by Stephen W. Hiemstra ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 25, 2024
An engaging study of the duality of Christ limited by its own theological biases.
A Christian author explores the duality of Jesus’s nature in this nonfiction theological study.
For centuries, Christians have grappled with their faith’s conception of the duality of Jesus—one who is both fully human and fully divine—and the contemporary church still struggles to articulate this central, yet mysterious, doctrine. (“Postmodern people live in a materialist world,” writes Hiemstra, “where the only things thought to exist are those that we can touch, taste, smell, hear, or see.”) The final volume in a three-part series that focuses on the image of God, this book builds upon Image of God in the Parables (2023) and Image of the Holy Spirit and the Church (2023) to provide readers with a biblical study of Jesus’ humanity and divinity (referred to as “transcendence” throughout the book). Introductory chapters contextualize “The Transcendence Challenge,” highlighting, for instance, the conflicting Hebrew and Greek worldviews regarding the heart and the mind: While the Greek world, and its philosophical descendants in the West, emphasized a schism that separated the heart and mind into distinct spheres, the author suggests that the Bible’s Hebrew context saw a “unity of heart and mind,” which informed early Christian notions of a “Triune God” (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit). Divided into three sections, the book’s main body explores questions about the personhood and divinity of Jesus through the lenses of Old Testament prophecies, Pauline letters, and the Gospels.
While the text’s theology reads as distinctly Protestant, especially in its emphasis on the inerrancy and primacy of the Bible, its orthodoxy is balanced by an ecumenical approach that references sources across the denominational spectrum. One passage on healing, for instance, references the writings of Francis MacNutt, one of the leading figures within the Catholic Church’s Charismatic Movement. Most of the book’s teachings are conservative in nature, including warnings against sexual sins and an undefined “Cultural Marxism.” Liberal Christians may not agree with the book’s traditional takes; Catholic readers may similarly bump against the lack of engagement with their own, millennia-old theology. The omission of a discussion of transubstantiation in the presence of the Eucharist is particularly glaring, given the centrality of the body and blood of Jesus—aspects directly related to Jesus’s personhood, a focus of the book—in Catholic doctrine. This eliding of Catholic and Orthodox traditions leads to occasionally head-scratching claims, such as Hiemstra’s observation that the “transcendence problem facing postmodern people that fixates on the humanity of Christ is something new.” The existence of Ebionites—a Christian sect denounced by Irenaeus and other second-century Christians as heretical due to its preoccupation with Jesus’s humanity—points to the longevity of a debate that predates postmodernism. Doctrinal quibbles, however, are bound to occur in any work centered on Christian theology. Backed by a solid network of references and scholarly, if distinctly conservative, sources, this book offers an accessible introduction to a fundamental question of the Christian faith. While it delves deeply into complex theology, the book is written in a devotional style that includes not only biblical exegesis but also an abundance of relevant anecdotes and prayers that conclude each chapter. The text also includes questions for small group discussions and personal reflections.
An engaging study of the duality of Christ limited by its own theological biases.Pub Date: July 25, 2024
ISBN: 9781942199618
Page Count: 250
Publisher: T2Pneuma Publishers
Review Posted Online: Oct. 21, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Share your opinion of this book
Awards & Accolades
Likes
22
Our Verdict
GET IT
IndieBound Bestseller
by Steve Martin illustrated by Harry Bliss ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 17, 2020
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.
Awards & Accolades
Likes
22
Our Verdict
GET IT
IndieBound Bestseller
The veteran actor, comedian, and banjo player teams up with the acclaimed illustrator to create a unique book of cartoons that communicates their personalities.
Martin, also a prolific author, has always been intrigued by the cartoons strewn throughout the pages of the New Yorker. So when he was presented with the opportunity to work with Bliss, who has been a staff cartoonist at the magazine since 1997, he seized the moment. “The idea of a one-panel image with or without a caption mystified me,” he writes. “I felt like, yeah, sometimes I’m funny, but there are these other weird freaks who are actually funny.” Once the duo agreed to work together, they established their creative process, which consisted of working forward and backward: “Forwards was me conceiving of several cartoon images and captions, and Harry would select his favorites; backwards was Harry sending me sketched or fully drawn cartoons for dialogue or banners.” Sometimes, he writes, “the perfect joke occurs two seconds before deadline.” There are several cartoons depicting this method, including a humorous multipanel piece highlighting their first meeting called “They Meet,” in which Martin thinks to himself, “He’ll never be able to translate my delicate and finely honed droll notions.” In the next panel, Bliss thinks, “I’m sure he won’t understand that the comic art form is way more subtle than his blunt-force humor.” The team collaborated for a year and created 150 cartoons featuring an array of topics, “from dogs and cats to outer space and art museums.” A witty creation of a bovine family sitting down to a gourmet meal and one of Dumbo getting his comeuppance highlight the duo’s comedic talent. What also makes this project successful is the team’s keen understanding of human behavior as viewed through their unconventional comedic minds.
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.Pub Date: Nov. 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-26289-9
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2020
Share your opinion of this book
More by Steve Martin
BOOK REVIEW
by Steve Martin ; illustrated by Harry Bliss
BOOK REVIEW
by Steve Martin
BOOK REVIEW
by Steve Martin & illustrated by C.F. Payne
More About This Book
PERSPECTIVES
by Amy Tan ; illustrated by Amy Tan ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 23, 2024
An ebullient nature lover’s paean to birds.
A charming bird journey with the bestselling author.
In his introduction to Tan’s “nature journal,” David Allen Sibley, the acclaimed ornithologist, nails the spirit of this book: a “collection of delightfully quirky, thoughtful, and personal observations of birds in sketches and words.” For years, Tan has looked out on her California backyard “paradise”—oaks, periwinkle vines, birch, Japanese maple, fuchsia shrubs—observing more than 60 species of birds, and she fashions her findings into delightful and approachable journal excerpts, accompanied by her gorgeous color sketches. As the entries—“a record of my life”—move along, the author becomes more adept at identifying and capturing them with words and pencils. Her first entry is September 16, 2017: Shortly after putting up hummingbird feeders, one of the tiny, delicate creatures landed on her hand and fed. “We have a relationship,” she writes. “I am in love.” By August 2018, her backyard “has become a menagerie of fledglings…all learning to fly.” Day by day, she has continued to learn more about the birds, their activities, and how she should relate to them; she also admits mistakes when they occur. In December 2018, she was excited to observe a Townsend’s Warbler—“Omigod! It’s looking at me. Displeased expression.” Battling pesky squirrels, Tan deployed Hot Pepper Suet to keep them away, and she deterred crows by hanging a fake one upside down. The author also declared war on outdoor cats when she learned they kill more than 1 billion birds per year. In May 2019, she notes that she spends $250 per month on beetle larvae. In June 2019, she confesses “spending more hours a day staring at birds than writing. How can I not?” Her last entry, on December 15, 2022, celebrates when an eating bird pauses, “looks and acknowledges I am there.”
An ebullient nature lover’s paean to birds.Pub Date: April 23, 2024
ISBN: 9780593536131
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Jan. 19, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2024
Share your opinion of this book
More by Amy Tan
BOOK REVIEW
by Amy Tan
BOOK REVIEW
by Amy Tan
BOOK REVIEW
by Amy Tan
More About This Book
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Hey there, book lover.
We’re glad you found a book that interests you!
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Don’t fret. We’ll find you.