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REALIZING HEAVEN

Name: REALIZING HEAVEN
Author: Otto S. Hoolhorst
ISBN: 978-1-925516-70-8

RATIONAL SPIRITUALITY FOR OUR TIMES

by Otto S. Hoolhorst ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 26, 2018

A detailed secular morality that should have even the most traditionally religious readers thinking deeply about their...

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A debut book examines the urges behind spiritual yearning—and their modern interpretations.

In his ambitious work, Hoolhorst believes he has identified many of the deepest existential questions that have preoccupied humanity forever—and that he’s discovered rational answers to many of them. These answers are based in principles of truth and love rather than rooted in dogma and mysticism. He acknowledges at the outset that humans have an almost instinctive yearning for answers to these great imponderables, and his book seems designed to circumvent the normal response: “Those who fail to deal rationally with these yearnings become confused,” he writes, “and most of them are subsequently drawn towards religion and other social, political and economic structures characterized by the gang mentality of those involved in them.” The account that follows is sometimes-disjointed and distracting, although Hoolhorst is an unfailingly energetic and readable author. Philosophical ruminations brush up against textual analysis and bits of Hoolhorst’s intriguing autobiography, but sure-footed readers should find enormous amounts of captivating material here. “It is one thing for a person to have been indoctrinated into a religion,” the author writes, for instance, during an intensely effective examination of some of the inconsistencies to be found in the New Testament. “It is another thing altogether if that person never checks the claims that they were indoctrinated with.” Ultimately, Hoolhorst develops a moral and even spiritual epistemology, a theory of enlightenment that calls for readers to reject all ideas of deities—the props of authoritarian thinking—and instead gain a deeply personal and individual fulfillment along the moral lines he lays out. His goal is to help readers find their way to the truth, and even if his pronouncements will likely strike some as borrowing far too many ideological assumptions from the very schemas he’s rejecting, the end result is an extended and extremely thought-provoking, multipart challenge to all entrenched moral traditions.

A detailed secular morality that should have even the most traditionally religious readers thinking deeply about their assumptions.

Pub Date: Feb. 26, 2018

ISBN: 978-1-925516-70-8

Page Count: -

Publisher: CreateSpace

Review Posted Online: Feb. 19, 2018

Review Program: Kirkus Indie

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

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NUTCRACKER

by E.T.A. Hoffmann ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 28, 1996

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This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)

Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996

ISBN: 0-15-100227-4

Page Count: 136

Publisher: Harcourt

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER AND THE MOUSE KING
by E.T.A. Hoffmann ; adapted by Natalie Andrewson ; illustrated by Natalie Andrewson

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER
by E.T.A. Hoffmann & illustrated by Julie Paschkis

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TO THE ONE I LOVE THE BEST

EPISODES FROM THE LIFE OF LADY MENDL (ELSIE DE WOLFE)

by Ludwig Bemelmans ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 23, 1955

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An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.