An important and insightful contribution to the literature on religion in American military life.
Suitt examines the role Christianity plays in helping post-9/11 military veterans manage the trauma of their service in this nonfiction work.
In both official and unofficial ways, Christian moral frameworks are inescapable in the American military; as the author observes, approximately 65% of people serving claim a Christian affiliation of some kind. Despite the constitutional separation of church and state, the military reinforces Christian ideals by making the chaplain a central figure who provides religious services, ethical instruction, and spiritual as well as psychological counseling. This “religious cultural toolkit” furnished by the military can be indispensable to veterans processing the pain and trauma of their service. The author presents a rigorously empirical investigation of religion’s role in the healing process—Suitt interviewed 48 veterans and six military chaplains who served post-9/11 and who identified as Christian at some point during that time. What emerges from these “religious military narratives” is a fascinating picture of the ways in which the military’s use of religion “is simultaneously good and bad, or rather, creative and destructive.” On the one hand, it can provide genuine spiritual succor necessary to active soldiers as well as those attempting the fraught reintegration into civilian life. On the other hand, religious dogma can be used to reinforce a military agenda—war, violence, and the dehumanization of the enemy—at odds with Christian morality. The sample of interviewees has its limitations, a fact that author acknowledges, and Suitt’s prose can be leadenly academic, too often deploying phrases like “religious meaning-making systems.” However, this is a thoughtful and provocative study that highlights the many ways in which the military co-optation of religion can restrict the moral agency of its soldiers and make them fully responsible for their own trauma (“Simply, if service members are not autonomous moral agents, then just war considerations of blameworthiness in war ought to fall on superior officers and the military organization overall”). This is a stimulating and timely study, especially in an age of perpetual and religiously charged war.
An important and insightful contribution to the literature on religion in American military life.Pub Date: May 24, 2023
ISBN: 9783031310812
Page Count: 283
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A hopeful civic sermon favoring inspiration over concrete prescriptions.
A New Jersey senator’s moral manifesto.
Booker situates his narrative in the wake of his 2025 record-breaking 25-hour stand on the Senate floor, an act of physical endurance and moral insistence that serves as its animating example. Though not framed as memoir, the episode implicitly positions Booker himself as a model of the virtues he argues are essential to democratic life. Organized around 10 qualities, including agency, vulnerability, truth, perseverance, and grace, the book advances a clear thesis. “In this book, I argue that many Americans who came before us, and many among us today, have consistently proven that virtues are practical: They expand our power, deepen our sense of belonging, and equip us to endure and ultimately prevail.” Booker illustrates this claim through figures such as the late U.S. Rep. John Lewis, whose willingness to endure sacrifice for principle anchors the book’s moral lineage, and Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, whose composure under public scrutiny is presented as an example of dignity as civic strength. These portraits reinforce Booker’s belief that character, sustained over time, can shape public life, even when political outcomes remain uncertain or incomplete. He supplements these examples with personal stories drawn from family, faith, and community, delivered with emotional conviction and a tone that remains affirming and carefully calibrated. Much of the narrative reads like an expansive commencement address, earnest and reassuring, offering moral affirmation at moments when readers might reasonably expect sharper confrontation. That rhetorical choice ultimately defines the book’s limits. Booker acknowledges political conflict and compromise, but rarely examines them in depth, and while urging leaders to take moral risks, he avoids sustained reflection on how some of his own political decisions have tested the virtues he promotes. The result is a principled but self-conscious work that affirms shared values while offering little guidance for navigating power and accountability.
A hopeful civic sermon favoring inspiration over concrete prescriptions.Pub Date: March 24, 2026
ISBN: 9781250436733
Page Count: 272
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: March 24, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2026
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
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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