A new and well-researched interpretation of the interactions among Peter, John, and Jesus.
A Christian author explores the lives of the Apostles Peter and John during their ministry with Jesus.
Among the first to be invited to join Jesus’ ministry were Apostles Peter and John, who left their fishing boats on the Sea of Galilee to enter a life dedicated to a man they believed was the promised Jewish Messiah. Richardson postulates that these men, who remain two of Jesus’ best-known disciples, were close friends who may have even grown up together as children. In this exploration of the lives of Peter and John as recounted in the biblical Gospels—from their first calling in Galilee through Jesus’ Transfiguration, death, and resurrection—the author blends narrative history with Christian commentary from the perspective of the two apostles. While emphasizing the ways in which Peter and John serve as Christian icons to be emulated, the work avoids hagiography, as Richardson doesn’t shy away from acknowledging their mistakes. Peter infamously denied knowing Jesus during his death on the cross, and the author highlights other ways in which the disciple acted “with a rash self-confidence that thrust him into places of spiritual peril,” such as cutting off the ear of a servant of the High Priest in Gethsemane during Jesus’ arrest. Similarly, the author notes that John is described in the Gospel of Mark as “Boanerges,” or the “Son of Thunder,” which Richardson suggests may refer to both his mystical strength of character and his “fiery temper.” The gospel narratives are well known; the strength of this volume lies in the incisive contextualization of the biblical stories within their historical context and in Judeo-Roman culture, all conveyed in a concise and accessible writing style. One of the book’s central elements is “the evocative landscape of Israel” itself, which is prominently featured in the text’s more than three dozen photographs, paintings, and images. While distinctly Protestant in its theological approach, the book’s endnotes include an ecumenical assortment of citations from across the denominational spectrum.
A new and well-researched interpretation of the interactions among Peter, John, and Jesus.Pub Date: April 28, 2026
ISBN: 9798385073689
Page Count: 222
Publisher: WestBowPress
Review Posted Online: June 26, 2026
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.
The veteran actor, comedian, and banjo player teams up with the acclaimed illustrator to create a unique book of cartoons that communicates their personalities.
Martin, also a prolific author, has always been intrigued by the cartoons strewn throughout the pages of the New Yorker. So when he was presented with the opportunity to work with Bliss, who has been a staff cartoonist at the magazine since 1997, he seized the moment. “The idea of a one-panel image with or without a caption mystified me,” he writes. “I felt like, yeah, sometimes I’m funny, but there are these other weird freaks who are actually funny.” Once the duo agreed to work together, they established their creative process, which consisted of working forward and backward: “Forwards was me conceiving of several cartoon images and captions, and Harry would select his favorites; backwards was Harry sending me sketched or fully drawn cartoons for dialogue or banners.” Sometimes, he writes, “the perfect joke occurs two seconds before deadline.” There are several cartoons depicting this method, including a humorous multipanel piece highlighting their first meeting called “They Meet,” in which Martin thinks to himself, “He’ll never be able to translate my delicate and finely honed droll notions.” In the next panel, Bliss thinks, “I’m sure he won’t understand that the comic art form is way more subtle than his blunt-force humor.” The team collaborated for a year and created 150 cartoons featuring an array of topics, “from dogs and cats to outer space and art museums.” A witty creation of a bovine family sitting down to a gourmet meal and one of Dumbo getting his comeuppance highlight the duo’s comedic talent. What also makes this project successful is the team’s keen understanding of human behavior as viewed through their unconventional comedic minds.
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.Pub Date: Nov. 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-26289-9
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2020
PERSPECTIVES
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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