An engaging exploration for seekers of all stripes.
The product of a “strict Christian household” gone rogue interprets the Bible through a decidedly Eastern lens.
You might not know this, or even care to know this—but you are God. You might not feel that way sitting in your soul-sucking cubicle or digging that ditch, but you are divine, according to Yarnell’s take on the Bible. That idea is central to the author’s thesis as he endeavors to uplift the uninitiated with esoteric knowledge for the betterment of everyday life. “We are not ‘separate’ from anything—not from each other, not from nature, not from the world, not from distant stars with their own galaxies rotating around them,” he writes. Yarnell caps off each highly accessible chapter with an exercise or mediation that readers can put into practice right away. The good news, according the author, is that Christ is imagination, and we can use our imaginations to create our reality—hence the book’s provocative title. “Everything changes when you start creating reality with intent and with the awareness that you are God,” he asserts. The text is pretty much all peace and love, except when it comes to established Christian churches; Yarnell jeers what he calls “biblical misinterpretation[s] of the scriptures” and calls certain established church doctrines concerning the nature of Jesus “ludicrous.” The author finds the concepts of duality and separation between God and his creations as particularly damaging and detrimental to all of our lives. Those already familiar with some of the core tenets of Eastern religions and thought will find these ideas familiar, but others may see them as challenging. Overall, Yarnell’s tome is an upbeat affair that often feels like one-part self-help guide and one-part expedition into enigmatic cosmological truths. The King James Bible is referenced extensively, and many will no doubt find the author’s insights to be profound. “It works like this,” he states: “Have a clear intention of what you want, see it in your imagination, and try your best to feel the reality of it. Doing this lets you latch onto it in the quantum field with the lasso of faith.”
An engaging exploration for seekers of all stripes.Pub Date: Aug. 12, 2025
ISBN: 9781897238721
Page Count: 248
Publisher: Namaste Publishing
Review Posted Online: March 19, 2025
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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