Religion Books

This is a good book overall, with a nice layout that I haven't seen before in Christian self-help books. This being said, it does read a whole lot like other books of its kind (i.e. those written by Joel Osteen), making it feel like a book I've already read.

This book came quickley and though I have not read it yet, the book is in great shape and I am sure a good read.

I have been so blessed by this book! Maybe it is because God is working in me regarding what I think, believe, and say, but I have found it most helpful. I am not sure that anything he has written is new to me, but it is the way he has written it that so hits home with me. I am battling so needed health changes including weight loss. I am realizing that I have told myself that I can't lose the weight for so long that that is exactly what my beliefs have produced in my life! I found that the author's practical steps to change doing just that! Actually, I know it is God who is working through this book! I highly recommend it.

Creflo Dollar presents 8 biblically based principles he believes will help readers live the life they dream about in 8 STEPS TO CREATE THE LIFE YOU WANT. Each principle is presented with personal examples from Pastor Dollar's life along with numerous scripture references. He places a great deal of emphasis on the importance our thoughts play on our successes and failures, and on not allowing past experiences to cripple the future. He discusses the importance of serving God and having faith in Him, even when we are going through difficult times, and he argues that in doing so, healing often results. His personal example, depression after a loss in his family and his dedication to remaining committed to doing God's work, will inspire readers to do the same when faced with challenges of their own.

8 STEPS TO CREATE THE LIFE YOU WANT is packed with practical tips and supporting scripture, however, the audio book version poses some unique challenges, despite the fact that Leonard Dozier did an excellent job reading. Many readers, like myself, tend to multi-task when listening to audio books and listen while driving or exercising. The challenge for multitaskers is that numerous scriptures are cited throughout, but not read. As a result, listeners need to keep a pen and pad handy so they can take notes and write down scriptures to look up later in order to get the most from this book. While I would rate the print version higher, I still recommend the audio version of 8 STEPS TO CREATE THE LIFE YOU WANT, especially for those who may not otherwise find time to read it. In a perfect world, readers would purchase both versions, the audio for listening and the print version for further research.


Reviewed by Stacey Seay
of The RAWSISTAZ Reviewers

Ideas and faithfilled words that i never viewed in such a light. this book has open my eye and repositioned me for excellence.

Wright's `Paul' is a difficult book for me to appraise. The book exhibits much scholarly restraint, as should be expected from Wright, but other of his writings have impressed me more. He believes that the various perceptional packages that claim to contain Paul have all been inadequate, at best (or worse, constructed on fundamentally false assumptions). Of course, this view itself should not be surprising, as Paul's own contemporaries sometimes found him difficult to understand (2Peter 3:15-16).

Wright identifies and explores three essentially Judaic themes as being central to understanding Paul. He hopes to redirect Pauline scholarship, and employs enough "re_[insert verb here]" language to become rather tiring (reexamining, rebuilding, rethinking, reimagining, reworking, reclaiming, etc). The text is dry and deliberate, and struck me as probably being well conceived although not always clearly articulated or tightly argued. Unless you are a New Testament or Pauline scholar, my advice is that you choose another of Wright's works.

This is exhibit one in what Roger Olson calls "post conservative theology": how we re-understand the scriptures in a way that leads to orthodox or evangelical beliefs without seeking to affirm ideas of early modernism that may no longer fit. While Calvin and Luther were orthodox, orthodoxy does not mean understanding what Paul meant by, for example, "justification" in the same way Calvin and Luther understood it, because frankly their understanding of the first century church and first century Judaism was not as strong as that we can reconstruct using contemporary methods. Bishop Wright is probably closer to Paul's original authorial intent than any other scholar.

In Paul in Fresh Perspective, N.T. Wright, Bishop of Durham (in England), sets out to place the writing, thought, and ministry of Paul in his first century context of Judaism, Imperial Rome, and Greek culture of the Eastern Mediterranean. Wright takes us on a fascinating journey into what the mind of Paul might have been like and how the particular challenges of ministering in his three-fold world affected his writings and the early church, finishing with suggestions for how we can work out Paul's methods in making Jesus' message understandable to our own world. It is highly readable and yet so scholarly that it references many unfamiliar ideas and authors. I foresee buying more books to get a better picture of the many subjects that hover around the edges of Wright's thesis. So, if you are book geek like me who loves bibliographies you will like this book.

This is book is controversial in that it espouses a different take on "justification by faith" than the traditional Protestant line as espoused by the Reformers and many theologians over the past 500 years. Wright understands justification as not about how people become Christians, "but about how one could tell in the present, who God's true people were..." (p. 159). This is an assertion he makes often in this book, and he does spend time building a case for it, but his proof is not convincing. It warrants a whole book of its own with not only biblical/theological foundation, but lots of textual support which is beyond the scope of this little book. All that said, Wright's perspective definitely warrants more study of both those who oppose this teaching and other writings of Wright, because the implications for redefining justification are enormous.

So, read this to get your feet wet in a debate that is raging through scholarly circles and pastors gatherings around the world as well as a glimpse into the Jewish roots of Christianity. As you read pray for discernment and use your bible b/c of the importance of the debate and its outcome.

Product was shipped as advertised and received in a very timely manner. I would purchase from again.

As a serious student of the apostle Paul, I have been reluctant to rethink key Pauline concepts like justification, soteriology, and especially Paul's view of Jesus Christ. But, N. T. Wright makes a convincing case for doing just that. He simply asks that we set aside our theological commitments and try to understand Paul in terms of his own context. That much any honest exegete ought to be willing to do. In this book I find Wright engaging and suggestive. He invites the reader to reread Paul along with him. In the end I think Wright's reconstruction of Pauline theology is relevant to modern needs. The church now would be well-advised to take up the challenge Wright offers and see if Paul's presentation of the gospel does not offer much-needed answers to our brokenness. I still find Wright's exegesis forced in places. But it is always helpful to be challenged to re-consider the meaning of familiar texts. That Wright does better than anyone I have read recently. Paul: In Fresh Perspective

I believe God was working through my friend who cajoled me into reading this. Thanks to Dave Armstrong, I am now seriously looking into the Catholic faith in a new light. This book presents a well organized scriptual defense of the key doctrines dividing Catholics and most Protestants. The thing I like about it is how is refutes all the common counter-arguments, bringing us to the final winner (in most cases): the Catholic Church. There are much more than 95 Catholic verses in the Bible; but this book is a great way to both introduce Protestants and arm beginner apologists.

The theme of this book is an interesting one -covering ninety-five biblical verses as a kind of symbolic response to Fr. Martin Luther's 95 Theses tacked by legend to the door of the Wittenburg cathedral in late 1517. And the manifested intention to demonstrate that there can be plausibly argued from a biblical standpoint for many of what Mr. Armstrong calls "Catholic distinctives" is amply sustained -though there is a variegated quality of his arguments in the book notwithstanding of course. This was unquestionably a very ambitious undertaking on the part of the author and for that fact alone he deserves some credit.

This book has a few weaknesses which affect the overall text. For one thing, it is very choppy in spots with the manuscript needing improvement by smoothing out some of the rough structural barbs. I should in fairness note in stating this criticism that part of that is perhaps inevitable if one looks at the pattern of the book and its intentions. For example, as the book is based on specific verses, there will be inexorably a greater degree of commentary interspersed with other sources. And of course the aforementioned commentary and use of sources will also bring to it certain unspoken and unsubstantiated presuppositions of the author no matter how one tries to avoid this -and the latter cannot be done justice in a volume such as this.

But that point noted, Mr. Armstrong is usually good at recognizing the principle that more formally developed concepts need not be present in later fullness in earlier periods of time: what Catholics refer to as development of doctrine. Mr. Armstrong understands the concept better than most but it is nonetheless one with its limits and not the magical "one size fits all" remedy that he at times appears to think it is. Mr. Armstrong also has a tendency to overplay his hand a bit through the use of statements of a more absolute nature where theologically there is more room than he appears to presume. But this criticism is one that is hardly applicable to him alone -I note it here nonetheless because it needs to be accounted for by the reader to receive a fuller picture of the author's work itself.

Despite the manifested intention to avoid triumphalist tonalities in the book, Mr. Armstrong while generally succeeding in this area nonetheless does involve a bit of sardonic phrasing in spots -seemingly at the points where either his arguments are the weakest or the internal contradictions of some of the sources he critically interacts with happen to be. John Calvin is a particular target in this area but considering the snide way Calvin approaches a number of subjects in his Institutes of the Christian Religion, it is hard to fault Mr. Armstrong for taking a bit of schadenfraude in puncturing the balloons of bombast common to Calvin's methodology even if in other areas one could find it easier for this criticism to have a bit more weight. (And I emphasize "a bit more" because on balance this book is light on explicit triumphalism: something which is to Mr. Armstrong's credit.)

On specific matters, to compile a detailed sketch would take more time than I have so I will note what is particularly well done section by section. The sections on The Church, Bible and Tradition, Papacy, Communion of Saints, and Prayers for the Dead are all despite the overall structural weaknesses noted earlier very solid in content and argumentation. (Likewise the sections on Baptism and Eucharist.) I could quibble with a few additional bits but they would not detract from my view of these sections at all so I will leave it be for now. The Communion of Saints section also possesses some nice nuances to it which someone familiar with the boilerplate elements of this subject could well appreciate -the same is the case for the section on Prayers for the Dead.

Other sections which are also good (albeit not to the extent the ones already noted are) include the ones on Penance and Relics/Sacramentals. The problem with these sections that I discerned most is brevity primarily: they require a lot more exposition due to being more implied in the scripture than the others noted thus far. It is also questionable in my mind if including these subjects in the book was a good idea for those reasons but what is there is good so I will leave it at that.

The section on Divisions/Denominationalism is on balance good but it has more weaknesses to it than the other sections noted thus far. For one thing, it needs to emphasize that the only divisions Mr. Armstrong intends to be critical of are ones that pertain to faith. In failing to do this, it leaves Mr. Armstrong open to those who point out areas of diversity in Catholic philosophy, theology, application of moral/ethical principles, geopolitical matters, etc. as a presumed "refutation" of his position in this section. If he were to in a subsequent edition make this delineation clearer, it would vindicate this section from the sort of criticism I noted above.

The last quarter of the book is of markedly less quality than the parts covered thus far -in part because the subjects move to more peripheral or controverted nature. For the sake of presenting a stronger product it would have been better to have either covered them in greater detail or passed these matters over completely. The section on Celibacy is written from a western perspective which gives the impression that there is one traditional approach to this matter instead of two. It would do Mr. Armstrong well in subsequent editions of this work to add a bit in there about the eastern tradition which allows for married clergy much as certain extraordinary provisions in the western church in recent decades do. In both traditions there is (albeit in differing ways) a recognition of the biblical principle of clerical celibacy so this revision would only strengthen the latter section of this book.

The section on Divorce suffers from a lack of completion akin to the one on Celibacy though not to the same extent. The main weakness here is the lack of distinguishing between the concepts of divorce and annulment. The latter is often called "Catholic divorce" but that expression is not accurate at all and failing to note the distinction in this section after the passages pertaining to divorce weakens the presentation here.

The section on Contraception is the weakest one in the book for a variety of reasons. The first reason is that it is a derivative concept which as I noted earlier is harder to cover than a primary subject. The second is that it is based on so little Scriptural reference and implied ones at that: making it by nature involving a lot more commentary. The third is that there are other objections raised against the OT passage he cited being interpreted as Mr. Armstrong does that he gives no credence whatsoever to. There are other factors too on this one but my guess is that this being an issue that was of particular resonance to Mr. Armstrong in his conversion is what prompted him to include a section in this book on the topic in question. But to cover the latter subject with the detail required and accounting for all parameters (including certain presuppositions Mr. Armstrong unconsciously and uncritically accepts) would to make the book a lot longer which is why it would have been better to have passed over it completely in this treatment.

To summarize this review, Mr. Armstrong attempts to cover an entire spectrum of ideas with this book. In doing this there will be a variegation of success and on the lions share of the topics covered as well as overall presentation, this book is a worthwhile read. But there are also some topics of which it would have been better to have a bit more material on to insure a more correct presentation. And there is exactly one subject which would have by the nature of the subject in question have benefited from being passed over with the idea of focusing on the ones where the greater strength of demonstration and argument can be made.

In closing, I with minimal reservation recommend this work for those who have questions as to the presumed "unbiblical" nature of certain Catholic beliefs and practices. It would serve well to help them realize that (whether they agree with them or not) there are arguments that can be made from Scripture for many "Catholic distinctives" which non-Catholics may have been led to believe did not exist.

Here's some interesting questions I would have for Catholics about the purity of their church from a very old text, "In the year AD fifty-five, Liberius was pope. He was banished, and Phelix was ordained to the papal chair, which caused a sanguinary war in which Phelix was overthrown and the banished pope, by force of arms, regained the throne. In face of all this bloodshed, it is surprising how these two bloodthirsty popes could have been sainted..in A.D. five hundred thirty-six, Vegilus and Silverus simultaneously held the papal chair..Now to the year A.D. seven hundred fifty-seven when, at the death of Paul the First, the Duke of Nepi compelled some bishops to consecrate his brother Constantine pope. Later, Stephen the Fourth was elected, and the unseated Constantine had his eyes burned out. Next come the year eight hundred seventy-two, finding John the Eighth pope, when one Formosus conspired against him and murdered him, for which foul deed, Formosus was excommunicated. But a few years later this murderer, Formosus, was elected pope. Then Stephen the Eighth was made pope, who began by having the body of Formosus exhumed, propped in a chair, tried, and convicted, and his dead body thrown into a river...In the year nine hundred five, Sergius the Third gained the papal chair by military force, which was followed by his lewd life with the prostitute Theodora, and her daughter Morioza, both of the underworld. Theodora caused one of her paramours, John the Tenth, to be made pope. Fourteen years later he was succeeded by John the Eleventh, whose life of immorality was no better than that of his predecessor. Then came the boy pope, John the Twelfth, whose lewd, immoral life incited the German clergy to protest. He was tried and convicted of adultery, concubinage, and turning the Lateran palace into a bawdy house, putting out the eyes of one prelate, and sterilizing another. He was finally deposed....In the year A.D. ten hundred thirty-three, Benedict and Sylvester were contending popes. Benedict eventually won out, then sold the papal chair to one John for fifteen hundred pounds, equivalent. John sold the papal chair at an auction, and Gregory the Sixth bought it. Then came the schism between the popes at Rome and Constantinople, each holding equal authority. In this strife, each pope excommunicated the other. The very singular thing is that the church has no answer except silence. Next, in the year thirteen hundred seventy-eight, Urban and Clement were contending popes. Clement was supported by Scotland, France, Spain, Italy, and Sicily, while Urban's supporters were Portugal, Germany, England, Denmark, Sweden, and Norway. This abyss that, according to ecclesiastical history has never been bridged over...in the year fourteen hundred thirty-one, when Surgius and Felix were contending popes..divided Europe for fourteen years, which eventually resulted in inter-excommunications." Also, don't forget the "awful deeds under Opeda, in which the French Parliament acquiesced. Then the horrible slaughter of the Albigenses- one of the blackest pages in history. Then in the year twelve hundred thirty-nine, Dominic was appointed inquisitor general, and his emissaries were known as the 'Militia of Jesus,' resulting in such tortures as the rack, cutting chains, screw-clamps, and many, many kindred tortures worse than one may be expect among the grossest barbarians. Anything to stamp out those who differed in faith from Catholics came under this torture. In the church's efforts to stamp out Lutheranism, the mandate was to exterminate them even by applying fire. The French historian puts it, 'Se servir de remedes plus violens et de servir de feu!' Think of the fate of Joan of Arc, falling under the mandate, being burned at the stake. Next, think of those horrid crusades waged in the name of 'Christ and the Cross,' each one failing. Thinking it was attributable to the impurity of the crusaders, the children's crusade was inaugurated, sallying forth unarmed. The fatal result is too pathetic for words."

The author is very knowledgeable regarding the bible and very effectivly neutralizes many of the misconceptions about the Catholic Church's not following scripture in it's doctrines and practices. HE does this in a very readable form. For those Catholics who are constantly bombarded by negative comments about our faith,this book will help you dispel the nonsense from our supposed christian brothers.

`The Catholic Verses' is a rather splendid example of the new genre of Catholic apologetics. For too long, Protestants have claimed spiritual possession of Sacred Scripture, usurping the name `Bible-based' and misquoting a handful of sporadic verses in an attempt to convince individuals that sixty-six of the books in the Bible are somehow divinely connected to the doctrinally disconnected rabble created by Luther and his ilk. Recently, however, Catholics have decided to end this travesty and put Scripture back into its proper context and home; that is, the Catholic Church

Using the accustomed Protestant apologist argument of `Scripture Alone', Dave Armstrong demonstrates that the Catholic religion can be entirely justified by `Sola Scriptura'. He provides ninety-five of such quotations (with irony at the expense of Martin Luther's anti-Catholic ninety-five thesis) and elucidates on each, establishing them firmly as bastions of Catholicism. The most common objectionable doctrines are covered, such as the Immaculate Conception, the importance of Tradition, the Papacy, Purgatory, and many others, showing that it is the Protestants who have not correctly read their Bibles.

The only problem presented in Mr. Armstrong's book is that, while he seems eager to convince Protestants of the Catholicity of the Bible, the `spirit of Vatican II' pervades much of his work. His constant, cosy references to Protestants as our `separated brethren'; our `brothers and sisters in Christ'; and as `shareholders' to the Scriptures undermines much of, what should be, his ultimate goal of bringing Protestants to the true religion of Jesus Christ rather than simply seeking puppy-dog approval.

Seeds of Contemplation is a great gateway to Merton's many profound and enriching works on prayer and spirituality. It contains many short chapters which deal with the basics of the contemplative life - solitude and community, silence and words, distractions and dark nights, faith and doubt, etc. It is a helpful and essential guide for any who aspires to be a 'contemplative' - that is, to grow in the life of prayer and communion with God (and Merton would caution that we use this loaded word carefully). It clears the ground by explaining what contemplation is and is not, the unmasking of the false self, the place of solitude and silence vis-a-vis the community, the experiences of distractions and dryness and interacts with the traditional imageries of the 'living flame' and being 'touched by God' that one frequently encounters in the classical mystical writings (such as John of the Cross, Cloud of Unknowing). It really is an excellent introduction of the contemplative life for the beginners. Yet, he has said elsewhere too that if anyone desires to be a contemplative, let him not think of himself as anything else but a beginner!

This book is a combination of clarity and profundity and few books succeed in making sense of the contemplative life to the lay reader without making it sound either pedestrian or esoteric. The beauty with which it is written and the timeless quality of its counsels to people in every age that thirst for authenticity and a life of deepening union with God makes it an enduring classic.

I can't say enough good things about this book. It's hard for me to not just gush endlessly. It's beautiful, it's beautifully written, it's great. You can savor each page for hours. It's wonderful for Catholics, it's wonderful for all (open-minded) Christians, it's wonderful for spiritual people of all faiths. Only the most hardened atheist could not find something enlightening here. Stupendous.

"New Seeds of Contemplation" by Thomas Merton considers the virtues of a contemplative life. With the hectic pace of today's life, time for contemplation and being alone with God is even more important lest we lose our souls in the process of trying to make a living.

While Merton was a Catholic monk, anyone can benefit from the read even if you do not agree with any or all of Catholic theology. While I am not Catholic, I did enjoy parts of the book, particulary the following chapters:

What Contemplation Is Not
Pray For Your Own Discovery
Solitude Is Not Separation
Learn To Be Alone
Detachment
Journey Through The Wilderness
Sharing The Fruits of Contemplation

I especially liked the statement mentioned in the Sharing The Fruits of Contemplation chapter: "If we experience God in contemplation, we experience Him not for ourselves alone, but also for others".

Indeed, if we seek solitude so we can participate in morbid introspection or self-absorption, then we have missed the point. As a committed Christian, I use solitude to draw closer to God and seek His wisdom and strength to better serve others in my various roles in life (husband, father, relative, friend, church member, employee, neighbor, volunteer, instructor, etc.).

Again, whether or not you are a Catholic, Protestant, or whatever, you will benefit in some way from reading the book.

Read and enjoy. Recommended.

Thomas Merton's "New Seeds of Contemplation" is nothing short of life-changing: the complexity of his relationship with the interior life and titanic inward spirituality makes this the kind of book you will refer to for your entire life and may never understand it fully even then (I don't, and have read it twice now). For all that, you will still enjoy and admire the man.

Just about everything he says applies very well to modern civilization, and the amazing thing is that he wrote all of this from the Abbey of Gesthemani.

"Hell is where no one has anything in common with anybody else except the fact that they all hate one another and cannot get away from one another and themselves. They are all thrown together in their fire and each tries to thrust the others away from him with a huge impotent hatred. And the reason why they want to be free of one another is not somuch that they hate what they see in others, as that that they know others hate what they see in them: and all recognize in one another what they detest in themselves, selfishness and impotence, agony, terror and despair."

This IS 21st century civilization, at least in America; we are so alienated from one another and the concept of spiritual intimacy with other human beings that it is little wonder we respon out of our own nothingness with bombs and senseless wars and elect "morally compromised" individuals to run our nation: we live in Sartre's "No Exit".

And that is another extraordinary and odd thing about Merton's work: it is rooted in theology and yet he naturally touches and transcends--for the most part--the atheistic despair of the 20th century without losing his faith. One of his most definitive works, "The Literary Essays", is actually devoted for the most part to none other than Albert Camus.

And yet one cannot deny that in some ways, and Merton would have been the first to admit this, his work is indeed written for those either considering or living a contemplative work, and just from the title of this book he makes it obvious. Some reviewers complain about being "active people" and not being able to "live Merton". Well, he was a monk in a Trappist Monastery: he did write for those who lived in civilization. "Love and Living" or "Thoughts in Solitude" are examples.

One cannot exaggerate the importance of spiritual mentors like this in contemporary times. I would fear, even more, for the safety of humanity if these kind of books were not still around.

As with many puffed up intellectuals, Merton complicates some very simple ideas. Finding the bottom line of what he was trying to say involved fighting my way through a lot of unnecessary verbage. I would think that if God wanted "contemplation" brought to the masses he would have picked a better mouthpiece than Merton.
Merton also seemed angry and irritated with the human race which I found distracting. I was very disappointed. After reading some of the positive reviews I expected a message with more depth and weight. This book is great for people who live in their head but if you're more the active type I would pass it by. You won't find much in the way of spiritual how to and instruction.

A true to life and feel good book you want your children to read. A great family book. Parris Martin

I debated whether to write a review or not - as a Patriot's and Sox's fan.
Well, I think the book is pretty good. It is a simple life story that could have happened to many kids, and maybe many adults too - not knowing their purpose in life.
As the book tells us:
Be free to dream,
Have faith, and
God will answer in HIS most magical way.

You Can Do It! YES, You Can! Tony helps guide his little brother, Linden, to determine his dream. Tony follows the example of his parents by putting faith, self-reflection, along with the love and support of family to the test. Even though Linden acts up at school (sometimes) the positive reinforcement from his devoted family helps him see God's plan for his life. As Linden discovered his dream and when he did the support of positive community leaders and his family made all the difference.

This Christian based book was written for children ages 4-8. However, this inspirational story can be enjoyed by young old alike. The remarkable illustrations will provide hours of enjoyment for the kids in any household - especially young African American boys. There are several points in the book that should have everyday occurrences in households across America - committed families, prayer at dinner, active in sports, and striving daily towards a dream. Share this fantastic story with kids and help them achieve their dreams - whatever they may be.

Deltareviewer

I must admit that I have a great admiration for Coach Dungy's coaching style. This book translates the warm compassion and support for success into a children's book. The word and the illustrations are touching and inspire faith and the search to find one's calling. My granddaughter thoroughly enjoys this book. As does Grandpa who is a big NFL fan.

There is a sweetness to this illustrated storybook about a young boy whose siblings all know what their passion is, but he doesn't know his. This book is best for kids unsure of what they want to be when they grow up. That description fits almost everyone! When young Linden feels anxious that he hasn't found his niche, readers will undoubtedly relate.

Linden's older brother Tony and scientist dad gently help him search for his "it," his passion. They remind him to have patience and trust in God to reveal this special talent. "Just keep having faith," Dad tells Linden. The boy finds his "it" during a trip to the dentist.

This true story was written by the head coach of the 2006 Super Bowl champions.

Expressive watercolors fill the pages with color from edge to edge. The loving African-American family is realistically rendered. Illustrator Amy June Bates has a knack for showing movement and action, and depicting real people.

Under the dust jacket the cover has the exact same artwork on the front and photo of Tony Dungy on the back.

We use this book as part of our Bible Study with our teenage girls. It has real life situations and opens up good discussion.

The Chicken Soup books for teens are fabulous! My daughter really gets into them, she is not a teen that always is reading, but when she gets a new Chicken soup book she reads until she is done. We even talk about some of the stories in the books. I recommend them. True stories can help a teen get over what ever is going on in their own life problems.

This book was on my grand daughters christmas list. I was impressed by the way topics were explained and dealt with. I recommend this for all teen agers

VERY HAPPY WITH BOOK. MY DAUGHTER LOVES ALL THE CHICKEN SOUP SERIES SO I AM JUST ADDING TO HER COLLECTION.

Wonderful, brilliant and tought my children to be grateful for our health, wealth and love in our family. A must read for all teenagers.

This book is a great reminder of the attacks on marriage, and what we can do to protect against them. As a Pastor, I am all to aware of the attacks that come daily against marriages, and have recommended this book for newlyweds as well as those who have been married for years!

This book was purchased after a nearly marriage ending situation that creeped up on our family without me ever realizing. Recommended by Focus on the Family, this book is a key instrument to the success of any marriage. Our marriage is, and was, great and still it was just as much a target for infidelity as any other. Hedges are needed in any marriage, especially the ones that last a life time. Thank you Jerry Jenkins for writing a candid yet powerful text that has helped me reestablish my boundaries and save my marriage!

I read this book under the original title - Loving Your Marriage Enough to Protect It, and now again under Hedges, the updated version. Hedges are essential to a healthy marriage! Excellent book. Real world. Something that the church often doesn't talk about, but needs to in order to help married couples stay married. I wanted to note that in Hedges, the author does mention Lois Mowday's book, The Snare, which also gives the woman's viewpoint. I did not see this book listed in the cited books on Amazon. I have not read the book, but I think it will help balance a couple's Bible study.

Every married couple needs to read this book. Start building hedges now before you regret it later.

Long before he received acclaim for his popular Left Behind series of books (and films), Jerry Jenkins was helping couples solidify their marriages. This volume of HEDGES: LOVING YOUR MARRIAGE ENOUGH TO PROTECT IT, is an updated version of Jenkins' book originally published in 1989.

The primary focus here is teaching couples how to avoid falling under the pitfalls of infidelity, which permeates far too many marriages. Many young couples might scoff at the notion, but before you do, just stop and think of how many other young people you grew up with who came from single parent homes. For many of those children of broken homes, infidelity was the cause. This is not just a problem that faces only a select group either. Prominent evangelists, judges, even US Presidents have fallen prey to infidelity. This is a growing problem that can and does affect us all in some way or another.

Here, Jenkins teaches how to, as he terms it, plant hedges to protect ourselves, our spouses and our children from becoming victims to a temporary wave of seemingly uncontrollable libido. The advice is practical and easily implementable. Given that over the past couple of generations, almost all men and women find themselves interacting more and more with the opposite sex, coupled with a rather cavalier social attitude toward infidelity (thank you Mr. Clinton), it is more important today than ever before to know how to prevent falling into such situations.

Don't think for one minute "this will never happen to me". It certainly can happen to anyone. Knowing how to plant the hedges of protection will prepare you to know how to avoid such possibilities. You made a promise before God to be true and faithful to your spouse. You owe it to him or her and you owe it to your children to be prepared if and when you are tempted.

Pastor Monty Rainey

This spiritual/religious based book is presented differently than Gandhi, Tolstoy, and other philosophers that I have read. This book is more rooted in the events of the Truth and Reconciliation Committee, a board that Desmond Tutu headed after apartheid ended. The goal of this board was to grant amnesty to individuals and to learn of the travesties that occurred during apartheid. Tutu spends time to talk about the reasons and purpose of the board while lending several chapters to discuss several of the eye-witness reports and events described while heading the committee.

After he sets up the purpose and ideals behind the board along with some of the testimony from individuals, he then begins to dive into his dialogue about what these events mean and how they relate to his overall conclusion of "No Future Without Forgiveness." This book did two great things for me: First, it introduced me to apartheid, something I have not read too much about. Tutu described the conditions not only pre-apartheid, but after Nelson Mandela became the president of South Africa and other related events. Second, I was able to see him unfold his spiritual plan of how the country was to move forward after so many years of people being dehumanized and a huge social structure changing.

It was the combination of the historical and philosophical elements that made this book special to me. I highly recommend it.

This book is a remarkable insider's account of South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) by a truly amazing individual. The book is much more than a summary of the historic event. Desmond Tutu deftly defends the argument that forgiveness and restorative justice are better strategies than retributive justice and offers the hope of similar applications to other historical and current conflicts.

The two primary benefits of restorative justice are: (1) the truth will be drawn out by the possibility of amnesty which will provide closure for victims and transparency to ensure we are not condemned to repeat it, and (2) forgoing retributive justice will break the chain of blows and promote reconciliation between the parties that have to continue living with each other. There are also multiple practical concerns. The restorative justice process allows the TRC to shift the burden of proof from the prosecution to the amnesty applicant drastically reducing the cost, time, and resources required by the government. Finally, having come to power through a negotiated political process as opposed to a military victory it would be more difficult for the government to impose a Nuremberg style retributive process.

To prevent the moral hazard of bad precedents, Desmond Tutu categorically states that this is an ad-hoc process (a one-time deal) and multiple stringent conditions must be met to grant amnesty, (1) the offense had to be politically motivated and occur during a specified time frame, and (2) the applicant had to be found to be completely open and honest and demonstrate full accountability for his or her actions. Ethically, some critics may contest the commission's right to speak for the victims in providing amnesty. The author counters this by highlighting the fact that the commission members had been directly involved and lived through the struggles. He also states his belief that victims (whether alive or not) are never freed from the captivity of grief and anger until they are able to forgive and reconcile their perpetrators.

This book is nice and concise as well as clear. It could have benefited from additional historical information surrounding Apartheid to provide additional context. Nelson Mandela's autobiography (Long Walk to Freedom) is a fantastic in that regard and is well worth the read and provides a great background for this text.

Per ad hype, I anticipated something similar to the writings of Gahndi or Tolstoy on comparable topics. However, this is more a biopic overview of the remarkable work of Mandela with 'notes and commentary' by Tutu. While the Mandela process of forgiveness, in the face of unimaginable atrocities, is very much worth one's study and incorporation, that's not why I bought the book. Desmond does not believe forgiveness is possible w/o perpetrator public confession and request for forgiveness. What happens to a victim's future when the perpetrator[s] is dead, unavailable or unwilling? The relevance of this treatise for us garden-variety souls in a benign democracy is missing.

Bishop Tutu chaired the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission whose task it was to give voice to the victims of apartheid and to foster reconciliation between the races in South Africa following the transfer of power there. It's a quick read, which details atrocities committed during apartheid and eloquently discusses how both the blacks and whites were victims of this intrinsically evil system.

It's a book written from the heart of a man who understands that revenge offers no hope to society. There are brief references comparing the South Africa "success story" to other troubled spots in the world where revenge killing has gone on for generations. The title says it all, "No Future Without Forgiveness". An interesting read that's worth the time.

I was fascinated by the courage and foresight of the South African people regarding the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Archbishop Tutu's account was very readable yet profound in the truth he was trying to explicate: revenge and retaliation do not heal; they create bigger divisions between the victim and the perpetrator. I think he clearing illustrates how forgiveness is the harder, but ultimately saner, route.

Very good read, valuable information, but a lot of quotes from other scholars, most from back in the day. A lot of the information she passed on to us was a little presumptuous. There is a Mithraic scripture mentioned without giving the name (I cant find ANY Mithraic scriptures anywhere and I heared they used pictures)

Have just completed reading this well-researched & well presented/expressed book: "The Christ Conspiracy", subtitled "The Greatest Story Ever Sold": and have [ONLY] the "Highest Praise" for its author [D.M. Murdock]! It, from my perspective/opinion is "... a literal journey..." taking the reader from "A to Z" defining [Essentials] "all-too-often" buried within indoctrinated religious rhetoric specifically designated to "continually-clutter" the minds of all people (especially the young) so that they will not be mentally-equipped to define "the real from the unreal" and, thus, tend to believe in the kind of "mythical flat-world philosophy" created/invented in times when the world/earth was confined within a "Horizon to Horizon, Four-Pillared Environ" where "mountains had voice"; and, where a "self-serving" priestly-class always eagre to officiate gleefully lived of the "avails of religious prostitution"! Since I've been researching the subject matter in this work for over three decades and thus have acquired boxes of data I was pleased to come across a Web-Site [...]!
This weekend I will also begin to read "Suns of God"; and later on: "Who was Jesus" -- both by the same Authoress!
Sincerely Ronald A. Malloy.

I recently read a fiction thriller The Rozabal Line and found that many world religions have "gods, prophets, messengers or angels who [share] commonalities with Jesus Christ." The author mentions, among others, Osiris and Horus (Egyptian), Perseus, and Hercules (Greek), Mithras (Indo-Iranian), Baldur (Norse) and Quetzalcoatl (Aztec), all of whom existed in legend prior to Jesus, and each of whom shared something with - or contributed something to - the Christian Messiah, whether it be virgin birth, performance of miracles or resurrection after death. I am not a religious person, but I have always loved to read different mythologies and I found this fascinating. This prompted me to buy The Christ Conspiracy: The Greatest Story Ever Sold and I was not disappointed. The material is fascinating and well-presented. At times, though, there is a little too much effort to be "sensational". Having said that, however, this is a book worth reading just to understand the figure of Jesus Christ as we understand it today. One does not have to agree with Acharya's viewpoint... simply treat it as one more point of view. Worth a read!

Acharya is a scholar well-versed in comparative religion, mythology, and classical antiquity. The evidence she sites, together with her piercing yet surprisingly restrained commentary, prove unequivocally that Jesus Christ is a myth founded on previous myths. Her passage on "The Myth of Monotheistic Judaism" is fascinating, proving conclusively that early Judaism was, in fact, polytheistic pantheism.

At first, Acharya's dense commentary on astrotheological scholarship may seem suspicious, as were the brief passages about proto-religion and ancient global civilization. However, an open-minded textual analysis of this work has made me realize two things:

1. Acharya is very restrained and respectful in her commentary. The reader has no reason to feel preached to by her. As an author, she is well aware of the fact that some of the issues she's raising are outside of mainstream scholarship, are controversial, and are even occasionally incompatible with the current paradigm in archaeology (as she readily admits in her last two chapters). Therefore, I find her thought-provoking and very well-researched work to be highly sincere, honest, and largely convincing.

2. Acharya may appear to be overstating some proto-religious connections, especially astrotheological, at first glance, but she is not the first nor is she the only commentator on comparative religion to raise the significance of this issue. In fact, her conclusions are very well-founded. It's not as if she's saying that the entirety of Christianity, or of any religion, is one hundred percent astrological. But, there is ample evidence to support the position that Christianity and several other religions are, to a great degree, founded upon astrotheological symbolism, allegories, and inspiration. There can be no doubt.

Some reviewers seem to have been put off by any complex discussion of astrology in the first place, perhaps assuming Acharya is some kind of hardcore "New Age" astrologer. This is not at all the case; she's simply cataloguing, very carefully, the fact that astrology is one of the primary esoteric meanings behind Christianity. There are many such esoteric meanings - so many, in fact, that we may never understand in full the various traditions, mythologies, and sciences upon which the world's major religions, past and present, are based.

Acharya should be commended for doing her part, further illuminating some very important and all-to-often overlooked facts at the root of Christianity and of religion in general.

This is a work of sheer genius.

Highly recommended.

As a "reborn atheist" I found this book to be a treat. Although it is more a debunking book than a scolarly work, it gave me more insight in the colourful origins of the Bible. For me, it also explained why the early Church that shaped the Bible was so busy forging manuscripts and so hellbound on making Christ a historical figure instead of the metaphore that he clearly originated from.



But if your faith is valuable to you and you just want to shed the dogmatic hard edges, you might consider reading the excellent "Jesus Mysteries" in which the origins of Christianity are traced back to Greek and Egyptian teachings. It might also be a more constructive basis for a mutually acceptable discussion with an orthodox fellow citizen.

Simply the best reading I have done in months. The first chapter is worth paying for the entire book. Robert Alter just did it again.

Alter's purpose in the book is made very clear, and that is to show readers of biblical narrative that there are authorial devices implanted in the narrative to heighten and signify parts of the narrative that the author feels is important or worth noting. He begins to show this purpose in chapter one by seeing the Bible as a literary piece of art. He illustrate mainly with the story of Judah and Tamar in Genesis 38 because it does not seem to fit with the rest of the Joseph narrative. However when one steps back and looks at the literary whole of Genesis they will see how themes of deceit and divine election run through Genesis 38 as well as the rest of the book. That one chapter may seem out of place, but in reality it flows beautifully in the larger scope of the book and not merely the Joseph narrative. One cannot read books as a compilation of short stories, but they must see the stories as having a literary and overarching theme that intertwines them together.
In chapter two, he further develops his purpose by proposing the biblical authors used literary devices like word-plays, embellishment, and fictitious characters to give color to the narrative. He suggests that the authors received the historical data from their sources, and then proceeded to make the message and intended application clearer by use of literary devices. So their use of a fictitious character would be acceptable because they are not changing the meaning or moral message of the text. He states that they would often detail the main characters speech and actions to give insight to their motives. It is helpful to see some of these literary features in seeing how the author might have pointed out characters and events in Israel's history, but only a foundationally different hermeneutic (as Alter pointed out) could accept all of these.
The third chapter really begins to illustrate Alter's purpose. Here he points out a literary device called "type-scenes", and they are the typical "flags" that the original reader would have expected to see for certain events. One illustration was the betrothal scene, where the typical events include a man (master or servant) goes to a well in a foreign land, meets a girl, wants to marry her, she goes back to her family, and etc. Alter points out the situation with Saul going to the well and instead of asking for a wife he asks for a seer. Then the story of Ruth where the roles of hero and heroine are reversed and Ruth goes to a foreign land and Boaz has his men-servants fetch her water. The idea is presented that the original reader is used to the typical sequence, and so when someone different or completely unordinary happens the author has now arrested their attention. That is the point Alter wants to make. The author wrote in such a way to highlight certain points or characters to the original reader, but the problem is that three thousand years later those literary features are not as clear. This chapter was really eye-opening to begin reading narratives looking for those points of deviation from the typical to better understand the author's intended meaning.
In the fourth chapter, Alter shows the importance of dialogue imbedded in the narrative sequence. The author uses direct speech to develop the characters in the narrative. The reader only knows what the characters are thinking by what the author has them say. The narrative events are a mere background to dialogue. Sometimes the speech that the author mentions is a shortened form of what actually must have been said. The reader needs to pay attention to when there is speech, when it stops, and when it seems that the author has purposely not said something that should have been said. This idea of dialogue intersects with the type-scenes and other literary devices to make the Bible a real literary masterpiece.
Chapter five points out the use of repetition in the Old Testament narrative. Alter says that this point of repetition is the one that is the hardest for the modern English reader and also the one feature that is most over-looked. For instance, the writer of Exodus repeats himself when he states the plague that is going to happen to Egypt and then he restates the plague when it happened. The modern reader is not going to think anything of this device; however the original reader was mostly likely hearing this read, and so the author is making sure the hearer gets the full details at least once. He also gives the repetition of key words or "word-roots" in the narrative and called it Leitwort. His example of this idea is the Samuel story and the repetition or emphasis on the words "listen, voice, word". This is not going to be done easily in an English translation, but it will aid the reader in understanding the author's intended meaning. He showed how different repetition is in poetry where there is no direct copying of a phrase or use of synonyms, but instead poetry is styled and creative repetition of thoughts that move the poem. Alter ascribes this use of repetition to the tension between the freedom of the biblical authors to write and the Divine plan for the text.
In chapter six, Alter describes the art of characterization as a literary device. It was already mentioned briefly that much of what is known of a character comes in direct speech. That is true, and it is often the most important things that can be known about that character is by what he says, because when that character acts then the reader has to infer things about that character. However in direct speech the character cannot hide what he is thinking or who he is. The author has the ability to only allow the reader to know certain things about each character. It must be noted why the author would switch names for a person, for instance, Michal is sometimes called the "wife of David" and other times she is called the "daughter of Saul". The author could be telling something simply by changing a name about the mindset of Michal, her current marital status, or another idea laid out by context. This is another interesting literary device that is probably overlooked by modern readers, but it can, like the others, aid in better understanding the author.
Chapter seven explains a literary device that has many authors each contributing to the finished product. Because the Bible has seeming inconsistencies in it, Alter assumes that it must be a book put together by multiple authors in a type of patchwork way. However, later he says that the author may have received differing historical accounts and then purposely put both accounts in the Bible. He says that the author could have contradicted himself and done it in such a way to be artistic.
The last chapter makes the argument that the narrative and narrator give knowledge to the reader. The narrator, he says, is omniscient because they know people's thought and even God's thoughts. The author is sort of "teasing" the reader with perfect knowledge, which the author seems to have and the reader can only see a glimpse of. However, the author often tells the crux of the narrative and then goes back and tells how that happened.
This book's purpose was to show how the Hebrew author's use literary devices to "jolt" the reader out of the norm. Although these devices are often purposely or ignorantly overlooked by modern reader because of the language divide, the literary features here (for the most part) are extremely helpful for the reader. Alter accomplished his purpose, and this text is very beneficial for Hebrew students to better understand the characteristics of OT narrative.

love this book. I am only on page 40 but am really enjoying every bit of it. Anyone interested in the Bible should read this book or any books by Robert Alter. He illuminates subtle literary devises in the text that you wont find anywhere else in Biblical scholarship, except maybe if you were a Torah Scholar and studied the Midrash Tanchuma (Hebrew commentary on the 5 Books of Moses) and understood it completely. But then Professor Alter translates all this into understanding the structure of well-written prose or poetry. Anyone who writes plots or makes film, or is interested in Joseph Campbell will find this extremely rich in content. He suggests that the Bible is not fictionalized History, but historicized fiction, a proposal too blasphemes for most "believers" to entertain, yet in reading this book, we find that it is not so blasphemes at all. This book will push your study of ancient Hebrew texts to a new level. All educators should read and be familiar with Professor Alters work. I think he is a breath of fresh air that encourages, not dissuades, people from going deeper into study of the Bible, from the secular to the ultra orthodox. It is densely written so if you have trouble with big words or lofty word filled sentences, this might be a problem, but I found each sentence strangely palpable and easily digested even for the non-scholar, mostly illiterate-type like myself. The book is magical and I am ordering it for a few of my same-minded friends

This book is dense with fairly small print, small margins and long chapters without section breaks; but, it is well written and does a good job showing the complexities and intricacies of scripture that lend credence to its inspiration. The author's perspective that scripture is historicised fiction can be ignored for the rest of the benefits of reading this book. Frankly, the argument for historicised fiction could just as well be used to suggest its inspiration.

Needless to say, as a result of reading this book, I bought Alter's book on Biblical Poetry.

Modern Biblical scholarship has tended toward a process of atomization: how many editors were involved in the creation of the Bible? How many different strands of tradition can we find in a given story? Robert Alter's "The Art of Biblical Narrative" at once provides a corrective to this tendency, and a striking alternative way of understanding the Good Book.

Although recent scholarship has emphasized historical- and textual-critical methodologies, Alter chooses a literary-critical approach; that is, he asks how we should read the Bible first and foremost as literature. Ancient Hebrew storytelling conventions were often radically different from those we use today, so we must learn to be attuned to things like a character's silence, or minor, telling variations in a scene that is repeated several times. In this way, Alter takes much of what may make the Old Testament (or Hebrew Bible) seem "boring" today--its Spartan narrative style, the apparent redundancy of many of its stories--and shows how these elements are actually integral to how the Bible tells its story.

Alter's prose style is scholarly without being suffocating. It is, however, dense with ideas. I often found myself reading as little as five pages at a sitting, as each sentence seemed so full that it was all I could take in before I had to stop for a mental breather. (I recommend reading the Conclusion first, which ten pages provide an excellent summary of the book's main ideas and may make it easier to digest them as the author investigates each one in detail in the rest of the book.) His examples are profuse, and well-chosen to illustrate his points.

Alter mostly steers clear of ideological disputes about what the Bible is or isn't, sticking to his purely literary analysis of the text. He occasionally makes comments to the effect that he sees the stories of the Bible as "historicized fiction," but his approach can still fit into any faith framework; it is just as possible for a devout Christian and an atheist to read the Bible as literature. What's more, Christians will not only find an enriching way of appreciating their sacred text here, but may even gain comfort in the face of some scholars who seem to think that a Bible with editors is inherently an unreliable Bible. Alter, to the contrary, shows that the Biblical author-editors must have been very sophisticated storytellers, and that what are often taken for mere inconsistencies today may well represent a deeply thoughtful approach to depicting the moral and social ambiguities the authors saw in their world.

"The Art of Biblical Narrative" takes effort to read, but those willing to take the time to absorb it may find their understanding of the Bible enhanced, deepened, even changed.

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