Entertaining and naughty, learned and light. (12 b&w photos)
Public policy analyst Hart (Arizona State Univ.) takes on the nastiest subject of all and finds it complex, slippery, and discomfiting—downright wicked, in a word.
For his debut, the author employs a light, even frothy tone whose effervescence almost (but not quite) vitiates his intent. Like characters in an airplane disaster film, Plato and Kant, Hannah Arendt and George Bernard Shaw sit alongside Jerry Springer, Charles Manson, and Jerry Falwell in a literary work designed to be comfortable for everyone from professors and poets to couch potatoes and fundamentalist Christians. Hart begins with Americans’ paradoxical attitude toward evil: our fear and revulsion exist simultaneously with our delight in it. We love movies with really bad guys, or even Satan himself; we demand that CNN cover celebrity murders 24/7. Hart eventually arrives at a definition of evil as “an intentional human act that causes extreme harm to innocents and attacks our basic moral order.” He considers various explanations of how evil can exist in a world God created, examines Satan and other personifications of evil, and declares that he/she/it (probably) doesn’t exist. Hart then turns to a discussion of how evolutionary biologists have come to understand evil: we’re basically wild animals in clothes, and our jungle-and-savannah behavior remains with us because we haven’t really had much time to mature. Cursing and lying get demoted in two clever, funny chapters. Our swearing is not very interesting or creative, Hart contends, and everyone lies, so how can such minor transgressions be evil? One of the best chapters concerns the widely held view that the US overflows with satanic cults. Not so, asserts the author, quoting one law-enforcement official who claimed there has not been a single documented murder ever committed by such a group. Men will not like his chapter about how they have demonized women throughout history.
Entertaining and naughty, learned and light. (12 b&w photos)Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2004
ISBN: 0-312-31281-4
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Dunne/St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2004
BOOK REVIEW
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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