A fine introductory text for readers with a budding interest in secular ideology.
A broad argument against the ideological and historical validity of Christianity.
In his first work, Zuersher outlines his case against the Christian faith by breaking the religion into its key components and discounting each one in turn. Divided into two sections, “Beliefs” and “Evidence,” the book attempts to reveal the contradictions, inconsistencies, and impossibilities he identifies in the Bible and its history. To do so, Zuersher relies heavily on one analytical strategy: he lines up rhetorical straw men then promptly knocks them down. Consider this example from the chapter “Purpose”: “A popular minister wrote, ‘The ultimate goal of the universe is to show the glory of God.’ This makes no sense….To whom was it necessary to reveal or exhibit the god’s magnificence?” In this fashion, Zuersher moves with efficient, textbook precision through a comprehensive range of subjects, dedicating five to 10 pages to each. The “Beliefs” section explores everything from the specific actions of Satan to the philosophical problems in any faith-based belief system, while the “Evidence” section thoroughly picks apart the process by which the Gospels were written. The sections are easy to read because of Zuersher’s direct prose, but one occasionally wishes the author would linger on subjects a little longer. At the end of the chapter on faith, for example, Zuersher remarks, “a god who gives revelation to one person could, if he were omnipotent, give the same revelation to everyone.” While this is certainly a defensible claim, it would be stronger if weighed against more counterarguments and subjected to greater critical analysis than Zuersher includes in the chapter. The points are solid, but it’s difficult to entirely discredit the concept of faith in one short chapter. Still, Zuersher investigates enough theological doctrine and historical research to offer a serviceable argument. It may serve as a first step for those just beginning to feel out their doubts in Christianity. Some of Zuersher’s arguments, particularly in the latter “Evidence” half of the book, offer valuable historical context on Christianity’s early days.
A fine introductory text for readers with a budding interest in secular ideology.Pub Date: June 24, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-4990-1848-6
Page Count: 314
Publisher: Xlibris
Review Posted Online: April 14, 2016
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
If the authors are serious, this is a silly, distasteful book. If they are not, it’s a brilliant satire.
The authors have created a sort of anti-Book of Virtues in this encyclopedic compendium of the ways and means of power.
Everyone wants power and everyone is in a constant duplicitous game to gain more power at the expense of others, according to Greene, a screenwriter and former editor at Esquire (Elffers, a book packager, designed the volume, with its attractive marginalia). We live today as courtiers once did in royal courts: we must appear civil while attempting to crush all those around us. This power game can be played well or poorly, and in these 48 laws culled from the history and wisdom of the world’s greatest power players are the rules that must be followed to win. These laws boil down to being as ruthless, selfish, manipulative, and deceitful as possible. Each law, however, gets its own chapter: “Conceal Your Intentions,” “Always Say Less Than Necessary,” “Pose as a Friend, Work as a Spy,” and so on. Each chapter is conveniently broken down into sections on what happened to those who transgressed or observed the particular law, the key elements in this law, and ways to defensively reverse this law when it’s used against you. Quotations in the margins amplify the lesson being taught. While compelling in the way an auto accident might be, the book is simply nonsense. Rules often contradict each other. We are told, for instance, to “be conspicuous at all cost,” then told to “behave like others.” More seriously, Greene never really defines “power,” and he merely asserts, rather than offers evidence for, the Hobbesian world of all against all in which he insists we live. The world may be like this at times, but often it isn’t. To ask why this is so would be a far more useful project.
If the authors are serious, this is a silly, distasteful book. If they are not, it’s a brilliant satire.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1998
ISBN: 0-670-88146-5
Page Count: 430
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1998
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