A deeply sensitive and nuanced probe into anti-vaxxing culture.
The origins of vaccine skepticism.
Kieffer, a scholar of religious studies at Fairfield University, explores the reasons why a growing number of people refuse vaccines. Although critics often dismiss dissenters as scientifically illiterate, she argues that vaccine hesitancy isn’t a lack of education—it’s a religious matter rooted in existential concerns about justice and morality. No major world religion prohibits vaccines, but claiming a religious exemption became nearly the only legal pathway for refusal. This trend was fueled by a deep-seated distrust of a racist and sexist medical establishment, consumer emancipation, and political polarization. Winning back trust requires listening, which Kieffer excels at. She introduces us to the mothers of children with brain damage after taking the DPT vaccine. These mothers adopted a new identity—not just as parents of disabled children but as people who had been wronged. Their stories draw on 1980s evangelical conversion narratives—effecting transformation to a new way of life and an explanation for why the worst had happened. These grievances return in stories about parents who link autism to vaccines contaminated with “soul-altering toxins,” adopting the individualistic moralities of spirituality culture of the 1990s. These mothers acted as prophets who had gone “through hell and back” to save their child. Their concerns about purity resurface in a chapter about the HPV vaccine, seen as “encourag[ing] promiscuity”: “Virgins don’t get viruses” became a rallying cry of the right. Enter measles outbreaks, Donald Trump, and the Covid-19 pandemic. Discussions about what was “sacred and profane, pure and polluted” were ignored in favor of “medical freedom.” Instead, Kieffer argues, concepts such as embodied intuition, the sacrality of motherhood and children’s bodies, and sacrifice should help illuminate a phenomenon that is growing in popularity. Lobbing insults at nonbelievers doesn’t work, she writes. Increasing public health officials’ religious literacy should help us see each other more clearly and completely.
A deeply sensitive and nuanced probe into anti-vaxxing culture.Pub Date: May 19, 2026
ISBN: 9780691224664
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Princeton Univ.
Review Posted Online: March 23, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2026
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
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
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