A knowledgeable, forthright call to Christians to embrace their faith—not just their church.
An argument for a purely faith-based definition of Christian salvation.
The ancient debate between works and faith is as old as Christianity itself: do people achieve salvation through their faith in Jesus alone, or must they also show their faith through actions? This question is at the heart of Apostolic Church pastor Doherty’s (The Rising Church, 2016, etc.) slim but passionate nonfiction debut. In 15 chapters of accessible prose and copious biblical quotations, he seeks to convince fellow Christian readers to “cease trying to do what God has already done for us,” and he states repeatedly that any idea of gaining salvation through works is mere vanity. The sacrifice of Jesus on the cross, he asserts, was a complete gift of salvation for the faithful: “Religion says ‘do;’ the gospel says ‘done!’ ” He appears to see fallible human institutions as only serving to get in the way of true salvation, by making believers think they have to earn what they already have. He comments darkly on competition between churches over the nature and extent of their Christian work, drawing emphasis away from their faith and striving “to produce holiness through church life, rather than bear holiness through Christ life.” The book’s clear implication is that such rivalry can set unwary Christians on a path to hypocrisy by embracing man-made trappings, rather than divine salvation. In clear, insistent text, the book aims to remind Christians that they require no outside help to forge a relationship with Jesus: “The gift of a life with God is freely given,” he says. “The only thing required of us is to accept the gift.” Doherty is certainly thorough and convincing in his argument—although some readers may find that equally thorough books could also be written on the other side of this ongoing debate.
A knowledgeable, forthright call to Christians to embrace their faith—not just their church.Pub Date: Feb. 28, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-5127-7383-5
Page Count: 134
Publisher: Westbow Press
Review Posted Online: June 16, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
If the authors are serious, this is a silly, distasteful book. If they are not, it’s a brilliant satire.
The authors have created a sort of anti-Book of Virtues in this encyclopedic compendium of the ways and means of power.
Everyone wants power and everyone is in a constant duplicitous game to gain more power at the expense of others, according to Greene, a screenwriter and former editor at Esquire (Elffers, a book packager, designed the volume, with its attractive marginalia). We live today as courtiers once did in royal courts: we must appear civil while attempting to crush all those around us. This power game can be played well or poorly, and in these 48 laws culled from the history and wisdom of the world’s greatest power players are the rules that must be followed to win. These laws boil down to being as ruthless, selfish, manipulative, and deceitful as possible. Each law, however, gets its own chapter: “Conceal Your Intentions,” “Always Say Less Than Necessary,” “Pose as a Friend, Work as a Spy,” and so on. Each chapter is conveniently broken down into sections on what happened to those who transgressed or observed the particular law, the key elements in this law, and ways to defensively reverse this law when it’s used against you. Quotations in the margins amplify the lesson being taught. While compelling in the way an auto accident might be, the book is simply nonsense. Rules often contradict each other. We are told, for instance, to “be conspicuous at all cost,” then told to “behave like others.” More seriously, Greene never really defines “power,” and he merely asserts, rather than offers evidence for, the Hobbesian world of all against all in which he insists we live. The world may be like this at times, but often it isn’t. To ask why this is so would be a far more useful project.
If the authors are serious, this is a silly, distasteful book. If they are not, it’s a brilliant satire.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1998
ISBN: 0-670-88146-5
Page Count: 430
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1998
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
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
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
bookshelf
