Carefully and thoughtfully constructed arguments about contemporary Christianity and the questions believers should ask...
A debut book offers a meditation on contemporary faith and examines new ways of viewing God.
“I had looked my own mortality in the eye. And I flinched,” Harlan writes about her time in the hospital with heart attack–like symptoms. She then weaves together moments from this episode with tragic deaths of family members, her divorce, and a childhood Bible that triggers memories about the first covenant she ever made with God, a covenant she drifted away from but now, with these musings, has re-created to be “written not only on the pages of my Bible, but on my heart.” From there, Harlan leaves behind autobiography to instead express how contemporary Christianity in America weighs on her own heart, in particular the hypocrisy and infighting she sees among today’s denominations and how these issues limit Christians’ understanding of who God really is. Starting with Isaiah and then moving through specific moments of the Gospel, Harlan cites well-chosen verses and then employs them in strong arguments for a fundamental reassessment of God, Jesus, and the structure of the church, following up each idea with discussion questions for Bible studies. She takes particular care to introduce new perspectives, either historical or linguistic, on the disciples, the words of Jesus, and on the Israel of Christ’s day. In a standout moment, she reinterprets the well-known story of Lazarus’ resurrection, asserting it to be not about Jesus’ power “but rather [about] his genuine love and compassion.” Those two traits drive all of her arguments, both in content and style. Harlan is careful to never be too abrasive, accusatory, or overtly political, but she also refuses to shy away from calling out contradictory conservative viewpoints on war and poverty in America. She often addresses the reader directly and in the second person, writing like a passionate friend with strong convictions who is respectfully calling for reason, inclusiveness, and fresh perspectives on well-known doctrine.
Carefully and thoughtfully constructed arguments about contemporary Christianity and the questions believers should ask themselves in today’s world.Pub Date: March 30, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-5127-3466-9
Page Count: 94
Publisher: Westbow Press
Review Posted Online: Oct. 12, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
BOOK REVIEW
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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