by Robert Bernecker ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 8, 2013
A bright examination of modern Christianity.
A thought-provoking look at the modern definition of God.
Who is God? What is God? People have asked these questions for millennia, and they may continue to be asked until the end of time. Is the God we know today the wrathful God of the Old Testament or the gentler version seen in the New Testament? In this debut, Bernecker argues that the idea of the Almighty God in nearly every sect of modern Christianity is incorrect. The current definition of God, he writes, is seen in the context of human fallibility; God conducts himself according to human standards of decency, justice and morality. Today’s followers, the author states, mistakenly believe that God and his place in their lives are defined by humanity and by human choices. In fact, he asserts, it’s the other way around; followers should look to God’s “sovereignty, His great love for each of us, and the eminent trustworthiness of his eternal purpose, which includes each of us in infinite detail.” Only by realizing the true reach and power of God’s love, he writes, can followers truly let him into their hearts and realize his true place in their lives. This book isn’t for light readers of theology; the author’s arguments dive quite deep into the Scriptures, which may be intimidating for some. However, his arguments are well-researched and well-articulated; he backs up his ideas not only with examples from the Bible, but also with similar assertions from great writers and thinkers of the past, including quotations from C.S. Lewis, Martin Luther, Saint Augustine, pastor A.W. Tozer and theologian James Boice. By including the world outside of the Bible, Bernecker adds credibility to his ideas. Readers interested in the evolution of theology, and Christianity especially, will thoroughly enjoy the author’s assertions about the modern God—and may be inspired to make some of their own.
A bright examination of modern Christianity.Pub Date: July 8, 2013
ISBN: 978-1482068382
Page Count: 236
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Aug. 13, 2013
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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by Albert Camus ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 26, 1955
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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by Stephen Batchelor ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 18, 2020
A very welcome instance of philosophy that can help readers live a good life.
A teacher and scholar of Buddhism offers a formally varied account of the available rewards of solitude.
“As Mother Ayahuasca takes me in her arms, I realize that last night I vomited up my attachment to Buddhism. In passing out, I died. In coming to, I was, so to speak, reborn. I no longer have to fight these battles, I repeat to myself. I am no longer a combatant in the dharma wars. It feels as if the course of my life has shifted onto another vector, like a train shunted off its familiar track onto a new trajectory.” Readers of Batchelor’s previous books (Secular Buddhism: Imagining the Dharma in an Uncertain World, 2017, etc.) will recognize in this passage the culmination of his decadeslong shift away from the religious commitments of Buddhism toward an ecumenical and homegrown philosophy of life. Writing in a variety of modes—memoir, history, collage, essay, biography, and meditation instruction—the author doesn’t argue for his approach to solitude as much as offer it for contemplation. Essentially, Batchelor implies that if you read what Buddha said here and what Montaigne said there, and if you consider something the author has noticed, and if you reflect on your own experience, you have the possibility to improve the quality of your life. For introspective readers, it’s easy to hear in this approach a direct response to Pascal’s claim that “all of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone.” Batchelor wants to relieve us of this inability by offering his example of how to do just that. “Solitude is an art. Mental training is needed to refine and stabilize it,” he writes. “When you practice solitude, you dedicate yourself to the care of the soul.” Whatever a soul is, the author goes a long way toward soothing it.
A very welcome instance of philosophy that can help readers live a good life.Pub Date: Feb. 18, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-300-25093-0
Page Count: 200
Publisher: Yale Univ.
Review Posted Online: Nov. 24, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2019
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