Book Review
Book Review: Under The Banner Of Heaven
Copyright: 2003
Non-Fiction
My Impression:
When I first put my hands on this book, I thought I would be reading a bloody anecdote of a murder upon two innocent vitoms, Brenda and Erica Lafferty. I was right. What I didn't realize is that this book takes a comprehensive look at the Mormon religion, its violent history and Fundamental roots. The book is far more than a bloody murder; it's a compelling history of our own American culture. The book was both entertaining (although not a page turner) and enlightening.
Pluses and Minuses:
+I love Krakauer's writing style. Although I had to have a dictionary by my side most of the time, I feel he chooses his words very carefully and his thoughts mesh together alomost seamlessly.
-Since it takes a good amount of energy for me to keep names, dates and locations neatly sorted out in my brian, well, this book was a little taxing in that department. Needless to say it is a history book of sorts and basic data processing is inevitable.
Quote: The last paragraph of the book holds the quintessential quote and my personal favorite, but I'll just entice you with a quote from Jon Krakauer in the Authors note.
"...those who write bout religion owe it to their readers to come clean about their own theological frame of reference. So here's mine:
I don't know what God is, or what god had in mind when the universe was set in motion. In fact, I don't know if God even exists, although I confess that I sometimes find myself praying in times of great fear, or despair , or astonishment at a display of unexpected beauty.
There are some ten thousand extant religious sects -- each with its own cosmology, each with its own answer for the meaning of life and death. Most assert that the other 9,999 not only have it completely wrong but are instruments of evil, besides. None of the ten thousand has yet persuaded me to make the requisite leap of faith. In the absence of conviciton, I've come to terms with the fact that uncertainty is an inescapable corollary of life. An abundance of mystery is simply part of the bargain -- which doesn't strike me as something to lament. Accepting the essential inscrutability of existence, in any case, is surely preferable to its opposite: capitulating to the tyranny of intransigent belief.
And if I reamin in the dark about out purpose here, and the meaning of eternity, I have nevertheless arrived at an understanding of a few more modest truths: Most of us fear death. Most of us yearn to comprehend how we got here, and why -- which is to say, most of us ache to know the love of our creator. And we will no doubt feel that ache, most of us, for as long as we happen to be alive." - Jon Krakauer January 2003
I don't know what God is, or what god had in mind when the universe was set in motion. In fact, I don't know if God even exists, although I confess that I sometimes find myself praying in times of great fear, or despair , or astonishment at a display of unexpected beauty.
There are some ten thousand extant religious sects -- each with its own cosmology, each with its own answer for the meaning of life and death. Most assert that the other 9,999 not only have it completely wrong but are instruments of evil, besides. None of the ten thousand has yet persuaded me to make the requisite leap of faith. In the absence of conviciton, I've come to terms with the fact that uncertainty is an inescapable corollary of life. An abundance of mystery is simply part of the bargain -- which doesn't strike me as something to lament. Accepting the essential inscrutability of existence, in any case, is surely preferable to its opposite: capitulating to the tyranny of intransigent belief.
And if I reamin in the dark about out purpose here, and the meaning of eternity, I have nevertheless arrived at an understanding of a few more modest truths: Most of us fear death. Most of us yearn to comprehend how we got here, and why -- which is to say, most of us ache to know the love of our creator. And we will no doubt feel that ache, most of us, for as long as we happen to be alive." - Jon Krakauer January 2003
posted by ::LCM at 8.4.06
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