Unquestionably uneven, but if only 10 percent of the author’s claims are true, his report is still quite damning.
A scathing examination of the Roman Catholic Church.
Journalist Williams (Operation Gladio: The Unholy Alliance between the Vatican, the CIA, and the Mafia, 2015, etc.) is an unabashed Tridentine Catholic: he rejects the authority of the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) and the leadership that has followed it. In his latest exposé, the author explores the “good old days” of the church, the many forces that caused it to change, and what he sees as a downward spiral from the 1960s onward. A bizarre mix of solid analysis and conspiracy theorizing, the book is an evocative page-turner sure to turn heads. Williams begins with an overview of the pre–Vatican II church, an entity certain of its own superiority and intent on generational obedience and participation. A mixture of high finance, Mafia dealings, Freemasonry activity, and simple cultural change led to an attempt to redefine the church in the 1960s, a change Williams views as disastrous and irreversible for the spiritual lives of believers and for the temporal power of the church as an institution. Just when readers begin to see the author as a fundamentalist curmudgeon, however, he steers into on ocean of scandal to prove his point. The breadth of controversy is staggering, as Williams presents the Vatican as the center of a crime syndicate. From secret CIA funding to offshore bank accounts to Mafia family connections to episcopal embezzlement, the list of unholy activities is amazing. The author even supports a theory that John Paul I, who died just over a month after becoming pope in 1978, was murdered because he had decided to investigate the Vatican’s financial dealings. Topping it all off is a chapter on the pedophilia scandal and a final jab at John Paul II as a heretic. Though this is a work that screams out for rebuttal, it also raises innumerable questions about how a religious body can engender such grave controversy.
Unquestionably uneven, but if only 10 percent of the author’s claims are true, his report is still quite damning.Pub Date: Aug. 15, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-63388-303-1
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Prometheus Books
Review Posted Online: May 30, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2017
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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