An important, if flawed, reminder of the role of women in the history of Christianity.
A midwife reflects on the role of women in the nascent Christian church in this spiritual book.
As a seminary student, Lombardo was intrigued with biblical accounts of how women “had been instrumental in guarding the fledging church.” Moreover, drawing on her career as a doula and midwife, she began to make connections between the countless mothers whom she guided during childbirth and those who joined the early Christian church. “Women,” both past and present, she notes, “are determined, intentional, and brave.” This book argues that Luke deliberately provided readers with parallel birth stories—the first being the birth of Jesus in his Gospel, and the second being the birth of the church in the book of Acts. Just as a woman, Mary, gave birth to and raised Jesus in Luke’s first book, so too did women help create and protect the church in his second. While some of the volume’s “Seven Brave Women” are well known, particularly Mary and Mary Magdalene, others are traditionally marginalized figures who receive only passing references in the New Testament. Through convincing biblical exegesis, Lombardo highlights the roles of lesser-known figures such as Priscilla and Chloe of Corinth, Lydia of Macedonia, and other “trailblazers” who were “brave apostles.” Some, like Junia and Phoebe, traveled “great distances” from Asia Minor to Rome in their evangelism. At under 100 pages, this work is not designed to be an encyclopedic, scholarly history but rather a devotional that encourages Christian women to meditate on the actions and follow in the footsteps of their foremothers. Discussion questions centered on “how do these stories apply to me” complement this endeavor. Though the volume’s extended metaphor that links contemporary women and midwives to Christians in the early church is a bit forced at times, this is nevertheless a charming read that sheds light on the role of women in the history of early Christianity. But Roman Catholic and Orthodox readers will be disappointed in the distinctly Protestant book’s exclusion of centuries of Christian prayer and veneration toward Mary and other female saints.
An important, if flawed, reminder of the role of women in the history of Christianity.Pub Date: Jan. 8, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-66-421370-8
Page Count: 78
Publisher: Westbow Press
Review Posted Online: July 31, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.
The veteran actor, comedian, and banjo player teams up with the acclaimed illustrator to create a unique book of cartoons that communicates their personalities.
Martin, also a prolific author, has always been intrigued by the cartoons strewn throughout the pages of the New Yorker. So when he was presented with the opportunity to work with Bliss, who has been a staff cartoonist at the magazine since 1997, he seized the moment. “The idea of a one-panel image with or without a caption mystified me,” he writes. “I felt like, yeah, sometimes I’m funny, but there are these other weird freaks who are actually funny.” Once the duo agreed to work together, they established their creative process, which consisted of working forward and backward: “Forwards was me conceiving of several cartoon images and captions, and Harry would select his favorites; backwards was Harry sending me sketched or fully drawn cartoons for dialogue or banners.” Sometimes, he writes, “the perfect joke occurs two seconds before deadline.” There are several cartoons depicting this method, including a humorous multipanel piece highlighting their first meeting called “They Meet,” in which Martin thinks to himself, “He’ll never be able to translate my delicate and finely honed droll notions.” In the next panel, Bliss thinks, “I’m sure he won’t understand that the comic art form is way more subtle than his blunt-force humor.” The team collaborated for a year and created 150 cartoons featuring an array of topics, “from dogs and cats to outer space and art museums.” A witty creation of a bovine family sitting down to a gourmet meal and one of Dumbo getting his comeuppance highlight the duo’s comedic talent. What also makes this project successful is the team’s keen understanding of human behavior as viewed through their unconventional comedic minds.
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.Pub Date: Nov. 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-26289-9
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2020
PERSPECTIVES
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
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
