Well written with a couple of surprises, despite some narrative distance and overly familiar themes.
Touched by a higher power through dreams and visions, Works uses her experience as a seer to illustrate God’s love.
Works, a self-described seer, claims to be exceptionally intuitive when awake, in addition to having visions of angels, demons, God and Jesus when asleep. In her first book, she presents her chronological spiritual journey. Most chapters open with a description of dreams or visions, and then, with friendly enthusiasm and an impressive array of biblical references, the author interprets the experience, revealing a theme of love directed at her and all of humanity. Chapters are fine-tuned to reach the eager Christian reader; however, due to the by-the-numbers lessons, the distance between the author and reader can make the book less powerful. Despite the author’s attempts to turn the reader into a participant (she encourages the reader to have pen and paper at the ready and there are questions at the end of each chapter), the dreams and visions the author describes are so personal that the reader more often feels like an observer. Additionally, the author’s interpretations often inform a passive rather than actionable direction, which may widen the reader’s disconnect. In one dream, the author attempts to follow her friends home from a conference, but she gets lost; a man enters her car, promising to help her get home. Along the way, he stops to distribute food to the needy, so the dream evidently reveals to the author the importance of following Jesus, not your spiritual friends. In a separate vision featuring a cloud of doves, the author advises readers to ask for the Holy Spirit to enter their lives. Although most chapters highlight standard themes in Christianity, a few of the author’s interpretations are surprising, particularly in “Law Versus Spirit,” a chapter that offers a notable challenge to the conventional understanding of the relationship between religion, rules and law.
Well written with a couple of surprises, despite some narrative distance and overly familiar themes.Pub Date: April 23, 2012
ISBN: 978-1470002299
Page Count: 222
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: June 7, 2012
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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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