A well-researched, distinctly Christian guidebook for finding peace in an era of violence and anxiety.
A Christian author offers advice for the faithful on how to obtain peace.
In the book’s opening lines, Dickerson writes that “we live in a state of war,” as international, political, interpersonal, and even internal conflict define life in the 21st century. A devout Christian, Dickerson traces the roots of contemporary fears and anxiety to Satan, “the prince of scammers,” who has deceived people into following false avenues of obtaining inner peace. The author contends that the idolatry of pursuing money, nurturing grudges, and refusing to offer forgiveness plague modern society at all levels, from the personal to the geopolitical. True and “deep inner peace” (or “shalom” in Hebrew), the book argues, comes only from Jesus. Thus, the author is adamant this it is “not a self-help book,” as he believes “self-guided efforts” without the help of Jesus are doomed to fail. It does, though, provide practical advice to the Christian faithful on how to find peace by following in the footsteps of Jesus and his followers. Using biblical anecdotes, such as examples of Matthew the Tax Collector, Simon the Zealot, Mary, and Martha, Dickerson makes the case for radical, life-changing love. If warfare is inherently spiritual (a result of the sinfulness of humanity), we can only find victory by using the strategy of Jesus. “His weapons were the cross and selfless love,” writes the author, adding, “he tells us that we must love—even our enemies.”
While profoundly Christian in its approach, the book defies some of the prominent ideas that drive mainstream American evangelicalism. For one, Dickerson is adamant against “the illusion that we are living in a Christian nation that needs to be defended from the ungodly.” Another is his rejection of the trope that after death, “our souls then rise to heaven or sink to hell,” as he connects those notions to Anglo-Saxon paganism. Though the underlying message may not resonate with non-Christian readers, it’s generally ecumenical in referencing Christian authors and perspectives across multiple denominational lines. Its engaging, but learned, prose is rife with references to a range of Christian thinkers from Augustine to modern scholars, and it’s peppered throughout with inspirational illustrations, photographs, poetry, and lyrics to hymns, like the classical Irish song “Be Thou My Vision.” This is a rare work that would appeal to academic, ministerial, and lay Christian audiences alike, featuring both a solid research bibliography and references to pop culture. With a Ph.D. in medieval history from Cornell and an MDiv degree from Princeton, Dickerson has a solid understanding of Christian history and theology that emphasizes nuance and introspection, often calling out Christians themselves for failing to live up to Christ’s message of peace. He frequently draws upon contemporary examples; in discussing Russia’s war against Ukraine, for instance, Dickerson notes how the Russian Orthodox bishop Kirill has used his Church to justify a “holy war” that uses “secular force to impose his version of Christian morality.” Despite its well-written narrative, the book could have used a closer editorial eye; it’s sometimes repetitive, with some sentences appearing word-for-word on different pages. This critique notwithstanding, Dickerson offers Christian readers a thoughtful work that both affirms their faith while challenging them to live up to their religious ideals.
A well-researched, distinctly Christian guidebook for finding peace in an era of violence and anxiety.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2025
ISBN: 9798385249381
Page Count: 126
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: July 16, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A frank and funny but uneven essay collection about neurodiversity.
An experimental, illustrated essay collection that questions neurotypical definitions of what is normal.
From a young age, writer and comedian Myers has been different. In addition to coping with obsessive compulsive disorder and panic attacks, she struggled to read basic social cues. During a round of seven minutes in heaven—a game in which two players spend seven minutes in a closet and are expected to kiss—Myers misread the romantic advances of her best friend and longtime crush, Marley. In Paris, she accidentally invited a sex worker to join her friends for “board games and beer,” thinking he was simply a random stranger who happened to be hitting on her. In community college, a stranger’s request for a pen spiraled her into a panic attack but resulted in a tentative friendship. When the author moved to Australia, she began taking notes on her colleagues in an effort to know them better. As the author says to her co-worker, Tabitha, “there are unspoken social contracts within a workplace that—by some miracle—everyone else already understands, and I don’t….When things Go Without Saying, they Never Get Said, and sometimes people need you to Say Those Things So They Understand What The Hell Is Going On.” At its best, Myers’ prose is vulnerable and humorous, capturing characterization in small but consequential life moments, and her illustrations beautifully complement the text. Unfortunately, the author’s tendency toward unnecessary capitalization and experimental forms is often unsuccessful, breaking the book’s otherwise steady rhythm.
A frank and funny but uneven essay collection about neurodiversity.Pub Date: Oct. 28, 2025
ISBN: 9780063381308
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Sept. 12, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2025
A pleasure for fans of old-school historical narratives.
Avuncular observations on matters historical from the late popularizer of the past.
McCullough made a fine career of storytelling his way through past events and the great men (and occasional woman) of long-ago American history. In that regard, to say nothing of his eschewing modern technology in favor of the typewriter (“I love the way the bell rings every time I swing the carriage lever”), he might be thought of as belonging to a past age himself. In this set of occasional pieces, including various speeches and genial essays on what to read and how to write, he strikes a strong tone as an old-fashioned moralist: “Indifference to history isn’t just ignorant, it’s rude,” he thunders. “It’s a form of ingratitude.” There are some charming reminiscences in here. One concerns cajoling his way into a meeting with Arthur Schlesinger in order to pitch a speech to presidential candidate John F. Kennedy: Where Richard Nixon “has no character and no convictions,” he opined, Kennedy “is appealing to our best instincts.” McCullough allows that it wasn’t the strongest of ideas, but Schlesinger told him to write up a speech anyway, and when it got to Kennedy, “he gave a speech in which there was one paragraph that had once sentence written by me.” Some of McCullough’s appreciations here are of writers who are not much read these days, such as Herman Wouk and Paul Horgan; a long piece concerns a president who’s been largely lost in the shuffle too, Harry Truman, whose decision to drop the atomic bomb on Japan McCullough defends. At his best here, McCullough uses history as a way to orient thinking about the present, and with luck to good ends: “I am a short-range pessimist and a long-range optimist. I sincerely believe that we may be on the way to a very different and far better time.”
A pleasure for fans of old-school historical narratives.Pub Date: Sept. 16, 2025
ISBN: 9781668098998
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: June 26, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2025
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