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Discovery Curriculum - Unit 4: Leader's Guide

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Discovery Curriculum - Unit 4: Leader's GuideParticipants and Leaders Guides available as Free digital downloads This is the Leader's Guide for Unit 4, Progress and Perseverance in Christ: Seeing Real Growth and Change of the four unit series, Discovery: A Biblical Support Group Curriculum for Men Pursuing Sexual Integrity. A free Participant's Guide is also available for Unit 4. Harvest USAs Discovery series brings the power of the gospel into mens struggles with sexuality. Drawing on more than

Participant’s and Leader’s Guides available as Free digital downloads

This is the Leader's Guide for Unit 4, Progress and Perseverance in Christ: Seeing Real Growth and Change of the four-unit series, Discovery: A Biblical Support Group Curriculum for Men Pursuing Sexual Integrity. A free Participant's Guide is also available for Unit 4.

Harvest USA’s Discovery series brings the power of the gospel into men’s struggles with sexuality. Drawing on more than 35 years of discipleship through biblical support groups, Discovery makes Harvest USA’s discipleship model accessible to the local church. Participants dive deeply into Scripture, learning to apply the promises and comforts of the gospel beyond their behaviors to the deepest issues of their hearts. Their personal encounters with God’s Word are strengthened and expressed in the context of small group discussion, where they learn to live the gospel, giving and receiving truth and mercy together.

The entire series consists of four units with 13 lessons each. Designed to be used in order, these units guide participants through a course of Bible study that systematically draws out personal discovery of how the gospel transforms shaping life experiences, controlling heart desires, functional beliefs, and resultant behaviors. A corresponding Leaders Guide is available for each unit, with additional notes to help group leaders facilitate with skill and grace.

For help on setting up a sexual discipleship group in your church, click here.

Unit 4, Progress and Perseverance in Christ: Seeing Real Growth and Change shows how our hearts, circumstantial influences, desires, and beliefs all bear out in either good or bad fruit in our lives. This unit focuses on the good fruit men should expect and work towards through their union with Christ.

Other units in this series include:

Unit 1, New Hope in Christ: Bringing Gospel Identity to Bear on Your Story starts with our gospel model for change that forms the structure of the entire curriculum. We then take a few lessons to establish a biblical understanding of the human heart. The second half of Unit 1 will help men bring new gospel clarity to a variety of past and present experiences and situations that have exerted strong, shaping influence over our hearts.

Unit 2, Treasuring Christ: Transforming Your Heart’s Desires focuses primarily on the deeper desires of our fallen hearts that, apart from the transforming work of the Holy Spirit, will lead to idolatrous pursuits of sin. This unit not only shows men how Jesus transforms and redirects our desires but also illuminates the profound reality that, at our core, we are all much more alike than we are different.

Unit 3, Seeking the Mind of Christ: Renewing Your Functional Worldview addresses a fundamental struggle for every believer: What we profess to believe about God and life often does not line up with what we functionally believe in our hearts. This unit challenges men to look deeply into what they truly believe, because transformed living will only come from a mind renewed in Christ.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Discovery was written and organized by Jim Weidenaar and Mark Sanders. Jim and Mark also use Discovery in the biblical support group ministry that takes place in our Dresher and Pittsburgh offices.

Jim Weidenaar joined the Harvest USA staff in June of 2012 as Director of Church Equipping and the Greater Pittsburgh Region (GPR). He has a burden to help those struggling with sexual sin, that they will come to understand and experience progress in gospel repentance. Jim has a Masters Degree in Theological Studies (MTS) from Calvin Theological Seminary, Grand Rapids, MI, and a Doctorate in Historical and Theological Studies (PhD) from Westminster Theological Seminary, Glenside, PA. He resides in the eastern suburbs of Pittsburgh with his wife and daughter.

Mark Sanders joined Harvest USA’s Men’s Ministry in July 2015. Mark holds an MA in counseling from Westminster Theological Seminary and a BA in communications and integrated media from Geneva College. For five years, he taught English in South Korea, where he met his lovely wife. In addition to leading support groups and conducting one-on-one discipleship, Mark also serves on Harvest USA’s teaching staff and has produced all of their video resources. In February 2021, Mark became Director of Discipleship at Harvest USA.

 

ENDORSEMENTS

“I love this curriculum, and I will recommend it often. I appreciate that the gospel is the lens through which everything about sexual struggle and sexual integrity is understood. Here are three of the many ways I found the Discovery curriculum both unique and practically helpful. First, it is honest about the labyrinthian nature of sin. Second, it acknowledges the power of external influences and experiences on what a person thinks, desires, and does. Finally, it very importantly and helpfully roots change in our new identity and potential in Christ, not just in acknowledging the wrong thoughts and desires of the heart. This is a wonderful gospel tool addressing a very significant area of personal struggle and cultural chaos. May it find a huge audience and bear a wide harvest of good fruit.”

– Paul David Tripp, Author, New Morning Mercies, How People Change, and Sex in a Broken World

“For nearly four decades, Harvest USA has been helping men pursue sexual integrity. So it’s not surprising to me that these lessons are biblically anchored and oriented toward life in the local church. I heartily recommend this curriculum.”

– Michael Horton, Professor of Theology and Apologetics, Westminster Seminary California

“Harvest USA’s Discovery series is more than a spiritually insightful, biblically faithful guide for Christian men struggling with sexual sin. It gets behind behavior to the desires that move us, the experiences that form us, the worldviews that guide us, and the actions that reveal us, all so that we might grow in the freedom and knowledge of Christ. May God use these studies to bless thousands.”

– Rev. Dr. R. Carlton Wynne, Associate Pastor at Westminster Presbyterian Church (PCA) (Atlanta) and Adjunct Professor of Systematic Theology at RTS-Atlanta

“Sexual sin is harming men, women, and children more than we fully understand. Harvest USA’s Discovery series has practical help and gospel hope for men who want to change. Based on decades of theological reflection and informed by real experience with men whose lives are being formed into the image of Christ, this biblical, rich curriculum is proven to produce spiritual freedom through sexual purity.”

– Philip Ryken, President, Wheaton College

“When navigating issues of human sexuality, brokenness, and redemption, I find myself returning to the cumulative wisdom and experience of the Harvest USA team. This latest support group curriculum for men pursuing sexual integrity is yet another example of that. Grounded and soaked in biblical truth, it is also brimming with the lived experiences of counselors whose lives have been dedicated to helping men in this area. I cannot commend it more highly to be used in your church, your small groups, and your care ministries.”

– Jonathan D. Holmes, Executive Director, Fieldstone Counseling, and Pastor of Counseling, Parkside Church (Chagrin Falls, Ohio)

“In my 25 years of working on college campuses and in the church, this is the best curriculum that I have discovered to help men feeling defeated by sexual sin. It has been tested in the suffocating fires of disillusionment, doubt, and discouragement—and, like pure gold, the result is incomparably precious.”

– David Kieffer, Associate Pastor of Adult Ministries, Westminster Presbyterian (PCA) (Lancaster, PA)

“This Harvest USA group curriculum isn’t full of false promises or easy answers. It points us toward a long haul through the wilderness, but with God’s presence, his provision, and his people to sustain you. It can be a hard journey, but traveling there as a group makes it much more doable. This guide will take you there through Bible study and Christian community.”

– Rev. Michael Gembola, LPC, Author, After an Affair: Pursuing Restoration

“This is more than a curriculum—this is a warm and personal pathway out of dark struggles toward a walk with Christ in the light. Expect not just realism and practical wisdom, but a grace-filled journey together that will lead many to nothing short of renovation of the heart. As a struggler, I need this resource, and, as a pastor, I will use it.”

– Ste Casey, Pastor, Speke Baptist Church (Liverpool, UK), and Executive Member and Tutor, Biblical Counselling UK

“Connecting the mind and the heart is no easy task, but it is a critical element of healing for any sexually compulsive man. By combining penetrating biblical insight with carefully guided written and oral self-disclosure over a many-month period of time the Harvest USA Discovery group curriculum is a powerful tool to not only make the connection, but to significantly address and resolve the shame that binds the hearts and minds of the sexually broken.”

– Randall B. Hicks, Clinical Psychologist, PsyD

“I’ve served for fourteen years as Harvest USA’s Women’s Ministry Director and journeyed with hundreds of wives who have been devastated by their husband’s sexual sin. The majority of these dear women represent Christian husbands who don’t understand why they are in bondage to these devastating behaviors. Many of these brothers come to Harvest USA after years, if not decades, of being stuck in sin and desperate for someone to give them practical, Christ-centered guidance that results in true and lasting change in their hearts, emotions, thoughts, and decision-making. I am so grateful for my colleagues Jim and Mark and their faithful years of discipleship to men, which now bears out in this wonderful workbook. Grab all four of these workbooks, which apply the gospel with biblical wisdom and brotherly compassion from two men who have been in the trenches day after day with men seeking a way out of sexual addiction.”

– Ellen Mary Dykas, Women’s Ministry Director, Harvest USA, and Co-author, Sexual Faithfulness: Gospel-infused, Practical Discipleship for Women

“We have found the Discovery curriculum very helpful in our men’s small groups. It has been great to focus on reading Scripture, interpreting it, and applying it to our lives. The discussion questions encourage men to think deeply about the roots of their struggles and to pursue Christ to be changed, and the Leader’s Guide makes sure we get all we can out of our group discussion.”

– Steve Roskos, Partner Ministry Leader

“Harvest USA has been pivotal in my fight against sexual sin. The combination of Christian community and a Christ-centered curriculum provided me with powerful tools in this fight. The curriculum is comprehensive, taking students through lessons on so many important topics, including desires, beliefs, behaviors, and past influences. Every lesson is solidly connected to Scripture so that we were able to see what God’s Word has to say about our struggle and how to best fight. Each week involved personal reflection and application so that our group went from intellectual understanding to heart change. Working with this curriculum over a period of 18 months really had a huge impact on my life, and I continue to refer to it as I fight my battle and grow in Christ.”

– Paul, Harvest USA Ministry Recipient and Men’s Support Group Participant

“After struggling for decades with pornography, Harvest USA’s Discovery series helped me rightly deal with my deep-seated sin. Working through each section with a caring men’s group, I realized how I was haunted by deeper issues, how my sin was triggered by unacknowledged fears and anxieties, and—through it all—how Christ can truly satisfy my deeper longing for love and peace.”

– Jim, Harvest USA Ministry Recipient and Men’s Support Group Participant

“The Discovery curriculum has been a wonderful resource for both my facilitation of a group and also for me to personally learn more about the hope Jesus gives in the battle with sexual sin. As an inductive Bible study, we are pointed to the source of truth every week. Participants are directed to see how their own experiences, beliefs, and desires are what ultimately generate the fruit in their lives and how what has been fallen can be renewed in Christ.”

– Anonymous, Harvest USA Men’s Support Group Leader

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Rocco
Bozeman, US
★★★★★ 5
One of My Favorite All Time Novels!
The novel The Master and Margarita, by Mikhail Bulgakov, is a masterpiece of the Stalinist-Soviet era of the twentieth century. Bulgakov, in his banned novel, elucidates his vision and interpretation of the period under harsh Stalinist and Communist bureaucratic oppression. These interpretations, not made evident until the book’s release in the mid 1960’s, deal not only with love and devotion, but also with good and evil, virtue and remorse, and responsibility and redemption. Motivated and inspired by Goethe’s themes found in the literary tale Faust, the book ranges from hilarious interludes and occurrences to deep philosophical views of society and political parody. The novel itself interplays three stories: the first concerning the devil (Stalin?) in Moscow in the 1920’s and 1930’s (although no years are given by Bulgakov), the story of the Master and his love, Margarita, and the topic of the Master’s novel, Pontius Pilate and Jesus. Within these three stories is an amazing portrayal of comedy, philosophy, heartbreak, betrayal, fear and love. Woland’s (the devil) attacks on literary society in Moscow is likely a portrayal of Stalin’s crackdown on artistic expression in the early 1930’s. Bulgakov experienced this crackdown firsthand, actually writing a letter to Stalin in the 1930’s asking to leave the Soviet Union. Stalin instead allowed Bulgakov to enter a writer’s guild, although continued to repress the literature and art created by the guild’s artisans and writers. In the novel, Woland’s henchmen, including the personified black cat (Behemoth) and the tall freak with the pince-nez glasses, contribute to this fear of “big brother” with their recurring appearances in places visited by the book’s characters. Bulgakov makes his views of Soviet officials and society in general apparent throughout the novel as well. One official, for example, is seen by office visitors (or not seen!) as an empty suit working at a desk. The suit answers phones, shuffles papers and carries on government business, but has no visible hands or head. Bulgakov portrays other officials who oversee Moscow apartments as apparatchiks with no real direction or knowledge of how to interact with people in difficult situations. Moreover, Bulgakov points out the greed and selfishness, or perhaps desperation, of Soviet citizens in pursuit of better living quarters and money. Berlioz’s uncle, for example, comes to Moscow after the death of his wife’s nephew (Berlioz) only with the intent to claim Berlioz’s Moscow apartment. Of course, he finds it has been commandeered by the devil and his retinue. People crazily diving after ten Ruble notes at the devil’s black magic performance, only to find out later that the bills are fake, is yet another example. Bulgakov daringly plays with themes of religious fear and remorse throughout his novel as well, with the story (as told by Woland and the Master) of Pontus Pilate and Jesus (Yeshua Ha-Notsri). Perhaps this is Bulgakov’s way of defying and making fun of the reality of Stalinist and Communist imposed atheism on Russian society. How ironic that the devil himself has to convince two atheists, Berlioz and Bezdomny, that Jesus really did exist. Moreover, Bulgakov’s (or the Master’s) portrayal of Pilate as having misgivings over the crucifixion of Jesus may be his way of wondering or perhaps hoping that Soviet officials may feel the same remorse for sequestering Soviet society. His portrayal of Levi, a former tax collector who watches in agony as Jesus and three others are executed, may also indicate this notion, since Levi later approaches Woland to ask for the Master and Margarita to be reunited. His portrayal of Jesus as believing that “all men are good” as opposed to Pilate’s belief that “all men are bad,” not only speaks to the theme of the book, but also to the Soviet authority. This speaks to the theme of redemption prevalent throughout the book in that people can be redeemed and can forgive others even for the most heinous of crimes. Bulgakov may be saying that even Stalin’s crimes, although not to be forgotten, are to be forgiven if one wishes to find one’s own salvation and peace. Even the devil shows compassion, putting Margarita through the hell of the criminal ball yet then permitting her to return to the arms of the Master. Hence, perhaps the main lesson of Bulgakov’s work is that happiness is not found by distinguishing good from evil but rather through redemption and the reconciliation of one’s own soul. If Bulgakov seeks vengeance over his treatment by Soviet authorities, he will never find peace. The character of “the Master” is, likely, Bulgakov himself. The Master has been driven insane by the rejection of his novel by critics, who deem it as “Pilatism,” and the censorship of literature in general. His depression and anxiety have landed him in a mental hospital and deprived him of his love, Margarita. Although the Master attempts to burn his manuscript, Margarita saves a part of it which she cherishes in her lover’s absence. The key problem for the Master, however, is not so much the people and oppressors around him but rather his inability to overcome fear itself. Pilate pervades the entirety of the novel, combining the three stories, and is perhaps a reflection of how Bulgakov felt about himself and Soviet society in general; remorseful and seeking redemption. The love story between Margarita and the Master is one of beauty and allusion. The realities of a forced and contrived society rife with selfishness and repression pull them apart. However, their reunion is a symbol of overcoming the system. Although Margarita has to do the devil’s bidding (sell her soul and become a witch), she does it to reunite with her lost love. She is redeemed, however, because she is sincere in her devotion. Even the devil himself is somewhat of a redeemer, as he helps to reveal the stories of Margarita, Pilate and Jesus. Perhaps Bulgakov was speaking here to the power of the human spirit, in that even when manipulated by a devil (Stalin and the corrupt governing system) people can still persevere. Every character, in the end, finds some semblance of redemption. The characters and hence society live on because, as Bulgakov famously makes clear in the novel (as said by Woland), “manuscripts don’t burn.” The Master and Margarita is indeed a masterpiece of literary art. One could read it numerous times and come away with new meanings and life lessons each time. Its themes of redemption and the enduring nature of the human spirit are the characteristics that allow the novel to continue in perpetuity. It is unfortunate that Bulgakov did not live to see the success of his magnum opus. However, if the lessons and beauty of his book ring true, perhaps he does know of its success.
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Reviewed in the United States on April 8, 2014
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Claudia Gasparrini Etheridge
Waukegan, US
★★★★★ 4
THE LATEST MASTERPIECE FROM RUSSIA IN A NEW TRANSLATION
This book is a satire of the Soviet Union during Stalin‘s regime. Written between 1928 and 1940, not surprisingly, it remained unpublished until 1967. Later, following the collapse of communism in December 1991, not only did the book start to sell, the title was added to the list of the essential classics of modern Russian literature. Presently, "The Master and Margarita" by Russian author Mikhail Bulgakov is regarded as one of the best novels of the 20th century and remains popular among readers the world over. The novel has had more than enthusiastic readers. Contemporary composer Stephen Johnson enjoyed the book so much that he wrote the music for a ballet celebrating one of the main characters. Titled “Behemoth Dances“, the work centers on the very large by now famous black cat which, in addition to talking, walking on two legs and drinking vodka, now dances as well. The ballet premiered in Moscow on April 23 2016. After that, additional performances took place during the 2016 summer season in various English concert halls - among them, Cadogan Hall in London (May 12) and Symphony Hall in Birmingham (May 14). I have read a good portion of The Master and Margarita and found it to be a strange book, a book that - like many literary works during the twentieth century - is complex and difficult to read. Some of the Amazon.com reviewers believe that the complexity is related, at least in part, to the translation which they consider poor. It is true, the translation can be poor at times, but I do not believe that it contributes to the confusion, certainly not to any extent: translators Diana Burgin and Katherine O’Connor assure us that they made a very special effort to keep the English words and concepts as close in meaning as possible to the original Russian. There are more important factors that make the book confusing. First, there are too many characters, 63 altogether, 22 of them main characters. That is a lot more than those in most novels. Because they are Russian, these characters have usually three names. It is difficult to remember who is who and playing what part, when introduced to that many foreign people - at least it is difficult for some of us. Then there is the plot. The focus is on Satan and his retinue that includes the above mentioned very unusual black cat. There is also a beautiful naked witch named Hella; and a few other peculiar characters, who run around Moscow interfering with the lives of many members of the literary Russian elite. Also included are the stories of the remaining main characters and their friends, relatives, assistants and others. There are two important settings for the plot, as the reader is taken back and forth from: (1) 1930’s Moscow during Holy Week, from Wednesday night to the following Saturday night to be exact; (2) Jerusalem of Pontius Pilate's world - appearing in the pages of the Master's novel, during the same time of the year, but about 2,000 years earlier. The story begins with the appearance of Satan at the Patriarch Ponds in Moscow, disguised as Professor Woland, a mysterious gentleman magician of uncertain origin. Prof. Woland meets in such a location Mikhail Alexandrovich Berlioz, the editor of an anti-religious journal, and Ivan Nikolaevich Ponyrev, a poet employed by Berlioz. He challenges their atheism with a story, during which we are introduced to the second setting, Jerusalem of Pontius Pilate's world. This part of the novel concerns Pilate's trial of Yeshua Ha-Notsri (presumably Jesus) and his reluctant but resigned submission to the unfortunate man’s execution. Berlioz dies early on during the story after being run over by a street car. The poet Ivan Nikolaevich continues on, trying to understand the death of his friend and employer. Interestingly enough, we do not meet the two title characters, the Master and Margarita, until we are well into the story. We meet the Master first, while still in part one, but in one of the later chapters. We are introduced to him - who incidentally does not appear to have a name (thank God!!!) - at the mental hospital where he has been a patient for four months. The Master is a writer by profession, having written, among other narratives, about Pontius Pilate and the story related to the second setting. Unfortunately, he is ridiculed by his Russian peers for daring to write about religious subjects. As for Margarita, we meet her in part two of the novel, although we are introduced to her first through the Master’s description of his relationship with her. The two were lovers, but the Master would rather set her free to avoid the suffering that their relationship would cause her. She has other plans. We learn that the woman is so much in love with the Master, that she is willing to visit Hell for him. By Good Friday, Satan is having his Great Spring Ball as Prof. Woland, at his earthly residence. At such time, he offers Margarita the opportunity to become a witch with supernatural powers. A spring full moon illuminates the Moscow skyline. The same full moon also lights the night sky when Yeshua’s fate is sealed by Pontius Pilate in Jerusalem. This provides a link between the two settings. Capable of flying, due to her new powers as a witch, Margarita soars over the forests and rivers of the USSR, then returns to Moscow to co-host Satan's Ball. Standing by his side, she welcomes the dark celebrities of human history as they arrive from Hell. In recognition for her assistance, Satan grants Margarita her wish to liberate the Master even though she must live in poverty with him. Eventually, the Master and Margarita leave civilization and fly with the Devil, as Moscow's cupolas and windows burn in the setting Easter sun. They are granted "peace" for not having lost their faith in humanity, but are denied "light", consequently they will spend eternity together in a shadowy, although pleasant, region similar to Dante's Limbo. At the same time as the Master and Margarita are set free, Pontius Pilate is released from his eternal punishment, and walks the moonbeam path to Yeshua, where another eternity awaits. That is the story, which I tried to relate in as clear a manner as I could. If you are not confused, and if you have the patience to read the entire book, slowly, while trying to make some sense out of the many characters and events, you will probably come to the conclusion that it was worth the effort.  
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Reviewed in the United States on May 10, 2017
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Ioana
Louisville, US
★★★★★ 5
Brilliant, Visceral Portrayal of the Eastern-Block Landscape and Imagination
Wow-just WOW! Bulgakov simply blew me away with his dark & very eastern-block humor, twisted ironies, brilliant metaphors, infinite layers of meaning, his surrealist aesthetic and refusal to follow any "rules" of any particular genre. Within a few chapters, this book quickly moved up to my #1 Most Brilliant Books Ever Written list, and after the last pages, I have a feeling it will stay here for a long time (perhaps until I take up Gogol, or so I am told). There are many layers to this novel, a plethora of imagery, metaphors, and references that have been studied in hundreds of scholarly articles and tens of thousands of journalistic/reviewer articles, so I will not attempt to gloss superficially over any themes. Rather I will focus on the ironic humor, which touched me most profoundly, as a person born and raised under Ceausescu's regime (Romania). Ironic, tragic, dark and depressing humor was central to Eastern European resistance to communism, and served a healing as well as communal/relational function. Even today, visiting Bucharest, the dark humor remains, and is spoken, without reservation, between strangers at bus stations, intimate family members, colleagues at the office, etc--it is a key thread of our identity and how we relate to and understand the world. I have never ready any work that captures this humor better than Bulgakov. A process that is emphasized in the literature on communism is the development of a duality of psychic space, a mode of schizophrenic resistance. To many who sought refuge in books and humor, this fragmentation transformed into a positive experience: a honed, rich duality was a sign of strength, showing how one could successfully detach herself from the absence of things and to fill space with meaning in spite of adversity. These processes were transmitted historically, and taught one how to survive without alienating oneself psychologically. Andrei Pleşu remembers humor about lack as a "prop of survival". Oana-Maria Hock remembers the theatre as providing a "surrogate toughness", a form of resistance in the face of material insecurity. In a place in which material necessities were difficult to come by, disassociation, particularly through artistic release, served to create spaces of plenty. Even though this work may be read by any audience, and though most find it brilliant, it particularly speaks to those who have lived through the horrors of Eastern-block communism and its historical particularities in this region; the humor especially is not only deeply ironic and depressing, but also is born of an experience difficult to describe if one has not lived it: the reference, for example, to "second-grade-fresh" fish. It may seem superficially funny to anyone who has not experienced rationing as a way of life, but the phrase has many layers of meaning: first, as a reference to the rationing process/how hard it was to find food, second as a reference to the Eastern-block communist way of meticulously categorizing all things (such as different grades of products, of which "first grade" was of course never available to the non-connected citizen), third as reflection of how people in this region relied on deeply disturbing humor to pacify, at least temporarily, their disquietude, fourth, illustrating the peculiarities of communication during this time (when everything had at least a double meaning, under the politically correct and allowed language), and fifth, it brings back the embodied feeling itself of how one used to imagine the world before 1989--it is absolutely *visceral*, because this is EXACTLY how people talked. Everything was a private joke--and every comment was either ironic or meant something other than what it actually said. Another example: in the Epilogue, when Bulgakov takes on the narrator role and tells us what happened after the Devil left Moscow, he first mentions the plight of black cats: "A hundred or so of these peaceful animals... were shot or otherwise destroyed in various parts of the country"... The ridiculousness of his concern for the cats considering circumstances is another perfect example of the twisted humor used during this period as a means of resistance. Further, Bulgakov continues his story, citizens were goaded into public vigilantism of capturing black cats and reporting with them to police stations; there is even a story of a woman who comes to a station to vouch for the "character" of her cat. Clearly, this is not a story about cats, but a reference to the Secret Police, the dreaded disappearances, and the ways in which regular citizens were complicit in the process--yet at the same time, it is also a story about how Eastern block policies/dictators actually did value "cats"/animals above people (not to mention that people were treated AS animals, another double meaning). In an even darker twist, after several pages, Bulgakov moves on from the cat stories: "Besides the cats, there were a few people who suffered some minor unpleasantness. Several arrests were made... A lot of other things happened, but one can't remember everything." And with this poignant reference to the communist culture of "forgetting" (scrubbed history books, banned authors, emphasis on the present and future at the expense of the past incarnated in communist policies, purging of national archives, etc) Bulgakov ends by reminding us of the dark and tragic experience of Eastern-Block communism.
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Reviewed in the United States on December 12, 2013
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Blake Ray
Bozeman, US
★★★★★ 5
Outstanding edition of important and thrilling novel
Format: Kindle
This review is for the novel "The Master and Margarita" in the Kindle edition translated by Diana Burgin and Katherine Tiernan O'Connor. I just finished reading this novel for the third time. Ages ago I read it for a college 20th Century Russian Literature class in the Mirra Ginsburg translation, and loved it so much that as soon as I finished it I started over at the beginning without even getting up from my chair to read it a second time. Somehow this edition got lost; probably I loaned it to a friend and never got it back. In subsequent years I tried to read it again, in the P&V translation and in another that is no longer available, but I just couldn't make any headway, and abandoned these after two chapters. I have not sat down to compare line by line this translation with a Russian version, which I also have, but the translation in the version under discussion seems to me to be stellar. It read smoothly and vividly, and captured the movement and extravagant energy of the original. This is a tough novel to translate since the writing style changes drastically in some chapters. Tone and topic are intimately intertwined, and the stylistic virtuosity of Bulgakov is one of the book's primary charms. (Read it and you will find out why.) This edition also has extensive notes at the end, general guidance for making sense of references and allusions, and these are very helpful and beautifully written by Ellendea Proffer. These notes are followed by an outstanding essay on the novel, as well as a brief biographical sketch of the author, and these are likewise very helpful, thoughtful, well-written and not overly long. (These are also by Ellendea Proffer. She really hits a home run with her essay, in my humble opinion.) I am hooked now, and am sure I will be returning to this novel many times. Although I enjoyed immensely my first two readings of this novel, I feel now that three readings is not enough to grasp it. I will have to go back to it, but it's worth it! This is a novel for those who can keep an open mind and who are not bothered by satire or surrealist elements, and who can accept puzzling ambiguities and deep philosophical and moral questions for which there are no easy answers. I am so glad I decided to take a chance on this wonderful translation.
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Reviewed in the United States on April 5, 2023
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D. Mikels
Cuba, US
★★★★★ 3
"The devil knows why. . ."
I have mentioned before in a distant review of the past that each book has a "moment of truth," that shimmering macrosecond where the reader either becomes hooked (and therefore can't wait to finish the work), or disappointed (whereby the book is either put aside, or finished grudgingly). For me, alas, Bulgakov's THE MASTER AND MARGARITA evoked the latter, although I finished the book and readily appreciated the author's rather fantastic and satirical story of Satan and his pesky retinue wreaking havoc in 1930s Moscow. That Mikhail Bulgakov is an exceptional writer is a given; if only I was fluid in Russian where I could read his words as written I would no doubt be even more impressed with his prose and style. This Vintage Press edition (translated by Diana Burgin and Katherine Tiernan O'Connor) certainly pays homage to this classic with a meticulous eye for detail, followed by notes on each chapter that I found to be invaluable. So then, what's the problem? Well, I enjoy humor and satire as much as the next guy (I suppose), but a story depicting Satan as some sort of instrument of salvation--an instrument in alliance with Yeshua--for the book's two protagonists was just. . .too much. The Master, a writer who cannot endure the pain of rejection, is one-dimensional and sullen, while Margarita, his love, becomes a willing pawn of the devil. And the story blithely suggests that death through its mortal release is preferable to life (which is understandable, given Bulgakov's failing health as he finished the book). The fantastic notion of the story--of illusion, madness, a huge talking cat, flying through the air, and a Satanic ball--is a clever device, but eventually it wears thin. As a playwright, Bulgakov uses an abundance of theater officers, bureaucrats, and authors as unhappy victims of Satan's antics (no doubt the author was settling countless scores); unfortunately, the names of these characters are in Russian, and many of the names vary by a vowel or a letter, making it very difficult for the reader to keep track of "who's who." And the parallel story of Pontius Pilate and the crucifixion--told from a political, not spiritual, perspective--was interesting, yet bizarre. In fact, "bizarre" is a good word to describe THE MASTER AND MARGARITA in its entirety; it's an interesting, fantastic, metaphysical tale, yet requires too much suspension of disbelief. --D. Mikels
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Reviewed in the United States on May 24, 2004

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