A sometimes-helpful guide to improving health that places too much emphasis on religion for secular readers.
A guide to nurturing mind, body, and spirit through biblical principles.
McNamara, a nutritional therapy practitioner, offers readers 21 Bible-based and research-backed strategies for better well-being in this book. She emphasizes rest and self-care, which can lower blood pressure and stress hormones, slow heart rate, and enhance digestion. The author also stresses the positive effects of gentle exercise, but the consequences of overexercising are also discussed. Morning sunlight, “a great big hug from God,” benefits mood, bones, and the brain. McNamara promotes journaling and prayer, recommending that each prayer begin with praise and thanks to God. Play is an essential tool for sparking imagination and creativity, while yoga, breathwork, and nature all calm body and mind. As a “card-carrying member of the ‘Control Patrol,’” McNamara also shares how to stay in the present moment using a body scan technique. Especially emphasized here is that finding contentment in everyday moments helps counteract hustle culture and materialism and that clear boundaries and saying “no” are good techniques for managing personal and professional overcommitment. For McNamara, digital detox, consistent Christian mediation, and community can create more meaningful relationships with people and God. What’s more, a balanced diet and simply having a good laugh can round out one’s improved well-being. McNamara’s approach is holistic and flexible, providing readers with inspirational steps for both insight and action. Each chapter is short and straightforward, and includes a tip, a prayer, an action step, and space for written reflection. The prayers are heartfelt and resonant: “With so many things vying for my attention, help me to remember that rest is necessary and good,” being an apt example. The author has particularly good advice for Type A people and overachievers, reminding them that “when we take care of ourselves, we have more to give to others.” McNamara’s insistence that “God has all the answers” may also feel like an overreach to some readers.
A sometimes-helpful guide to improving health that places too much emphasis on religion for secular readers.Pub Date: Nov. 19, 2024
ISBN: 9798385037339
Page Count: 110
Publisher: WestBowPress
Review Posted Online: April 29, 2025
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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