Customer Reviews

THE PEACEABLE KINGDOM

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4 star:		(1)
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In the course of his flowing narrative, De Hartog manages to deal with all sorts of issues surrounding the intersection of religion, daily life and history including:

--is a prophet or founder of a religion anything other than a troublemaker who attracts women and wreaks havoc in society?

--how does "doing the right thing" differ from "being a do-gooder"?

--how does one listen for the voice of God?

--isn't religion absurd in the face of evil?

--what's the deal with religious people who kept slaves?

Not that there are pat answers to these and other questions De Hartog, a Quaker himself, explores in the novel -- sometimes there are no answers at all, just characters who go on with their lives and their work anyhow.

I think the book will be liked by the religiously inclined as well as atheists like myself. Just don't expect another absurdist, postmodern, depressing read, because you won't find it here...thankfully.

I received this book unsolicited from a book club during the seventies. The way in which the author presents the struggles of these early Quakers with themselves and the world in which they lived left me with a stronger sense of individual values and the importance of our individual commitment to our own. I have highly recommended this book as a must read since then. There are two sequels which are interesting but lesser works.

Anyone at all interested or intrigued by the Quaker witness to Christianity will find deHartog's adventure to be both exciting and contemplative. DeHartog wonderfully displays the God-inspired beauty, as well as the struggles and shortcomings, of those who inspired (and still inspire) these peace-loving people -- the Quakers. If you like historical novels, I strongly recommend this one.

Ik heb het ooit gelezen, lang geleden en kon het gelukkig via Amazon weer vinden. Een boek dat ik iedereen kan aanraden.

I believe it was this book that turned me into a fan of historical fiction. This book, I remember, swept me away in the period, the trials, the emotions, the philosophical/religious hurdles of the charactors. All through it, I kept a sense of the stoic and peaceful quakers of today, for which I have so much respect. One of the commercially motivated features of AMAZON that I really enjopy is the "People who bought ........, also bought ......" In that light, I would like to recommend a book I just read ...YEAR OF WONDERS by Geraldine Brooks. From about the same period in England ..the plague years full of earthy relationships, village life, with tragedy and religion fueling the tale. I also recommend PILLARS OF THE EARTH by Ken Follet ..another good novel set in old England.