Communion: Finding My Way Back to Faith
Even by the standards of faith-driven airport nonfiction, Communion is not very interesting ... If random disclosure of common-sense-defying detail is your idea of a searing, poignant journey into the light of faith, there’s more where that came from ... There is one interesting exception here to Vance’s lack of reflection on his political career: a two-page apology for his remarks about 'childless cat ladies' ... When I say that Communion is a complete waste (of time, paper, the resources of the vice presidency, etc.), I really mean it.
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There is the zeal of the convert, and then there is whatever J. D. Vance is feeling in Communion: Finding My Way Back to Faith ... Communicates little of spiritual hunger, of crises of faith, of temptation or redemption or awe, or whatever else one might want or expect from a conversion tale. Often, the strongest emotion Vance seems able to express in Communion is his distaste for the tenets and rituals of the faith he has elected to join ... Adds relatively little to the available record of how Vance’s dormant faith was reignited.
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JD Vance’s intellectual evolution continues apace ... Straw men populate the book’s later chapters, particularly on economic questions. He equates the free-market outlook with amoral indifference to anything apart from abstract economic-growth numbers ... Mr. Vance attempts to express his own 'Christian approach to economics,' which amounts to little more than the prescription that economic actors should exercise kindness, mercy and generosity ... Typifies the low regard he has for people who profess views he dislikes.
