Babylon Rising: The Edge of Darkness (Babylon Rising)

Book Description

Tim LaHaye’s most exciting series ever, Babylon Rising, continues with this explosive new installment, including more revelations than ever before. In The Edge of Darkness, LaHaye reveals the meaning behind some of the most carefully guarded Biblical prophecies to expose a conspiracy with terrifying consequences for our modern world.

This time Michael Murphy sets off in search of the Lost Temple of Dagon and the dark secrets of the strange god once worshipped by the ancient Philistines. His quest will lead to a final confrontation with an old enemy and uncover one of the Bible’s most feared warnings–a prophecy of false miracles, false messiahs, and ultimate evil that will be fulfilled in our time...and that not even Murphy can stop once it’s begun.

Once again Tim LaHaye combines his unmatched insight into Biblical prophecy with his unique skills as a master storyteller to deliver a suspense thriller of nonstop action with a thought-provoking message for our troubled times.

Customer Reviews:

Tim LaHaye does it again.......2007-09-05

Tim LaHaye has a way with blending fiction into biblical prophecy. His stories are fast-paced, and hard to put down.
"The Edge of Darkness" tells of the fast approaching time of the anti-christ. This series is a must read for everybody.

When will book 5 be out?.......2007-08-30

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book but as with the others it did not conclude. The way scripture is woven into the story line makes it interesting and I believe will lead to further investigation by those not familiar with the themes. A good thing.

Unable to Review .......2007-08-28

I do not have a review as I did not receive the book. The order was cancelled by Amazon stating that they could not deliver the item to the address listed. This is strange as I have received other books at the same address. I was not very happy about it. I will now have to go and purchase it at the Barnes & Noble store.

This series keeps getting more and more disappointing..........2007-06-13

I was a huge fan of the first book in the Babylon Rising series, but I feel that the subsequent novels--including and especially this one--have slowly but surely been going downhill. The Edge of Darkness and the third book, The Europa Conspiracy, have lacked the action of the first book, and even of the second book, The Secret on Ararat. This novel also consisted mainly of lackluster dialogue and ridiculously simple thoughts on the part of its characters, along with childish comparisons (such as toward the end of the book, when the Seven are comparing their actions to fountains etc. at the Chateau de Versailles) that served as a constant annoyance.

Also, Tim Lahaye kills off many important characters in this Babylon Rising installation. I won't name names because I don't want to spoil things for anyone who hasn't read this book yet, but I feel that it's a bit late for the authors to start introducing new MAIN characters into the series, which is what they will have to do now that all but a couple of its main characters are dead. The authors need to go back to the basics of what made the first Babylon Rising book, and even the second one, the hits that they were.

"Edge of Darkness" keeps you on Edge of Seat.......2007-05-08

As with this whole series this an excellent book. I look forward to any more that this serious might produce.

History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)

Average customer rating:

Calculations are only as good as your numbers
Pants on fire?
Accepted History & Chronology Must Be Changed.
Very Interesting
History as Science Fiction

History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)
Anatoly Fomenko
Manufacturer: Mithec
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 2913621058

Book Description

Recorded history is a finely-woven magic fabric of intricate lies about events predating the sixteenth century. There is not a single piece of evidence that can be reliably and independently traced back earlier than the eleventh century. This book details events that are substantiated by hard facts and logic, and validated by new astronomical research and statistical analysis of ancient sources.

Customer Reviews:

Calculations are only as good as your numbers.......2007-08-03

Yes, we can all agree that mainstream history is nearly 100% BS due to politics, economics, ego, problems with dating techniques, and various conspiracies. Agreed. But, I've been researching the distinct possibility that human history (in terms of civilizations) are much more ancient than we've been told, so coming across this book was very interesting to me. I wondered how Fomenko could be wrong (if at all) because he is very persuasive in his presentations. Then it dawned on me. If at previous times in prehistory, due to the various catastrophies that are well documented (comets, asteroids, planetary disruptions, plasma discharge, pole reversals, etc) the Earth was in a different position in relation to the sun, different tilt on its axis, different orbit, different rotation (in terms of velocity and DIRECTION), and the continents were in different positions, then would this not cause the ancients to see the sky (constellations) differently? In other words, is Fomenko making erronious assumptions about the physics of the Earth in pre-history, which then corrupt his data with regards to dating the relevant astrology? The last event to seriously disrupt our planet occured roughly 3500 years ago, according to other good researchers, so is it possible Fomenko has been confused by this? The vastly different physics of our planet in the not so distant past may explain this confusion, which is not to say the "mainstream" version of history is correct; on the contrary. I am not an expert in these fields, but wanted to see if this idea could spark discussion.

Pants on fire?.......2007-07-19

Will people ever read before spamming? Yes, Jesuits could not rewrite world history alone, they had help. Anyway, Dr Prof Acad A.Fomenko does not point to jesuits as the driving force of world wide history manipulation in published volumes 1,2,3;, actually he barely mentions the poor devils. Check it with 'Search inside' feature, please. China is rarely mentioned either, in fact, Dr Fomenko is completely eurocentric. Right, his theory contradicts all mainstream schools of history, because in their actual state they are all built on blatantly erroneus chronology. You don't need a mysterious cabal (conspiracy) to falsify history, the falsification is its modus operandi. It is inherent to history(ians) to falsify (distort) events, as it is inherent to humans to boast as it is inherent to power (authority) to legimize itself by referrring to glorious past made to its own order. Dr Prof Fomenko and team have identified scores of instances of such manipulation in Russian, European, etc.. history, and delivered valid statistical proof thereof. His own 'reconstruction' is completely another story. Forget c14 as a valid method of dating. W.Libby has initially discovered a brilliant method of INDEPENDENT dating. Too bad, c14 method has become a joke after a forced marrige with dendrochronology with consensual chronological scale inbuilt. Radiocarbon method can't stand blind tests, but is so very productive as a rubberstamp.

Accepted History & Chronology Must Be Changed. .......2007-04-09

There is no doubt that history as most know it is a sham, & institution's version of History both University & Church is fradulent & inaccurate. Everything was established with an agenda, The real "Dark Ages" are now when we have access to incredible amounts of information past authorities & more important 'common folk' didn't have but our institutions & educators are slow to evolve because of what has ignorantly & arrogantly been taught for too long. This is on many subjects not just Chronology.

For anyone to question "Why would a Mathematician have anything credible to say of History?" The answer is from Dr. Fomenko's preface in the book: "It would be worthwhile to remind the reader that in the XVI-XVII century Chronology was considered to be a subdivision of Mathematics." These volumes could possibly be some of the most important works to date & should be read by everyone with an interest in History, especially professors & educators who have a duty to the public. I have read both books & must say that 'Chronology 1' has some very eye opening & revolutionary information. Even if these volumes are part true the implications are profound & opens the doors to further investigations & questions which must be done. I speak several different lanquages & must say the logic Dr. Fomenko uses with "inflection" of words & words being read from left to right in one region & right to left in another then written backwards, the removal of vowels & get down to basics of words, or different cities & locations having the same name etc. is correct. Vowel usage has always been optional & varied, actually complicating linquistics & study. The first thing one has to understand is that words never had a fixed spelling in history like we do now, the spelling of words was mutable & regional, as well as names & titles of people were vast, varied & changed, NOTHING WAS FIXED or understood linear. Matters of Life & Death as well as financial profiteering yesterday & today were & are made with ignorant, illogical & conspiratorial views of history & reality, it's time people get closer to the Truth & society collectively grow up.

Very Interesting.......2007-03-07

It is a good proposal and I believe it will mature into something even better in the future. I think it deserves to be read.

History as Science Fiction.......2007-01-10

Anatoly Fomenko has written a very intriguing book, full of pictures, charts, and computer 'proof' of his thesis: backwards of AD900 we don't really know what happened or when. Between AD900 and AD1600 there is more certainty, but there is still a lot of fuzzy ground, and things don't get reliable until we get past the 1600's where the printing press made it very difficult for the perpetrators of this timeline manipulation to change anything that had been committed to print. The Dark Ages did not happen. Books were burned for a reason. One organization has doubled the actual length of its existence by expanding the real chronology. Read why.

I had always wondered why Christ died about AD33 and yet men waited until the 11th century to form the Knights Templar, the Cathars, etc and go after the Holy Land by force. Why the 1000 year gap? Turns out there wasn't more than a 10-12 year gap and he proves it using astronomy. This also implies that the planet is not as old as we have been told, and current Christian and other creationist scientists are already championing that idea without being aware of Fomenko's book. The two groups, creationist scientists and the Russian mathematical analysts corroborate each other. Fascinating.

Of course, all this flies in the face of what we have been told traditionally is the 'proper' chronology of western civilization, and most readers will experience 'cognitive dissonance' in reading this book. It means that our history going backwards from AD1600 becomes progressively more incorrect and unreliable until it cannot be trusted at all... in the space of 700-800 years.

Naturally, the curious, open-minded reader will want to know WHO did this, WHY, and did any of the events we think of as really ancient ever happen?
Dr. Fomenko is a respected scientist/mathematician at Moscow State University who has already answered these questions to the satisfaction of his initially skeptical colleagues. Most of them are now believers, a few still refuse to believe (the usual diehards), and of course the western press has ignored Fomenko's work -- for obvious reasons when you read the book. The ones who perpetrated this chronology ruse have a lot to answer for. They are still with us. That's why this book is a well-kept secret.

I gave the book a 4-star rating because I was unable to check out some of his claims; those I checked were as he said. But if even 1/3 of his claims are true, this punches a big hole in what we think is our history, the meaning of western civilization, our educational process (for repeating the ruse as gospel), and the trustworthiness of the organization that perpetrated this ruse, well-intentioned or not.

This book relates to current research into a Young Earth paradigm, to John Keel's discoveries about our planet, and Fr Malachi Martin's insights (in his now out-of-print books). We are indeed sheep who are manipulated and kept ignorant -- for a reason. While knowing what these men have to say may be the "booby prize" (as in: 'what can you do with this knowledge?'), it will provide interesting reading. Didn't someone say: "...and the Truth will set you free."?? For you to judge if this book contains the truth.

Man, Economy, and State with Power and Market (Scholars Edition)

Average customer rating:

On Plants and Inorganic Matter ...
Four Hundred Pages Too Many
Austrian Economics.
Time Preference
Economics as 'human action': Rothbard builds on Mises's work

Man, Economy, and State with Power and Market (Scholars Edition)
Murray N. Rothbard
Manufacturer: Ludwig Von Mises Institute
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0945466307

Book Description

Murray N. Rothbard's great treatise Man, Economy, and State and its complementary text Power and Market provides a sweeping presentation of Austrian economic theory, a reconstruction of many aspects of that theory, a rigorous criticism of alternative schools, and an inspiring look at a science of liberty that concerns nearly everything and should concern everyone.

The Mises Institute's new edition of Man Economy, and State, united for the first time with its formerly sundered companion volume Power and Market, is a landmark in the history of the Institute. It takes this book out of the category of underground classic and raises it up to its proper status as one of the great economic treatises of all time, a book that is essential for anyone seeking a robust economic education. The revealing new introduction by Joseph Stromberg uses material from the Rothbard Archives, including his personal notes during the research and writing phases, to reconstruct the intellectual setting in which the book was written, and its initial and widening impact.

For years, the Mises Institute has kept it in print and sold thousands of copies in a nice paperback version. Now in our twentieth year, we decided to take a big step and put out an edition worthy of this great treatise. It is the Scholar's Edition of Man, Economy, and State—-an edition that will immediately become definitive and used throughout the world. The footnotes (which are so brilliant and informative!) are at the bottom of every page. The index is huge and comprehensive. The binding is impeccable and its beauty unmatched.

Students have used this book for decades as the intellectual foil for what they have been required to learning from conventional economics classes. In many ways, it has built the Austrian school in the generation that followed Mises. It was Rothbard who polished the Austrian contribution to theory and wove it together with a full-scale philosophy of political ethics that inspired the generation of the Austrian revival, and continues to fuel its growth and development today.

From Rothbard, we learn that economics is the science that deals with the rise and fall of civilization, the advancement and retrenchment of human development, the feeding and healing of the multitudes, and the question of whether human affairs are dominated by cooperation or violence.

Economics in Rothbard's wonderful book emerges as the beautiful logic of that underlies human action in a world of scarcity, the lens on how exchange makes it possible for people to cooperate toward their mutual betterment. We see how money facilitates this, and allows for calculation over time that permits capital to expand and investment to take place. We see how entrepreneurship, based on real judgments and risk taking, is the driving force of the market.

What's striking is how this remarkable book has lived in the shadows for so long. It began as a guide to Human Action, and it swelled into a treatise in its own right. Rothbard worked many years on the book, even as he was completing his PhD at Columbia University. He realized better than anyone else that Mises's economic theories were so important that they needed restatement and interpretation. But he also knew that Misesian theory needed elaboration, expansion, and application in a variety of areas. The result was much more: a rigorous but accessible defense of the whole theory of the market economy, from its very foundations.

But the publisher decided to cut the last part of the book, a part that appeared years later as Power and Market. This is the section that applies the theory presented in the first 1,000 pages to matters of government intervention. Issue by issue, the book refutes the case for taxation, the welfare state, regulation, economic planning, and all forms of socialism, large and small. It remains an incredibly fruitful assembly of vigorous argumentation an

Customer Reviews:

On Plants and Inorganic Matter ..........2007-05-25

Murray N. Rothbard, "The fact that men act by virtue of their being human is indisputable and incontrovertible. To assume the contrary would be an absurdity. The contrary--the absence of motivated behavior--would apply only to plants and inorganic matter."

Four Hundred Pages Too Many .......2005-12-17

Published in 1962, "Man, Economy, and State" is a massive treatise on the fundamental principles of economics. The author, Murray Rothbard, was a disciple of Ludwig von Mises, so it's no surprise that his book begins with an a priori analysis of human action and subjective valuation. With this groundwork in place, Rothbard guides the reader through "Robinson Crusoe" economics and the economics of barter, and then lays out the inner dynamics of an "evenly rotating economy," where knowledge is perfect and tastes never change. Only then, equipped with insights from the operation of ideal, unchanging free markets, does Rothbard relax his unrealistic assumptions and analyze real free markets, including markets hampered by government regulation. For the most part, "Man, Economy, and State" restates and clarifies canonical Misean teachings on time and interest, capital structure, business cycles, monetary theory, entrepreneurship, methodology, and so forth. It also makes original contributions to Austrian thought, in particular, to competition theory. Every university library should have "Man, Economy and State."

That said, "Man, Economy and State" is a lousy read and an imperfect introduction to economics. Apart from being more than 1,000 pages long, the book is abstract, repetitive, and tedious. It dismisses economic history and empirical data with sneers and pseudo-logic worthy of a hack lawyer. Thousands of words are wasted explaining concepts that could be illustrated with a single graph; hundreds of pages could be cut without diminishing the book's pedagogical value. Even worse, the book fails to engage with rival schools of thought such as neo-classical or Marxist economics. Austrianism has a rich intellectual tradition, but, like all schools of thought, it has axes to grind, and a beginner would get a skewed view of economics if he relied on "Man, Economy and State" for his education. He would learn next to nothing about national income accounting, market failure, growth and development, or the behavioral psychology of markets. Austrians shy way from these subjects for various reasons (mostly dogmatic), but they are essential parts of any well-rounded economic education.

The book is also undermined by Rothbard's bizarre riffs on law and politics. He believed that legal systems should not protect intellectual property or enforce promises to perform services in the future. (The modern technological economy could not exist in Rothbard's legal universe.) He would have criminalized the non-payment of debt, thus re-establishing debtors' prisons. (The impact on modern credit markets would have been interesting). Rothbard also had an absolutist, super-Lockean view of property rights. He claimed, for example, that the first fisherman to dip his net into the ocean would be entitled not just to own any fish he caught, but to own the ocean itself!

Coming across these dicta is like finding astrology in a physics textbook. At first, I laughed, but as the weirdness piled up, I began to wonder about the book and its author. The sheer monomaniacal bulk of "Man, Economy and State" makes it easy to caricature Rothbard as a genius/crank, who scribbled away over the 1950s to write a mammoth book -- an Austrian Summa -- that would be the last word on economics. He submitted his masterwork to mainstream publishers and university presses, but none would publish it, for reasons that become obvious by, oh, page 750. In the end, the book was published by an obscure right-wing publisher who did not edit the text (beyond tossing out a 300-page postscript that was published as a separate book by a different right-wing publisher). After giving birth to "Man, Economy and State," Rothbard was ignored by the economics profession. He taught at minor colleges, preached anarchism to the lunatic fringe of the libertarian movement, and published articles in journals edited by himself. He died in 1995. It's unfair to depict him as the Kilgore Trout of 20th century economics -- but since he believed that defamation laws violated free market metaphysics, he really couldn't complain.

Bottomline: The Mises Institute would do Austrian economics (and Rothbard's reputation) a favor by publishing an abridged version of "Man, Economy and State." Readers coming to economics for the first time should read an introductory mainstream text (Samuelson is still pretty good) and then sample modern Austrian authors like Israel Kirzner or Roger Garrison to see what the Austrian alternative is all about. After that, they can tackle old, quasi-philosophical Austrian texts like "Man, Economy and State" or works by Carl Menger or Ludwig von Mises.

Austrian Economics........2005-03-10

Murray Rothbard's contribution to economic science cannot be overstated. Following the footsteps of Mises' _Human Action_, Rothbard's own treatise leaves no economic question untouched. _Man, Economy and State_ presents the entire corpus of economic law, deduced logically from the undeniable fact of human choice. Because of the Austrian methodology, Rothbard was a system-building rationalist, and so this book has little resemblance to mainstream economics. As a praxeologist, Rothbard builds economics not on models or mathematics, but using primordial logical principles to explore the formal implications of purposeful human behavior. Rothbard not only presented Austrian economics in a systematic, complete way -- he also advanced it considerably. Some examples of his contributions to the hardcore of Austrian economics: he refined the theory of utility, he greatly elaborated and developed theories of production, (although I believe his theory of interest was incorrect), reconstructed the approach to welfare-economics, demolished the illusory free-market monopoly problem, etc. Also crucial to his economic theory was his indepth exploration of violent intervention in the free market. That volume, _Power and Market_, is included here (as it was originally intended). Here, Rothbard drives the final nail in the coffin for virtually any argument that the government do anything positive for the economy. He also recognized that economic and ethical problems have the same, fundamental root: scarcity, without which neither discipline would be at all meaningful. This connection was critical for Rothbard as he developed his political philosophy, which was systematically presented later in _The Ethics of Liberty_ (1982). Considering Rothbard completed this treatise when he was only 36, his level of scholarship is nothing short of incredible. His footnotes are full of treasures.

This is truly one of the most important works of economic theory ever written. Indeed, it covers _everything_, and Rothbard's clear, tempered prose is unrivaled in either philosophy or economics. Anyone who is alive should read this book. If you're dead and you can read, well...that's amazing, but still the book won't be much used to you.

Time Preference.......2004-09-25

The individual above who states that time preference is the dirty little secret of Austrian Economics is obviously confused. The example he uses in his review to refute it shows plainly that he misunderstands it. A more carefull reading paying attention to the previous section on means and ends (the definitions) will reveal the problem. This book is excellent! Rothbard was truly a genius. I'm not saying the book is perfect, but I could find no theoretical flaws. If you are interested at all in economics, this is a must read!

Economics as 'human action': Rothbard builds on Mises's work.......2004-09-03

[This is a reposting, very slightly edited, of my review from six years ago of an earlier and now unavailable edition of this book.]

Murray Newton Rothbard's development of economic theory from the axiom of human action is brilliant from start to finish.

Building on Ludwig von Mises's masterwork _Human Action_, Rothbard in effect removes Mises's work from its neo-Kantian setting and places it on a foundation of Aristotelian realism (though this fact will not be obvious without study of Rothbard's later work, notably _The Ethics of Liberty_).

Rothbard systematically and rigorously develops all of economic theory from the axiom that human beings act to achieve ends in a world in which specific and delimitable causes have specific and delimitable effects. In so doing, he has written a work that, over three decades after its publication, still serves as a comprehensive introduction to Austrian School economics.

And no wonder: Rothbard viewed Austrian economics particularly and the 'science of liberty' generally as systematic philosophy, not as the mere collection of statistical facts and 'model-building'. The result is a highly readable volume that reads more like a philosophical treatise than a standard 'economics' textbook.

Anyone who loves liberty and thinks _ideas_ are important will love this volume. Keynesians and econometricians need not apply.

[Later note: _Human Action_, this book (this edition of which includes the portion originally shaved off and published separately as _Power and Market_), and George Reisman's _Capitalism_ are the twentieth century's Three Great Treatises on free-market economics. They don't always agree with each other, so if this subject is of interest to you, be sure to read all three.]

The Shakespeare Wars: Clashing Scholars, Public Fiascoes, Palace Coups

Average customer rating:

If you love Shakespeare....
Carelessness
"The shock of pleasure"
Fascinating, inspiring... but oh, SO irritating
Get Excited about Shakespeare...that's the Message.

The Shakespeare Wars: Clashing Scholars, Public Fiascoes, Palace Coups
Ron Rosenbaum
Manufacturer: Random House
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Authors | Arts & Literature | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 0375503390
Release Date: 2006-09-19

Book Description

“[Ron Rosenbaum] is one of the most original journalists and writers of our time.”
–David Remnick

In The Shakespeare Wars, Ron Rosenbaum gives readers an unforgettable way of rethinking the greatest works of the human imagination. As he did in his groundbreaking Explaining Hitler, he shakes up much that we thought we understood about a vital subject and renews our sense of excitement and urgency. He gives us a Shakespeare book like no other. Rather than raking over worn-out fragments of biography, Rosenbaum focuses on cutting-edge controversies about the true source of Shakespeare’s enchantment and illumination–the astonishing language itself. How best to unlock the secrets of its spell?

With quicksilver wit and provocative insight, Rosenbaum takes readers into the midst of fierce battles among the most brilliant Shakespearean scholars and directors over just how to delve deeper into the Shakespearean experience–deeper into the mind of Shakespeare.

Was Shakespeare the one-draft wonder of Shakespeare in Love? Or was he rather–as an embattled faction of textual scholars now argues–a different kind of writer entirely: a conscientious reviser of his greatest plays? Must we then revise our way of reading, staging, and interpreting such works as Hamlet and King Lear?

Rosenbaum pursues key partisans in these debates from the high tables of Oxford to a Krispy Kreme doughnut shop in a strip mall in the Deep South. He makes ostensibly arcane textual scholarship intensely seductive–and sometimes even explicitly sexual. At an academic “Pleasure Seminar” in Bermuda, for instance, he examines one scholar’s quest to find an orgasm in Romeo and Juliet. Rosenbaum shows us great directors as Shakespearean scholars in their own right: We hear Peter Brook–perhaps the most influential Shakespearean director of the past century–disclose his quest for a “secret play” hidden within the Bard’s comedies and dramas. We listen to Sir Peter Hall, founder of the Royal Shakespeare Company, as he launches into an impassioned, table-pounding fury while discussing how the means of unleashing the full intensity of Shakespeare’s language has been lost–and how to restore it. Rosenbaum’s hilarious inside account of “the Great Shakespeare ‘Funeral Elegy’ Fiasco,” a man-versus-computer clash, illustrates the iconic struggle to define what is and isn’t “Shakespearean.” And he demonstrates the way Shakespearean scholars such as Harold Bloom can become great Shakespearean characters in their own right.

The Shakespeare Wars offers a thrilling opportunity to engage with Shakespeare’s work at its deepest levels. Like Explaining Hitler, this book is destined to revolutionize the way we think about one of the overwhelming obsessions of our time.

Customer Reviews:

If you love Shakespeare...........2007-07-17

... then buy this book.

That's all I can really say.

Carelessness.......2007-06-17

At first, I was annoyed by the lack of citations Rosenbaum gives to Shakespeare's text but now my annoyance goes beyond that. For an example of the kind of carelessness that put me off the book turn to page 269. Here, Rosenbaum, in a discussion of lineation, quotes lines from Richard II, and states that they are from "the unmodernized FOLIO version" of the play but does not say which act and scene they are from. One has to hunt around for them. When I found them on page 353 of Hinman's Facsimile, (Page 31, second column, of the Histories), I saw that Rosenbaum does not quote the text of the Folio accurately. Rosenbaum has a comma after "too" but the 1623 Folio has a colon. He should have:
I should to Plashy too: but time will not permit,
All is uneven, and everything is left at six and seven.

He then gives the same lines as given in the Riverside edition.

I should to Plashy too,
But time will not permit. All is uneven,
And everything is left at six and seven.

He seems to have given these accurately, but again there was no citation of the act and scene where the lines come from.

On the next page, Rosenbaum writes "Not only is it an instance of the jeweled clockwork of Shakespearean verse, not only is it another instance, he [John Andrews] suggests, in which one imagines that Shakespeare may have overseen the printing in order to ensure that the expressive irregularity of the meter was persevered in the lineation...." Since Shakespeare was buried in April 1616 and the Folio was not published until 1623, the Bard must have overseen the printing in Jaggard's printing house from beyond the grave.
Perhaps Rosenbaum meant to write "Quarto" where he wrote "Folio." But even if he meant "Quarto" he still does not quote the First Quarto of Richard II (published in 1597) correctly.

"The shock of pleasure".......2007-04-24

In studying and teaching the Bard, I always wonder if I am over-praising or under-estimating Shakespeare's achievement. "Is it him or is it we who are not making sense?" (524) Rosenbaum replies we are at fault. But this is a "felix culpa," a happy fault. He energetically plows through dozens of topics revolving around reactions of critics and directors of Shakespeare. This is not a biography; Rosenbaum has choice words for Stephen Greenblatt's recent "Will in the World." Rosenbaum's dogged pace shows his journalistic knack for standing outside the "public fiascos, palace coups" of his book's subtitle, the better to examine "clashing scholars." Digging in, he holds his ground against formidable experts.

He's able to summarize Stephen Bloom's rhetorical application of antanaclasis in Sonnet 40: "like pulsating alliteration, evokes a sense of insecurity, of flux, of motion..." (471) This whole book, in fact, is Rosenbaum's effort to come to grips with a day as a grad student at Yale when he first realized this disassociation, this suspension between meanings, this either-and-or-plus-more capability that he argues Shakespeare, more than any other writer ever, at his best conveys to us. Still, this "exegetical despair" at never having enough time to get to the bottom of Shakespeare's "floating signifiers" persists.

In fact, Rosenbaum's status as a drop-out from an Ivy League doctoral program in English enables him to return to textual studies, critical debates, academic cogitation, and performance anxieties with aplomb-- and perhaps a wish to settle scores with fusty scholars and fussy thespians.
I found myself certainly eager to return to my student seminar on Lear, to pick up for the first time since college Antony & Cleopatra, or to re-discover the overlooked Troilus & Cressida. But, admittedly, the amount of detail, the intricacy of the arguments, and the rapidity with which parts of this study move too quickly all present any prospective reader of "The Shakespeare Wars" (not the best title, either) with reason to reflect. This book took me over two weeks on and off, and it demands-- as is only fair given its subject-- close attention and unwavering recall.

Often Rosenbaum sets up a point that he may not return to for hundreds of pages; he takes up as an aside concerns that far ago at a later stage in his quest to uncover Shakespeare's spell. He expects more than that elusive "generally educated reader" for you need to have read the plays he talks about. No plot summaries here; he takes what is odd for a mass-market account of the drama in that he writes at a level thankfully more accessible than the usual critic (which isn't hard these days, admittedly) but nonetheless a tone that implies on every page you need to have done as nearly an intensive scrutiny of the plays as he has had the stamina, the intellect, and the passion to pursue over thirty-five years.

The high points for me were his treatment of Shylock as performed too genteely by actors today afraid to admit that Shakespeare may have been one of his time and not above it in some universalist humanism in presenting a Jewish villain. Rosenbaum confronts Steven Berkoff and Henry Goodman, both British Jewish actors who in Rosenbaum's estimation have with varying degrees of success tried to make this play and its main character still worthy of a post-1945 performance of a drama more controversial now perhaps than it presumably in Shakespeare's London. Rosenbaum's own determination to argue for the play's antisemitism as its central and essential core despite "universalist" efforts to soften its edge make for stimulating reading.

He follows with a suitable interlude showing that Shakespeare on film for us can outshine its theatrical productions today-- by virtue of close-ups, subtle vocal expression, voiceover of soliloquys, and crafting of scenes without the stage's necessity to thunder out and soldier on for hours more. He recommends Welles' Falstaff, Burton's Hamlet, Olivier's Richard III, and Brook's Lear above all else. To his credit, he gives fair space to Harold Perrineau's stunning Mercutio in Luhrmann's Romeo; on the other hand he barely mentions Taymor's Titus, Parker's Othello, Branagh's Hamlet & Henry or Almeyredra's Hamlet although he seems to like much in them at their best. Not to mention his lack of explanation of what's good and bad in the 1980s BBC TV series that filmed for the first time the entire set of plays. Much more is needed than what his film chapter gives.

Too often, Rosenbaum mentions asides that to me proved more appealing than his main examples. I never figured out what adds up from Brook's "Secret Play" concept or the cumulative effect on stage of Cic Berry's vocal experiments in rehearsals. The Socinian heresy may have much to suggest about Merchant and Empson in "Milton's God" had much to provide about the Doctrine of Christian Satisfaction, but Rosenbaum raises such points only to then rush past them in his determination to transcribe yet another interview with an actor or director. These conversations are often enlightening, but there lurks an understandable if still awkward tendency of the journalist to put himself too forward as the antagonist, the devil's advocate, the naysayer.

There are places, as with his demolishment of Harold Bloom's ridiculous claims for Falstaff as the epitome of Shakespeare's "invention of the human" as we have inherited his conceptual paradigm, where he seems to have that personal agenda come out too much. Revenge for those Yale sherry parties when he witnessed his classmates fawning over Bloom is understandable. But it does undermine the intellectual rigor of his critique of that orotund mandarin.

Unfortunately, this hefty and handsomely designed book lacks any way to track down quotations from his sources. Bibliographic endnotes are engrossing, but the lack of specific citations for hundreds of quotes is disappointing in a book that tries to connect a wider audience to insider debates. Despite an imperfect result, this is one of the rare books that bridges the gap between the ranks of (in the phrase of one of them, Linda Charnes) "yuppie guerrilla academics" and the rest of us. Rosenbaum, for all this book's unevenness and exhausting mass of half-digested material, cares about getting us to share his enthusiasm. Pleasure-- how rarely do we find this concept at the heart of a critic's search for aesthetic wonder? Grace, infinitude, love, sea change, the abyss, forgiveness, transport outside of ourselves: Rosenbaum seeks the source of his "reader reception" by hunting down everyone he can who may guide him to the elusive source of Shakespeare's power and control over him-- and, he urges, if we wish to follow him, Shakespeare's trail blazed for us.

I don't understand, apropos, why Rosenbaum agrees with an assertion that we are the last generation who will be able to comprehend Shakespeare's language before it becomes as antiquated and inaccessible as is Chaucer's Middle English to non-specialists. He raises this point, typically, but never elaborates on it. He raves about Kevin Kline's Falstaff but skims over how Kline's acting in part 2 of Henry IV alters from part 1: a topic that previously Rosenbaum insists upon for many detailed pages. Too often, Rosenbaum seems so excited about his adventure that he forgets we have a hard time keeping up with his dash.

He's no Bardolator. Rather, he wishes us to uncover the intensity of what we read and witness as "the language of thought" as it emerges onto paper or into the spotlights. He argues for what matters in Shakespeare as an aesthetic achievement-- in fact one more apparent to those of us outside today's academy. We may be mocked by those claiming "the institutionalist debunking of the bourgeois subject" from ivory towers to speak rather for the oppressed. I teach some of these less- privileged, literarily-challenged students every day, far from the Ivy League. I'd ask Charnes: how should I teach them Shakespeare? How explain his appeal to the person next to me on the bus? Getting "ordinary folks" to understand a bit of Shakespeare's art brings the original aim of the playwright home. As one critic mentions, anyone can experience the complex reactions Rosenbaum or critics or directors know. The only difference is that the professionals know how to articulate it, and can re-experience it with increasingly adept awareness. What Wordsworth labelled as simultaneous dissassociation and association: this quality marks Shakespeare's inexhaustible, endlessly renewable "moral complexity" as well as artistic achievement.

The inexhaustability of good art may sound old-fashioned, but Rosenbaum near the opening of his book shows how Shakespeare rewards our investment-- with compound interest. For many people today, accustomed to obvious presentation of vapid messages, Shakespeare may nudge them out of their shell. They are often scared of him. Rosenbaum likewise demystifies Shakespeare for a wider audience. He understands the academic arguments and translates their findings to those of us whom scholarly articles and learned books may rarely reach: the common reader.

Fascinating, inspiring... but oh, SO irritating.......2007-03-25

Absolutely great, stimulating material. Rosenbaum has both thought deeply about Shakespeare and had the contact with leading critics and directors to make this a compelling intellectual journey that anyone with a deep interest in Shakespeare should read. In fact, I know of no similar book, one that so carefully and successfully treads the narrow line between scholarship and journalism.

All that said, the incomplete sentences irritated me increasingly as I got deeper into the book. They make the reader stumble, and they're unnecessary. Interestingly, they don't seem to be a hallmark of this writer's other work, at least judging from his compendium of essays published as The Secret Parts of Fortune. Why here, then? I have no idea, but they detracted seriously from what would otherwise be one of the best books I've read in quite a while.

Get Excited about Shakespeare...that's the Message........2007-03-23

With so many excellent books about Shakespeare, where do you start...with Harold Bloom or Ron Rosenbaum? What book would you give to the teenager who is afraid of the Bard. I would select this book, not because it contains the best analysis of the plays, but because it imparts an infectious enthusiasm that is irrepressible. Over and over again, the author talks about how HE reacts to a performance or a line or a film of the Bard...and that is good. He starts with his overwhelming experience of seeing (Peter Brook's) Midsummer Night's Dream in Britain, an experience perhaps similar to the ecstasy of St. Theresa in brushing close to God. (I never saw that performance but I was impressed with Max Reinhardt's black and white film of the DREAM produced in 1935)

Let's take an example of how he approaches Shakespeare. He rails against the recent attempts to soften Shylock and the anti-semitism of the Merchant of Venice. In response, I believe that Shylock is a deeply complex character and that the recent attempts such as Al Pacino's film performance are valid. The point is not the argument but that the author forces us to think about the issue. Again, that is good. Thus, I wholeheartedly recommend the volume to get excited about the meanings of the plays.

Ron Rosenbaum deliberately avoids discussing the biography of Shakespeare and indeed argues that much of the biographical work is counterproductive. To him what matters are Shakespeare's words, not Shakespeare's bed partners. The argument against the biographies is a point well taken. To quote the author, we don't know much about Homer yet we can still read and appreciate his Illiad and Odyssey just the same. Indeed.

Africa Bible Commentary: A One-Volume Commentary Written by 70 African Scholars

Average customer rating:

Comprehensive and Culturally Relevant
I love this thing!
One of a kind commentary on the Bible
Perfect Gift
Excellent blend of African culture and scripture

Africa Bible Commentary: A One-Volume Commentary Written by 70 African Scholars

Manufacturer: Zondervan
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Christianity | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books

General | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 0310264731

Book Description

The Africa Bible Commentary is unique. Written by African theologians and produced in Africa, it is the first one-volume commentary ever created to help pastors, students, and lay leaders in Africa apply God’s Word to distinctively African concerns, yet its fresh insights will have a universal appeal.

Customer Reviews:

Comprehensive and Culturally Relevant.......2007-07-31

The "African Bible Commentary" is written by and for the Evangelical Protestant Community. All 70 African scholars signed the statement of faith of the Association of Evangelicals in Africa. Thus readers receive a comprehensive and culturally relevant conservative theology applied to African Christian living.

It truly is a unique book--the first one-volume Bible commentary produced in Africa by African theologians to meet the needs of African pastors, students, and lay people. However, African American believers, and for that matter, all Christians, will find this book refreshing and encouraging, as well as biblically informative.

Reviewer: Bob Kellemen, Ph.D., is the author of Beyond the Suffering: Embracing the Legacy of African American Soul Care and Spiritual Direction, Soul Physicians, and Spiritual Friends.

I love this thing!.......2007-02-22

After serving in West Africa on the mission field for a short time, I can instantly see the value of this book both for African scholars, those who teach and work with them, as well as a multi-cultural introduction to the Bible. Excellent insights, some of them seem to recycled Western ideas, but also shows the universality of the teaching of Scripture. Evangelical, Bible-believing, solid, well-thought. A good one volume to add to your library.

One of a kind commentary on the Bible.......2007-01-15

It is most amazing that in an Africa beset by tribal conflicts there could be such unity among those who call themselves Christian leaders to put together a book like this. It is a testimony of what God's love in people can do to make life different for them as they strive to teach others the Way. The book is well done and uses much from African culture to help us understand the Bible better. I love the use of African proverbs in explaining the Bible. I use it every day in my personal Bible study.

Perfect Gift.......2007-01-12

Our pastor has been preparing for a trip to Cameroon. When I gave him this book, he was very impressed with the content--so impressed we decided it was the perfect gift to take to the head of the missions board in Africa.

Excellent blend of African culture and scripture.......2007-01-12

This is a great effort by African scholors from all over Africa to educate African people about Christianity. "In Africa, Christianity is a mile wide and 1" deep." (Quoted from the ABC.) For me, as a non-African interested in supporting ministry for the Maasai in Kenya, it is a way to understand the Bible from a new point of view. Excellent, incredible work.

Fabricating Jesus: How Modern Scholars Distort the Gospels

Average customer rating:

Strong and Clear
Craig A. Evans Scores a Bulls-Eye with this One
A pocket guide to what's wrong with liberal scholarship
Revealing
Sane approuch to history

Fabricating Jesus: How Modern Scholars Distort the Gospels
Craig A. Evans
Manufacturer: IVP Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

General | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0830833188

Book Description

Modern historical study of the Gospels seems to give us a new portrait of Jesus every spring, just in time for Easter. The more idiosyncratic the portrait, the more it departs from the traditional view of Jesus, the more attention it gets in the popular media. Why are scholars so prone to fabricate Jesus? Why is the public so eager to accept their claims without question? What methods and assumptions predispose scholars to distort the record? Is there a more sober approach to finding the real Jesus?

Renowned evangelical New Testament expert Craig A. Evans takes an evenhanded, informed approach to these fascinating and timely questions.

Market/Audience

Professors and students
Pastors
Thoughtful laypeople

Features and Benefits

Written by Craig A. Evans, widely known for his contributions to the study of the historical Jesus.
Craig A. Evans is frequently consulted for television shows regarding the historical Jesus (Dateline, National Geographic special on the Gospel of Judas).
Suggests right use and wrong use of critical methods, including text criticism, cultural studies and Gnostic Gospels.
Offers a sober perspective on recent controversial books such as Misquoting Jesus, The Jesus Papers, The Jesus Dynasty and the Gospel of Judas.

Customer Reviews:

Strong and Clear.......2007-07-17

This book combines powerful arguments, ease of readability, and proper citation to authority. His footnotes are cited meticulously, and offer resources for further research. I found myself hungry for even more arguments against early dating of Thomas (and the other non-canonical works) than Evans offers, but the arguments that Evans does advance are very strong. Evans also does not waste pages with verbal "fluff."

What I found most satisfying about this work is Evans' direct interaction with many popular critics like Elaine Pagels, J.D. Crossan, Robert Price, and Bart Ehrman.

The only "fad" theory that Evans does not address is the mythicist position (the idea that there never was a historical Jesus of Nazareth). I believe Evans should have done so. Although there is only one living scholar with a Ph.D in a relevant field who holds to the mythicist position (Robert Price), and althought the mythicist position is overwhelmingly rejected by scholars of all religious persuasions, Evans should have addressed the mythicist claims because they are popular among everyday people. Regardless of its wide rejection among scholars, mythicism is a view that must be contended with if Christians wish to connect with everyday people.

Craig A. Evans Scores a Bulls-Eye with this One.......2007-07-09

Craig A. Evans provides the laity with a concise and scholarly approach to defending the historical Jesus in this 11 chapter volume entitled Fabricating Jesus. With the recent slew of books presenting theories of alternative Jesus(es) and Christianities in the last few years (e.g. The Da Vinci Code; The Jesus Papers; The Jesus Dynasty; Misquoting Jesus; etc.) Dr. Evans decided to weigh in with a fair and careful approach to the subject of the historical Jesus and early Christianity.

Dr. Evans is a credentialed scholar (PhD from Claremont Graduate University in Biblical Studies) with experience in all of the necessary fields of research (i.e. second temple Judaism; archeology; Rabbinic literature; textual criticism; Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek, Coptic; etc.) to set forth a meaningful response to what has been published on this subject in recent (and some not so recent) years. He begins the book with a brief testimony recounting his college career and subsequent conversion that led him from dreams of law school into seminary. He tells of taking an advanced course in Greek where he read the synoptic gospels in one semester and became "hooked on the life, teaching, and world of Jesus." [9] This led to his pursuit of doctorate in Biblical Studies.

Evans makes it clear that this book was "written at the popular level and is primarily intended for nonexperts who find much that has been said about Jesus in recent years terribly confusing." [14] Well, mission accomplished as Dr. Evans has produced a volume that is reader friendly no matter what your background in Biblical studies may be. He takes the time to carefully define terms and then use them consistently throughout, not falling into the excessive synonym trap that so many popular authors do in an attempt to diversify their writing. And Evans has an uncanny way of making even the most complicated and admittedly boring subject matter (e.g. papyri fragments of late 2nd century Gnostic literature) fun to read about and easy to understand.

In his first chapter entitled Misplaced Faith and Misguided Suspicions Dr. Evans outlines what he believes to be the two most common kind of critics (i.e. Old and New School Skeptics)--but this does not come before criticizing some conservative Christian apologetic methods first (i.e. C.S. Lewis' Trilemma [20]) which only show Dr. Evans' even-handed approach to the subject. He is not blindly holding to a position for the sake of its tradition but rather is honestly and critically examining the evidence and drawing his conclusions from there, and for this he should be commended.

Dr. Evans says in defining the terms used in the title of the chapter,

By misplaced faith I mean placing one's in the wrong thing, such as believing that the Scriptures must be inerrant according to rather strict idiosyncratic standards and that we must be able to harmonize the four Gospels. If our faith depends on these ideas, especially in rigid terms, then scholarly study may well lead to a collapse of faith. [21]

Before my Evangelical brethren jump out of their skin and get the torture stake and torches ready, Dr. Evans is making a very important point, that being that the Bible was not composed by Evangelical, fundamentalist Christians, so for us to impose such modern views on the text itself is wrong and when careful and serious research is done, these views may crumble. He is not contending that God is able to err in some way or that the Scriptures are not trustworthy, but he is being honest and placing things in perspective.

He goes on to make what I feel is a very important and foundational point in saying,

By misguided suspicions I mean the unreasonable assumption that Jesus' contemporaries (that is, the first generation of his movement) were either incapable of remembering or uninterested in recalling accurately what Jesus said and did, and in passing it on. What we have here is a form of hypercriticism that is all too common in scholarly circles and sometimes seems to arise from confusing criticism with skepticism--that is, thinking that the more skeptical the position, the more critical it is. Radical skepticism is no more critical than is credulity. [21]

Truer words have never been spoken as it is clearly the postmodern mindset to discount the Gospels and what they tell of the historical Jesus because they were written by (God forbid) believers.

In the following chapter Cramped Starting Points and Overly Strict Critical Methods, Dr. Evans documents some of the presuppositions held and some of the methodology used by radical groups such as the Jesus Seminar in their approach to New Testament and historical Jesus studies. In this chapter he asks and answers some questions that are raised by critical scholars such as: Was Jesus Illiterate? Was Jesus Interested in Scripture? Was Jesus Interested in Eschatology? Did Jesus Understand Himself to be Israel's Messiah? And from there he goes on to discuss the criteria of authenticity (e.g. Historical coherence, Multiple attestation, Embarrassment, Dissimilarity, Semitisms and Palestinian background, Consistency) and reiterates a point that he made in the opening chapter. Again Dr. Evans says,

Some scholars seem to think that the more skeptical they are, the more critical they are. But adopting an excessive and unwarranted stance is no more critical than gullibly accepting whatever comes along. In my view, a lot of what passes for critical is not critical at all; it is nothing more than skepticism masking itself as scholarship. [46]

He then spends the next two chapters examining questionable texts to include the Gospel of Thomas, The Gospel of Peter, the Egerton Gospel, the Gospel of Mary, and the Secret Gospel of Mark. After thoroughly examining these documents according to their manuscript evidence, their historical contexts, and their theological leanings, Dr. Evans concludes that all of them are of late origin and certainly not capable of telling us anything about the historical Jesus, especially over and against the first century New Testament Gospels.

In chapter 5 entitled Alien Contexts, Dr. Evans dismantles the theory that Jesus was a cynic or that he had ever even come into contact with a cynic or been exposed to cynicism. His method for doing so was concise yet meticulous. He documents everything from the geographical area of Nazareth in relation to the next major city Sepphoris and the thorough Jewishness of these areas (with the utter absence of cynicism) based on archeological investigation and primary historical sources, to the practices of ancient cynics and Jesus' contradiction of such practices as recorded in the Gospels.

In chapter 7 Dr. Evans discusses the healings and miracles of Jesus and provides us with a very important insight that is overlooked by the hyper-skeptical scholars (for an example of this see Bart Ehrman and William Lane Craig's debate on the resurrection here, p. 9-13) when he says:

Today, scholars are more open to talking about the miracles of Jesus because they rightly recognize that the task of the historian is to describe what people reported and recorded. It isn't the historian's task to engage in science and metaphysics. In other words, it is enough that historians acknowledge that Jesus' contemporaries observed what they believed were miracles; historians should not try to explain exactly what Jesus did or how he did it. [139]

Evans follows up with a chapter on the Dubious Uses of Josephus wherein he documents the skeptic's tendency to take Josephus on face value without accounting for the social and political climate surrounding him--a climate that colored his reporting of the facts. He records Josephus' accounts of Jesus, John the Baptist, James the brother of Jesus, Pontius Pilate, and the high priests Annas and Caiaphas. He also makes mention of Josephus' contemporary Philo of Alexandria and his documentation of the historical Jesus.

In chapter 9 Evans speaks of the origins and beliefs of early Christianity while completely refuting the idea of multiple Christianities and a host of lost gospels in the first century. Chapter 10 has Dr. Evans exposing the fraudulence of Hokum History and Bogus Findings wherein he dismantles everything from Barbara Thiering's private interpretations of ancient documents via ciphers and codes that no one but she understands, to Michael Baigent's acceptance of legends such as the Holy Grail, to respected and credentialed scholar Dr. James Tabor's assertion that Jesus' father was a Roman Soldier names Pantera (Panthera) based on the testimony of an 3rd century heretic names Celcus and early Patristic writers' reactions to these claims, as well as the tombstone of a Roman Solider found in Germany in 1859! This is hardly the stuff that good history is made of.

Dr. Evans closes out the book with a chapter setting Jesus in his historical context of second temple Judaism. He documents Jesus' self-understanding as well as his disciples' understanding of him. The crucifixion and resurrection are addressed as well as the rise of early Christianity in response to these events. The book is rounded out with 2 appendices one on the Agrapha that documents a handful of non-canonical sayings that are attributed to Jesus and critiquing them. The ultimate conclusion is that they give us no new information either way about what Jesus did or taught--and the other appendix on the Gospel of Judas which Dr. Evans was a part of the research team put together by the National Geographic Society to study. The conclusion there was that it is a real document that is too late to tell us anything of vital importance about the historical Jesus and it does not offer a valid rivalry to the New Testament Gospels.

Evans also included a helpful glossary and endnotes for further research into the subject matter of this work. The recommended reading list is also a nice little bonus as there are some great titles in it. I recommend this book for anyone interested in the historial Jesus as well as those who are tired of hearing the ridiculous claims that seem to be made every Christmas and Easter season concerning our Lord and Savior. I also recommend this for the intellectually honest skeptic who is willing to examine the evidence in context.

A pocket guide to what's wrong with liberal scholarship.......2007-07-03

Evans has written a terrific book refuting liberal scholarship. And it's needed, since bookstores now overflow with tomes saying that Jesus never existed, and that there were many earlier, better flavors of Christianity. A further bonus is that Evans writes well. He doesn't let a sentence stagger on for two pages.

Among the highlights:

1. Jesus claimed he was the Messiah. Recent scholarship makes this clear. In the Dead Sea Scrolls "an Aramaic text that dates to the first century B.C." (p 45) the Messiah is called the "Son of God". So when Jesus called himself the son of God he was not merely saying he was one of many sons of God.

2. No, there were no earlier, better Christianities. The raft of new gospels that have been discovered prove nothing except that Christianity had a huge impact upon society. So great an impact that schools of philosophy ended up stealing Christian ideas and themes. And, in fact, one of the great unasked questions in liberal scholarship is: why did the gnostics need to steal Christian themes and claim they were written with secret information from various apostles? Why did Christianity add such a gloss of respectability? I would like to hear Bart Ehrman explain why all these schools of gnosticism had to steal themes from Christianity. At any rate, the gnostic gospels are not to be compared to the gospels of the New Testament because they were written long, long after the original four gospels were written. A good case in point is the Gospel of Thomas. "In a recent study by Nicholas Perrin" (p 73) it is clear that Thomas was derived from Tatian.

3. Jesus was not a wandering Cynic. As all recent archaeological evidence has shown, there is not the smallest evidence of a Cynic anywhere near Nazareth. Even the nearest city, Sephoris, a bare 4 miles away, showed no Greek influence prior to 70 AD.

4. Evans also provides an interesting review of scholarship regarding the parable of the wicked vineyard tenants. The parable has been shown to be typical in tone and content with the era. And if it is an invention of the early Christians, why is there no mention of the resurrection?

5. He also points out that liberal scholars prefer to ignore the miracles of Jesus. Yet it was the miracles that drew so many to the religion. And his opponents were so frightened by the miracles they had to accuse Jesus of being in league with Satan, in a desperate attempt to explain them away.

6. Evans insists that "The Christian faith began with the resurrection of Jesus...There was no other 'Christianity' that thought otherwise" (p 191). The earliest evidence of Christianity we have is Paul, who was converted perhaps 3 years after the death of Jesus. Three years after that he went to Jerusalem and spent time with Peter and James. The old, old argument that Paul developed a whole new, strange Christianity is nonsense. The early Christians were all in constant contact with one another through journeys and letters.

7. If Jesus didn't assert that he was God, then why did all those other people understand him to be God?

8. So how did the early church begin? "Because of its firm belief that Jesus had been resurrected and had appeared to dozens even hundreds, of his followers" (p 233). From the very beginning, Christians went out with the good news that God had appeared among us, and that he had risen from the dead.

This is one book that needs to be in your library.

Revealing.......2007-06-03

Dr. Evans is one of academia's best scholars on the New Testament and through his studies, he has found not only support for the historical Jesus, but support that Jesus is Christ.

In this book, he lays out specific problems:
1. He debunks the attacks against the gospels.
2. He debunks the attacks against the historical Jesus.
3. He reinstates trust into the gospels and the canon.

Other recommended reading:
The Missing Gospels: Unearthing the Truth Behind Alternative Christianities - Debunks ideas that there are other gospels.

The Jesus Tomb: Is It Fact or Fiction? Scholars Chime In - Debunks ideas the Lost Tomb of Jesus

Sane approuch to history.......2007-06-02

Craig Evans has written another excellent book, Fabricating Jesus. Writing at a popular level, Craig exposes the obviously deceptive works such as the Da Vinci Code, Holy Blood and the Holy Grail, The Dead Sea Scrolls Deception, The Jesus Papers, The Pagan Christ, The Jesus Seminar, and other books. Craig also exposes the errors of the misguided and dangerous skeptical scholars like Bart Ehrman, J.D. Crossan, James Robinson, Robert Price, Michael Baigent, and James Tabor. Thier misinformed pseudo-scholarship presents a "newer, radical, minimalist, revisionist, obscurantist and faddish versions of the Jesus story." These crazy books are being embraced by a gullible, postmodern, irrational society. Most of these authors have an anti-Christian agenda, usually with bad guys, like the truth-suppressing Vatican, and some claim a high-ground of schlarship or mystical insight that we ill-informed don't posses. Most of these charlatans start by seeking what they want to prove and only deal with the evidence that supports it.

These books do not follow recognized standards of critical investigation and are not based on credible evidence. Craig points out the short comings of these authors, while he defends the early writers, the original witnesses to the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, showing that the original documents are the most reliable.

Craig details the work of several skeptical scholars, past and present, analyzing their work and exposing the weaknesses of their case. He does this with professional elegance, never attacking on a personal level, but strictly debating their claims. He devotes several pages to current scholars, such as Bert Ehrman, James Tabor (he describes Tabor as a "legitimate, properly trained archaeologist" but I to not believe that is entirely accurate), Robert Funk, Robert Price, and others.

Craig does an excellent job exposing the errors and motives of the Jesus Seminar. This narrow selection of liberal New Testament scholars had critical flaws with their methodology. In particular, their uncritical use of the Gospel of Thomas as a legitimate source of Jesus' sayings.

As Craig point out, "Some scholars seem to think hat the more skeptical they are, the more critical they are . . . it is nothing more than skepticism masking itself as scholarship. This way of thinking is a major contributor to distorted portraits of Jesus and the Gospels in much of today's radical scholarship."

Scholar's portraits and reconstructions of the historical Jesus are distorted when extracanonical gospels and sources, such as the Gospel of Thomas, the Gospel of Peter, or the Gospel of Mary, are treated as ancient and reliable as the canonical Gospels. These pseudo-scholars uncritically overvalue the material found in these late and dubious sources while dismissing the evidence found in the Canonical books. "Apart from the all-too-common human desire to challenge authority, it is hard to explain why scholars give such credence to documents that reflect settings that are entirely foreign to pre-A.D. 70 Jewish Palestine and at the same time reflect traditions and tendencies found in documents known to have emerged in later times and in places outside of Palestine."

The true historical Jesus is exciting and inspiring, and far more compelling than the minimalist revisionist version of Jesus. Anyone who wants to argue for a Gnostic, non-Jewish, non-eschatological, non-prophetic and non-messianic Jesus has a difficult case to make and the burden of proof sits heavily on them.

This book does is one of the best at challenging the skeptics. Another good one I recommend is Reinventing Jesus, by Komoszewski, Sawyer and Wallace. Both can be read without too much overlap.

Edge Chronicles 8: The Winter Knights (Edge Chronicles, The)

Average customer rating:

A band of friends joins forces to prevent trouble in this riveting adventure
The Quint Saga continues
Another great installation
Edge fans will love this one...
Endless adventures on the Edge

Edge Chronicles 8: The Winter Knights (Edge Chronicles, The)
Paul Stewart , and Chris Riddell
Manufacturer: David Fickling Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Action & Adventure | Literature | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

General | Literature | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

General | Ages 9-12 | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 0375837418
Release Date: 2007-02-13

Book Description

In the great floating city of Sanctaphrax, blizzards howl through the streets as the Edgeworld descends into an endless winter. Quint, the son of a sky pirate, has just begun his training at the Knights Academy—training that involves heading out over the Edge on tethers to develop his flying skills. But when Quint breaks the rules and heads out to Open Sky on his own, he runs into the great sky leviathans known as cloud-eaters and must use all his skill and ingenuity if catastrophe is not to strike the Edgeworld. . . .

Customer Reviews:

A band of friends joins forces to prevent trouble in this riveting adventure.......2007-04-14

THE WINTER KNIGHTS, telling of a giant city home to the Edgeworld's academics and headed by the Knights Academy where the best come to study. Student Quint, son of a sky pirate, faces his first year and the cold of winter: when disaster strikes, a band of friends joins forces to prevent trouble in this riveting adventure. Both will prove popular picks with their eye-catching covers and fantasy-based action.

The Quint Saga continues.......2007-03-19

"The Winter Knights" is another must-read installment of the amazing series "The Edge Chronicles". Picking up the story from the end of The Curse of the Gloamglozer (The Edge Chronicles, Book 4), this penultimate book of the Quint Saga covers the apprenticeship of young Quintinius Verginix at the prestigious Knights Academy, where he is chosen to continue his studies as the protégé of the Professor of Light.

Separated from his friend Maris and also from his father, Quint makes some new friends, and at least one bitter and dangerous enemy. The first part of the book deals with normal school endeavors such as prowlgrin rearing, skycraft model making and home room, but the Knights Academy is also riddled with intrigue, corruption and deceit, with conspirators lurking around every corner.

Winter has settled on Sanctaphrax, and the Hall Master of High Cloud is predicting the arrival of a Great Storm. Unfortunately, it's been a long time coming, and the cold is taking its toll on the floating rock. One after the other, the brave Knights Academic set off in their ships to retrieve precious stormphrax, without which the great rock would break loose of its moorings and float off to Open Sky.

It's soon up to Quint and his friends, the so-called "Winter Knights" to save the day, and the second part of the story is the most gripping, action-packed and bloody of the series so far. Murder, mayhem and treachery mixed with fierce battles and monster hunting lead to a cliff-hanger ending. If you're a fan of The Edge Chronicles, this is not one to be missed.

Amanda Richards, March 18, 2007

The Curse of the Gloamglozer (The Edge Chronicles, Book 4)

Another great installation.......2007-03-15

The Winter Nights (Edge Chronicles #8) is another great installation to the series. What I love about this book and the rest of the series is that each book could easily stand on its own or be read in any order, but when you put them all together, details from one or another book come out, showing the in depth connection of everything that happens in life.

As an adult I would definatly recommend this book to other adults as well as children.

Edge fans will love this one..........2006-05-04

I actually ordered this book from Amazon.uk-- couldn't wait for the latest installment in the Edge Chronicles to be released in the USA.

I thought this was one of the best Edge books. A caution-- these books aren't appropriate for very young children. Older kids will really enjoy them. (Adults, too!)

Endless adventures on the Edge.......2006-04-30

If you like to go into the impossible and dare to go into danger, this is the book for you. This book talks about Quint, an apprentice of two of the most powerful people around where he lives. He figures out a way to save his beloved floating city (Sanctaphrax) from flowing into an eternal winter. As you continue reading, Quint's life starts to unveil itself, and he does things he never thought he could do before. The Winter Knights is a guaranteed page turner!

Christianity and the Transformation of the Book: Origen, Eusebius, and the Library of Caesarea

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". . . we are still the heirs of Origen and Eusebius"

Christianity and the Transformation of the Book: Origen, Eusebius, and the Library of Caesarea
Anthony Grafton , and Megan Williams
Manufacturer: Belknap Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Early Civilization | Ancient | History | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0674023145

Book Description

When early Christians began to study the Bible, and to write their own history and that of the Jews whom they claimed to supersede, they used scholarly methods invented by the librarians and literary critics of Hellenistic Alexandria. But Origen and Eusebius, two scholars of late Roman Caesarea, did far more. Both produced new kinds of books, in which parallel columns made possible critical comparisons previously unenvisioned, whether between biblical texts or between national histories. Eusebius went even farther, creating new research tools, new forms of history and polemic, and a new kind of library to support both research and book production.

Christianity and the Transformation of the Book combines broad-gauged synthesis and close textual analysis to reconstruct the kinds of books and the ways of organizing scholarly inquiry and collaboration among the Christians of Caesarea, on the coast of Roman Palestine. The book explores the dialectical relationship between intellectual history and the history of the book, even as it expands our understanding of early Christian scholarship. Christianity and the Transformation of the Book attends to the social, religious, intellectual, and institutional contexts within which Origen and Eusebius worked, as well as the details of their scholarly practices--practices that, the authors argue, continued to define major sectors of Christian learning for almost two millennia and are, in many ways, still with us today.

Customer Reviews:

". . . we are still the heirs of Origen and Eusebius".......2007-10-02

There is much to like about this book. While a few assertions and historical models are certainly debatable, Grafton and Williams have authored a fascinating account of the origin of rigorous western scholarship. Among the giants of philological erudition and text collection, preservation, translation and analysis, Origen was a titan of the titans. His Hexapala "was one of the greatest single moments of Roman scholarship," and he has cast a very long shadow in which we stand today. Of course, he didn't live and work in an intellectual vacuum, as the authors demonstrate at some length. The following excerpts will lend some small sense of their book:

". . . the scholars of Christian Caesarea lived in a time of seismic cultural change, a time when one regime of book production and storage supplanted another . . . they were themselves impresarios of the scriptorium and the library, and developed new forms of scholarship that depended on their abilities to collect and produce new kinds of books . . . they struggled to devise texts that could impose order on highly varied forms of information. . .
". . . Christian scholars used written materials--both those they inherited from others, and those they created themselves--in ways that drew upon classical precedents, but they also developed these in new directions. They made their technical mastery of the production of complex books the basis of new kinds of intellectual authority, which in turn shaped new modes of scholarly inquiry. . . We in the modern university owe a great debt to this particular strand of the Christian intellectual tradition."

Babylon Rising: The Secret on Ararat (Lahaye, Tim F.)

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Tim Lahaye book series
Cartoonish
Disappointed.
Babylon Rising: The Secret on Ararat
Wonderful, Wonderful, Wonderful....

Babylon Rising: The Secret on Ararat (Lahaye, Tim F.)
Tim Lahaye , and Bob Phillips
Manufacturer: Bantam
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

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Biblical | Fiction | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0553803239
Release Date: 2004-08-31

Book Description

Tim LaHaye, creator of the phenomenally successful Left Behind® books, continues his newest top-ten New York Times bestselling series: Babylon Rising. The heroic Michael Murphy—“cool, brainy, sexy, and valiant”—hurtles into his second whirlwind adventure in pursuit of Biblical artifacts.

In Babylon Rising Tim LaHaye began an adventure series that he calls even more exciting than his 50-million-plus-copy bestselling Left Behind series. Readers agreed, as the novel debuted as a top-ten New York Times bestseller.

Now, in the second Babylon Rising novel, Biblical scholar, archaeologist, professor, and hero for our times Michael Murphy is in pursuit of one of the most mysterious and sought-after of all Biblical artifacts, Noah’s Ark. As Murphy undertakes his death-defying quest to ascend Mount Ararat, he will discover dramatic revelations of Biblical prophecies and be drawn even closer to the most terrifying evil about to be unleashed on all mankind.

With The Secret on Ararat following close on the heels of Glorious Appearing, the fastest-selling Left Behind novel ever, Tim LaHaye will further prove to be one of the most fascinating and popular storytellers of our time.

Customer Reviews:

Tim Lahaye book series.......2007-09-08

I ordered and received in excellent time all 4 of Tim Lahaye books. All were received at the very best price and in excellent condition.

Cartoonish.......2007-05-15

This is an entertaining light read for teens, with a very superficial "good guys vs. bad guys" kind of plot. The villians are all evil mustache-twirling types who threaten puppies, ha