by Scott A. Shay ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 4, 2018
A highly readable, if not always convincing, defense of monotheism.
A layman examines monotheist religions and the morals they endorse.
In the introduction to this extensive work, Shay (Getting Our Groove Back, 2006) posits some age-old considerations about God. Is God a fictional figure? Is the Bible a complete fabrication and, even if it is not, does it have any relevance to readers’ modern lives? The author also establishes himself as a believer. He may be a layman in the Jewish faith but he has had the opportunity to study the Torah very closely and, for the sake of this book, he has spoken with prominent members of other religions as well as his own. The result is a volume that covers a range of material that includes archaeological evidence both for and against certain biblical tales and a summation of Hebrew Scriptures in 900 words. But at the center of the work is an attack on idolatry. Shay argues that the God of the Old Testament represents a fundamental shift in thinking that took humanity from venerating false idols to accepting the more sensible idea of monotheism. The author contends that whether it is the worshipping of Baal or the deifying of a dictator, idolatry represents more than just an existential threat. As Shay asserts, by not creating idols “we have the best chance of going on the just path.” While a nearly infinite number of books could be written on the controversies of religion, this one strikes a unique path. The author utilizes a friendly, comical tone, as when, for instance, he imagines Joseph posting images of his coat of many colors on Instagram. The work also neatly intertwines disparate sources that range from the philosopher David Hume to the Babylonian Talmud. But certain defenses of the Bible are not persuasive. The story of Noah is treated as though “God decreed a reboot” for humanity. Yet other aspects of Noah’s trials that harden the hearts of the skeptical (for example, the curse of Ham) are not as thoroughly dissected. Nevertheless, the author’s heartfelt stance makes the book approachable. Regardless of readers’ prior knowledge and beliefs, they are likely to come away with new ideas to contemplate.
A highly readable, if not always convincing, defense of monotheism.Pub Date: Sept. 4, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-68261-792-2
Page Count: 640
Publisher: Post Hill Press
Review Posted Online: Aug. 3, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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by Albert Camus ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 26, 1955
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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by Albert Camus ; translated by Justin O'Brien & Sandra Smith
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by Albert Camus ; translated by Ellen Conroy Kennedy & Justin O'Brien
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by Albert Camus translated by Arthur Goldhammer edited by Alice Kaplan
by Stephen Batchelor ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 18, 2020
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
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