An enjoyably plainspoken, personal testament to finding one’s purpose through Christianity.
A personal testimony of faith, and a manual for finding it.
“I challenge you to believe,” Violette writes in his straightforward, appealing nonfiction debut. “I challenge you to free yourself from skepticism, from doubt, and from confusion and to break down the barriers that are preventing you from believing.” The belief he has in mind is modern-day Christianity, with Jesus as its crucified Savior. In simple, fluid prose, he approaches his subject through broad concepts of “light,” “choice,” “faith,” “purpose” and “belief.” Each short chapter opens with a brief meditation styled as a “thought for today,” then proceeds to explore a larger theme, often lightheartedly using pop culture icons as reference points for deeper discussion. Although Violette isn’t ordained in any capacity, his chapters read like a series of thought-provoking Sunday church homilies. When discussing Christian concepts of light and darkness, for example, he writes, “If you were able to sit through Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace and not want to throw up every time you heard Jar-Jar Binks speak, there was a clear reference to darkness and light.” (The author makes these kinds of references so regularly that he humorously asks, “What is it with me and science fiction?”). He occasionally plays a little fast and loose with modern phraseology; contrary to what he seems to think, the sentence “Everything is going to be okay” doesn’t appear in the Bible, for instance. However, his book offers a pleasing combination of certainty and humility as he tries to keep readers focused on the potential salvation of the Christian faith (“Even the smallest things steal the focus,” he warns). To that end, he recounts how he became intensely aware of that potential only when his son was born, and he and his wife found a friendly, supportive church. “With belief, there is hope,” he writes in one of the book’s deceptively simple declarations. Many readers will also find the “challenges” at the end of each chapter to be thought-provoking.
An enjoyably plainspoken, personal testament to finding one’s purpose through Christianity.Pub Date: Sept. 19, 2014
ISBN: 978-1490850368
Page Count: 170
Publisher: Westbow Press
Review Posted Online: Jan. 30, 2015
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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