A vigorously written and thought-provoking inspirational guide to changing your path in life.
A debut manual looks at St. Paul’s Damascus road experience as a template for human contemplation.
Early on, Assisi assures his readers that despite its title, his book is not about organized religion. Rather, it’s about “unpacking a personal experience of an incredible person who decided to change himself—an experience from which we can hopefully transfer some wisdom into our lives.” As the title indicates, this incredible person is Saul of Tarsus, who had a vision on the road to Damascus and converted to Christianity. This presence of the divine is central to the author’s contentions here; everyone, he maintains, has a one-on-one relationship with what he refers to as “G.O.D.—the Guiding, Designing, Organizing force of the universe. Or whatever other nomenclature one chooses.” Some readers may find these opening assertions confusing—Saul doesn’t decide to transform himself, for instance; he’s essentially ordered to do so by direct divine intervention. And that divine intervention is not some generalized Guiding, Designing, Organizing force but very specifically the Christian God. Still, Assisi smoothly and invitingly broadens his inquiry to include the universal human desire for meaning and purpose in life and his readings of the Paul story. He’s particularly insightful on the many ways Paul’s tale more closely reflects the Christian faith experience than the stories of the other disciples. “Paul never met Jesus in the flesh, he never spent time with him, never had a chance to listen to his teachings directly from him, never followed him in his wanderings or preachings,” the author writes. “Paul was like most of the Gentiles—all who would hear about Christ, but not from Christ. Like us.” In a series of very readable chapters, Assisi turns the underlying precepts of the Paul story—a tale of being “called to change”—into a series of lessons designed to address a broad array of human experiences, from coping with complicated relationships to dealing with grief. The result is a book that succeeds in the tricky feat of being intriguingly spiritual without being explicitly religious.
A vigorously written and thought-provoking inspirational guide to changing your path in life.Pub Date: Dec. 12, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-73596-752-3
Page Count: 250
Publisher: Rivail Publishing Company
Review Posted Online: Feb. 2, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Some of Avant’s mantras are overstated, but her book is magnanimous, inspiring, and relentlessly optimistic.
Memories and life lessons inspired by the author’s mother, who was murdered in 2021.
“Neither my mother nor I knew that her last text to me would be the words ‘Think you’ll be happy,’ ” Avant writes, "but it is fitting that she left me with a mantra for resiliency.” The author, a filmmaker and former U.S. Ambassador to the Bahamas, begins her first book on the night she learned her mother, Jacqueline Avant, had been fatally shot during a home invasion. “One of my first thoughts,” she writes, “was, ‘Oh God, please don’t let me hate this man. Give me the strength not to hate him.’ ” Daughter of Clarence Avant, known as the “Black Godfather” due to his work as a pioneering music executive, the author describes growing up “in a house that had a revolving door of famous people,” from Ella Fitzgerald to Muhammad Ali. “I don’t take for granted anything I have achieved in my life as a Black American woman,” writes Avant. “And I recognize my unique upbringing…..I was taught to honor our past and pay forward our fruits.” The book, which is occasionally repetitive, includes tributes to her mother from figures like Oprah Winfrey and Bill Clinton, but the narrative core is the author’s direct, faith-based, unwaveringly positive messages to readers—e.g., “I don’t want to carry the sadness and anger I have toward the man who did this to my mother…so I’m worshiping God amid the worst storm imaginable”; "Success and feeling good are contagious. I’m all about positive contagious vibrations!” Avant frequently quotes Bible verses, and the bulk of the text reflects the spirit of her daily prayer “that everything is in divine order.” Imploring readers to practice proactive behavior, she writes, “We have to always find the blessing, to be the blessing.”
Some of Avant’s mantras are overstated, but her book is magnanimous, inspiring, and relentlessly optimistic.Pub Date: Oct. 17, 2023
ISBN: 9780063304413
Page Count: 288
Publisher: HarperOne
Review Posted Online: Aug. 17, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2023
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
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