Intelligent and carefully researched account of the religio-political setting for a wave of apparitions of the Virgin Mary in Spain on the eve of that country's Civil War. In June 1931, shortly after Spain had become a republic and anticlerical mobs were burning religious houses in several cities, sightings of Mary and the saints began at Ezkioga in the Basque Country and spread to dozens of towns across the nation. The author, an independent scholar who has written previously about apparitions in medieval Spain, interviewed hundreds of witnesses and unearthed contemporary diaries and clandestine publications in order to recreate the world of the visionaries. Devoting the first half of his book to the sequence of events, he describes religious currents in Basque and Catalan patriotism and the effect of the central government's fiercely antireligious policies on ordinary people. We read of seers such as the carpenter Patxi Goicoechea, who claimed that the Virgin called for the overthrow of the republic, and of many other key figures, such as Father Antonio Amundarain, who had founded a new and powerful kind of pious association for laypeople and was an early promoter of the visions. Christian goes on to explore aspects of the visions, e.g., how Ezkioga linked the rural poor with the industrial wealthy at the very time when the antireligious left defined social class as an issue. The author underlines the role of women and draws helpful comparisons with the apparitions at Lourdes and the Belgian sites of Beauraing and Banneux. We learn details of the trancelike states of the seers and of their fortunes after the Vatican's disavowal of their visions in 1934. Passing no judgments, Christian writes with respect for the seers' Catholic faith and Spanish culture, which he does not share but has certainly entered into. (114 photos, not seen; 2 maps)
Pub Date: March 1, 1996
ISBN: 0-520-20040-3
Page Count: 558
Publisher: Univ. of California
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1996
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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