Official Review: Seekers of Truth by Rebecca B Mullican
Posted: 26 Sep 2020, 02:48
[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Seekers of Truth" by Rebecca B Mullican.]
The Holy Bible contains several types of literature from various writers, including many psalms and prayers. Among them are passages of praise to God as well as lamentations over hardships and injustices. Some of the passages are pleas for God’s help, while others are poems of encouragement for those who share the writers’ faith. Author Rebecca B. Mullican follows this tradition of spiritual creative writing in her own book for modern times: Seekers of Truth: Psalms and Prayers for Our World Today.
In this book of poetical verse, the author’s style is quite reminiscent of the biblical Book of Psalms. Mullican shares her heartfelt words to provide Christian readers with inspiration. The author also means to give her audience an impetus for serious reflection, especially in the midst of tumultuous national events. Much of Mullican’s life experience is evident through her passionate writing as she extols God, expresses her reasons for moments of anguish, and offers encouragement to her fellow Christians.
Now, the author seems to take for granted that her readers must be Americans and that they will assume she is American as well. Although Mullican makes vague references to “our country” and “our once peaceful nation,” she does not mention which country she is referring to, the United States, until near the end of the book. Also, while the introduction says that the book is written in contemporary language, the author sometimes uses words like “ye” and “thee” and some archaic phrasing and symbolism similar to older English translations of Scripture. Certain readers may also find the author’s language to be somewhat outdated when she uses the terms “man” and “mankind” instead of the more gender-inclusive forms: “humans” or “human beings” and “humankind.”
Moreover, the book has a number of technical errors and inconsistencies, particularly in regard to punctuation. The highest concentration of errors is in the introduction, which may or may not have been edited along with the rest of the book. After the introduction, the errors become much less frequent, but a key inconsistency appears in the author’s psalms and prayers. It is not uncommon for writers of Christian literature to show reverence by capitalizing the pronouns for God. While Mullican often capitalizes the pronouns for God in this book, she leaves them in lowercase at times. Because the book does not present a specific reason for the variable treatment of the pronouns for God, the pronouns should either be consistently capitalized or consistently in lowercase.
Even so, considering the overall quality of the book, its weaknesses are minor and the technical errors are relatively few. On the whole, Mullican’s words of worship, love, pain, distress, joy, and hope are clear expressions to which many people of faith may relate. Therefore, I give Seekers of Truth: Psalms and Prayers for Our World Today a rating of 3 out of 4 stars. I’d recommend it to readers of Christian nonfiction who appreciate modern psalms. I would not recommend this book to readers who are not of the Christian faith or who would not otherwise enjoy reading poetical verse with strong religious themes.
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Seekers of Truth
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
The Holy Bible contains several types of literature from various writers, including many psalms and prayers. Among them are passages of praise to God as well as lamentations over hardships and injustices. Some of the passages are pleas for God’s help, while others are poems of encouragement for those who share the writers’ faith. Author Rebecca B. Mullican follows this tradition of spiritual creative writing in her own book for modern times: Seekers of Truth: Psalms and Prayers for Our World Today.
In this book of poetical verse, the author’s style is quite reminiscent of the biblical Book of Psalms. Mullican shares her heartfelt words to provide Christian readers with inspiration. The author also means to give her audience an impetus for serious reflection, especially in the midst of tumultuous national events. Much of Mullican’s life experience is evident through her passionate writing as she extols God, expresses her reasons for moments of anguish, and offers encouragement to her fellow Christians.
Now, the author seems to take for granted that her readers must be Americans and that they will assume she is American as well. Although Mullican makes vague references to “our country” and “our once peaceful nation,” she does not mention which country she is referring to, the United States, until near the end of the book. Also, while the introduction says that the book is written in contemporary language, the author sometimes uses words like “ye” and “thee” and some archaic phrasing and symbolism similar to older English translations of Scripture. Certain readers may also find the author’s language to be somewhat outdated when she uses the terms “man” and “mankind” instead of the more gender-inclusive forms: “humans” or “human beings” and “humankind.”
Moreover, the book has a number of technical errors and inconsistencies, particularly in regard to punctuation. The highest concentration of errors is in the introduction, which may or may not have been edited along with the rest of the book. After the introduction, the errors become much less frequent, but a key inconsistency appears in the author’s psalms and prayers. It is not uncommon for writers of Christian literature to show reverence by capitalizing the pronouns for God. While Mullican often capitalizes the pronouns for God in this book, she leaves them in lowercase at times. Because the book does not present a specific reason for the variable treatment of the pronouns for God, the pronouns should either be consistently capitalized or consistently in lowercase.
Even so, considering the overall quality of the book, its weaknesses are minor and the technical errors are relatively few. On the whole, Mullican’s words of worship, love, pain, distress, joy, and hope are clear expressions to which many people of faith may relate. Therefore, I give Seekers of Truth: Psalms and Prayers for Our World Today a rating of 3 out of 4 stars. I’d recommend it to readers of Christian nonfiction who appreciate modern psalms. I would not recommend this book to readers who are not of the Christian faith or who would not otherwise enjoy reading poetical verse with strong religious themes.
******
Seekers of Truth
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
