A simple and affecting Christian faith guide.
An anonymous manual offers thoughts on living the Christian life.
The nonfiction debut of The Unqualified Christian focuses first on defining its terms—clarifying what is meant in these pages by words like “Christian” (not just a hearer, but also a doer of the word) and “disciple” (“one who embraces and assists in spreading the teachings of another”). The book wastes little time wading into the vexing and complex questions at the heart of many fundamentalist Christian debates, like the dispute over the nature of salvation itself, whether believers are rescued by good deeds or faith alone. The author addresses this issue with the same low-key affability that runs through the whole guide: “My argument on the subject of doing good works is not that they will get you saved or somehow get you more saved, but that we are called to do good works because that is the mark of a true believer, serving others, just as Christ himself served others.” The author structures the principles of some of his faith program around the acronym “ACTS”—Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, and Supplication—and the book is balanced by his stories of local church figures and his involvement with Wednesday night youth services. The volume shifts from personal anecdotes to broader philosophical inquiries with ease, and the deeper discussions are carried off with a refreshing approachability, whether the subject is the quest to find proof of God (“If you need proof, you leave no room for faith”) or the pitfalls of what the author calls “evangelism by baseball bat” (preachers trying to scare religion into the unconverted). The manual’s unifying subtext—the strangeness of “a Christian trying to live like a Christian” in the modern era—is threaded through the narrative, with the author periodically looping back to it in ways that his Christian readers should find both challenging and reassuring. Of particular note is the work’s clear advice on all aspects of practical evangelizing—the ways God calls each person to execute the word.
A simple and affecting Christian faith guide.Pub Date: May 10, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5255-2604-6
Page Count: 156
Publisher: FriesenPress
Review Posted Online: July 6, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.
Pub Date: Feb. 23, 1955
ISBN: 0670717797
Page Count: -
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1955
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