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CHRISTIANITY WITHOUT DOGMA

Name: CHRISTIANITY WITHOUT DOGMA
Author: Jack Bergstrand

by Jack Bergstrand ‧ RELEASE DATE: N/A

A well-argued case for Christian reform that lacks diverse voices.

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A prominent business consultant and former evangelical confronts Christianity’s decline in this spiritual book.

Raised in an evangelical home, Bergstrand later joined many so-called “exvangelicals” who remain self-described “conscious Christians” but have deconstructed their prior beliefs. As the former chief information officer for the Coca-Cola Company and a current business transformation consultant whose previous books centered on reinventing corporate cultures, the author blends his spiritual journey with his practical know-how on upending antiquated and toxic traditions. To Bergstrand, Christianity has not only failed to engage with young people, but many who had been part of the faith have also “experienced significant personal trauma from Christian churches” that foster a climate where misogynistic, racist, and homophobic ideas thrive. Moreover, as voices of reform are either pushed out or abandon ship, churches are becoming even more “radicalized” as their conservative leadership and membership “double down” in their extreme ideologies. As one who still finds comfort in Jesus’ teachings on love and selflessness, the author embraces a “Jesus-Centric” brand of Christianity that takes on traditional Christian dogmas on topics ranging from gender and sexuality to individualism and scriptural literalism. Just as Jesus challenged the hypocritical religious leadership of his era, so, too, does Bergstrand call for a “reframing” of Christianity to a religion that is less “attached to concepts” and is “connected to people.” Written in an accessible style that is intimately familiar with the niche vocabulary of evangelical culture, this book effectively blends astute analysis with revealing anecdotes from disillusioned Christians and utilizes ample survey data. Text-box vignettes, charts, and a glossary enhance the volume’s engaging narrative. Though the work is ecumenical in its critiques, targeting not only evangelicals, but also Roman Catholic and mainline churches, it ironically centers on White institutions as the face of Christianity. Very little is mentioned of how African American churches or the ever growing Catholic and charismatic churches of Africa and Asia fit into the book’s critiques. Many of these churches fill in a gray area that rejects certain elements of White Christian culture while embracing the religion’s traditional dogmas.

A well-argued case for Christian reform that lacks diverse voices.

Pub Date: N/A

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: N/A

Review Posted Online: Dec. 22, 2021

Review Program: Kirkus Indie

Categories:

PHILOSOPHY & RELIGION

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THINK YOU'LL BE HAPPY

MOVING THROUGH GRIEF WITH GRIT, GRACE, AND GRATITUDE

by Nicole Avant ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 17, 2023

Some of Avant’s mantras are overstated, but her book is magnanimous, inspiring, and relentlessly optimistic.

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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

Categories:

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THE MYTH OF SISYPHUS

AND OTHER ESSAYS

by Albert Camus ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 26, 1955

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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.