A provocative examination that suffers from a want of focus.
A wide-reaching survey regarding the moral ramifications of “the way we live now”—which, as always, seems fraught with compromise and lonely abnegations.
Sociologist Wolfe (One Nation After All, 1998, etc.) wanted to find out what ordinary Americans would reveal, given the opportunity “to speak at length about the issues that are central to the debate over America’s moral condition.” He relied on two different surveys, one an opinion poll that was examined last year in the New York Times Magazine, and then another series of in-depth interviews with subjects from eight communities chosen to represent geographical diversity. These interviews are excerpted frequently, providing a faceted, sometimes jarring sense of a conflicted citizenry (“Don’t get mad, don’t get even, get ahead”) discussing issues as simultaneously abstract and personalized as loyalty, virtue, and forgiveness (“The Unappreciated Virtue”) in a world that seems to debase all three. In broad ways, his subjects’ inner lives are less than surprising: San Francisco gays and lesbians prize fluidity in personal relationships, while “born again” midwestern hedons look severely at the drinking, drugging, and bed-hopping they once endured. Wolfe depicts this as a strategy of “Eating Dessert First” and repenting later in life through spiritual or domestic responsibility. Certain themes are resoundingly confirmed: Americans aspire to difficult levels of moral purity, yet are paradoxically abashed when it comes to “judging” others. The author does a good job assembling philosophies of thought to explain his subjects’ seemingly contradictory moral responses, but his prose is not sufficiently sharpened to keep these in-depth arguments from becoming mushy or repetitive.
A provocative examination that suffers from a want of focus.Pub Date: April 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-393-04843-8
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Norton
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2001
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
A very welcome instance of philosophy that can help readers live a good life.
A teacher and scholar of Buddhism offers a formally varied account of the available rewards of solitude.
“As Mother Ayahuasca takes me in her arms, I realize that last night I vomited up my attachment to Buddhism. In passing out, I died. In coming to, I was, so to speak, reborn. I no longer have to fight these battles, I repeat to myself. I am no longer a combatant in the dharma wars. It feels as if the course of my life has shifted onto another vector, like a train shunted off its familiar track onto a new trajectory.” Readers of Batchelor’s previous books (Secular Buddhism: Imagining the Dharma in an Uncertain World, 2017, etc.) will recognize in this passage the culmination of his decadeslong shift away from the religious commitments of Buddhism toward an ecumenical and homegrown philosophy of life. Writing in a variety of modes—memoir, history, collage, essay, biography, and meditation instruction—the author doesn’t argue for his approach to solitude as much as offer it for contemplation. Essentially, Batchelor implies that if you read what Buddha said here and what Montaigne said there, and if you consider something the author has noticed, and if you reflect on your own experience, you have the possibility to improve the quality of your life. For introspective readers, it’s easy to hear in this approach a direct response to Pascal’s claim that “all of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone.” Batchelor wants to relieve us of this inability by offering his example of how to do just that. “Solitude is an art. Mental training is needed to refine and stabilize it,” he writes. “When you practice solitude, you dedicate yourself to the care of the soul.” Whatever a soul is, the author goes a long way toward soothing it.
A very welcome instance of philosophy that can help readers live a good life.Pub Date: Feb. 18, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-300-25093-0
Page Count: 200
Publisher: Yale Univ.
Review Posted Online: Nov. 24, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2019
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