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
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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