A Nation in Shadows by Michael Q Irwin, is a refreshing departure from the evangelical "apocalyptic" calva-baptist banter but is a work that should interest Christian, Jew, or anyone with a spiritual side that is interested in current events. And curious about the possible future of the United States. As political opinion and indictment seems to be raging back and forth these days, this opens a new arena in the debate of ideas. After all, the US was actually a spiritual revolution before it became a nation and its no great revelation that the first settlers (puritans) arrived to escape persecution for their religious persuasions. So why not go back to the roots of American civilization to find out what is going wrong today? As nobody seems to know how to solve our social and thus political problems, any opinion is worth considering.
The book is well researched, at times preachy but balanced with many unconventional yet credible insights. It has a few typos due to being a self published work but while verbose at times is well written. It seems Irwin attempted to include many avenues of thought when researching his subject and he does succeed in making it completely irreligious or non denominational. The knowledge of the Almighty is subconscious instinct not political religion he states. He confronts skepticism, secularism, anti-Semitism, racism, and historical totalitarianism.
There are chapters on Nostradamus, Shoah, social issues, and uses alot of history to compliment the theme of the book. He does little to differentiate between governments born of socialist maxims. Nazism and Marxist regimes are the same to him of which might seem absurd on the surface, but he makes a respectable argument explaining their philosophical parity-and equal degeneracy. While not scholarly, he does display a respectable knowledge of history, religion and the bible in particular with a clear sympathy for Judaic philosophy. It's a scary narrative at times and makes it clear as to what is responsible for the breakdown and madness in western particularly US government.
The book is more of a quasi-philosophical/spiritual treatise and he makes an effort to condemn ideas as opposed to people themselves. Nevertheless it is written to "pick a fight" if read by insecure people. Regardless of spiritual or non religious orientation, its an interesting read and would be of some lasting use in a personal library. His bibliography is interesting too. Its a recommended read and has some inspirational guidelines and advice to "save America" in the later chapters. Its definitely NOT the typical evangelical read (most would probably disagree with much of what he says) but he does accept Jesus -he calls him Yeshua- as Messiah and the Son of the Eternal but most churches might have problems with his messianic/rabbinic Judaism. There is no visible attempt to proselytize or convert and has some humanistic overtones that encourages the reader to use his/her own moral honesty when confronting spiritual issues. He shows considerable admiration for the Jews and is clearly a Zionist although he has some warm words for Arabs of which he calls the other "covenant people of Abraham".
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