An alternately serious and silly look at the 60s as an era of spiritual change in the United States. Ellwood (Religion/Univ. of Southern California) contends that the real core of the 1960s was a spiritual revolution. This revolution, however, is most often overlooked by chroniclers of the period, as they prefer instead to focus on the tumultuous political and social upheavals such as the civil rights and antiwar movements. For the author the 1960s, in fact, was the decade in which the postmodern took hold. Following Lyotard's lead, he defines ``postmodern'' as a rejection and distrust of master narratives. In religion what this implies, he contends, is a movement away from large hierarchical, institutional religions with rigid structures of authority toward smaller faiths (some of which offer, paradoxically, an ethos that is at once more communitarian and more individualistic than that found in traditional religion). This is what occurred in the 1960s. While established Christianity grappled with Death of God theology and modernization (as exemplified by the Second Vatican Council), Zen, Hinduism, Krishna, Scientology, and a plethora of new religious movements began to capture the imagination of millions of young people. The counterculture both embodied and adopted pieces of this spiritual pluralism and latitudinarianism. Ellwood also sees today's New Age movement as the living remainder of the legacy of the spiritual awakening of the 1960s. Purple prose, flowery extended metaphors, and an obvious nostalgic longing for the 1960s mar what aspires to be an important study.
Pub Date: July 18, 1994
ISBN: 0-8135-2093-2
Page Count: 350
Publisher: Rutgers Univ.
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 1994
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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