Were the Index of Forbidden Books still in force (it was retired in 1966), this would likely be on it. Useful, if...
Is the pope infallible? Depending on your answer, this is either an instrument of needed clerical reform or an act of heresy.
Non-Catholics will find some of the doctrinal issues raised in Australian ex-priest Collins’s muckraking examination to be mysterious, and even liberal adherents may wonder at some of the viewpoints he and his fellow theologians advance. (For instance, “If you take the logic of the argument that says only a man can represent Jesus in the action of the mass, then you would only be able to have Jewish men ordained as priests, because there is a sort of absolutist, biological determinism embedded in that argument.”) Still, Collins’s chief point is solid enough: despite Vatican II and the supposed ecumenicalism of the modern church, the papacy is committed to a highly conservative platform reinforced by its Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith, a “lineal descendant” of the Inquisition that has brought grief upon the heads of such would-be reformers as Ivan Illich and Bernard Häring (who has averred that his treatment at the hands of the CDF was “worse than that he had received from the Nazis”) while battling “the so-called heresy of ‘modernism’.” Collins profiles and interviews seven leading dissidents, among them the well-known German exponent of “Christology” Hans Küng, Sri Lankan liberation theologian Tissa Balasuriya, and Father Robert Nugent and Sister Jeannine Gramick, Americans whose ministry to gay and lesbian Catholics led to official condemnation. Of them, Küng is perhaps best equipped to debate the finer points of doctrine, and he offers a spirited defense of the view that the Catholic church is “indefectible,” meaning that while the church can be in error, “the Holy Spirit would remain with the Christian community.”
Were the Index of Forbidden Books still in force (it was retired in 1966), this would likely be on it. Useful, if unsettling, reading for Catholic reformists.Pub Date: July 16, 2002
ISBN: 1-58567-270-X
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Overlook
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2002
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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