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A review by trywii
The Apocalypse by Don Herston
1.0
*This book was received for free as a part of a Goodread’s Giveaway*
I should preface by saying when it comes to theological books, I don’t typically read them unless it’s about a general cultural/political topics such as public education or abortion. While I signed up for the book for its giveaway, I understood that much of this focus was going to be on bible verses and interpretations.
That said, the contents of the book were completely unexpected. The book is written presumably without an editor, as the format is just a stream of consciousness that has poor flow, and it makes it difficult to follow along. While the book does offer some interesting interpretations, the editing works heavily against it. There’s even whole paragraphs that repeat the exact same information from an earlier portion of the book, and the issues with repetition exists sometimes within the same chapter.
As for content, some of it was expected, like a verse being quoted followed with some speculation, interpretation, and a little of what other people think. However, some of the interpretations were off the rails, like suggesting that the devil has no idea that Jesus is God’s son, or that gay people are somehow unable to be a part of a thriving society because of reproduction. There’s a lot of theorizing and interpretation that also doesn’t include citation.
Speaking of citation, there is none in the book at all, save for the bible. I would expect the bible to be the leading literature here, but when the author says “Scholars think xyz” or “These people believe in xyz”, there’s no sources for this to cross-reference. This wouldn’t be an issue if a few statements like this were’t cited, but there’s ZERO citations. If I wanted to see what the author may be referring to, I’m left to my own devices to try and find where that statement could’ve come from or if it’s even verifiable at all.
There’s also an entire section that veers completely into vilifying Muslims and participates in historical revisionism when talking about Israel and Palestine. The whole tangent is incredibly bizarre and shockingly hypocritical when it comes to discussing violence made in the name of religion. It’s paragraph after paragraph of demonizing Muslims and treating Jewish folks as their opposition, and it’s abhorrent to dehumanize both groups into something as reductive as ‘evil vs good’.
Portions of the book also veer into borderline conspiratorial territory, and it’s difficult to feel for what the author is even trying to say.
This is all to say I’m not impressed with the book in the slightest and it was an incredibly baffling experience to read.
I should preface by saying when it comes to theological books, I don’t typically read them unless it’s about a general cultural/political topics such as public education or abortion. While I signed up for the book for its giveaway, I understood that much of this focus was going to be on bible verses and interpretations.
That said, the contents of the book were completely unexpected. The book is written presumably without an editor, as the format is just a stream of consciousness that has poor flow, and it makes it difficult to follow along. While the book does offer some interesting interpretations, the editing works heavily against it. There’s even whole paragraphs that repeat the exact same information from an earlier portion of the book, and the issues with repetition exists sometimes within the same chapter.
As for content, some of it was expected, like a verse being quoted followed with some speculation, interpretation, and a little of what other people think. However, some of the interpretations were off the rails, like suggesting that the devil has no idea that Jesus is God’s son, or that gay people are somehow unable to be a part of a thriving society because of reproduction. There’s a lot of theorizing and interpretation that also doesn’t include citation.
Speaking of citation, there is none in the book at all, save for the bible. I would expect the bible to be the leading literature here, but when the author says “Scholars think xyz” or “These people believe in xyz”, there’s no sources for this to cross-reference. This wouldn’t be an issue if a few statements like this were’t cited, but there’s ZERO citations. If I wanted to see what the author may be referring to, I’m left to my own devices to try and find where that statement could’ve come from or if it’s even verifiable at all.
There’s also an entire section that veers completely into vilifying Muslims and participates in historical revisionism when talking about Israel and Palestine. The whole tangent is incredibly bizarre and shockingly hypocritical when it comes to discussing violence made in the name of religion. It’s paragraph after paragraph of demonizing Muslims and treating Jewish folks as their opposition, and it’s abhorrent to dehumanize both groups into something as reductive as ‘evil vs good’.
Portions of the book also veer into borderline conspiratorial territory, and it’s difficult to feel for what the author is even trying to say.
This is all to say I’m not impressed with the book in the slightest and it was an incredibly baffling experience to read.