An unconventional, thought-provoking organizational scheme for pondering Christianity via a fundamentalist lens.
An approach to scriptural devotions using acronyms.
Oliver’s nonfiction debut features a unique, inviting approach to thinking about the Christian life. He arranges acronyms in alphabetical order (with many letters repeated), and after each one is given, Oliver expounds at varying lengths on their meanings and his thinking behind creating them. Entries range in length from brief, like “ALL” (Agape: Lingering Love), to middle length (“GOSPEL”: God’s only Son Provides Eternal Life) to slightly longer and more involved (“IMMANUEL”: Immaculate, Marvelous Messiah’s Atonement Necessary, Uniting Elohim’s Love). Some of the repetition in letters and acronyms is clearly intended to underscore thematic significance—such as “JESUS” (Justifying Eternal Salvation unto Sinners). In a short Foreword, Oliver claims divine inspiration for his conception of these acronyms, and throughout the text, he strikes an evangelical tone that many Christian readers will find bracing, for instance, “there are so many ways we can sin and not be aware of it.” In the text sections explaining his acronyms, Oliver sketches a theodicy of fundamentalist basics. “We must let God be true and every person a liar to be anchored believers, immovable and determined eternally to see the victory God has for us as we overcome the world,” he writes. Oliver doesn’t shy away from fire-and-brimstone warnings. He touches repeatedly on the fact that finding Jesus is the only path to avoiding the eternal torment of damnation (you don’t just die and that’s that, he writes—you suffer forever). Jesus, he writes, is the answer to everything in life, the standing offer of God to reconcile with the faithful. Some of Oliver’s concepts will strike many as just too absolutist; he writes that “all the problems we experience in life are a result of evil in this world” (bad phone reception? Car trouble? Liver cancer?). But Oliver is good at his central conceit: some of these acronyms are bound to stick in readers’ minds after they’ve put the book down.
An unconventional, thought-provoking organizational scheme for pondering Christianity via a fundamentalist lens.Pub Date: April 29, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-5127-7765-9
Page Count: 268
Publisher: Westbow Press
Review Posted Online: July 6, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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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