Seedtime and Harvest

P.J. Kemp was a journalist living in Brigham, Quebec.

Seedtime and Harvest, a collection of 26 sermons that “deal with profound and world-wide issues in a simple, direct way,” is for those who tend to be intimidated by the archaic language and remote situations of the Bible and depend on others to interpret it in contemporary and easily understood terms. But the Bible is not simple and defies easy explanation, and for people whose religious speculations follow the more difficult and arcane paths that also include philosophy and science, such sermons will appear simplistic at best, offering dubious comfort and insight on deeply troubling questions such as the nature of evil and of the soul, and the subliminal power of the important religious metaphors. A book like Seedtime and Harvest is perhaps useful to those pilgrims starting out on their religious odyssey, but can in no way sustain for the whole trip, or even a quarter of it. Or, man does not live by homily alone.