A thoughtfully themed guided tour through Christian Scripture, a kind of keyword search executed with compassionate...
In this debut book, a selection of favorite Bible verses sheds light on various emotions, problems, and periods of life.
Ratcliff’s work is the outgrowth of something many Christians have experienced: the hours and hours spent paging through the Bible searching for a particular verse or passage or hunting for sections on a specific topic or theme. This volume is the author’s own version of an answer to this: It’s essentially a commonplace book of biblical passages arranged by subject and lightly dusted with personal commentary. The topic headings are concepts that will be familiar to most Christians. They frequently have about them the feel of an old-time prayer book, and they don’t shy away from the more exacting aspects of Christianity. Examining “suffering,” for instance, Ratcliff prefaces her assortment of quotations with ruminations on the subject. “Since Jesus suffered for us, we should also be patient and suffer so that we won’t fail to please God,” she writes. “For if we have suffered in the flesh, then we have quit sinning on purpose and we have stopped pleasing ourselves and the world, and we live to please the Lord.” This same stern, pre–Vatican II tone is struck in her introduction to the grouping of quotes under “Fear of the Lord”: “God’s word is His rule book and there are a lot of benefits to obeying it. The fear of the Lord means to reverence Him, to worship Him, and to be in awe of Him.” Likewise, there are assembled verses warning against backsliding, cursing, drinking, boasting, slandering, and so on. But Ratcliff is careful to balance these with more positive, affirming excerpts about heavenly love, forgiveness, and support, and the lasting impression of her own reflections is one of the restorative power of faith—and the inspiring influence of Scripture. Christian readers and prayer groups should find this collection an invaluable aid, as will believers who are a bit tired of looking for that one crucial passage.
A thoughtfully themed guided tour through Christian Scripture, a kind of keyword search executed with compassionate elaboration.Pub Date: Feb. 7, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-973614-87-6
Page Count: 504
Publisher: Westbow Press
Review Posted Online: May 29, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
BOOK REVIEW
An erudite and artful, though frustratingly restrained, look at Old Testament stories.
The Book of Genesis as imagined by a veteran voice of underground comics.
R. Crumb’s pass at the opening chapters of the Bible isn’t nearly the act of heresy the comic artist’s reputation might suggest. In fact, the creator of Fritz the Cat and Mr. Natural is fastidiously respectful. Crumb took pains to preserve every word of Genesis—drawing from numerous source texts, but mainly Robert Alter’s translation, The Five Books of Moses (2004)—and he clearly did his homework on the clothing, shelter and landscapes that surrounded Noah, Abraham and Isaac. This dedication to faithful representation makes the book, as Crumb writes in his introduction, a “straight illustration job, with no intention to ridicule or make visual jokes.” But his efforts are in their own way irreverent, and Crumb feels no particular need to deify even the most divine characters. God Himself is not much taller than Adam and Eve, and instead of omnisciently imparting orders and judgment He stands beside them in Eden, speaking to them directly. Jacob wrestles not with an angel, as is so often depicted in paintings, but with a man who looks not much different from himself. The women are uniformly Crumbian, voluptuous Earth goddesses who are both sexualized and strong-willed. (The endnotes offer a close study of the kinds of power women wielded in Genesis.) The downside of fitting all the text in is that many pages are packed tight with small panels, and too rarely—as with the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah—does Crumb expand his lens and treat signature events dramatically. Even the Flood is fairly restrained, though the exodus of the animals from the Ark is beautifully detailed. The author’s respect for Genesis is admirable, but it may leave readers wishing he had taken a few more chances with his interpretation, as when he draws the serpent in the Garden of Eden as a provocative half-man/half-lizard. On the whole, though, the book is largely a tribute to Crumb’s immense talents as a draftsman and stubborn adherence to the script.
An erudite and artful, though frustratingly restrained, look at Old Testament stories.Pub Date: Oct. 19, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-393-06102-4
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Norton
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2009
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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