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AN ISLAND IN THE LAKE OF FIRE

BOB JONES UNIVERSITY, FUNDAMENTALISM, AND THE SEPARATIST MOVEMENT

A competent history of Bob Jones University, in Greensville, S.C., and its extreme brand of Christian fundamentalism. Founded in 1927 by the patriarchal Bob Jones Sr., the eponymous university's self-described mission was and still remains to do combat with ``all atheistic, agnostic, pagan . . . adulterations of the Gospel.'' From an ongoing refusal to accept accreditation, to a general discouragement of independent thinking, to an infamous ban on interracial dating (on the theory that it could lead to satanic one-worldism), this hyperliteralist view of the Bible has wrought a university quite unlike any other. As university presidents, all three Bob Joneses, from Sr. to III, have also had a strong effect on shaping the school in their respective images. Dalhouse (History/Truman State Univ.) believes this accounts for some of the school's more paradoxical elements. For example, despite an insularity so relentless that interscholastic athletics are forbidden, students are pushed to succeed in the secular world. Then there is the world-class art collection, the well-known opera program and performance series, and the award- winning filmmaking program (although students are forbidden to go to the movies). In other words, the Joneses have freely accepted secularism when it suited their individual temperaments. Where they've refused almost any compromise is with fellow evangelicals and fundamentalists. Thus the Reverend Billy Graham is routinely demonized, and the Reverend Jerry Falwell was once characterized as ``the most dangerous man in America.'' It's all too easy to dismiss the Joneses as crackpot, cultish fanatics, but Dalhouse largely avoids the temptation as he tries to understand what makes them tick. His account is both evenhanded and fair, tracing in fine detail how the Joneses' beliefs and their university evolved. Though encumbered by frequent repetitions and structural awkwardness, this is a discerning narrative.

Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1996

ISBN: 0-8203-1815-9

Page Count: 200

Publisher: Univ. of Georgia

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1996

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THE WEIGHT OF GLORY

The name of C.S. Lewis will no doubt attract many readers to this volume, for he has won a splendid reputation by his brilliant writing. These sermons, however, are so abstruse, so involved and so dull that few of those who pick up the volume will finish it. There is none of the satire of the Screw Tape Letters, none of the practicality of some of his later radio addresses, none of the directness of some of his earlier theological books.

Pub Date: June 15, 1949

ISBN: 0060653205

Page Count: 212

Publisher: Macmillan

Review Posted Online: Oct. 17, 2011

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1949

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THE ROAD TO CHARACTER

The author’s sincere sermon—at times analytical, at times hortatory—remains a hopeful one.

New York Times columnist Brooks (The Social Animal: The Hidden Sources of Love, Character and Achievement, 2011, etc.) returns with another volume that walks the thin line between self-help and cultural criticism.

Sandwiched between his introduction and conclusion are eight chapters that profile exemplars (Samuel Johnson and Michel de Montaigne are textual roommates) whose lives can, in Brooks’ view, show us the light. Given the author’s conservative bent in his column, readers may be surprised to discover that his cast includes some notable leftists, including Frances Perkins, Dorothy Day, and A. Philip Randolph. (Also included are Gens. Eisenhower and Marshall, Augustine, and George Eliot.) Throughout the book, Brooks’ pattern is fairly consistent: he sketches each individual’s life, highlighting struggles won and weaknesses overcome (or not), and extracts lessons for the rest of us. In general, he celebrates hard work, humility, self-effacement, and devotion to a true vocation. Early in his text, he adapts the “Adam I and Adam II” construction from the work of Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik, Adam I being the more external, career-driven human, Adam II the one who “wants to have a serene inner character.” At times, this veers near the Devil Bugs Bunny and Angel Bugs that sit on the cartoon character’s shoulders at critical moments. Brooks liberally seasons the narrative with many allusions to history, philosophy, and literature. Viktor Frankl, Edgar Allan Poe, Paul Tillich, William and Henry James, Matthew Arnold, Virginia Woolf—these are but a few who pop up. Although Brooks goes after the selfie generation, he does so in a fairly nuanced way, noting that it was really the World War II Greatest Generation who started the ball rolling. He is careful to emphasize that no one—even those he profiles—is anywhere near flawless.

The author’s sincere sermon—at times analytical, at times hortatory—remains a hopeful one.

Pub Date: April 21, 2015

ISBN: 978-0-8129-9325-7

Page Count: 320

Publisher: Random House

Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2015

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2015

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