Official Review: The Devil's template

[noethe5]

[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "The Devil's template" by Philip Omoniyi Adetiloye.]

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2 out of 4 stars

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The Devil's Template by Philip Omoniyi Adetiloye is what appears to be an informational text written by a professor with a PhD. The subject is witchcraft and wizardry and the evils that they wreak on unwitting humans. Throughout the book, there is much discussion of the manipulation of the physical realm done by these minions of the devil from the spiritual realm. The book itself has a thorough coverage of everything one might need to know about witches/wizards such as: who they are; how to identify them; the different types of witches; how one becomes a witch; witch culture; and witch attacks.

The book itself is written with eloquence and intellect in its presentation. Clearly the author is educated based on the writing itself. It was also very well outlined and organized in the content that is presented. Everything in the book was explained as completely as possible through details and examples. Finally, the topic of the book is appealing, especially to those who believe in both God and the devil, or good and evil. In essence, the written text is outstanding in terms of all traits of quality writing such as ideas, organization, word choice, voice, fluency, and conventions. Kudos to the author here, as a quality structured text is often hard to find.

While I was eager to read about the subject of witchcraft as a person of faith, to know the enemy so to speak, I was enormously disappointed in the fact that the author referenced no sources of support, credentials, or citations to research or studies. This made the text unreliable to me as a reader due to the fact that the entire argument for the subject was based only on one man’s word and the supposed beliefs of the Yoruba people of the African culture; but again, there is no evidence that these are actually the beliefs of these people as there is no solid research provided to justify it as true.

I rate this book a 2 out of 4 stars because I only noticed two distracting errors in the entire book; otherwise, the rhetoric of the book was exemplary. The detail, organization, and thorough coverage of the concepts presented were impressive as well. The greatest error in the book was the lack of substantiated facts and credentials. Not only did the author not give his own credentials as to his PhD focus, but he validated nothing in the text to truth via in-text citations, a bibliography, or even a single reference to proof that what he was presenting was in fact truth. Because of these facts, I found the text unreliable as an informational text. It was difficult to believe much of what was presented. And from time to time, the theories presented were outlandish, such as Adam and Eve in the book of Genesis being descendents of alien life forms who conducted surgical experiments on the two original humans. I realize that the Bible may have similar problems in reliability of facts; however, at least the books of the Bible present numerous witness accounts of Jesus Christ which corroborate some degree of truth.

Because of the way the book is written, it would appeal to educated readers with a curiosity of the dark side of the spiritual realm. But an educated person would be remiss in believing such an elaborate presentation of “expertise” on a subject with nothing of substance to back it up. As a reader, I found the text to be one man’s theory with no facts to support the elaborate opinions. I was very disappointed in the book and found it very difficult to finish as a reader. Shame on someone with a doctorate to think that he might present such extensive information with nothing to even begin to prove reliability of the facts. I would not recommend reading it unless you understand that it is all the theoretical beliefs of one man, and perhaps an African tribe, and not the informational text that the author would have you believe it to be.

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The Devil's template
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[InStoree]

I am interested to read more about 'minions of the devil', but the lack of references make the book looks fabled. Although it is in the Non-Fictional genre, this question mark and the failure to inform estrange the reader. Even the word itself-witch, leads me to the fictional world, which I think is the only way I could approach this book. I'd like to find out more about good's antagonist, but not in an 'imaginary' exposure. Thank you for your appreciative review!

[kandscreeley]

I can understand your disappointment. I don't want someone to tell me their view on witchcraft; I want research and facts on it. For that reason, I'll probably pass. Thanks for the information, though.

[Jaime Lync]

the title of the book got me a little curious as to see what the spin on the book would be, but the scripture puts it beautifully in 1 Tim 4:7 (NIV) - "Have nothing to do with godless myths and old wives' tales; rather, train yourself to be godly."
The only books of this nature that I think are worth it are The Screwtape Letters and The Space Triology both by C.S Lewis, since they were written as work of Christian fiction to teach the church not to be ignorant of the schemes of the enemy...
This book doesn't seem to offer any such thing.
Thanks for the review though...this is one book I will skip.