Controversial author and TV personality Huffington (Picasso: Creator and Destroyer, 1988) calls on society to acknowledge the drive towards transcendence and wholeness that alone can transform our lives. During a stop on her first book tour, Huffington tells us, she was sitting in her room in a European hotel, yellow roses on her desk, Swiss chocolate by her bed, the only sound that of ice crackling as it slowly melted into the water around the French champagne. Suddenly, she knew that worldly success was nothing and heard in her head Peggy Lee's question ``Is this all there is?'' Maybe not quite St. Augustine's voice in the garden, but this was Huffington's conversion, enlightenment, and satori, setting her out, she says, on the journey of 1,000 miles toward the publication, she hoped, of yet another bestseller. Her teaching here is that we are too concerned with three of our basic instincts—survival, procreation, and power—to the detriment of a fourth, which is more intuitive and spiritual. This fourth instinct is proper to human beings, she believes; it inspires all our striving and causes us to evolve as a species. Huffington claims that we are now at the dawn of a new age in which the fourth instinct is imperative for our future. None of this, of course, is very new, and although Huffington has good things to say, she says too many of them and fails to give them the depth they deserve. As she quotes from the Dalai Lama, C.S. Lewis, the New Testament, Joseph Campbell, St. John of Kronstadt (who she claims erroneously was Greek Orthodox), and many other sages, our author seems to be whisking us around some great cocktail party where we meet fascinating people without getting a chance to know them. Thus, she gives an impression of glibness in spite of her sincerity. Profound ideas, superficially treated. (Author tour)
Pub Date: May 10, 1994
ISBN: 0-671-69229-1
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 1994
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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