Detailed and fervent, yet likely to ring hollow for many contemporary Christians.
An impassioned argument for observance of the Christian Sabbath on Saturday.
McCarver (Is Buffy in Heaven?, 2012) enjoins the ancient Sabbatarian argument with an unusual level of fervor. His overarching claim is that the Catholic Church changed the weekly Christian Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday against scriptural evidence, and that most Protestant churches have not corrected, or even noticed, this error. Readers may have a hard time grasping McCarver’s main point until well into the book, as he first focuses on the larger issues of obedience and perception. For example, he sees the Sabbath day issue as a prime example of widespread disobedience to God, and as a test of each Christian’s resolve to reject false teachings. As he gravely notes, “Purposeful and willful disobedience (which is rebellion) against the standard of God’s righteousness will keep you out of his kingdom!” McCarver begins by rejecting the idea that Sunday commemorates the day of Jesus’ resurrection, instead providing a detailed alternative reading of Scripture that asserts that the resurrection occurred on a Saturday. Further, he argues against the idea that Christians are free from Sabbath Law as defined for Judaism (such as dietary laws) by stating that Old Testament scriptures, Jesus’ teachings, and original church practice all retained it unchanged. He concludes that the church must “eradicate the venom of the lie.” Many readers, reflecting upon current practices, will ask why McCarver focuses so vehemently on the day of the week, yet says very little about believers’ lack of Sabbath observance at all on Saturday or Sunday. This would seem to be a natural point to make, in addition to stating his belief in Saturday observance. Although some readers may be aware that the question of the Sabbath’s proper day has arisen through church history, few will have thought much about it, and McCarver’s zeal—not to mention his lengthy mathematic and scientific explanations, especially in Chapters 6 and 7—may be overwhelming and even off-putting.
Detailed and fervent, yet likely to ring hollow for many contemporary Christians.Pub Date: July 25, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-4497-5636-9
Page Count: 214
Publisher: Westbow Press
Review Posted Online: March 5, 2018
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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