Will it prevent John Paul’s beatification? Not likely.
A tedious tale of fascist cabals, freemasonic conspiracies, perverts lurking under every cassock and a pope glad to invent a heroic past and preserve a hidebound one.
If you are disposed to think Catholicism evil, then Yallop’s book will doubtless please. The opening chapters rework his hypothesis, from In God’s Name (1984), that John Paul I was poisoned because he knew too much about the financial crimes within the Vatican and wanted to make appropriate reforms; John Paul II not only tossed aside those reforms, Yallop asserts, but also freed the gnomes to do as they wished, so that “while the Holy Father roundly condemned apartheid, the Vatican Bank was secretly loaning $172 million to official agencies of the South African apartheid regime.” The Vatican Bank, of course, was not the only lender to rightist regimes, and Yallop charges John Paul II with hypocrisy for ignoring the crimes of authoritarian and totalitarian regimes outside Eastern Europe. Strange behavior, that, considering that Yallop also asserts that the pope was no real enemy of communism and that the Polish communist regime was “instrumental in setting him on the path to St. Peter’s throne.” Much of the book is a lurid catalog of incidents of sexual abuse and pedophilia proven and alleged, with Yallop charging that the pope and his minions did nothing to stop the priests. Much of the rest is given over to charges that John Paul II invented and padded his resume; thus, “the claims made over many years about Wojtyla’s wartime actions on behalf of Jews are a fantasy without any foundation.” But this book has little grounding, either; lacking substantial documentation and reliant on supposed anonymous sources inside the Vatican subject to supposed curial inquisitions, it is an extended and rhetorically predictable rumor. And a grinding, aggrieved one at that.
Will it prevent John Paul’s beatification? Not likely.Pub Date: May 1, 2007
ISBN: 0-7867-1956-7
Page Count: 400
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2007
BOOK REVIEW
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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