A touching, if problematic, testament to the power of faith in a time of trial.
A memoir of Christian faith that focuses on a family crisis.
Merritt (The Gift of Seeing Angels and Demons, 2016) opens this nonfiction work with an account of a personal tragedy: her husband Dan’s 2006 diagnosis of mantle-cell lymphoma, a rare form of cancer with a grim prognosis and a low survival rate. Thus began what she refers to as “our journey into cancer-land,” in which her faith was tested and refined as her husband dealt with medication issues, weakness, chemotherapy, and other difficult aspects of aggressive cancer treatment. She and her husband and their friends struggled with maintaining a “continual attitude of gratitude,” which she identifies at length as the central core of the Christian life—a patient thankfulness that sometimes sits uncomfortably alongside the worry and urgency of serious illness. As long as we live, Merritt tells readers, “God continues to work in and through us to bring us to the point of readiness to step into His presence.” This tone of humble trust will have an immediate appeal to fundamentalist Christian readers. However, some other aspects of the text may cause problems for some readers. For example, the book asserts that “God’s timing was perfect” when he caused the drug Rituxan to be approved in the same month that Dan was diagnosed; however, it doesn’t discuss why other, earlier cancer patients weren’t allowed access to the same drug. Also, it doesn’t address the fact that, despite numerous scientific studies, it’s never been conclusively proven that faith and health are linked. Finally, the author tends to attribute numerous other events to God’s direct intervention—such as the family’s decision to change churches or the fact that a trap caught a mouse in her kitchen—which will seem like overreach to some readers.
A touching, if problematic, testament to the power of faith in a time of trial.Pub Date: May 4, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-5127-8424-4
Page Count: 184
Publisher: Westbow Press
Review Posted Online: Aug. 17, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Worthwhile reference stuffed with facts and illustrations.
A compendium of charts, time lines, lists and illustrations to accompany study of the Bible.
This visually appealing resource provides a wide array of illustrative and textually concise references, beginning with three sets of charts covering the Bible as a whole, the Old Testament and the New Testament. These charts cover such topics as biblical weights and measures, feasts and holidays and the 12 disciples. Most of the charts use a variety of illustrative techniques to convey lessons and provide visual interest. A worthwhile example is “How We Got the Bible,” which provides a time line of translation history, comparisons of canons among faiths and portraits of important figures in biblical translation, such as Jerome and John Wycliffe. The book then presents a section of maps, followed by diagrams to conceptualize such structures as Noah’s Ark and Solomon’s Temple. Finally, a section on Christianity, cults and other religions describes key aspects of history and doctrine for certain Christian sects and other faith traditions. Overall, the authors take a traditionalist, conservative approach. For instance, they list Moses as the author of the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Hebrew Bible) without making mention of claims to the contrary. When comparing various Christian sects and world religions, the emphasis is on doctrine and orthodox theology. Some chapters, however, may not completely align with the needs of Catholic and Orthodox churches. But the authors’ leanings are muted enough and do not detract from the work’s usefulness. As a resource, it’s well organized, inviting and visually stimulating. Even the most seasoned reader will learn something while browsing.
Worthwhile reference stuffed with facts and illustrations.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2005
ISBN: 978-1-5963-6022-8
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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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