A moving anthology that proves Tertullian's age-old axiom that the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church. Bergman (Anonymity, 1994) has culled an impressive collection of essays on 20th-century Christian martyrs. The writings are arranged in reverse chronological order, beginning with the 1993 martyrdom of Russian pastor Aleksander Men and closing with the slayings of missionaries during China's 1900 Boxer Rebellion. Along the way, we encounter familiar exemplars, such as Oscar Romero (in a brilliant essay by Carolyn ForchÇ) and Dietrich Bonhoeffer, as well as unexpected ones, such as Simone Weil. (Simone Weil a Christian martyr? Anthony Walton makes a strong case for it, though Weil's death from a heart attack hardly compares to the more gruesome ends of the other heroes described here.) Throughout many of the essays, writers mingle themes of social justice and political maneuvering with Christian theology, painting complex portraits of the individuals involved. In one essay, such complexity verges on skepticism. Gerald Early's portrayal of Martin Luther King Jr. explicitly compares the famous leader to Uncle Tom, claiming that King ``artfully and brilliantly exploited the Uncle Tom archetype to legitimate his own leadership in the eyes of both black and white America.'' Early's essay also contains no mention whatsoever of King's martyr-death, the focal point on which the other chapters converge. Still, it is a thoughtful piece that forces readers to examine King in a fresh way. Bergman's anthology is not a simplistic glorification of heroic death Ö la John Foxe's Book of the Martyrs. This is grittier. It is an appropriate response to a century in which cataclysmic violence has reached unprecedented proportions. These essays stand as a bold witness to the courage of a few who have sought God in the midst of systematic destruction.
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1996
ISBN: 0-06-061120-0
Page Count: 320
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
Eve’s story is given the respect it deserves, though her case could use a stronger context.
Biblical gender roles are shaken up in the Garden of Eden.
The story of Adam and Eve is one of the most famous in the Bible. As it goes, the couple could have anything they wanted from the garden, with the exception of the forbidden fruit. But Eve was tempted by a serpent, and she gave the fruit to Adam. They ate it and were banished from the Garden of Eden forever. Much has been made about the role of Eve, the “woman” as temptress who led Adam to sin. However, Davidson delves into this biblical tale with a different tack. Through breaking down words, phrases and scripture in the Bible she sets to prove that Eve is actually the righteous character in this story and that Adam’s role needs revisiting. The author closely looks at names in scripture and what they mean. Adam is “a man or person of low degree, [a] common sort or hypocrite.” Eve is a life giver, or a person who declares or shows life. Parsing out Genesis 2:23, she notes that Adam chose to reject his name and proudly declare himself as “Man” instead, which, in this context has both negative and positive connotations, writes Davidson. Also, Adam chose a life without God, and, as a result, shows defiant qualities–he’s not the one corrupted, as many Bible stories focus on. The question remains: How much of Eve’s victimhood is factual and how much is myth told through a misogynistic culture? If the author could investigate this more deeply, she could make a real case for Eve’s role. However, though Davidson’s intentions are good, the book is often repetitive and could use more cited sources. Referencing texts other than the Bible might flesh out this tale too. But the spirit behind the book is powerful and reminds readers that famous biblical stories often need to be re-examined.
Eve’s story is given the respect it deserves, though her case could use a stronger context.Pub Date: Feb. 13, 2009
ISBN: 978-1-4392-2318-5
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Well-crafted and thought-provoking.
Intriguing examination of the life-and-death difference between morality and ethics.
Gustafson contends that readers will be used to thinking of the terms “morality” and “ethics” as largely interchangeable. At the very least, most see both terms in a positive light. The author argues, however, that morality has been a misused and deadly social construct throughout the ages. “Morality and ethics differ,” says the author, “because morality supports civilization and ethics supports life.” Morality, according to Gustafson, is a civilization’s way of determining good and evil. Since morality changes from one civilization to another (and differs within civilizations), it is subject to abuse. Morality, he explains further, supports the “dominator system,” whereby everyone and everything is rated and valued according to a civilization’s arbitrary sense of good and bad. Hence “morality,” as the differentiation between good and evil, has been used throughout the centuries to condone everything from slavery, to racism in America, to the Nazi campaign against the Jews. Quite the contrary, writes Gustafson–ethics supports not a particular civilization, but life itself. Mercy and humility are examples of ethical behavior and thinking, which seek to serve those marginalized by society. The author points toward Native-American cultures as examples of ethical ones, in that they served the community as a whole as well as the natural world. Moreover, he holds up Jesus Christ as a foremost exemplar of ethics–“Jesus was not moral. He was ethical...because he rejected morality’s death-dealing function and supported life instead.” Overall, the book is well-written and pulls in a wide array of authors and thinkers. Gustafson’s work is not meant to be a treatise countering every argument, but instead introduces the concept of this morality-ethics dichotomy. In the end the author calls upon readers to be aware of the dominator system they live in, and how morality is used to support it, not life.
Well-crafted and thought-provoking.Pub Date: July 31, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-7414-5404-1
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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