A fascinating indepth examination of spirituality in America, and a close look at the fine line between religion and cult.
The unique story of an American woman whose life was launched on an ``extraordinary trajectory'' after she was identified as the reincarnation of a16th-century Tibetan saint.
In 1984, Catherine Borroughs was leading a spiritual group in Maryland when a visiting Buddhist leader recognized her to be a tulka—an enlightened creature who returns to earth to help ``sentient beings,'' or all living things. She had taught her students something incredibly close to Tibetan Buddhism without ever having learned it, as if remembered from a previous life. She takes the name Jetsunma, and Washington Post reporter Sherrill casts both a critical and a sympathetic eye on this powerful, inspiring, and rather bizarre woman. Jetsunma founds the largest Tibetan monastery in America, telling her students that ``the future of Dharma in the west'' depends on their example. The Tibetan practice, offering a quick path to enlightenment, has a particularly American appeal, explains Sherrill, and the nexus of eastern and western cultures that she documents is stunning. Faced with the task of performing the 100,000 prostrations required in a Buddhist purification rite, students dress as if for aerobics class and keep count on ``plastic clickercounters.'' Even after her recognition, Jetsunma wears red acrylic fingernails and works out at Bally's in thongs and tank tops to lure a student into her group. Jetsunma's constant fight with obesity, her fourth divorce, and her love affairs with students are all parts of this puzzling story. Immersed the world of Jetsunma and her students, Sherrill's journalism captures the humor of the culture clash as well as the subtle emotional and social influences of the Tibetan practice on members of the group.
A fascinating indepth examination of spirituality in America, and a close look at the fine line between religion and cult.Pub Date: April 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-679-45275-3
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2000
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
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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