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That was very good. Sep 08, Darren rated it liked it. Before starting this book I was expecting to be a bit like The God Delusion but with a few nob gags thrown in. While the pages did contain some gags nob, fart and other it was much more than that. Following the death of his best mate, Marcus embarks on a quest to find faith, but finds that he can't subscribe to any of the belief systems pedalled by the major religions.
He likes the idea of believing in a God, despite the logical problems this poses to a scientific mind, it's just that he doesn Before starting this book I was expecting to be a bit like The God Delusion but with a few nob gags thrown in. He likes the idea of believing in a God, despite the logical problems this poses to a scientific mind, it's just that he doesn't feed he'd get on with Him based on most popular portrayals. The book pitches from the light-hearted account of the London bus slogan debate, to the darkest aspects of the Catholic church's covering up of sexual abuses.
In all, informative, entertaining, and towards the end quite touching when he recalls anecdotes about his family and his best mate. Aug 27, Karen rated it did not like it Shelves: Well, talk about spreading the joke thin It made me so angry. No, what irked me was that I was reading this as a break from trying to cram my painstakingly researched words into a word essay, and Brigstocke's acceptably amusing hour's worth of stand-up had been unacceptably stretched out over odd pages.
I couldn't finish it and, as it was a library book, didn't. Apr 13, Mark Underwood rated it did not like it. I love Marcus Brigstocke. I really hated this book. By turns preachy, politically tendentious and absolutely not funny. Jan 03, Inga rated it liked it Shelves: I wrote a review here. Jul 03, Dominic Stevenson rated it really liked it.
If you read this book as an autobiographical musing rather than a thorough exploration of faith, you'll likely not be too disappointed. However, this book was a chore to get through. I've read this book twice now and I'd read it again and a I absolutely loved this book! Given its roots in Brigstocke's Edinburgh show, this is unsurprising. There's no clearly discernible theme to each chapter, and the tone lurches from light whimsy to dry thoughts. As a well-off white fella in a well-developed Western country, with a successful career that involves no heavy-lifting or monotonous repetition, and family and friends who love and support him as he reads the dailies while thinking and writing things down, Marcus Brigstocke is a prime example of that lucky class of people to which I also belong that have been blessed by the gods to not need them. It is very funny and irreverent, but with an under-current of seriousness.
This is only a short review because I was genuinely astounded by the quality of this book. I want to explain why I was astounded not spend a while droning on about what good language the author used. I have always known him to be among the more educated of comedians, someone who offers out thoughts rather than choosing to pick on someone and unleash bile in their direction.
I took a stab at God Collar, I had heard of it but not read any revie This is only a short review because I was genuinely astounded by the quality of this book. I took a stab at God Collar, I had heard of it but not read any reviews but I had enough trust in his reputation as an entertainer to make the purchase. Brigstocke manages to ask the questions that a lot of us really do want to ask.
Is there a god? If so, what form does god take? What has religion done wrong throughout history? What has religion done right throughout history? When I was at university, I asked a friend of mine who was a born again Christian, if there was a god and what had god brought to their life? I was going through a tough time and like Marcus, I felt there to be a gap in my life.
Instead of answering me, my friend lectured me and dragged me along to a Christian union meeting. This was incredibly unhelpful and pushed me away from embracing any consideration that a deity may have started this giant ball rolling. The book opens with Brigstocke telling us about his friend James who had tragically passed away a few years previously. He told of how he fell into a depression and struggled for a long time. Many people say that writing can be cathartic but throughout this book you really do take a journey with him. You see him question things with a desire to learn not a desire to listen and then rebuke.
When my Great Granddad died I was eleven years old. I was woken up to be told that he had died in the night and for the first time in my life, there was someone who I loved who I would never see again. I cried and then went to my parents bed, laid there for a long time, refusing to eat anything other than a fish and chip player meal with mushy peas that you could buy in my local shop. There was no relevance to the meal but I remember it and so it must have meant something. It took me days to get the strength up to leave the house and when I did, it was for the funeral.
The only thing I remember from the funeral is my Great Grandmother crying and the coffin going on the conveyor belt behind a curtain. I strained my eyes to look until the last second and then I closed them and opened them once I knew it had disappeared. It was the only thing I could do in the whole situation that was on my terms. I chose the last moment to see him.
Some prayers strangely enough do seem to work. A few years after this my Great Grandmother fell and fractured her skull. That night I went to bed distraught and decided to say a prayer. About two seconds after I said amen, the phone rang and it was the hospital to say that somehow she had pulled through and would make a full recovery. I prayed again and the next morning he was alive. We drove down to Reading where he was and saw him. Again, I know that amazing doctors probably had more of a hand in this than a god but it still felt good.
My Uncle survived until a week before my eighteenth birthday.
That was my brief journey into whether there is a god or not but Marcus expertly guides us through the theory, concepts, the historical facts without dismissing them as easily as most do. He provides a raw and honest account of his friendship with James, of his own grandparents relationship and helps to break huge walls of theory and history to make it accessible to all.
There is no preaching and if anything, he offers only encouragement to those he look inside to find something missing and fill it with god. If there is any anger, it is aimed at extremism, prejudice and the way people judge before understanding.
Aug 07, Pete F rated it liked it Recommends it for: I thought I was seeing things when I saw this title in the religion section of the local library. Had I become dyslexic overnight? Surely, it should be Dog Collar? But no, it was indeed 'God Collar', written by comedian Marcus Brigstocke. Along with another book I had read, by Alain de Botton called 'Religion for Atheists', it was a book I needed to read, to help overcome some of my remaining Christian hangups, and to help me to take things less seriously.
He describes himself in his book as a r I thought I was seeing things when I saw this title in the religion section of the local library. He describes himself in his book as a reluctant atheist. He knows that God doesn't exist because he read it on the side of a bus, which of course makes it true, and if you get a trinity of buses come along all at once, all with the same profound message on the side, it must make it trebly right, right?
Well, I wouldn't describe myself as an atheist, just someone who has become increasingly sceptical about orthodox Christianity and the churchianity that goes with it. Still, I found this book very liberating, if at times a little irritating, especially when he goes into great detail about his family life, which doesn't interest me much. But I laughed out loud at times at the things he had to say about religion, and it is not just Christianity that comes in for mockery, but also Judaism Brigstocke is himself Jewish and bravely, Islam.
Brigstocke describes the story of Sodom and Gomorrah as a more or less endorsement of child rape, which having read it myself, would say it is a pretty accurate description. Perhaps this story is a favourite of certain Roman Catholic priests. Usually, this story is pointed out as a condemnation of homosexuality, but I can't see it myself. Christians who read this book, for research purposes, of course, be warned, the swearing and irreverent humour is not for the faint-hearted, but if you can put up with all the smiting, sex and violence that goes on in the Old Testament, the occasional F-word and blasphemy shouldn't be too shocking.
And Brigstocke may be a comedian, but he is deadly serious behind the mockery he makes of religion. And if Brigstocke is wrong, he will no doubt be smote at some point! I recommend it for people who have recently lost their faith, or simply lost their church. I wrote this review at a time when I had stopped going to church and had serious doubts about Christianity, but later returned to church. However, much of what I wrote in the review still stands, and I shall not recant! Nov 07, MargeryK rated it liked it Shelves: The first chapter was bad.
It needed an hour or two of editing. And the rest of it was okay. If you read this book as an autobiographical musing rather than a thorough exploration of faith, you'll likely not be too disappointed.
Except for chapter one and his buses. And the repeated mentions of Cheesestrings and Berocca made me wonder if anyone had proofread the book, or whether he was being sponsored by Bayer and Kerry Foods. But these shortcomings aside, I did find it funny and enlightening. My favourite chapter was Chapter 9, "Why Not, Then? The large throbbing hub of the Midlands. They're all going to Birmingham. They will all get you there in the end, they are just different routes.
You will take whichever route you were nearest to when you began your journey. I'm sorry, but your belief system is no more profound than that. You may turn off, you may merge with another route, you may even break down on the way and give up on your quest for eternal oneness with the Holy Trinity of Birmingham, Dudley and Blackheath. Your faith and your journey to the one God recognised by Jews, Christians and Muslims is little more than a simple matter of geography. Born in the south-west of England?
You're a Christian; to get to God you need the M5 northbound. Muslim, take the M40 past Oxford. Jews, you're on the M6, and yes it's a special road made specifically for you by God and he's dying to meet you. Brigstocke argues that this is both unfair and illogical. I am glad Brigstocke wrote this. Feb 15, Ben rated it really liked it Shelves: It is not just Christianity that is under inspection, b Book Review — God Collar by Marcus Brigstocke Transworld Publishing — ISBN 8 out of 10 Marcus Brigstocke is a well known comedy face on Television, a well known comedy voice on Radio, and God Collar is his examination of religion, and how religion can relate to his world.
We look at the beliefs of practitioners, and the influence that religion has had on the world. This is the book of a tour that asked the same questions, so it skips from idea to idea quite quickly, and news stories and other books mean that the book is firmly placed in a certain time frame. As well as taking on religion, he also takes on the likes of Richard Dawkins, and although he is an affirmed Atheist, he still looks for the comfort that faith and a belief system that the church can provide.
He looks at the difference between people and their beliefs, as well questioning some of the more extra-ordinary chapters and episodes from the more important religious tomes. Would you like to tell us about a lower price? If you are a seller for this product, would you like to suggest updates through seller support?
Product details Paperback Publisher: Corgi Books Language: Be the first to review this item Amazon Best Sellers Rank: I'd like to read this book on Kindle Don't have a Kindle? Share your thoughts with other customers. Write a customer review. There's a problem loading this menu right now. Among the Eastern Catholic Churches and Eastern Orthodox Church a band collarette with no "notch" in front may be worn by seminarians, although the norm is still a standard clerical collar.
However, as the cassock is more commonly, if not mandatorily, worn to classes, often a plain white shirt will suffice, or a band collar with no collarette. Slavic cassocks button to the side, and thus a collar is often pointless, whereas a Greek cassock buttons to the front and has a higher collar, so the collar prevents chafing—as was its original function under a cassock. Eastern deacons and sometimes subdeacons , but rarely readers or other minor clerics, also wear a clerical collar, with subdeacons and readers often having a style with no notch, or a tab shirt with no tab.
Most Orthodox clerics do not wear a clerical collar; those who do are usually to be found in Western Europe or North America. Collars are typically worn by clergy of other groups such as those of the Anglican, Methodist, Presbyterian and Lutheran traditions, although many Scandinavian Lutheran clergy wear the ruff instead. In the Roman Catholic tradition, major seminarians, after receiving admission to candidacy and thus becoming "candidates" for ordination , often wear clericals in the seminary or their dioceses.
In the United Kingdom and other British-influenced countries, such as Canada , clerical collars have been informally referred to as " dog collars " [10] since the mid-nineteenth century. During the s the Reverend Alec Vidler began to advocate the abolition of the clerical collar in favour of a black shirt and white tie, but whilst some clergy adopted this mode of dress it did not become widespread.
Members of religious orders will often wear a "Brother's Collar" or "Brothers Collarette" which is very similar to a typical clerical collar, but revealing a noticeably smaller amount of the white band. Some Unitarian Universalist ministers choose to wear a clerical collar along with a stole. An Anglican military chaplain wearing a "dog collar" during World War I.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. A Roman Catholic seminarian wearing a cassock with a clerical collar. While it may seem old-fashioned, the clerical collar is fairly modern.
It was invented in by a Presbytarian minister in Scotland! Today is it worn by both male and female clergy from a wide variety of Christian churches around the world, including Baptist, Methodist, Lutheran, Anglican, Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholic, and many others. UK Archived at the Wayback Machine. Collins 19 October Protestant clergy had been wearing white preaching bands for quite some time; McLeod combined them with the detachable collar that was in use at the time.