by Marc Rasell ‧ RELEASE DATE: Dec. 23, 2009
An extremely thorough, engaging presentation of the framework of Seventh-day Adventist beliefs.
A guidebook to the beliefs and practices of the Seventh-day Adventists.
Rasell’s aim is to give a clear, careful explication of the core tenets of Seventh-day Adventism, focusing mainly on the two most central tenets: belief in the sanctuary or temple of heaven where Jesus, whom they see as both high priest and messiah, works and intercedes for the faithful, and the Adventist belief (suggested by their faith’s name) in the imminent arrival of the world’s cleansing on Judgment Day. Rasell has a formidable command of Scripture, and in the course of this relatively brief but extensively researched book, a great many other topics of exegesis are presented, from the nature of the obedience the Hebrew prophets showed God to the details of crucifixion as practiced by the Romans to the uses and abuses of angelology. But book’s main aim—and the bulk of its teaching—centers on the scriptural basis for the Adventist belief in the temple of heaven. Rasell explains that it derives mainly from the book of Hebrews, in which the temple is described as not of human creation and “therefore superior to anything man has ever made or can conceive of,” a kind of divine tabernacle in which Jesus as high priest works on behalf of his believers in an analogous manner to the way human priests receive the confessions of sinners and offer redemption. Rasell stresses the importance of this intercessory aspect in Adventist faith. “We need to learn that there is no merit in repeated penances or pilgrimages,” he writes, “man only needs the all sufficient sacrifice of Christ.” The special nature of the Adventist worldview is spelled out as a gentle rejection of worldly indulgences: “[W]e are called upon to be sober and to restrain our appetites.” Rasell writes of all this in clear, accessible language, and although his scriptural analysis can be extensive, general readers will be able to follow along with ease.
An extremely thorough, engaging presentation of the framework of Seventh-day Adventist beliefs.Pub Date: Dec. 23, 2009
ISBN: 978-1471741876
Page Count: 112
Publisher: AuthorHouse
Review Posted Online: Nov. 21, 2013
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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by Albert Camus ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 26, 1955
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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by Stephen Batchelor ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 18, 2020
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
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