by Albert Camus ; translated by Ellen Conroy Kennedy & Justin O'Brien
BOOK REVIEW
by Albert Camus translated by Arthur Goldhammer edited by Alice Kaplan
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Hey there, book lover.
We’re glad you found a book that interests you!
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Don’t fret. We’ll find you.