An accessible and compassionate reimagining of ambition in the service of faith.
A manual explores the meaning of success for Christians.
Schulte’s (The Last Leaf, 2018) punchy book assures readers throughout that they have a purpose in this life and a duty to find out what that objective is—and that the path to that discovery isn’t free of obstacles. “The devil wants to steal God’s mission for you,” readers are told. And the challenge for all Christians is to rise above their circumstances and make plans to realize the spiritual ambitions God wants everyone to have. The author is concerned with outcomes. A Christian’s nature is determined by actions, and, in the reading set forth here, the results are built on obedience to God’s will—a submission that becomes pure when it springs from love rather than rote compliance. Schulte lays out his own spiritual ambitions, including to feel the Lord’s presence, to hear “the gentle wind of God,” to inspire others to do likewise, and to seek inner spiritual peace. And all of these goals are predicated on the love between God and the faithful, a state that can often be challenging in its own right to achieve and maintain. As the author points out with typical, friendly bluntness, “Stuff crowds out God.” In ample and engaging personal asides, Schulte stresses that the surest way to stop stuff from crowding out the Lord is to cultivate a relationship with the Creator through prayer, which the author characterizes simply as talking with God. In the pursuit of this relationship, the faithful are encouraged to be “bold”—a quality that, Schulte maintains in his readable book, comes about when believers open their souls to God. “He rummages around,” the author asserts, “dusts this, throws junk out, and basically cleans up the joint.” The portrait of the faith relationship that emerges from Schulte’s list of ambitions is a warm and appealing one, something his fellow Christians should find extremely inviting.
An accessible and compassionate reimagining of ambition in the service of faith.Pub Date: Jan. 5, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-973613-19-0
Page Count: 114
Publisher: iUniverse
Review Posted Online: April 13, 2018
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
An autobiography as toxic and addictive as any drug its author has ever ingested.
The legendary booze-addled metal rocker turned reality-TV star comes clean in his tell-all autobiography.
Although brought up in the bleak British factory town of Aston, John “Ozzy” Osbourne’s tragicomic rags-to-riches tale is somehow quintessentially American. It’s an epic dream/nightmare that takes him from Winson Green prison in 1966 to a presidential dinner with George W. Bush in 2004. Tracing his adult life from petty thief and slaughterhouse worker to rock star, Osbourne’s first-person slang-and-expletive-driven style comes off like he’s casually relating his story while knocking back pints at the pub. “What you read here,” he writes, “is what dribbled out of the jelly I call my brain when I asked it for my life story.” During the late 1960s his transformation from inept shoplifter to notorious Black Sabbath frontman was unlikely enough. In fact, the band got its first paying gigs by waiting outside concert venues hoping the regularly scheduled act wouldn’t show. After a few years, Osbourne and his bandmates were touring America and becoming millionaires from their riff-heavy doom music. As expected, with success came personal excess and inevitable alienation from the other members of the group. But as a solo performer, Osbourne’s predilection for guns, drink, drugs, near-death experiences, cruelty to animals and relieving himself in public soon became the stuff of legend. His most infamous exploits—biting the head off a bat and accidentally urinating on the Alamo—are addressed, but they seem tame compared to other dark moments of his checkered past: nearly killing his wife Sharon during an alcohol-induced blackout, waking up after a bender in the middle of a busy highway, burning down his backyard, etc. Osbourne is confessional to a fault, jeopardizing his demonic-rocker reputation with glib remarks about his love for Paul McCartney and Robin Williams. The most distinguishing feature of the book is the staggering chapter-by-chapter accumulation of drunken mishaps, bodily dysfunctions and drug-induced mayhem over a 40-plus-year career—a résumé of anti-social atrocities comparable to any of rock ’n’ roll’s most reckless outlaws.
An autobiography as toxic and addictive as any drug its author has ever ingested.Pub Date: Jan. 25, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-446-56989-7
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2009
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