Douglas J. DaviesCritiques

O título da obra é falacioso. Tal título poderia ter a obra de Philippe Arriès, mas nem este se atreveu a tal. Por outro lado, Douglas J. Davies não tem pudor nem vergonha de escolher tal título para uma obra que versa a actualidade e, quando muito, recua pontualmente até ao século XIX.
Quanto ao conteúdo apresentado, este é uma colecção de lugares-comuns, temperados com ideias de outros autores, mas sem qualquer rasgo de genialidade nem sequer uma ideia original.

An interesting book by Davies that describes the LDS notion of Salvation. Some interesting parts were the way there is an "inner" church, of temple-goers and the mormon forms of "gestus" for religious devotion.

Davies, an Anglican minister and a professor of Mormon Studies describes the LDS movement in Wales in the early years of migration.

When people complain about dry, overwrought academic writing, they're talking about this book. Some of the information is interesting, but a lot of it is overblown reportage, merely inflated factual information, and what little of the book is critically interpretive comes off sounding like the famous Calvin & Hobbes cartoon, in which Calvin explains that "the purpose of writing is to inflate weak ideas, obscure poor reasoning, and inhibit clarity." You do know, Mr. Davies, that the cartoon is a joke, don't you?

The research here is decent, but the presentation is convoluted and the argument practically nonexistent. Alas.

I started to read this with serious intent, and then I ended up skimming through the rest of it. I thought it would be more of a history, but rather it seems to be the ramblings of an older British gentleman.

E-books IV