A well-researched but haphazardly argued treatise.
Former journalist Sierichs presents the first volume of a lengthy, sweeping criticism of Christian faith.
In this work, the goal is straightforward: to show the long, violent history of Christianity, and the author takes the reader on a lengthy tour, from the time of the Roman Empire to modern-day American evangelicals. The analysis begins in ancient times, explaining that Christianity “developed out of Judaism, although gnostic and pagan elements are discernible.” The work touches on many intra-faith disputes, such as the controversy over icons in the sixth century and Puritan attitudes toward Quakers in the British colonies in America. The crux of Sierichs’ work is a survey of Christian churches’ relationships with those who are not Christian, which is not portrayed as one of peace and piety. The topics are specific and varied, as when a Roman Catholic cardinal in 2000 criticized easing restrictions aimed at gay people in the country of Malta. Reformer Martin Luther demonized “everyone except people who agreed with his particular concept of divinity,” the author notes, and in 1832, Pope Gregory XVI denounced freedom of the press. The vastness of the research makes for a thorough account; the first chapter, for instance, incorporates references to everything from druids to views on race in ancient Egypt. Such information is highly engaging, but it can also lead to confusing tangents. A mention of Roman massacres, for example, leads to a comparison to actions of the Nazis and the Soviets, which then leads to a reference to waterboarding during the administration of President George W. Bush, whom the author notes is Christian. However, the book doesn’t make a convincing case that Christianity is to blame for all these events. A section on Pope Pius XI’s condemnation of abortion notes that “later the Nazis also opposed abortion”; such a swift linkage of the two accomplishes little in the way of scholarly rigor. Still, the work features much of interest; unexpected sources, such as the poetry of a Puritan from 1662, showcase beliefs that may surprise modern readers.
A well-researched but haphazardly argued treatise.Pub Date: May 23, 2020
ISBN: 9781977221308
Page Count: 506
Publisher: Outskirts Press
Review Posted Online: March 10, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.
Greed, depravity, and serial murder in 1920s Oklahoma.
During that time, enrolled members of the Osage Indian nation were among the wealthiest people per capita in the world. The rich oil fields beneath their reservation brought millions of dollars into the tribe annually, distributed to tribal members holding "headrights" that could not be bought or sold but only inherited. This vast wealth attracted the attention of unscrupulous whites who found ways to divert it to themselves by marrying Osage women or by having Osage declared legally incompetent so the whites could fleece them through the administration of their estates. For some, however, these deceptive tactics were not enough, and a plague of violent death—by shooting, poison, orchestrated automobile accident, and bombing—began to decimate the Osage in what they came to call the "Reign of Terror." Corrupt and incompetent law enforcement and judicial systems ensured that the perpetrators were never found or punished until the young J. Edgar Hoover saw cracking these cases as a means of burnishing the reputation of the newly professionalized FBI. Bestselling New Yorkerstaff writer Grann (The Devil and Sherlock Holmes: Tales of Murder, Madness, and Obsession, 2010, etc.) follows Special Agent Tom White and his assistants as they track the killers of one extended Osage family through a closed local culture of greed, bigotry, and lies in pursuit of protection for the survivors and justice for the dead. But he doesn't stop there; relying almost entirely on primary and unpublished sources, the author goes on to expose a web of conspiracy and corruption that extended far wider than even the FBI ever suspected. This page-turner surges forward with the pacing of a true-crime thriller, elevated by Grann's crisp and evocative prose and enhanced by dozens of period photographs.
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.Pub Date: April 18, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-385-53424-6
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2017
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
The author's youthfulness helps to assure the inevitable comparison with the Anne Frank diary although over and above the...
Elie Wiesel spent his early years in a small Transylvanian town as one of four children.
He was the only one of the family to survive what Francois Maurois, in his introduction, calls the "human holocaust" of the persecution of the Jews, which began with the restrictions, the singularization of the yellow star, the enclosure within the ghetto, and went on to the mass deportations to the ovens of Auschwitz and Buchenwald. There are unforgettable and horrifying scenes here in this spare and sombre memoir of this experience of the hanging of a child, of his first farewell with his father who leaves him an inheritance of a knife and a spoon, and of his last goodbye at Buchenwald his father's corpse is already cold let alone the long months of survival under unconscionable conditions.
Pub Date: Jan. 16, 2006
ISBN: 0374500010
Page Count: 120
Publisher: Hill & Wang
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2006
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