An interesting but inconclusive look at the relationship between religion and money in contemporary America. Wuthnow (Social Sciences/Princeton; Sharing the Journey, p. 59, etc.) asks: What is the effect of religious belief on economic choices? Jesus cautioned that a person could not serve two masters- -both God and money. Yet, according to Wuthnow, that is precisely what many American synagogue- and churchgoers and professed believers are attempting to do. In the postindustrial era, people are working more hours than ever before and, under tremendous pressure to perform and gain ever more material goods, enjoying it less. What impact does religion have? Does it affect the careers people choose? Very little, according to the author, who bases his work on a wide variety of sources (including surveys and interviews). What religion might do, however, is make people happier on the job. It also influences workplace ethics, helping to determine whether one will be honest or willing to cut corners. Statistical comparisons of people of various moral stances, and of churchgoers to the population at large, also indicate that religious commitment influences people's attitudes toward money (showing it is as much the province of priest and rabbi as it is of economist and businessman), charitable giving, environmental consciousness, and opinions and actions concerning the economically disadvantaged. In the end, Wuthnow's answers are all mixed bags, demonstrating that Americans are at once deeply spiritual and profoundly secular. He also criticizes current religious leadership for reshaping modern religion so as to not afflict the consciences of their consumerist, capitalist congregants. Appendices on methodology will be helpful to serious students. Straightforwardly written in accessible prose, the book will appeal primarily to students and scholars of religion. There is, however, enough to attract the interested layperson as well.
Pub Date: Sept. 21, 1994
ISBN: 0-02-935628-8
Page Count: 300
Publisher: Free Press
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1994
BOOK REVIEW
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BOOK REVIEW
Inspirational stories of the miraculous, assembled from a wide range of settings by journalist and novelist Wakefield (New York in the Fifties, 1992, etc.). Not so long ago, the author asserts, it was a solecism to think that miracles take place or that anything that could not be observed and measured was real. Wakefield contrasts these attitudes of his youth with today's fascination with psychic powers and readiness to see miracles everywhere. He quotes research on how medical procedures have been affected by prayer and introduces us to Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, and Buddhist exponents of spiritual healing. Wakefield takes the position that ``miracles'' stand for the unexpected, even divine, possibilities that surround us every day and that will transform our lives if we only look for them. When he visits the famous Catholic shrines of Lourdes in France and Knock in Ireland, Wakefield finds a medical commission that performs careful evaluation of supposed miracles and an emphasis on personal, rather than bodily, healing; yet he also interviews a young mother who got up and walked in front of Mary's statue after being paralyzed with multiple sclerosis. A great many of his stories have no religious components and tell of such relatively ordinary occurrences as childbirth, escape from alcoholism, and chance meetings that changed lives. Wakefield provides a rather preachy commentary in which he is content to moralize, but he fails to address the vital questions that his stories inevitably raise, e.g., the relationship between the natural and the preternatural and the significant differences between the merely unexpected and the strictly miraculous. Lightweight and anecdotal exhortation meant to cultivate an attitude of wonder in daily life. ($40,000 ad/promo; author tour)
Pub Date: June 1, 1995
ISBN: 0-06-069225-1
Page Count: 256
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1995
The prominent historian of Victorian ideas here boldly links her scholarly research to contemporary cultural issues. Her not-so- hidden agenda is to provide the intellectual basis for a ``new reformation'' that would restore ``moral and civic virtues'' in an increasingly amoral society. In order to recast the current debate about ``values,'' Himmelfarb (On Looking into the Abyss, 1994) turns attention from this relativistic term and focuses on the Victorian-era notion of ``virtue,'' which was family-oriented and more secular than traditional Christian virtue. In 19th-century England, both the working class and the bourgeoisie aspired to a level of respectability that incorporated beliefs in ``work, thrift, cleanliness, and self-reliance.'' Far from the coercive, absolutist morality posited by most radical historians, Himmelfarb discovers a civil society that democratized virtue: Working men could be ``gentlemen,'' and wives could find satisfaction in managing their homes and families. In short, ordinary people could attain ordinary virtues. Himmelfarb's truly revisionist account lets her Victorian witnesses speak for themselves, and they pay tribute to a time when enlightened self-interest coincided with the public good. Though some historians persist in portraying the era as materialistic, Himmelfarb re-examines Victorian attitudes toward both poverty and reform. Her contemporary subtext becomes clearer in controversial chapters on Victorian Jews as the quintessential Victorians and 19th-century government intervention in social issues as the precursor of present-day failures. One need not accept Himmelfarb's explanation for social and cultural decline—she's rabidly anti-materialist—to agree that the Victorians provide an admirable counter-example to our present malaise. This is first-rate intellectual history, fully attentive to the social and political contexts.
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 1995
ISBN: 0-679-43817-3
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1995
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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