Religion Books

Newbigin has a gift for making the profound understandable and the complex accessible to the lay reader and the church professional. This is must reading for anyone who is serious about evangelism in our pluralistic, post-modern society.

I cannot recommend this book too highly. Newbigin shows us how to avoid the pitfalls of liberalism and fundamentalism, and how to express the Gospel unequivocally in today's language. My heart raced throughout the process of reading this book and, when done, I started over and read it again.

This is simply a must read for bible believing christians. This is not a book that rants and raves about "bad pagans". No, this book is a very thoughtful work on the subject of the biblical gospel of Jesus as related to the various societies and cultures in a modern/post-modern setting. An eye opening work that should be learned from.

Though slightly pessimistic about the future of the church in the West, Newbigin provides a needed challenge to the modern church. The church in North America is in a new situation--there are a plurality of cultures represented in our major cities, and this plurality is spreading to smaller towns. How does the church reach out to and minister to their neighbor who is Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, or Jewish--when the impression given is that some of these individuals of other faiths are more devout and holy than many Christians that we may know? What is a proper posture to take when standing for "the fact of Jesus?" How is the church to minister in a post-Enlightenment context, which has created a different worldview from that which dominated for the first 1800 after the coming of the Messiah?

This book is a good read--it provides challenges and a loose framework for how to move forward.

Lesslie Newbigin was (and is, through his writings) a celebrated missiologist. While on the surface of it, this book gives the impression of being an eclectic mix of ideas, there is a fundamental cohesion to the book. In fact it represents a fundamentally new approach to missiology.

The book may arguably be said to have one underlying theme: epistemology, or the theory of knowledge. That is, how can we know? How can we have confidence in the gospel "in the midst of a plurality of cultures and religions"? Newbigin, in his own words, has "relied heavily on the work of Michael Polanyi." Polanyi's epic work "Personal Knowledge" was published nearly fifty years ago, and reveals what might be said to be a coherence theory of truth. That is, if one's beliefs should cohere as a whole, this should be a good indication of truth. Polanyi, however, adds a radical twist to this. He writes about "the coherence of commitment". That is, once one has formed a responsible opinion about "truth", one needs to commit to it passionately, and publish. Only in this way can one both display integrity, and submit one's "truth" to the scrutiny of others -- to be affirmed, modified, or perhaps even overturned. It is not hard to see how this relates to missiology. In terms of this view, the gospel requires commitment and proclamation. This in turn leads to a confirmation of its truth in various ways -- or it may lead to a revision of Christian beliefs and practices.

Newbigin further applies Polanyi's epistemology to virtually every aspect of Christianity. He undertakes a broad task of synthesis, or reconciliation, within the Church. He suggests "a third way of understanding Christian belief" -- a method which seeks to take Scripture on its own terms, and which (he hopes) would be acceptable to Christians of virtually every persuasion. This represents, arguably, much of the drawing power of Newbigin's ideas.

However, Newbigin's epistemology is not without its problems. Not least, Polanyi himself considered that there would be "absurdly remote chances" of successfully applying his philosophy to Christianity, and that even a witch doctor "may gain a limited justification within a society" (p. 318, Second Impression 1962). Further, it seems doubtful that Newbigin gives adequate account of how a living God might find a place within an (apparently) closed theory of truth.

All having been said, Newbigin is intellectually agile, he writes with conviction, and his ideas have a considerable reach. He also shares many interesting insights gained in missions over nearly forty years, as well as important observations on the Church in the West.

The World of Myth was my textbook for a college course on world mythology. It is a handy reference that brings together several myths from different societies under the general headings of: Creation, Flood, Afterlife, Apocalypse, Hero, Place/Object Myths, and so on.

The good news: it's useful to have these myths together in something of a synoptic format, such that the reader can easily draw lines of similarity and difference. All traditions are viewed equally, without preference to one or another as necessarily "more true". The author doesn't appear to take sides. Christian stories are told alongside those of ancient Greece, India, Africa, and so on. This seems like a reasonable way of doing business when it comes to mythology in an academic context.

The bad news: while I appreciate the work of Joseph Campbell and Carl Jung, their ideas do not represent the whole of scholarship on mythology. I agree with an earlier reviewer who pointed out a bias in the book toward universalist views. It would have been nice to see a broader palette of ideas represented, beyond just a couple of sentences in passing. Scholars such as Levi-Strauss, Malinowski, Burkert, Kirk, and Propp all presented interesting ideas that would be helpful to a study of mythology. There are certainly others as well, but these come to mind immediately.

In favoring the psychological/universalist view, we miss the ideas of the functionalist and structuralist schools (among others) and end up assuming too much about the "facts" of mythology. So while there's no bias in this book with regard to a particular religion and its set of stories, there is an academic bias that comes through in the author's prefatory remarks for each section.

Overall: while I think the coverage is not as broad as it could have been, for a basic understanding of myths, this is a good text. The real strength is in the organization of myths by category, to give students a feel for how societies have expressed similar (though not identical) ideas in their storytelling.

Thanks for the great service. I receieved my text book super quick and the communication was top notch. So I recommend this seller to everyone who needs text books for college.

I purchased this book for a college class - not only was it more economical to purchase from Amazon, but delivery was much quicker. This book is great as reference material, very easy to follow with a good layout. Index is actually useful to find specific mythological references through out the book. For the person who is just looking for some brief overview's of creation, flood, and god myths it is a good addition to the bookshelf.

Leeming is perhaps the premiere authority on comparative mythology today. He is the author and/or editor of numerous titles on the subject. The quality and depth of coverage of "The World of Myth: An Anthology" is no exception to his legacy of excellence. The book is loaded with bibliographies of the finest works ever written on the subject of mythology and religion. It is ideal as a foundation to mythology for anyone who wishes to take a personal journey through history, literature and religion.

Having reviewed this apparently popular textbook for a course on comparative mythology I am teaching, I can hardly believe that any university would permit its use, let alone that Oxford University Press would consent to publish it.

Leeming, based on his collected works, is a single-minded polemicist for universalism, goddess theology, and Jungian interpretation. All of his introductions present this interpretation as fact, and all the books in his recommended bibliography support it or can be distorted in order to do so. No dissenting voices are given so much as a footnote.

Worse, however, is Leeming's undiscriminating use of sources for the versions of myths he anthologizes. His main sources for Greek myth are the literary but highly unreliable Robert Graves (who retold myths in order to advance the thesis of his own _The White Goddess_) and Ovid, who despite his excellence as a poet can hardly be presented as an accurate mirror of Greek attitudes. Leeming also quotes an entirely erroneous passage on Mithras from _The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets_, a neopagan polemic written by Barbara Walker, whose only qualifactions are memberships in several mineralogical societies, and _Lost Goddesses of Ancient Greece_, from which he draws a version of the Pandora story reinvented, entirely out of the author's imagination, as a goddess myth.

It is difficult enough teaching modern students to appreciate the difference between primary and secondary sources without this muddying of the waters. Avoid at all costs.

The ideas and experiences noted in this book are very intriguing. If I was not familiar with the author, I would not have read beyond the first chapter, but because I have studied his other works, I studied it in it's entirety. I never thought that I could ever view conscious altering substances in quite the way that I now do. Read with an open mind or after reading his other work so that you will go into this material with respect for the author.

While Graham Hancock again makes a pretty good case for his controversial theories, I found this book somewhat redundant and lacking the appeal of some of his other books that I have read. While I found the illustrations from ancient writings facinating, his drug induced explanations from his "visions" became a little tedious. I thought the book could have been a lot shorter, and had a hard time staying with it after about the first 300 pages or so.
Although Hancock's ideas on the origins of religion in the human animal may be interesting from the anthropological point of view, it seemed to me that he had said all he really had to say long before the book was over.

Hancock's basic thesis has been well described by other reviewers below. H. champions the popular Lewis-Williams hypothesis that cave art reflects shamanic rituals performed under trance conditions (often induced by hallucinogenics). This hypothesis he connects to his own experiences of having met "alien intelligences" in his own hallucinogenic journeys created by ibogain, ayahuasca and Psilocybe, in which GH encounters Egyptian gods, ancestors, transcendental snakes and weirdly sinister alien types with slit eyes. Hancock then combines these pieces of information into the suggestion that human evolution has been guided since time immemorial (actually, since about 30 000 BC) by discarnate intelligences living in "other dimensions".

To prove this idea, GH goes fishing for corroboration: he finds it in tales of UFO abductees, who claim to have been taken onto alien spacecraft, hoisted with "implants" and forced to nurse alien-hybrid babies (i am not making this up). Then he is struck by the similarity of the fairy lore to UFO abduction tales... again, the idea is that these "alien" creatures have been with humankind from dawn of our consciousness and that they are responsible for its awakening -through trance states induced through dancing, sensory/physical deprivation or hallucinogenics. They may even have messed with our DNA where Hancock approvingly cites Narby's ideas about DNA as a "cosmic serpent".

Like most of Hancock's books, Supernatural is well-written, representing yet another display of a natural storyteller's talent for delaying hapless readers' gratification - all the while leading us along winding roads decorated with sightseeing trinkets represented by UFO abductees, DMT trippers, prehistoric caves, Francis Crick, therianthropes, spirits and San Bushmen from Southern Africa. The book is superbly illustrated with representations of cave art from Europe and Africa and has a great intro into the murky politics of prehistoric art scholarship. However, while pretending at practicing the art of investigative reporting and objective analysis, GH is anything but. This book is all about selective citation, where *only* case studies, theories and ideas that conform to GHs grand hypothesis are cited whereas opposing views literally don't exist, with the exception of those that are easily debunked (i.e., Lewis-Williams' detractors). In other words, this book is an entertaining read, nothing less... and nothing more.

Yet - if you do chance upon it, read it. You'll have a good time.

I enjoyed entertaining the hypothesis proposed in this book. The author does a very good job reporting research done by others that helps support his hypothesis, although the author tends to provide more "case examples" than is necessary in each sub-argument, making the book longer than necessary. However, the authors of the other work he quotes admit more testing/research is needed to help prove the "realness" of what is seen in their own and research subjects' ethnogenic experiences, and the author's own experiments with ethnogenic substances as reported in the book contain only some similarities to what he is arguing should be dominant staples in everyone's experiences with these substances, as his theory goes. Relatedly, I felt he did not perform enough attempts with each substance, or at least didn't report enough of them, for me to see that the few flashes of similarity he did experience support his main hypothesis. Similarly, I disliked how the book ended on an open-ended note where he had just consumed more substances as another "test," but that's it - book ends - no information about how that experience went.

Ultimately, more testing/research is needed; I hope there is, as there seems to be a strong case for this hypothesis...

Supernatural takes you on a classical Graham Hancock journey this time through the jungles and into the culture of the shamans. Hancock in this book combines historical research with experimentation of psychotropic hallucinogens such as ayawasca and DMT. The book focuses on phenomenological issues of consciousness and the evolution of constructive thought. The thesis of this book is essentially that the evolution of the human mind and thought from the ancient non-sophisticated cultures to our current super technologically advanced societies today, was facilitated by the virtue of conscious experimentation and experience with psychoactive plants which unlocked the secret wave lengths or channels of useful knowledge which exists in different wave lengths than the one`s we are commonly use to.

One of the issues Hancock focuses on is the historically accurate account given by Francis Crick that it was under the influence of LSD that he "saw" the double helix structure of DNA. Crick of course with Watson are the ones credited with elucidating the structure of DNA. Hancock also goes on to talk about his discovery that many cultures which use psychotropic plants prepared by shamans have a history of discovering very improbable and greatly hidden secrets. How he supports this assertion I do not know considering that the cultures today that continue to promote shamanic rituals are usually the most technologically backwards. Nonetheless, aside from simply the technological benefits that Hancock attributes to DMT and the like there are, he maintains spiritual benefits. He talks about how all of his life he suffered from migraines but after taking ayawasca several times his migraines are now gone. Here he seems to be crafting an interesting parallel to the hallucinogenic plants with modern interests in homeopathy and the like. Certainly the concept of nature plays a huge role in this book and it's message. One of the messages of the book is that human nature has become corrupted by the modern vices and pressures of a materialistically obsessed society and because of this corruption society has become ill. Hancock sees the shamanic culture and its rituals as part of the remedy for this ailment.

Hancock presents two theories for how shamanic rituals work on the conciseness. One is that when in "altered states of consciousness" one is actually connecting with another dimension of the universe or of being. In this dimension you can access secrets and valuable insights from actual living entitles on the other side. While a bit creepy and yet fascinating, I find this explanation hardly plausible. I know a few junkies (LSD users and such) and none claim to have "encounters with the ancient teacher of man kind," hence the subtitle of the book. The other theory however which I do find plausible, is that within our DNA, if say we were created by space aliens, as Crick supposed, or by God or an intelligent designer, as some suppose, then there could be already within our hardware, our DNA perhaps, messages and knowledge somehow imprinted into it waiting to be unlocked. This he speculates, within altered states of consciousness we can at times, "tap into" that valuable information source and reach different points of enlightenment. I cant say that this is actually the case or even a real possibility but I do find the idea worthy of being called "a theory" to some extent and it is to me very interesting. I would like to point out that when reading these kinds of books I take them as partially fictional and partially non-fiction. I don't consider this a scientific book of any merit but an exposé of a theory in the works. A little bit of paranormal pseudo-science mixed in with some real science and also a little novel like fictional account as well.

Throughout the book Hancock gives is interpretations of various ancient artwork and the like tying it all in with shamanic rituals. All in all the book was very entertaining but I wouldn't bother going out and experimenting with drugs. Just because one mad scientist claims that one LSD trip helped him to visualize the structure of DNA, it is not a worthy inference in my opinion to go out and use such drugs in hopes of a similar experience especially considering their dangerous track records.


Also one of the interesting facts and perhaps real original researched facts that was brought up in the book was the discovery of a particular plant that the ancient Egyptians used that had psychoactive properties. I find this of worthy note and very interesting in how it may have played a roll in their cultural manifestations, especially in the artwork that we see though out their great structures as in Abydos.

My greatest problem with the book was not its extreme theories about human development and the evolution of consciousness but the fact that the book drags on. Hancock just keeps traveling and looking at more and more ancient cave art and some of the examples are boring at best. He continues to use more and more DMT and extrapolate more and more possible insights about mans experiences with the ancient teachers of mankind which he affirms exist in other dimensions. The focus towards the end of the book was too much on the drugs and the ancient art work and not enough on the meaning and possible science of the experiences he is dealing with.

I say 4 stars because its far better than the usually drivel. I am a pretty liberal grader so it could have earned 5 but it needed to be more scientific for me to give it a full score.

Free Thinkers, a History of American Secularism by Susan Jacoby.
An easy read and very informative.
Now I know what a free thinker is, what Secular Humanism is and another part of America I never thought about.
This book is a must to understand the Secular side of America and how it influenced and changed our nation, for the good, down through history.

My review from White Crane Journal - Summer 2008

I was a history major in college and have retained a deep interest in historical subjects. I consider myself pretty well-read in history. My time in seminary and a lifetime in the church also left me with what I thought was a pretty good sense of the religious history of the United States. Then I picked up a copy of Susan Jacoby's best-selling book Freethinkers: A History of American Secularism and discovered how little I really knew. It would seem strange that a book about the secularist history of the United States would teach me so much about American religious history but as is often the case, you need to know both sides to understand the full story. Having read and enjoyed this incredibly well-researched and thought-provoking book, I now realize that what I most love about the religious contributions to American culture were forged and informed by its progressive and open exchange with secularists and freethinkers.

Freethinkers came out in 2004 and spent some time on the New York Times best seller lists so it is widely available in paperback now. I can say without reservation that it is the best book I've read this year and perhaps the most mind-altering book of history I've read in the last ten years. I cannot think of another book that left me with a clarifying "aha!" moment on almost every single page. I tend to read a few books at a time and I've enjoyed savoring Jacoby's writing. It is laid out in chronological order but its abundance of new information of a largely overlooked section of American history makes it an almanac of sorts on those figures who stood for free expression, for reason, and for a clear separation of church and state. There were many misconceptions about religion in American history that were deflated by this book. One discovers that in the colonial period it was the South, in states like Virginia and Georgia that the power of religion and of church structures was most fought, most notably by founding fathers Jefferson and Madison. The northern states were zealous in their desire to have an established church and to have religious tests for office-holders. It was Baptists in the South who, fearing the dominance of the Anglican/Episcopal church, wanted no church sponsorship of religion. Of course this geographic split would be reversed in a generation in ways that would echo the culture wars we are currently living in. This is the gift of Jacoby's book. So many "how did we get here?" questions, whether we have even known to ask them, are answered in her entertaining and informative writing.

Along the way Jacoby recovers some astounding exemplars of freethought--people like Robert Ingersoll. Known in his day as "the Great Agnostic," he drew enormous audiences to his live talks around the country and had the admiration of Mark Twain and Walt Whitman, who said that Ingersoll was "from head to foot [sic] is flushed with the square -- every line of him--of his books--bathed in justice, love of right, human generosity, to a degree I fail to find in any other." Ingersoll's words still resonate more than a hundred years later:

"For while I am opposed to all orthodox creeds, I have a creed myself, and my creed is this: Happiness is the only good. The time to be happy is now. The place to be happy is here. The way to be happy is to make others so. This creed is somewhat short, but is long enough for this life; long enough for this world. If there is another world, when we get there we can make another creed. But this creed certainly will do for this life."

We are in many ways indebted to Ingersoll for the fact that we even know and read Whitman's Leaves of Grass. As an attorney Ingersoll was instrumental in battling the Comstock censorship laws that barred the distribution of materials deemed "obscene." For years it kept Whitman's work from not only finding a publisher but from receiving a wide audience by mail. Ingersoll's importance to Whitman was clarified by the fact that the great "agnostic" speaker was chosen to give the eulogy at Whitman's funeral. Jacoby, in her sole appendix item, includes Ingersoll's moving tribute to Whitman's vision and importance.

Jacoby's book is thoughtfully written and such a pleasure. She does not have an axe to grind, but just tells the stories we have never been told. The book traverses through the history of the country and ends with a very pointed critique of how much we have lost by being cheated of this important history of freethought. Liberalism and skepticism and reason--those movements or understandings that have been so instrumental to a social and cultural relaxing around sexuality--are the result of individuals and movements for a rejection of illogical dogma and towards a clear-thinking approach to living life. We owe our liberty of mind and body to those who challenged the assumptions and laws of tradition and institution. Jacoby's book should be on every reading list this year.

Jacoby's latest book, The Age of American Unreason offers up a critique of the current war on intellect that we are living through in the United States. I look forward to reviewing it for these pages. But don't wait for me. Read Freethinkers and I suspect you will seek out Jacoby's newer book soon after. It's that well-written.

Dan Vera is managing editor of White Crane. He lives in Washington, DC where he writes poetry and organizes readings and other arts and culture events. Visit him at [...]

If you care about American history, read this book! You will be informed about the birth of the women's movement and the civil rights movement from their roots. You will learn why the Founding Fathers saw the need to balance the respective roles of religion and government for the benefit of both. You will be introduced to historical figures that were very influencial in their times who have been forgotten today. In short, you will discover American history that is ignored in most history books.

It is that, and a well researched and well written one at that. But more importantly, Jacoby even-handedly describes the history of the push and pull between the forces--religious, secular, political, etc--that have shaped the America we find ourselves in today. She lucidly uncovers the tangled history of this balance of power starting with the early Deists, Atheists, Universalists, Calvinists, and Baptists and moving through the Abolitionists, Suffragists, Jewish and Catholic immigrants, and so on. Yes, it's written from the point of view of the "freethinkers" of American history, but it is thorough history, not overly biased. In fact, it is somewhat surprising in the last chapter when she comes back to the proposition that modern freethinkers need to take on the mantle of Ingersoll and others, not just challenging established religion's role in government, but giving a strong voice to unbelief, and challenging the idea that religion (or belief in God) is a necessary prerequisite for moral standards and government.

....is secular government, the separation of church and state. Jefferson said it most eloquently when he spoke of a "wall of separation," and for once his actions fully complemented his words. Author Susan Jacoby recounts: "In 1799, Jefferson proposed a bill that would guarantee complete legal equality for citizens of all religions, and of no religion, in his home state of Virginia." Jefferson himself wrote that his bill "meant to comprehend, within the mantel of its protection, the Jew and the Gentile, the Christian and the Mahometan, the Hindoo, and infidel..." It took seven years of debate to pass Virginia's 1786 Act for Establishing Religious Freedom, urgently supported by James Madison but opposed by the Episcopalian and other mainline churches. Curiously, the "evangelical" Christian denominations of Virginia SUPPORTED this separation of church and state, seeing it as in their interest. Jacoby continues: the Jeffersonian Act, "much to the dismay of religious conservatives, would become the template for the secularist provisions of the federal Constitution." But the orator of freedom, Patrick Henry, who opposed Jefferson's Act with a counter-bill to assess taxes on all Virginians for the support of "teachers of the Christian religion," continued in opposition to the ratification of the Constitution.

Jefferson and Madison were recognized Freethinkers, commonly accused by their opponents of being atheists. "Freethinker" is a much more gracious term than the A-word, which has always been used dismissively and pejoratively. It was the term in common parlance, throughout most of America's history, for a menagerie of disbelievers in the established faiths: deists, universalists, agnostics, skeptics and honest atheists. Jacoby argues that it was an appropriate term in its times, and that "freethinkers" have until recently been significant players in the political and social development of the United States - among the leaders of reform movements including abolition, universal suffrage, women's rights, labor rights, and civil rights. It would not embarrass Ms. Jacoby to have it said plainly that she earnestly admires such freethinkers as Jefferson, Thomas Paine, William Lloyd Garrison, Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Abe Lincoln, the almost forgotten Ernestine Rose, Robert Ingersoll, Emma Goldman, John Dewey, and Clarence Darrow. Much of Joacoby's book is devoted to brief biographies of these crusading freethinkers.

An alternate title for this review might be "The Theocratically Incorrect Guide to American History." Jacoby insists, again and again, that the critical role of freethinkers and free thought movements in American history has been marginalized, deliberately at times, over the last 80 years of historiography. The greatest triumph of free thought, unfortunately, came first, with the writing of the Constitution on behalf of "We, the People" rather than "under God." Jacoby's discussion of the writing of the Constitution is one of the most lucid to be found. She calls attention, for instance to Article 6, section 3, which declares that "no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States." That declaration preceded the First Amendment, of course, and set the character of the Constitution as a rigorously SECULAR plan of government, just as Jefferson and Madison intended.

Opposition to the ratification of the now-revered Constitution began immediately, and much of it focused on the absence of a theocratic acknowledgement of the Christian religion. In other words, the "culture wars" of today, between secularists and fundamentalists, are nothing new. The unfortunate part of the history, from Jacoby's point of view as well as mine, is that the freedoms guaranteed by the secular Constitution have been under mounting attack throughout the 20th Century and have been egregiously eroded in recent decades. Jacoby reveals plenty about the agents of erosion, the shifting alliances and oppositions of various segments of Protestantism, the role of racialists and eugenicists in discrediting free thought movements, the gradual shape-changing of Catholicism from a minority that cherished the protection of secular government to a potent interest-bloc set on legislating its version of civil society, and the eternal efforts of the religious conservatives to damn by association all liberals and all freethinkers as socialist/communist radicals. This is not a dispassionate account of history, not by any means, but it is an extremely well-researched and well-documented account.

If there's one book of American history that I urge everyone to read this year, Susan Jacoby's "Freethinkers: a History of American Secularism" is that book. Even readers who know in advance that they'll hate it, readers who know themselves to be enemies of secular humanism, owe it as a duty of conscience to read this forthright defense of America's greatest innovation, the separation of government from religion.

I had to buy this book for my religion class at school, so on academic level its a good book that serves its purpose, but I wouldn't have bought it on my own....so its a great book if your into religions or taking a class, but I otherwise wouldn't have bought it because its not my passion per se.

My son needed this book for his class. It was delivered as promised and in very good condition.
Thank you.

Very insightful and thought provoking. Made me question many of my views and my perspective of other Christians.

so, from the beginning... its good. I mean you immediately get the sense of where it is going and which role Niehbur's interprets christ as playing but his interpretation of culture as "that artificial secondary environment that man superimposes upon the real..." is quite interesting. its something i can almost agree with, yet enjoy considering. creates a context for stimulating conversation about the substance of culture itself.

The only helpful thing in this book was the description of the five types. This does provide a framework for analyzing different position. The types could have been defined in a much shorter work.

The book does not offer clear Biblical argumentaion for or against differnt views. One flaw (which is apparently common in Liberal theology) is that he talks about the New testament writers postions as if they were contrary and not complementary to each other. For example he talks about Pauline and Johanine Theology as if they had separate, and contradictory on some points, views.

With each view Neibhur talks about a few historical people who have held this view. These people are for the most part extremist who have taken one idea and thrown out the rest of the Bible. The majority of them were heretics. The association of each view with some very extreme exponents of it may give the conservative Christian the impression that the view itself is heretical (Which it may or may not be).

More work needs to be done on this subject with Biblical argumentation for the different views.

If in reading this book you are (as I was) attempting to develop a Biblical theology of Christ and Culture I believe you will find it a dissapointment.

What do I mean by dated . . . but . . . foundational?

DATED
Christ and Culture has been around for over half a century now. When first penned it attempted to describe all the various ways in which Christians interact with culture, and make sense of it. The book was profound, for its time period. However, a lot of theology has been written since 1951 and culture has changed even more. At first glance the reader might find himself or herself toying with several ideas that are more recent than Niebur's.

FOUNDATIONAL
This book made such a splash that some Christian colleges adopted similar classes. This was the prevailing text. Therefore, most of the ideas on this subject that churn in the modern Christian reader's mind were formed in reaction to this book, even if the reader is unaware of it. Therefore, if the reader of today can grasp the concepts of this work, that reader will have a deeper understanding of his or her own beliefs.

RECOMMENDATION
This book is dated, but not outdated. Read it and compare it with newer works for a broader grasp of the subject. By the way, this is one of the most important subjects that today's Christian can wrestle with. Too many of our Christians react to culture with limited understanding of what they are doing or why they are doing it. We Protestants, of which I am one, are horribly weak in our understanding of what it means to be the Church of Jesus Christ in a fallen world.

I thought the 5 approaches were good but the reading is tedious and difficult. Actually, I thought the articles and reviews ABOUT this book were much easier to understand and more helpful on the subject than the book itself.

How would you like to learn to let go of anxiety? To get twice as much done with half the stress? To find a way to handle intimidating, unpleasant, or even boring tasks without having them take a bite out of you?
What if I told you that this would involve your investing a little over $10 and reading a 98-page book?
I thought you'd be interested.
Here's the deal. Sterner, a musician, a piano technician, a golfer, and an all-around sage (who would probably be a really interesting person to get to know) mined what he he had learned about repetitive tasks, like practicing music and golf swings (and, I guess, piano tuning and adjusting) and put it into a little book. No frills, no fancy language, no huffing and puffing about how profound he is, his message is, or anything else. And, at least from my experience and that of the other contented reviewers here, he got it right.
Um, sorry, that really should have been Got It Right. What he presents here is not novel - it's been around in recorded human wisdom for thousands of years - but it is simple, direct, and easy to apply. His basic principles are: attach to process (which you can control) not to outcomes (which you can't); accept yourself as embodying perfectly whatever stage of development you happen to be at - don't postpone happiness until you reach/have/attain something - break big projects down into tiny tasks; open yourself to learning from those around you and to joy, which is everywhere. He lays them out in simple, functional prose that anyone can read and understand.
This little book is a giant weapon in The War Against Suffering. Read it. Do what it tells you to do. Read it again. Do more of what it tells you to do. Praise it so that others will read it. Give it to your friends.
I've bought books here based on the reviews of others and it was clear to me when I saw the sorry things that passed for books that someone had self-published and then gotten friends to game the process. I don't know Sterner (my loss) and have no interest in doing anything except sharing my pleasure in having discovered this book.

Although I have bought and read literally hundreds of self help books in all categories through Amazon, the Practicing Mind by Thomas M. Sterner is by far the 1st book that has compelled me to write my very first Amazon review.

Their are many things that make this book stand out. It is very short, with absolutely, no-fluff or fillings, with the result that every word and every phrase really counts. Sterner's tone is also very down to earth and easy to understand without the use of any pretentious words. The book also has a few very good illustrations and stories to clarify the concepts presented in the book.

But what I think makes the book really practical is Sterner's realization and revelation that the key to success in any area of life is to acquire self-discipline through non-judgmental concentrated practice. Now, I know that this doesn't sound at all like a very profound or new revelation. But if you have been searching through hundreds of self help books - like I have been for the last few years - for the one key ( or system) that would enable me to become successful in improving my spirituality, my role as husband and father, time-management, health and exercise, writing, entrepreneurship and my other personal areas of interest that are of value to me - than the Practicing Mind will be of great value to you.

The Practicing Mind - is not a panacea to cure it all - but for me it turned out to be an amazingly simple and effective system to help me to systematically and measurably improve all the areas of interest in my life.

I highly recommend the Practicing Mind to anyone that has been searching for the key - no matter if you are just starting out or you already own hundreds or even thousands of self-help books - to order this book and put it into practice

I also highly recommend you to get to also get the audio version - as over the years I have realized that the best way to internalize the paradigms like the one presented in this book - is to listen to them over and over again preferably on a daily basis. The audio CD is read by Mr. Sterner himself and the author has a very calm and pleasant voice that helps transmits his ideas perfectly in the audio book version of this book.

Get The Practicing Mind. It might be the last personal self-help book that you ever order.....

Start with the best intention and commitment to accomplish a worthwhile goal only to see both wane in a short period of time. What causes this to occur and how to overcome it are the messages in Mr. Sterner's book.
In my opinion he is spot on in his assessment and advice. Accomplish much more with a marked improvement in peace of mind. If these results interest you, buy his book or his CD. Highly recommended.

Fantastic application of Zen meditation to everyday life. I am so much calmer after reading it.

Accomplished musician Thomas M. Sterner presents The Practicing Mind: Bringing Discipline and Focus Into Your Life, a guide to the concept of present moment awareness - something embraced as a vital part of a fulfilled life in Eastern cultures, yet relatively unknown in Western cultures. Chapters address how to foster desirable habits in oneself, improve skills through training and focus, teach and learn from children, and much more. "In summary, it comes down to a few simple rules. Keep yourself process-oriented. Stay in the present. Make the process the goal and use the overall goal as a rudder to steer your efforts. Be deliberate, have an intention about what you want to accomplish, and be aware of that intention. Doing these things will eliminate the judgments and emotions that come from a product-oriented or results-oriented mind." Highly recommended.

Is you mind transformed?
Do you still think the same way you did before you recieved Jesus as your Savior, Sanctifier,Healer and King?
Does you mind need to be renewed?

The Evidence of a Transformed mind is when the Impossible Seems Probabale?

You can live a Life of Miracles if you mind is transformed.

Bill Johnson, in this book leads you up the narrow path to this end.

Great eye opening -ear opening Book.

Thank you Bill.

If we are to see God for what is possible in His kingdom, you definitely need a different pair of lenses, it's not so much that you change what you know, but that you add to it, and that might make the biggest difference in your world.

The cover of the book looks kinda mystic, but don't let that fool you. We serve a God who is supernatural, as well as the natural, Bill Johnson shares his insights in a way that makes you nod and say, "Yeah, I always knew something like that but never had the words to describe it." For many Christians, books from and teachers like Bill Johnson may not suit their usual taste for mild "how-to-keep-from-sinning" theology. He plows forward, and has full regard for God's opinion of him, and doesn't worry too much about other people's criticisms on his quest to have more of God. If you truly believe that God created the world, gave His Son as the one adequate sacrifice to satisfy the appetite of the law, the concepts shared here are not hard to grasp. As with any book, any teaching, preaching, and even reading the Bible, have a Friend at your side to read with and guide you--the Holy Spirit.

This book is overflowing with dynamic revelation that could only come from God, Himself! Bill Johnson, the author of this book, clearly received and shared a heavenly download! Receive all he has imparted!

This guy has a true revelation! Buy it - read it - read it again!

This is a life changing book. The day of miracles is not over. Hundreds of miracles are taking place. Bill Johnson's book ignited a fire in me to see God move in my city. I was so impressed that I bought 15 copies and distributed to my pastors, church board members and a missionary returning to Africa. It's time for the church to realize again who we are. Bill Johnson quotes the Apostle Paul - it's not fancy words of man's wisdom, but in the demonstration of the power of the Holy Spirit. This book will challange you live beyond the status quo. Let His Kingdom come, here on earth, as it is in heaven

A very interesting view of Jesus. I highly recommend it if the old paradigm is not working for you. Who was Jesus really? What was the core of his message? Now what? This book answers those questions, and goes beyond. A great book on the historical,and spiritual, Jesus.

This book treats scripture with great respect. It also invites the reader to use one's common sense in seeking to understand the Jesus story. Faith + common sense is a powerful combination.

This book is part of a trilogy of short volumes on the same basic theme: understanding our hidden assumptions about God and Christ. If you like this one, you may also want to read Borg's "The God We Never Knew" and "The Heart of Christianity." You'll find considerable overlap among these three books, so skim along if need be.

Marcus Borg first published "Meeting Jesus Again" back in 1995. Twelve years later, it's still a hot seller for three good reasons:

1. The basic message is deeply provoking: How we "think about" Jesus has a profound impact on our personal faith and our overall relationship with God. Is Jesus the "King of Kings, Lord of Lords"...or was he a rabble-rousing prophet fighting against the authorities? Was he a "spirit person" with a special connection to the divine...or an ascetic martyr like John the Baptist? (Insert about a dozen other choices based on your own tradition.) How you answer those questions will ultimately define your own belief system -- like it or not.

2. Borg invites us to find answers that go beyond the tired cliches of established religion. This is both refreshing and frightening for many people because it makes us realize that the "official answers" aren't really answers at all -- just slogans. As a friend of mine says, "We're so focused on why Jesus died that we forget to ask why he lived..." Personally speaking, I'm tired of popular preachers who dwell on the crucifixion as some sort of cosmic "get out of jail free card" -- as if the rest of Christ's ministry doesn't really matter. That's the easy way out. (Joel Osteen, are you listening?)

3. Finally, Borg forces us to see Jesus in an entirely new light. For me, that means Jesus is challenging all of us to move beyond the familiar Pharisee mentality (characterized by purity, obedience, self-defined righteousness, us vs. them thinking, etc.) in favor of an authentic relationship with God. This may sound like a small thing, but it's really quite Earth-shaking when you confront the implications.

BOTTOM LINE: Who really cares what ritual or prayer or doctrine you follow? What really matters is your moment-by-moment openness to the presence of God. The rest is personal preference or just plain window dressing...in my humble opinion. Read the book and decide for yourself.

Here is a book that I can say that I really enjoyed. At it's simplest, the book explains that one cannot take the New Testament literally and instead one must focus on the deeper meaning of what is said. The only other book in recent days that I have read which said something similar was The Rozabal Line, in which the resurrection of Jesus was explained as being the departing of the soul from the body to eventually merge with the divine infinity. I have always found it difficult to understand certain basic tenets of Christianity such as the virgin birth and the resurrection. Borg's book puts these events in context and allows Jesus to emerge as a human being. In fact, I end up loving Jesus rather than worshipping him. We need more books like this one in order to ensure that the vast majority of the Christian flock do not go astray because of a continued disconnect with the religion.

In 1995, when I was struggling with some of the latest historical Jesus research as a way of re-imagining Jesus, a colleague suggested that I should read this book by Marcus Borg. I was finding that much of the language used to describe Jesus had been imported by the gospel writers from language applied to the Roman emperors and, therefore, to be seen as adjectival descriptions, not ontological. I needed a new perspective for understanding Jesus. I trusted her enough to do exactly that and I was delighted with what I found. When I read about Borg's story, I felt as if his story was my story too. Who had told him about me??? My early faith journey was a replica of that of Borg. Childhood, college, seminary, ministry and beyond. Although I am not the writer he is, I could have set down much of what he says. But the most striking part of Chapter One is what he entitled "Beyond Belief to Relationship." This is true for me because I was raised on a brand of faith that emphasized correct belief. If you strayed from those guidelines then you had moved beyond the boundaries of acceptable Christian life. If dogma and correct belief are important to you then this book will be upsetting and disconserting.

But I think that my pilgrimage was one from "faith in the Book" to "faith in a person." If your perception is rooted in a book (whether that book is the Hebrew Bible, the Christian New Testament, the book of Mormon, the Constitution or the book of Islam and 'strict constructionism' or 'papal infallibility' or 'biblical infallibility') the person looks for the rules found in their book, moral guidance in statements, and becomes like that which is at the center of his values. In this case like a judge interpreting case law with a shaking head and a wagging finger of disapproval because some disobey their book. If, however, the center is a person then you look at the behavior of that person and who he associates with and what are his characteristics. When Borg points out the parallels between images of Jesus and images of the Christian life, he is at his best. His description of three "macro-stories" in scripture and how they shaped the message of Jesus helps anyone who is seeking a new grip on faith. In fact, since I have read other works of Borg, the move from what he calls "the earlier paradigm" to "the emerging paradigm" is exactly what has changed my vision of Christianity. I say to all who are on a quest for a vital and fresh perspective then this book is a helpful point to begin your pilgrimage. The book is 14 years old but it is an insightful read.

Like Schleiermacher, Otto wants to theorize a religious faculty completely distinct from the rational, moral, and aesthetic faculties. The object of this faculty is the "holy," which is fearsome, mysterious, and fascinating. Most importantly, it remains essentially distinct from the rational, moral, and aesthetic, which means that any language we use to talk about "numinous" reality will always be analogical. This is important because "the religious" as a distinct category has been under threat since the 18th century (or since Spinoza) by other discourses that effectively explain it away. Otto's contemporary, Freud, was about to deal the religious yet another heavy blow by reducing it to a vestigial remain of infantile narcissism. By only allowing an analogical relation to other discourses, Otto wants to preserve the religious from this encroaching secularization. Of course, it is not certain that his own theory is not a secularization. He does not, after all, make room for miracles (in the strong sense).

I'll admit I was a little surprised at the heavy Christian turn at the end, only because Christianity seems to tame the wildness of the "tremendum" and the "mysterium." All in all, a fascinating and useful read.

The first time I ever stumbled on the word "numinous" was in a doctorate that proposed to analyse vampires as "numinous entities". Then, reading CS Lewis, I again crossed that word's path, and eventually, I decided to read the real thing.

In very short, the numen (from which the word "numinous" is based) is the mysterious, overpowering, and terrifying aspect of the Deity. It is "non-rational" in the sense that it is not to be grasped by concept and ideas, but something to be felt in one's flesh and soul, like actual fear, awe, and majesty.

Otto focuses on that aspect too often neglected by some religious people themselves: the mysterious and unknowable. Fanatics have a tendency to consider only that, to the expense of the rational side of the Deity. But both similarly denature It.

While this book is a classic, and a worthy reading for anyone interested in the subject of God and the studies of religions, I will say that, personally, I seem to have missed out on some of the things mentioned in the book. Maybe I badly read certain parts, or maybe the book is complicated and dense enough that a second reading is required to clearly understand it all. Or both.

In a way, Rudolf Otto gives mysticism the kind of analysis it deserves, and re-establishes those more obscure areas of religiosity as something worthy of our consideration, and undeserving of our scorn.

The best way to read this book is to HAVE READ IT in a state of obsession years ago and find that its general mood and the texture of its ideas exert a subliminal and subconcious influence on one's concious thought. Taken in parts it contains many assumptions or assertions that are actually quite disputable but in general, as an aesthetic device, it is necessary reading for any spiritual seeker. It is certainly a welcome anti-dote to those spiritual guides that make God out to be a divine butler waiting on his chosen humans beck and call. It also suggests a wilder and more flamoboyant spiritual universe than the one portrayed in so many lesser works. God, if he or she exists, is a wild, ecstatic, and uncontrollable force that transcends the vulgar, petty humanizations we force upon him or her.

The student of human religion is generally confronted with a serious problem; unlike say, science or philosophy, religion is much more strongly dependent on the subject and the social and cultural beliefs in terms of knowledge, practice and belief. It is harder as a historian of religion to divorce any 'essence' of religion or religious knowledge from its context and practice, especially given many of the leading lights of the world's religions seem to emphasize ineffable and unrepeatable subjective experience. Yet it is vital to try and understand religion and what role (if any) it plays in the human quest to understand the universe, and also ourselves.

Otto, a Protestant theologian, offered a concept he called the 'holy.' Also often called the numinious, this was a sense of something being sacred. Holiness gave Being a special set of qualities which set it apart from the universe and its furniture as we 'ordinarily' experience it. This experience is often one of terror and fear in the prophets of monotheistic religions (Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Moses, Abraham, Jesus and Mohammed) while in native and Eastern religions, it can be a sense of power or awe. In this work Otto applies the idea of the Holy to Christianity and other religions, and would later form a critical tool in the phenomenology of religion and religious experience.

This book is essential reading for any scholar of religion or philosopher interested in religion and questions relating to religion and religious experience.

Rudolf Otto(1869-1937) presents the idea of the Holy as that profound, overwhelming feeling of awe that can sometimes strike you regardless of your particular culture and/or religious affiliation, a feeling that's been a part of us since pre-historic times. He calls this feeling the "mysterium tremendum" or the "numinous" and proceeds to describe it in great detail, with examples. I liked the way the idea is first developed in a more general sense before emphasis is made of its Christian aspect, making it accessible to all people interested in the idea of the Holy and God.