bookshelf

Seekers

Name: Seekers
Author: Paul Dunion
ISBN: 978-1-4808-3153-7

FINDING OUR WAY HOME

by Paul Dunion ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 31, 2016

A densely packed celebration of the resilience in some questioning souls.

bookshelf

A guidebook explores avid seekers and their vision quests.

“Why does everyone else seem to be content with their answers, while I continue to have questions?”—this and similar queries open up the wide-ranging discussions in Dunion’s (Dare to Grow Up, 2016, etc.) latest book. It deals with the special challenges and fulfillments faced by people he calls “threshold dwellers,” individuals who are “familiar with the gateway from the familiar to the unknown.” These seekers are characterized by their restless search for self-identification and the vision quests they undertake to answer a range of basic questions—What do I want? Where am I going? Who’s coming with me on the way?—that most people spend little or no time pondering. Dunion analyzes the dangers that lurk on such quests and the potential pitfalls seekers face, including the risks of cynicism or self-righteousness. He spends a corresponding amount of time looking at the personal reasons that might create inertia and inhibit the questing that should come naturally to seekers. The ultimate goal of all such questing is to find home, and when Dunion examines the multifaceted nature of that concept, his book is at its strongest. The underlying contradiction—a group of people seeking home but identified by their never quite finding it—is not lost on the author. “The paradox for us seekers,” he writes, “is that we are called to be at home and to pursue a larger vision of home.” Dunion’s writing is fast-paced and invitingly intellectual—literary and philosophical references abound in these pages—and this greatly compensates for the book’s keen supply of fortune-cookie pseudo-profundities (“the willingness to feel vulnerable allows us to be penetrated by love, which can be given and taken away,” etc.). Introverts—part of Dunion’s target audience—will likely be fascinated by his concept of expanded presence, and all readers feeling a vague lack in their lives should find something thought-provoking in the author’s ruminations.

A densely packed celebration of the resilience in some questioning souls.

Pub Date: Aug. 31, 2016

ISBN: 978-1-4808-3153-7

Page Count: 232

Publisher: Archway Publishing

Review Posted Online: Dec. 11, 2016

Review Program: Kirkus Indie

Categories:

PHILOSOPHY & RELIGION

ROSE BOOK OF BIBLE CHARTS, MAPS AND TIME LINES

bookshelf

ROSE BOOK OF BIBLE CHARTS, MAPS AND TIME LINES

by Timothy Paul Jones ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 2005

Worthwhile reference stuffed with facts and illustrations.

bookshelf

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 â€œHow 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

Categories:

PHILOSOPHY & RELIGION

bookshelf

THE MYTH OF SISYPHUS

AND OTHER ESSAYS

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

bookshelf

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.