LISTENER

Christopher Neenan

  • 5
  • reviews
  • 25
  • helpful votes
  • 5
  • ratings

A tired book from someone who has said everything

Overall
2 out of 5 stars
Performance
4 out of 5 stars
Story
1 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 08-21-19

It is a disappointing book. Ehrman declares himself an 'neutral' researcher. And so he is, when at his best. But this is a book too far. The 'Christianity problems' he deals with have too many not well informed opinions flooding this controversal topic. We need experts and researchers to remain expert and researher, not dropping down a few levels that simply types up public lectures and discussions. This book can be safely put aside after a few early chapters..

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

Superb....an absolute must read.

Overall
5 out of 5 stars
Performance
5 out of 5 stars
Story
5 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 12-05-18

Informative, challenging, provocative, can't-put-down...Leaves the mind re-examining what notions we may have had before......the rest is silence!!!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

Superficially skating over history.

Overall
2 out of 5 stars
Performance
5 out of 5 stars
Story
3 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 12-05-18

The book is a disappointment, a waste of a brilliant historian. It is neither an introduction for those who know little history nor a stimulus for those who do. It will not be on my Christmas coffee table. Those who commissioned the book did not know what they wanted and Kershaw did not seem to know what to give. Not a book for the cold, snow bound winter months but a good undemanding read for beach next summer. It is so difficult to decide who I could give this book too for Christmas season.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

A disappointment, my fault for wrong choice

Overall
2 out of 5 stars
Performance
4 out of 5 stars
Story
2 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 03-14-18

What would have made Paul better?

I should have got Paul and the Faithfulness of God, perhaps. 'Paul' is much too chatty, a bt like listening to hours and hours of BBC's Prayer for the Day. Christian history 'popularisers' have a standard lifeless rhetoric they use for the 'faithful', an attempt to be over sweetly reasonable. Wright tries to fill in the gaps in what pieces of the Paul jigsaw puzzle we have and it becomes over guessy. Not surprising since if the portrait of Paul is a jigsaw of 2,100 pieces and we have only 500, there's lots of space for surmising. I have gone back to the incomparable H.V.Morton 'In the Steps of St Paul' (1936). Morton doesn't have 2018 state of the art Pauline scholarship but his picture of pre-WWII world gives a better 'feel' about 'what makes Paul tick' (N.T.Wright's often used phrase)..

Would you ever listen to anything by N. T. Wright again?

Not if N.T.Wright writes interminable 'Prayers for the Day'.

Any additional comments?

Did Paul invent 'Jesus'? I'm sure N.T.Wright would have an interesting answer to this.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

13 people found this helpful

Don't whine!! Things could be a lot worse!!!!

Overall
4 out of 5 stars
Performance
3 out of 5 stars
Story
3 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 02-27-18

Where does The Better Angels of Our Nature rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

Fascinating as most books written by Pinker, well worth going to bed with! To those who read history, it contains liitle that is new but in langaue that makes one sit up and listen. For instance, his 'outrageous' paragraph on "Let's see it from Hitler's point of view" (hope my quote is correct!). 'Outrageous' because it startled me into rethinking the root causes that throw up the"worst angels" of our nature. Pinker makes his readers think and confront!

If you’ve listened to books by Steven Pinker before, how does this one compare?

Reading now his newbook....which is a logical continuation (with some inevitable repetitions) of "Better Angels". To listen through a long Pinker book is the best compliment. Now to want to be listening through another one says it all. Maybe not a third: maybe he has said it all in these two.

What did you like about the performance? What did you dislike?

Reading voice is clear and does not disturb or distract; it does not get between the book and the listener.

What’s the most interesting tidbit you’ve picked up from this book?

Too many phrases I've turned into my dinner conversations. That very few at table know what I am getting at is good: it leaves me to concentrate on the wine!!!

Any additional comments?

...it was a good way to unsettle my settled notions!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!