An uplifting, approachable, and heartfelt work of apologetics.
An appeal to readers to seek a relationship with Jesus Christ.
In this solidly evangelical work, Hernandez (Take Your Sandals Off, 2015, etc.) weaves his own personal story into a broad-based, positive call for Christian belief. Although it’s rudimentary at its core, the work is filled with simple meaning, as the author approaches readers with honesty and humility, encouraging people who only know of Jesus to come to truly know him personally. He points out that most people have had exposure to Jesus’ story, whether through cultural references, family, or church attendance. However, these are only encounters with the Lord, the author says, and they must be superseded by a “reencounter” in which the believer fully commits. Although he doesn’t name specific denominations, Hernandez tells of being raised in a church where the study of Scripture was not valued and where calcified religion took the place of vibrant faith. He seems to aim this book, in many instances, toward readers who have experienced similar churchgoing backgrounds. For instance, he discusses a cousin who would not embrace religion because, in the author’s view, it would have forced him to also give up a life laced with sinful behaviors. The book addresses such topics as God’s love as a source of protection and provision; Jesus as the true source of forgiveness; getting to know Jesus on a personal level; and abiding peacefully in God’s love. But although Hernandez alludes to judgment for nonbelievers, he focuses more upon God’s grace and his welcoming spirit. As a result, he effectively presents his view of God as a loving entity who stands ready to forgive any past sin if a believer approaches him in true faith and humility. A running theme in his work is the idea of putting one’s trust in God and not in people, cultures, or even mere churches; the author has found that “People have made the good look bad and the bad look good.” Overall, it’s clear that Hernandez is willing to be vulnerable for the sake of his readers, and his personal style is a plus for a book of this kind. As a result, this work will be valuable to new believers or to those returning to a life of faith.
An uplifting, approachable, and heartfelt work of apologetics.Pub Date: June 30, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-5127-4668-6
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Westbow Press
Review Posted Online: Oct. 19, 2016
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
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