An illuminating portrait of a still-obscure portion of the globe.
Eye-opening travels along a little-recognized fault line.
Former London Observer correspondent Clark tours Orthodox Eastern Europe, “the twin that our Catholic and later Protestant Western Europe carelessly lost touch with a millennium ago.” That twin, she writes, was always a little more otherworldly than its more practical-minded Western counterpart; Byzantium, the long-time capital of Eastern Orthodoxy, was once fabulously wealthy, but most of its inhabitants seemed more anxious about their relations with God than with amassing and protecting fortunes—making it ripe for a fall. When that fall came, the Orthodox world became a convenient buffer zone between Western Europe and militant Islam. As the recent case of Kosovo demonstrates, this zone remains prone to violent demonstrations of faith. “Any time-traveling citizen of Late Byzantium who found himself among Serbs in 1990s former Yugoslavia,” Clark writes, “would immediately have recognized his world.” The author travels from Yugoslavia into Russia, where, she suggests, the Orthodox establishment stands opposed to Western notions of democracy and progress and is likely to emerge as an ever-more-committed enemy of the secular state. (That establishment, she notes, enjoys “an apparently unreasonable closeness” with prominent former Communists.) For all her disturbing news about developments in Russia and Yugoslavia, however, Clark takes a less gloomy view of Eastern Europe than does Robert Kaplan, whose recent Eastward to Tartary (p. 1167) covered some of the same ground. Though generally sober-minded, she is not above having a little fun with her subjects. When visiting important centers of the Orthodox faith in Turkey and Greece, for example, she writes of her overpowering urge to violate canonical law and set foot in one of the all-male monasteries of Mount Athos—“from jail I could fight my case in the European Court of Human Rights and maybe even win it,” she reasons, tongue in cheek.
An illuminating portrait of a still-obscure portion of the globe.Pub Date: Dec. 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-312-23396-5
Page Count: 432
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2000
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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