History Books

A comprehensive story of a less well known battlefield of World War II. Some confusion over the repetition of numerical regiments, but all-in-all good reading.

Field Marshall Slim was ordered from Iraq to Burma to take command of the front in the upcoming Burma debacle. Under Wavell first, and Auchinlek later, he retreated with the Commonwealth armies into India, and later on led the allied armies into victory against the Japanese forces.
His writing is clear, concise, and he does not spare himself from criticism, Often after describing an order he gave, or wished he had given, he will go on to explain how his plan was a mistake, and how he should have done it instead. This is precious insight on the mind of the commander. In many first person war stories, we are told what happened, but not why, and when errors are committed, there is always a lot of blame sharing. Here it is different. Slim tells you what he did wrong, when, and why. This is refreshing.
He shows great respect for his enemy, and describes the enemy's gallant attacks and heroic defenses with respect and appreciation for the heroism of the Japanese soldier. He does not fail to condemm the Japanese war crimes.
He exhibits great wit in describing the different attitudes of the Indian, Sikh and Gurkha soldiers. In one instance, after a Japanese attack in Inphal, some Gurkhas had been ordered to bury the enemy bodies. One of these wasn't dead yet, so the Gurkha trooper gets ready to cut the enemy's head off with his Kukri knife; a British officer tells him "Don't kill him!", and the Gurkha answers "But sir, we can't bury him alive!" Episodes like this give a great sense of realism and "being there" to the whole story.
The best book I've read to date on the Burma front.

I have always heard that Defeat into Victory - Battling Japan in Burma and India, 1942-1945 by William Slim was an excellent book for military leaders and planners. Despite this, I was resistant to reading this book for several years. Field-Marshal Slim, after all, was a failure. He failed to stop the Japanese advance in Burma and took a shockingly long time to retake Burma.

After finally reading this book, I must admit I was wrong. This book is useful on at least four levels. First, it is a good read on a little known part of World War II. Even if one is knowledgeable about General Stilwell's experience in the China Burma India (CBI) Theater, this highly focused work will provides new and interesting insights on that theater of war. Second, Field-Marshal Slim was forced by circumstances to be very creative is his tactics, techniques, and procedures. It is useful to see how many of these ideas were adopted in modern militaries and how many still might have value. Third, Field-Marshal Slim has some very specific and interesting "lessons learned" spelled out in the last section of his book. Fourth, leadership as applied in combat, in a bizarre multi-cultural environment, and in the disease ridden tropics might be useful for both current military folks and those in business.

It was a surprise to learn about the relatively large number of troops involved in the Burma campaign. Like most Americans, my image is of a few aviation and engineering units and that the bulk of the fighting, to the extent there was any, was done by Chinese units and a handful of "special forces/commando" units. It was insightful to read about the difficulties in mixing the militaries of different nations. The British attempt, largely successful, at outsourcing the fighting to Indian and West African units was meaningful as well.

The use of helicopters and air mobile brigades was one of the many innovations that Field Marshal Slim implemented. The development of riverine forces was also interesting and potentially worth study since the U S Navy has decided to reintroduce such forces based on lessons learned from Iraq.

From page 535 - 551, Field Marshal Slim offers some specific lessons learned based on the Burma campaign. The only area where I think he is less than intellectually honest is his discussion on "Special Forces". Field Marshal Slim rejects the usefulness of special forces, but if one reviews his actual campaign, he seems to be inclined to argue the usefulness of small groups of elite forces that act as enablers of larger amounts of indigenous troops. Likewise, he is adamantly against commando and amphibious troops as "special". His argument is that all troops should be trained to do these types of things though perhaps not to the level that so called special forces are trained to.

Finally, Field Marshal Slim managed to survive in a complex and bizarre multinational environment. It seems as if the United States might be in such situations in the future. Indeed, NATO forces in Afghanistan and Multi-National Forces in Iraq are - while different in detail - much the same in terms of the diplomatic and relationship building that is required of senior military officers.

This is a solid book for a variety of reasons. I highly recommend it.

Field Marshall Slim, Viscount of Burma, never lets us forget that it is the soldiers in the field that win battles: not politicians in their ivory towers, or generals in their bunkers far behind the action. Slim's theory is that politicians give guidelines for the campaign, and generals provide the training and backup so that the soldiers can get on with their business. He should, when possible, not get in the soldiers way.
This is a marvellous account of how the Commonwealth managed to stem the Japanese tide in South-East Asia. The main part of the book describes how he managed to restore morale and discipline in the army that was so humiliatingly defeated in 1943. That part should be compulsory reading at any management school. His solution was simple: he accepted that the defeat was due to faulty planning of the general staff. He then set out to provide training and equipment to the front-line troops. Since he commanded a multi-ethnic international army, he saw that every unit was supplied according to its own special needs. He even put his own staff on half-rations if any field unit lacked provisions - which usually quickly solved the problem!
As few generals and politicians he understood that war is about individuals and small units - they just add up to something bigger.
Slim could really write, the book is full of small anecdotes and self-ironic humour. When he writes about the actions it is af we were really there in the midst of it.
Finally, and most importantly: the book is totally devoid of any racism or demeaning of the enemy, it is incredibly respectful of his own native soldiers and of the Japanese enemy.

Field Marshal Slim's excellent memoire of the fighting against the Japanese in Burma and India during 1942-1945 is remarkable on at least two counts. First, the Allied armies were badly beaten and hustled unceremoniously out of Burma in 1942, yet reorganized in time to defend India and went on to liberate Burma in 1945. This feat was all the more remarkable for being fought over some of the most rugged jungle and mountain terrain in the world, under often horrendous weather conditions, at the distant end of the Allied supply lines. Second, Slim's account is exceptionally candid with respect to his leadership, to include mistakes made (his and others), to his opinions of his allies and opponents, and to the political wrangling that goes on in any coalition military effort.

The China-Burma-India Theater of World War II did not include large numbers of American ground forces, and has therefore been left largely in the shadows of the fighting in Europe and the Pacific theater. However, the Allied forces inflicted a massive military defeat on the Japanese Army under extraordinarily difficult conditions; there is much to learn from the common sense, improvisational approach employed by Slim in planning and organizing his campaigns.

Slim arrived in the theater as a brand new corps commander just at the start of the Japanese invasion. His efforts to cobble together a defense were repeatedly overturned by the relentless Japanese attack and by the scarcity of resources. Slim managed to extract his forces and in successive positions as corps and army commander, rebuilt them into the force that went back into Burma. Slim's account is comprehensive, even exhaustive, describing both the operational-level planning and administrative support and much of the tactical level fighting in the jungles. His high regard for his multi-national army, composed of British, Gurkha, Indian, Chinese, and American forces, and his care for their morale is evident throughout his account.

"Defeat Into Victory" is a long read at over 550 pages; the casual reader may be overwhelmed by the length and level of detail. The student of military art without prior background in the China-Burma-India theater may have some challenge putting Slim's account into proper context. The limited selection of maps are a bit difficult to read but enable the reader to follow the course of the campaigns.

This book is very highly recommended to the student of the military art looking for a very readable account of the Allied campaigns in Burma. Those who persist to the end will be rewarded by Slim's retrospective on the fighting in Burma and the surprisingly modern conclusions he draws from the experience.

JND Kelly does a splendid job of detailing the doctrinal development of the early church of the first five centuries. Particular attention is given to Scripture, tradition, the trinity, the two natures in Christ, the rise of the episcopacy, the sacraments and soteriology. Kelly is an Anglican, but does a wonderful job of describing early Christian thought in a way that is free of partisan bias. Kelly is also an excellent writer. Also, his biography of Jerome is magnificent.

INTRO
This is the magnus opus of J.N.D. Kelly, a Protestant who has done his research on the the beliefs, doctrines, practices and creeds of the early Christians (1st century until 8th century).

CONTENT:
This book has an easy to follow content and table of contents, is very easy to read, and the chapters are all in chronologically increasing order. This revised edition actually contains a NEW chapter - "Mary and the Saints" - which was actually the first chapter that I read. The content and exposition of early Christian's doctrines is very fair, balanced, yet erudite, not trying to lean towards any modern belief-system or pull any punches. The author writes very convincingly and with great prosaic skills.

CONCLUSION:
Eastern Orthodox, Evangelical Protestants, and Roman Catholics will find many fascinating and uplifting facts regarding the doctrines of the early Christians. Even tho the book would benefit from better paper and print quality, and a bible verses index, I hope that everyone reading this book will form or strengthen their collaboration in word and deed with Christians from other traditions/confessions/denominations.

I purchased this book because I was told by the most reliable scholars that is this is the classic must read! They were correct.

If this classic work on the formulation of basic Christian doctrines teaches its reader anything, it is that Christian men and women once worried incessantly and carefully about matters that we moderns and post-moderns too quickly dismiss as quibbles. One can consider this obsessive and even perverse, yet it stands in stark contrast to an approach to Christian theology that is perhaps best described as careless.

A read through Kelly's more than five hundred pages of classic exposition of the processes that led to definitions of Christology, canonicity, Trinity, and the like is a warning shot across the bow of a generation that would be well served by worrying just a bit more about things that matter very deeply.

Kelly's survey comprises four 'parts'. Part I: Prolegomena surveys the trends and material witnesses that formed the basis of Christian deliberation in the first five centuries. Part II: The Pre-Nicene Theology names that Council (325 A.D.) as a watershed, probing deeply into the incipient doctrines that would be crystallized and canonized by subsquent colloquys. Part III: From Nicea To Chalcedon follows the afterwinds of Nicea through to one of the essential Councils. Part IV: Epilogue projects into Chalcedon's future the lines of thought that were developing at the time and picks up a few miscellanies.

Because Kelly's work (see also his Early Christian Creeds stands as a reference point for historical theologians, a deeper survey of his eighteen chapters is in order. The author's first chapter sets forth an apology for his choice of doctrinal development from the close of the first century through to the middle of the first ('The Background', pp. 3-28). On the one hand, it makes sense to begin outside the parameters of the New Testament. On the other, the creative surge of the first five centuries gave way to 'formalism and scholasticism in the sixth.' Kelly's heuristic rubric utilizes a vertical and a horizontal dividing line. The vertical distinguishes the different temperaments of East and West. The horizontal recognizes a concrete passage with the reconciliation of Church and State under Constantine, a development of which Nicea is the emblem. When Kelly surveys the matrix of the post-apostolic era in terms of Judaism, religious trends in the Roman Empire, Graeco-Roman philosophy, Neo-Platonism, and gnosticism, one becomes aware how ahead of his time the author stood in 1960. His perception of a highly traditional Judaism clothed in the language of Hellenism but with a Palestinian soul and his delineation of gnosticism as a habit of thought rather than an organized religion would only later come to represent scholarly consensus.

Chapter II ('Tradition and Scripture', pp. 29-51) examines the interrelationship of scripture and tradition at a time when there was no fixed canonical 'New Testament'. Kelly judiciously treats the combination of oral and written apostolic material that must have oriented the nascent church and the problems forced upon the community by the gnostic utilization of scripture for ends that were not aligned with apostolic teaching. 'The Bible as interpreted by the Church' that became the Christian norm, an affirmation and confidence that would require considerable qualification in due course.

When these scriptures eventually crystallize into a 'New Testament', Kelly judges the composite to have included the deuterocanonical books on the theory of an 'elastic' Hellenistic attitude towards the sacred writings (Chapter III, 'The Holy Scriptures, pp. 52-79). Irenaeus is the first to have used the term 'New Testament' and to lay the uniquely Christian scriptures as equal in authority alongside the Hebrew canon, now by implication called the 'Old Testament'. Sectarian tendencies often led to and/or were generated by a disdainful attitude towards the latter, an historical datum that ought to weigh heavily on the conscience of Christians today. Kelly is particularly helpful when he addresses the Christian hermeneutic that found in the Christ event a fulfillment of scriptural anticipation and even promise. Here he brings to the discussion the differing Alexandrine (alt., Alexandrian) and Antiochene temperaments that were to exist in tension and even contradiction most notably, more than ever in the context of christological controversy.

Kelly initiates his survey of Pre-Nicene theology (Part II of the book) with a chapter on 'The Divine Triad' (pp. 83-108). The word 'triad' is presumably chosen in order not to prejudice the slow and tortuous process that ended in the choice of 'trinitarian' language. The author rightly recognizes that the early conversation's monotheistic assumption was a legacy of the Bible and Judaism rather than philosophy. The secondary nature of the philosophers is evidenced in, say, Justin's conviction that Plato and subsequent Greek thinkers had access to Moses. Yet this visceral monotheism was complicated by Christian conviction, for as Kelly writes: 'Before considering formal writers, the reader should notice how deeply the conception of a plurality of divine Persons was imprinted on the apostolic tradition and the popular faith.' How to reconcile both convictions? Kelly presents the apostolic fathers as witnesses to the tradition rather than interpreters of it. The beginnings of an 'angelic christology' are present in Hermas.

Such conceptual innocence ended with the apologists, who began to develop a language for 'describing eternal distinctions within the Deity'. Yet this new attention to the nuances of plurality do not compromise their fundamental conviction: '(the) Logos was one in essence with the Father, inseparable in HIs fundamental being from Him as much after His Generation as prior to it.' Monotheism was not in doubt, though it's expression in the light of the Christ event and New Testament reflection on it was to require considerable time to reach its mature form. Shades of what would become known as 'economic Trinitarianism' were visible in Irenaeus' writing, though not to the detriment of this pre-Nicene giant's ability to recognize 'the mysterious three-in-oneness of the inner life of the Godhead'.

By the time his gaze falls upon the third century, Kelly is prepared to employ the word 'Trinitarianism' (chapter V, 'Third-Century Trinitarianism', pp. 109-137). This is as it should be, for attention now fixes with regularity upon the distinctions within the Godhead that urge new vocabulary and sophistication if they are to be adequately described. From North Africa, Tertullian framed the question in terms of two diametrically opposed approaches, the first asking about the Three-in-One in his eternal existence, the second inquiring into his self-revelation in creation and redemption. A purely analytical approach would have severed the tendons of monotheistic conviction, but Tertullian of course was alive to that danger and too wedded to the biblical materials to fall victim to it. Tertullian was prepared to designate the Son a persona and to use the term trinitas to describe the Godhead. To speak of distinction between the personae was to discern a distinctio or dispositio but emphatically not a separatio.

Outside of what history would judge to be orthodox, dynamic and modalistic monarchianism was to seek to preserve the deity's unity by ascribing the appearance of plurality to presentation and appearance alone. He is distinct, according to this view, in his operations but not in his existence. Meanwhile, Clement and Origen in the East were temperamentally more inclined to focus on the distinctions than the unity of the triadic God. The three persons were each a 'distinct hypostasis from all eternity, not just ... in the economy'. Clearly this view militates against modalistic tendencies. Kelly lingers over the persistently subordinationist tendencies in Origen's synthesis, a legacy that was to prove both fruitful and complicated.

Chapter VI, 'The Beginnings of Christology', begins with the observation that the primitive confession 'Jesus is Lord' contained the recognition that Jesus Christ was divine as well as human, an affirmation that by its very nature would require the unpacking of its complex implications (pp. 138-162). Christology proceeds along the lines of the 'double premiss of apostolic Christianity, viz. that Christ as a Person was indivisibly one, and tht He was simultaneously fully divine and fully human ... (T)he task of theology (was) to show how its two aspects could be held together in synthesis.' Unilateral solutions to the christological conundrum were not lacking: Ebionism denied the divinity of Christ altogether. Adoptionism, too, considered Jesus to be merely a man. On the other extreme, Docetism (and its cousin, Gnosticism) denied the humanity of Jesus Christ, placing all its christological eggs in the basket of his divinity. The latter attempted to preserve the notion of divine impassibility by rendering the human aspect of the Christ a mere appearance.

One of the considerable achievements of this chapter is that Kelly reminds us how close Gnosticism came to winning the day. 'Orthodoxy' conquered in the end by holding fast to the reality of Jesus' two natures according to the primitive apostolic confession, even when the ambiguities inherent in this stance must have seemed inconvenient and troubling. Tertullian was the first theologian seriously to address the relationship that must exist between the two natures, divine and human. He laid down the important premise that both nature must have remained unchanged. As the chapter title suggests, these searchings represent but the beginnings of Christology. Yet they establish the logical parameters and habits of mind that were to endure into the mature phase of the discussion.

Kelly introduces soteriology as that topic about which 'no final and universally accepted definition of the manner of its achievement has been formulated to this day', a rather startling observation in a book that tends to treat creedal consences reached in the first five chapters with something akin to reverence (chapter vii, 'Man and his Redemption', pp. 163-188). By the time of the Apologists, the relationship of Adam and his sin (as the second Adam and his righteousness, Pauline language all of it) to the rest of the human race has become the soteriological locus of attention. Irenaeus--building upon and moving beyond the work of Justin--changed everything by offering a theory of 'recapitulation' that sought to bring the biblical materials into a coherent soteriological system that did more than simply choose a preferred biblical vocabulary of salvation and ignore the rest. Origin saw humanity being offered a 'new start' in the second exemplary Adam of the biblical drama. The theologians Kelly canvas largely emphasized the example of Jesus, mankind's mystical union with the Christ, or even a species of penal substitution without reaching the kind of detailed synthesis that was to become the gift of the Councils when other areas of theology came under their treatment.

When he comes to the topic of ecclesiology, Kelly notes the poles of particularity and universality that came early to the communal instincts of the Christian movement, together with the emergence in second century between a catholic church that maintained the apostolic faith over against multiple heterodoxies, which did not (chapter VIII, 'The Christian Community', pp. 189-220). Fairly early in its life the Church was forced to declare its mind with regard to the orthodox 'sacraments' and the effect of these (or not) that ensued upon their enactment by non-orthodox parties.

Eventually, Christian reflection upon Christ's deity passed the Nicean watershed and attention became focused on new concerns. The road from Nicea to Chalcedon entailed intricate consideration of the two natures of Christ. The 'Christological controversy', it turns out, was not to end in Nicean harmony. Part III of Kelly's work takes up this next stage of Christology in the making.

The Nicene Crisis was set off by Arius' reduction of Christ's status to that of a demigod, in keeping with his insistence that the Father alone is the eternal God in the fullest sense of the phrase (chapter IX, 'The Nicene Crisis', pp. 223-251). Arianism was condemned at Nicea in 325 in an enduring creed that establishes Christ's co-equality and co-eternity with the Father. Talk of Jesus as a creature would henceforth be considered heresy. Yet the creed's statement hardly specifies the manner in which its Christ can be fully human. In terms of Christology, Nicea represents a penultimate consensus. It is worthwhile to linger over Kelly's treatment of Athanasius, the young Egyptian who represents the 'moderate' position of the Nicene party. Athanasius was able to maintain in tension the deity and humanity of Christ in a way that foreshadows the Chalcedonian achievement. Kelly notes the 'battle royal' that the extant literature portrays with regard to the conflict of Sabellians and Arians. Orthodoxy, in the person of Athanasius and the company of the Nicene party, was to steer a course between such extremes and such articulate extremists. Passion, one might surmise, is not enough to generate orthodox belief.

Chapter XI ('Fourth-Century Christology', pp. 280-309) is the book's pivotal chapter. This is so in part because of the critical christological analysis that came to the fore in that century and in part because Kelly's survey of the 'Word-Flesh' (associated with Alexandria) and 'Word-Man' (associated with Antioch) christologies is masterful in its clarity. Nicea did not only settle problems. It created new ones by the brevity of its claims regarding the Son's deity. Critically, Appollinarianism forced the Church to reckon with the two natures of Christ--human and divine--and to struggle in the direction of articulating their relationship. Even so moderate and intuitively acute moderate Alexandrian as Athanasius was unable finally to provide a satisfying description of 'the structure of the Godhead'. Kelly is surely correct to observe that it would fall to the Antiochenes to bring dogma into vital contact with the historical Jesus. They found 'the Alexandrian truncation of Christ's humanity unacceptable and set about developing the vocabulary that would serve the Chalcedonian project of accounting for Christ's two natures. Though Nestorianism lingered over the horizon, Kelly achieves a sympathetic reading of some fathers who would eventually be derided as 'Nestorians before Nestorius' because of their concrete convictions regarding Christ's humanity. This is surely accurate historiography. This chapter augments the reader's comprehension of how orthodoxy was increasingly becoming the ability to hold in tension the christological paradox without caving in the urge to allow the Son's deity or, conversely, his humanity to practically erase the reality of the other.

Between the years 428 and 451, there occurs what Kelly calls 'the decisive period for Christology, viz. the short span between the outbreak of the Nestorian controversy in 428 and the council of Chalcedon in 451' (chapter XII, 'The Christological Settlement', pp. 310-343). In preparing his reader to understand the collision between the 'Word-Flesh' and 'Word-Man' christologies that shaped the anteroom to Chalcedon, the author alerts him to the prevalence of personalities and politics in what would be mistakenly apprehended as a merely abstract and conceptual controversy. Indeed it turns out that Nestorius himself might not have been a 'Nestorian', though it was convenient for his adversaries to concur with the notion that he subscribed to a view of Christ's two natures as essentially distinct and ununited. If this quintessentially Antiochene figure was willfully misunderstood as dividing the two natures, so was Cyril--his erstwhile Alexandrian opponent--somewhat recklessly said to have united the two natures in a way that denied Christ's humanity.

Curiously, the controversy was in part fueled not by a discrete attempt to define the relationship of Christ's 'two natures', but rather by the question of how Christians should refer to Mary. Cyril, the Alexandrian, preferred theotokos ('God-bearing') while the Antiochenes preferred anthropotokos ('man-bearing') or at most christotokos ('Christ-bearing'). Nestorius suspected that theotokos denied Christ real humanity. Cyril saw in Nestorius' preference for anthropotokos a virtual adoptionism via the denial of Christ's real deity.

It is worthwhile to hear Kelly's own appraisal of Cyril's strength, one that emerges from his focus on the 'structure of the Godhead' not in terms of the need to explain the two natures but rather by an almost chronological scheme that attempted to explain the Son's status before and after the incarnation:


Cyril thus envisaged the Incarnate as the divine Word living one earth as very man. Here lay the strength of his position from the religious and soteriological standpoints; the Jesus of history was God Himself in human flesh, living and dying and rising again for men. Understood in this light, his horror of Nestorius's rejection of Theotokos is comprehensible.

Kelly tells us that it was when Cyril came to accept that it was possible to make a distinction between the two natures that did not imply a separation, the Alexandrian bishop found it possible to accomodate a settlement with the moderate Antiochenes, yet not before becoming rather lavish with the anathemas he pronounced upon his eventual partners-in-compromise.

Personalities and politics also shaped the lay of the land subsequent to the Chalcedonian Definition. Dyophysites (on the extreme 'Antiochene' side) and Monophysites (on the 'Alexandrian')--quotes now seem appropriate in the wake of the Definition--continued to denounce the work of Chalcedon. It would fall to future councils to reassert the substance of the Definition with allegedly increased clarity.

Christian faith necessarily stewards and negotiates reflexes with regard to human nature and the human condition that are profoundly optimistic, on the one hand, and deeply pessimistic on the other. It was the fourth and fifth centuries when this paradox came to the fore in Christian thinking (chapter XIII, 'Fallen Man and God's Grace', pp. 344-374). The dominance of the Bible's creation narratives and the Pauline wrestling with the relationship of Adam and his sin to humanity in general supplied the prevalent motifs.

In the West, Ambrose, Ambrosiaster, and Augustine worked towards a theory of original sin that presumed the race's moral solidarity. Mankind was at least contaminated and possibly even culpable in Adam's sin. Augustine's view of the human race as a 'lump of sin' incapable of helping itself without assertive divine interference ran counter to Pelagius' uber-optimistic conviction that human 'free will' could not be obstructed in any real way and was indeed the pivot upon which a person's destiny hinged. Augustine's logic leads inexorably in the direction of a doctrine of predestination, since human intervention is the sine qua non of any redemptive outcome. Augustine, notoriously for both supporters and detractors, followed that logic to its end, arguing that God elected certain individual from eternity past to know the benefits of faith and redemption, passing over other less fortunate souls who nonetheless have no claim upon their Creator for having overlooked them in his salvific movements.

Pelagianism was, in the end, condemned. The evidence suggests that Augustinianism enjoyed a fate somewhat less than universal approbation. On balance, its penetration of the divine and human wills worked more faithfully with the biblical materials than its rather humanistic alternative, though sectors of the church remained and remain reticent about pushing its logic further than the biblical materials themselves appear to warrant. All orthodox positions underscore that salvation is a 'gift', though different sectors parse the implications of this affirmation in diverse fashion.

At the beginning of his chapter on soteriology, Kelly warns his reader that it was not until the twelfth century that the effective of Christ's redemption would receive anything near the definition that the christological controversies demanded of the church's first five centuries (chapter XIV, 'Christ's Saving Work', pp. 375-400). Instead one finds apparently unrelated theories that Kelly argues can and should be viewed as complementary. The notion of recapitulation--presented by the apostle Paul and developed by Irenaeus--is in Kelly's approach the thread that unites the evident disparity. In discussing physical, mystical, and realistic theories of redemption, the author is particularly attentive to how 'ransom' notions work themselves out in terms of who pays the price, who receives the price, and how exactly the liberation of the ransomed is made effective. Augustine steps for the bearer of a mind capable of uniting the diverse forms of conversation about redemption into the closest thing to a unified theory of redemption that the church of the first millennium would produce.

In all of this struggling to know its mind, the Church had necessarily to establish its own identity. Who merited full inclusion in the great conversation, and on what basis? To whom was full fellowship to be extended and from whom withheld? Though the answers to these questions were for some time held to be implicit, they would be articulated with relationship with the Constantinopolitan Creed in terms of four adjectives: 'one', 'holy', 'Catholic', and 'apostolic' (chapter XV, 'Christ's Mystical Body', pp. 401-421). Because these terms are as much theological as sociological, the proper relationship of the human assembly known as the church--in all its far-flung corners--to Christ himself would come in for intense discussion. This reviewer finds Kelly to be a particularly useful guide with regard to Rome's emergence to preeminence, a prerogative whose merits were not always and entirely clear to all parties.

In chapter XVI ('The Later Doctrine of the Sacraments', pp. 422-455), Kelly portrays the church wrestling with the role of the priest, of the medium, and of the believing recipient in the gradually emerging collection of sacraments. True to form, Kelly wisely indicates the role of the restoration (or not) of Christians who had lapsed under persecution in driving forward the definition of the sacraments, by what criteria they can be assumed to function, and upon whom they should be conferred.

Somewhat unexpectedly, the author's 'Part Four'--entitled 'Epilogue'--contains just two chapters, one on 'The Christian Hope' (chapter XVII, pp. 439-489) and the other on 'Mary and the Saints' (chapter XVIII, pp. 490-499). Several turns of phrase in these two chapters encourage the view that these subjects fall into an 'epilogue' as much because the author was able to come to them only lately as because they are afterthoughts in the development of early Christian dogma.

In his consideration of eschatology, Kelly surveys the twin elements of the apostolic teaching that forever consign Christian thought to managing the tension between the once-and-for-all 'nowness' of a new kingdom, on the one hand, and the expectation of a spectacular consummation at the end of ordinary time, as another. Along other lines, the early church struggled with the nature of resurrection. Was it chiefly a corporate experience or, rather, did it represent the endpoint of individual human existence and its entrance or even release into the world to come? Is the nature of the resurrected body identical with that of what we know in this world's experience or, alternatively, is resurrection metaphorical of the eternality of the soul or is the human body as we know it susceptible to a transformation that requires continuity with present experience in the light of an intensified or glorified extension of it?

Does prophetic and apostolic expectation merge with the famous twentieth chapter of John's revelation in a way that constructs a chiliastic or millenarian hope, or is this vision rather to be construed as a picturesque representation of the church's experience in this age.

Finally, is the blessing of the life to come representative of a perfect contemplation of God or will we yet see through a glass darkly, even if (much) less darkly?

From the perspective of this reviewer, none of these considerations ought from either a historical or a theological viewpoint be consigned to marginal status, and so it is advisable to read this chapter of Kelley's work without undue attention to its label.

Finally, the author takes account of the natural preoccupation of the early church with honoring the mother of its Lord. Defining the nature and duration of her virginity may seem a colossally unfathomable preoccupation to moderns but was arguably a natural sidebar to the reverential instinct. Signs of a cult of Mary are evident, if just, by the third century. Yet the orthodox Church's respect for the person some would both describe and address as theotokos was restrained by the gospel's own witness to her need for correction by her beloved son.

It is difficult to assess a work like this in a few words. One attempt to do so finds recourse to the word 'classic' to characterize the enduring power of Kelly's synopsis of a body of material that easily overwhelms a lesser student. This reviewer has no hesitation in doing so.

Early Christian Doctrines is perhaps the finest such synopsis to see the light in the last century. That it is read still by historians and theology students is testament not to some preternatural ability to anticipate academic development since its first publication, but rather to a uniquely masterful statement of what we knew not so long ago that somehow still stands as an adequate point of departure a half century hence.

Kelly's treatment of the first few centuries is an outstanding work and a rightfully a standard in the field but THIS PRINTING IS TRASHY (hence 4 stars rather than 5). The paper is of ultra low grade quality and the binding is pretty crummy also. You are much better off buying the more recent printing by Prince Press.

Wonderful - the shots were amazing. I really enjoyed just leafing through the book and let the visions just wash over me.

From the elephant up to the insect, from the cayman up to the seal every animal looks us in the eyes deeply. "Less than the human being: - the monkey follows in the system of zoology according to an immense ravine. If one, however, once wanted to organize the animals after her bliss, cosiness etc., then some people would come to stand anyway apparently under the miller donkeys and hounds ... ", 250 years ago the nature scientist Georg Christoph Lichtenberg already wrote. However, he did not have a camera yet to hand to cover this. Frans Lanting, however, shows us the determination with which snow geese and ibisses, penguins or zebras are away to something, shows us her family care and the dignity of animals in liberty - at times, when more and more people feel caught - a book which reminds us that "upright walking"- that synonymous of the philosophers for courage and self-respect - that you can make it true even on all four paws...

Frans Lanting does it again in Eye To Eye--a brilliant collection of intimate portraits and daily activities of various animals. Like Jungles, it's a book that no natural photographer should be without. When you can see the individual hairs in a courgar's fur coat, it makes you kind of wonder what it would be like to be that close to one.
Looking at Lanting's work is always like looking through a book of artwork, as if he is the Picasso of photography and we are looking through his masterpieces.

Wow !!! How can anyone get so close?!

These photographs are stunning. The talent of Frans Lanting oozes from these pages.

There is a closeness to the subjects here that borders on the intimate. In some cases, one wonders how he actually managed to get the shot.

The focussing and exposure is spot on and the composition is perfect.

I have tried to follow this type of photography and I am only too aware of how difficult it is to obtain these sorts of images.

I take my hat off to Frans Lanting. This is a brilliant work. A completely unique approach to wildlife photography. His behind the scenes narrative to the shots is illuminating.

This book is a valuable reference for all nature photographers. Sensational !

Frans Lanting is one of the great wildlife photographers of the world. He has published many books showing wild animals but "Eye to Eye" is certainly one of his most famous. It consists of dramatically close-up photographs of animals, always concentrating on the eyes of the subject.

The book is divided into three parts: "One on One" shows photographs of single animals, often so close that the frame is filled completely with just the animal's eyes. "Two by Two" usually shows pairs of animals, although there are occasional shots of larger groups. Often the pictures are of mother and child, or mates, but a few shots show conflict. "All in All" shows shots of larger groups of animals. The book also contains a two page section called "Behind the Camera" in which Lanting discusses his photographic philosophy but provides few hints that will allow others to copy his style. Finally, perhaps because the text of the main sessions is limited to species name, there is a section of thumbnails with a brief statement concerning the picture. I found this section to be particularly inadequate since I often said to myself "How did he do that?" but got no help in finding an answer.

These are amazing pictures, primarily because Lanting has managed to get so close to his subjects. In a few pictures we can see that that is a result of enlarging and cropping, but in most cases the pictures are sharp enough so that so that we realize he was really close to the animals. Moreover, with a few exceptions, these are not captive animals. I for one would not like to take a picture of a wild lion at a distance of twenty feet. At least one critic has suggested that this book raised the bar for all wildlife photographers, forcing them to get closer to their subjects, and placing more stress upon photographers and subject.

There are moments of great intimacy, particularly in the "Two by Two" section, where the pictures of parent and child tug at our heartstrings. It's hard not to see human characteristics in these photos. The book also benefits from its layout, grouping its subjects by actions. Thus there are pictures of a huge flock of butterflies followed by pictures of ibises, penguins, snow geese, zebras and elephants all purposefully on the move to some destination. I also particularly enjoyed facing pictures of a lion and a leopard, moving toward the centerfold in mirror image.

These are great photographs because the photographer got so close to his subjects. But they are also mostly documentary. Few of the pictures rise to the level where the form rather than the subject makes them art, although I was particularly struck by a picture of Oryxes carefully treading their way across the Namibian sand dunes. But when I compare Lanting's photographs to the work of other wildlife photographers like Art Wolfe, I can see the difference. The pictures in Wolfe's "The Living Wild" show each animal in its environment, where Wolfe was better able to concentrate on the composition of his subjects to create a more artful picture.

Not withstanding this quibble, "Eye to Eye" is a great book, and readers are unlikely to soon forget these close encounters with the other living inhabitants of our planet.

I haven't finished this book yet, but it is hard to put down. I have read and loved all the previous books of Sara Donati and this one is no different. She makes me wish I lived at Lake in the Clouds!

Wonderful writing, did not want it to end. All of her books in this series were captivating. You could almost imagine yourself in the era in which it was set and be a part of it. Can't wait for the next book.

Sarah Donati does it again with the follow up to her previous novels. Her characters are outstanding, makes you feel like you are there with her descriptive narrative. An excellent read!

For any readers who haven't indulged in Sara Donati's series of books about Elizabeth and Nathaniel Bonner, this is one of the later books in the series. It's a fine book to read without having read the others, but
it's much more informative to start with the introductory novel. Sara Donati is one of those writers who is gifted at writing historical fiction.

Do yourself a favor and read this series. It's great fun without the guilt because it's a love and adventure saga rolled inside a history lesson. I actually missed the characters when I finished the last book and I can only hope Sara Donati is hard at work on the next installment. Start at the beginning so you know who everyone is and how they influence the story as it progresses.
1. Into the Wilderness
2. Dawn on a Distant Shore
3. Lake in the Clouds
4. Fire Along the Sky
5. Queen of Swords
Enjoy.....

If you are into gardening like I am, this is an excellent, colorful resource! It will help identify those interesting little bugs in your gardens. I only wish it had a section of natural preventions/controls to go along with each insect.

THIS WILL SHOW YOU THE REAL DEAL OF THE DOG EAT DOG UNIVERSE OF BUGS, IN YOUR FRONT AND BACKYARD...............

This is a great book it has wonderful pictures so that you may identify the bugs that you are looking for. I purchased one for myself and one for my daughter and we both love them.

I received this as a gift after I mentioned that I loved the Orkin insect zoo at the Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. It was not a book I would have bought for myself, but it has become indispensable bedtime reading! The pictures are vibrant and accompanied by hard-to-forget descriptions and explanations. I especially love the pictures taken by Whitney Cranshaw himself. This book is very accessible to those who are interested in the secret tiny life that exists off of their back porch, people who don't know where to start and therefore keep pushing it off. Even the way the bugs are organized in the book is perfect- Leaf Chewers, Sap Suckers, Gall Makers, Twig Damagers, Branch Borers, Bulb Feeders... doesn't this sound like the most beautiful poem in the world??

This bok is very inclusive in it's content and very easy to look up insect for information or identification. It is used by Master Gardeners in our part of the country wth great appreciation for a book of such quality buyt yet affordble.

It is obvious that the many years that Rose Keefe spent researching and writing the story of Dean O'Banion was time well spent! She captures the essence of a man that visually could have walked off the page and her knack of storytelling is top-notch. I was captivated in his devotion, not the brutality. Rose shares these images with the reader that really setup the framework of early Chicago. This isn't your run of the mill gangster book and the attention to accurate detail is deliberate. The book is well thought out and presented in a way that kept me wanting to read more, even furthering my education on prohibition and early Chicago in the process. This is a must read for true gangster enthusiasts and historians alike!

This is a must have book for anyone interested in Chicago's beer wars. Mrs. Keefe has written a brilliantly told acurate story that helps us understand how Capone became the legend that he is, for without Dean O'Banion on the north Capone may not have been as big on the south.

Chances are if you're reading the reviews for this book then you've read at least one Capone biography and walked away, like me, thinking, "Great story, wish I knew more about the Northsiders." Well Rose Keefe has heard our collective wail and has provided us with one of the best books on both Chicago gangland and one of its most interesting characters. There is much more to the O'Banion/Northside story than just being fodder for Capone's gunmen. If you're into Chicago's gangland past then this volume is a must.

A great bio on the Chicago gangster gunned down in his flower shop during the "Roaring Twenties". The book focuses on the rivalry between the Northside Chicago mob and the Southside Torrio-Capone mob.Obanion and his cohorts are literally devoured by the inter-city "big time" mobs with connections to New York city.From reading this book I don't believe Obanion knew what he was up against,he was a small town boy who moved to the city of Chicago, yet he tried to run his crime empire like a small business. Cavorting around a flower shop by day,shaking hands,(without an enemy in the world?),with little to no protection,meanwhile engaging in criminal activity that would include murder.That's just asking for it,and Torrio's mob,later inherited by Capone,was only too happy to oblige. It seems Torrio's mob when they arrived in Chicago was already an experienced hard core criminal transplant from NYC and cites thereof.How could Obanion honestly think that when the control of rackets,gambling,bottlegging,and the millions of dollars at stake, there was a "moral" line that shouldn't be crossed?Especially when dealing with the mob and seeing as the mob eliminated its own so what could a rival gang expect.Capone listed his profession as furniture dealer but I doubt you would see him lifting furniture into trucks.His furniture business was a fort.The short baby faced Obanion never had a chance in dealing with the NYC mob. this book really brought this out as I read it.An excellent work on crime history but it sort of makes Obanion look like a "farmer".

This is about the people who nearly beat the Capone Mob for control of the Chicago boot-legging business. They were led by a florist and included a war hero, a cowboy, a bigamist and a practical joker who starred in an early stag film in the middle of a gang war. The wild Northside Gang is today best remembered for being the victims in the St Valentine's Massacre but in the twenties they were household names. This and Rose Keefe's book about Bugs Moran are both fascinating. A must read!

JUST WHEN YA THINK YOU MIGHT KNOW QUITE A BIT ABOUT SOMETHING AT DISNEY, A BOOK LIKE THIS COMES ALONG AND REMINDS YOU OF JUST HOW MUCH DISNEY PUTS INTO THEIR ATTRACTIONS, AND JUST HOW MUCH YOU ACTUALLY "DON'T" KNOW!

Excellent pictures, interesting information. This is a must have for Disney fans of the Haunted Mansion! It even covers Disney's other haunted mansions around the world, and the Haunted Mansion movie. Everything you ever wanted to know!

THis book was great! A ton of information on the ride! I couldnt put it down! It was great.

This book is a must read for ALL ages and ANYONE interested in Disney theme park attractions around the globe. Any Disney fan knows that the Imagineers are very particular about what is revealed to the general public in terms of how they make their Disney 'magic' and I was pleasantly surprised (being an avid Disney fan myself) by the research that went into the making of this book and the amount of knowledge shared with the reader - it DOES in fact reveal some secrets of the mansion and never before seen history of the making of the attraction. (It confirms and dispels some rumors about the attraction once and for all too!) A pattern of discussion is followed throughout the book as you are verbally walked through the mansion's corridors and rooms. Surrell consistently covers the Haunted Mansion in a logical order (Disneyland, Walt Disney World, Tokyo Disneyland and Disneyland Paris) in every chapter. He takes the subject matter full circle by including information about how the attraction was translated to the big screen, and gives the reader insight to how decisions were made pertaining to set design, costume design, and casting for the movie of the same name. If you want an intelligent, thorough and enjoyable read about a classic Disney attraction, and especially an insight to the magic that is Imagineering, this is a MUST READ!

You buy this book thinking it's a great "behind-the-scenes" resource, but it's not. Yes, there is some background information, but the book skips confusingly from park to park, and offers very little technical information on the special effects. The photos are all standard Disney promotional stuff...this book tells you what Disney wants you to know, and nothing else.

Go to doombuggies.com for a much better treatment of this classic ride.

My older brother gave me this book years ago, and being handed such a book made me angry. I interpretted the gift as him telling me I hadn't forgiven or was still ruled by the pains of my youth. I therefor did not read it until I was older and realized denying pain was not a helpful course for my life. In the meantime my younger brother had borrowed the book. He had returned it to me marked with his terrible habit of making notes and underlining in books that didn't even belong to him! Those underlined parts spoke of his own pains and his need for more indepth healing; they spoke of my own struggles too.

This book has been a reckoning of coming to terms with grief of losses in my youth, and also a quiet recognition that my siblings have carried the same pains -- each reaching for healing at different times of our lives, each with the help of this book.

There are so many "self help" books out there. This is a "let God" reach into your heart and soul and touch the parts of you that feel empty and untouchable.

I am a Pastoral Counselor and for years I have recommended all of my clients to read this book. It is well put together and quite simple for every level of reader to understand. I tell each client not to rush to read the book but to allow the book to "read you". In some cases where David Seamands examples may not be specifically speaking to an element of emotional damage for the reader, I advise the reader to substitute their particular issue. In December 2008 I am releasing my own book, Stop Tripping Over Your Past, and I am hopeful it will be as much of an excellent tool for those who read it as Healing for Damaged Emotions has been for countless readers.
Dr. Ramona Joseph
Charlotte, NC

I have read this book twice and given it to many friends and the responses are always the same. We need to understand the priciples is this book and apply them in our lives. None of us are exempt at some time or other in our lives from the issues discussed.

Great book to help you understand why you are the way you are.
Really helped me a lot.

As a pastor and spiritual director, I've been using this book as a regular give-away to believers when it becomes obvious that they are stuck - some old wound is yet hindering them from normal spiritual growth in Christ. Having ministered among Native People for several years, as well as those dealing with addictions (even as Christians), I found the truths and principles Dr. Seamands expounds on very beneficial in truly helping people heal from their past emotional wounds, and the memories of them, and then be able to progress in spiritual development. I believe our churches have many folks sitting in the pews, Sunday after Sunday, with serious pain from their past adversely affecting their present ability to relate freely to Christ, or to others in relationships. Until we understand this, and how Christ can work through us as "ministers" by his healing grace to nullify the effects of debilitating memories, we will continue to see believers spiritually 'stuck', stagnated in their growth.
Dr. Seamand's book HEALING OF MEMORIES (now titled, REDEEMING THE PAST: RECOVERING FROM MEMORIES THAT CAUSE OUR PAIN), builds on HEALING DAMAGED EMOTIONS by going, in detail, into the process of ministering healing to those with painful, debilitating memories. Every pastor who counsels should understand how to help believers in this way!

This is a must have for horse lovers. The photos are outstanding. The text is also worth the purchase.

Great focus on a limited number of similar horse breeds.

I KNOW HE LOVES HORSES BECAUSE OF THE WAY HE PHOTOGRAPHS THE ANIMALS EYES!!! HE IS A MASTER!!

Overall, I'd have to agree with the reviewer's comments from Lakewood, OH.

Anyone familiar with Vavra's work will recognize his dreamlike, romanticized approach to horse photography. More "artsy" in style, tone and layout - than the straight forward approach.

Lots of soft-focus photography with heavy post-production image editing (layering of horse upon background, and vice-versa). I own two of Vavra's books (this being the second one to "Equus: The Creation Of A Horse"), so whether or not one likes this style of equine photography is a matter of personal taste. Still, this is a beautifully printed and bound book, with some outstanding equine photography.

See my review of "Equus: The Creation Of A Horse" for further reviews of Vavra's work.

Forward by William Shatner (yes, Captain Kirk!).

If you are a horselover and enjoy books on equine photography in general, check out the work of Gabrielle Boiselle, Johnny Johnston, Henry Dallal, Fulvio Cinquini, Jennifer Forsberg Meyer, et al. All have made their career photographing horses, and it shows. Boiselle is a personal favorite.

I WISH I HAD KNOWN ABOUT THIS GUY BACK WHEN I HAD MY HORSE!!
HE MUST LOVE THE ANIMALS BECAUSE, HE PHOTOGRAPHS THEM SO, WELL!! HE FOCUSES ON THE EYES OF THE ANIMALS IN MANY PICTURES AS IF, HE IS LOOKING AT THEIR SOULS!!! I DO NOT REGRET PURCHASING THIS BOOK AT ALL!!!!!!!!! I WOULD RECOMMEND THIS TO EVERYONE WHO LOVES HORSES!!!!!
SHIRLEY GREER

This is a great book, all of Kapuscinski`s books are great. It takes you for a journey you don`t expect. Great style and I always regret it`s over, after I finish to read his book.

As stated in most of the reviews of this book, Kapuscinski is a great writer. If you have not read him allready, read this book and understand why. If you allready have read him, you are going to read this book based on what you allready have learned to know.

Having given Kapuscinski the credit he obviously deserves for his writing, I believe there is some points that should be done.

-First Kapuscinski stands on the shoulders of giants. His writing is to a great extent the result of the local people that he meets on his journeys and agrees to open their region and their lifes to him.

-Kapuscinski is a very gifted writer endeed, that have read a lot about the places and peoples that he visits. On one hand this is what always makes his writing so alive, something to go back to and read agian, so informative. On the other hand gret litterature sometimes can serve as a way of getting away with having little or nothing to really report from the battleground when his plan fails or when he does not get what he intended out of a trip. Striking examples of this is his journey at the Trans-siberian railway where he only observes the Soviet Union through the train window or to Nagarno Karabakh where he is stuck inside an airport, a car and a flat. That his stories is as intriguing, even when he hardly experience "what the war looks like on the ground" is a clear sign that his capabilities as dramaturg and writer can make up for a rather thin story. Even when he gets the chance to write the story he intended from a place he visits, the timeframe and the difficulties he worked under limits his insights compared to the writers that have covered the area afer him.

-Some paragraphs in the book makes me a bit uncertain about how good the translation is (my review is based upon the Norwegian translation). In the first chapter - Pinsk '39 the comment of a NKVD officer visiting their house "Muzh kuda?" is traslated "where is your husband" instead of the correct "Where have your husband gone", meaning that the NKVD officer allready knows that he has recently been in the house, meaning someone has infomed the NKVD that Kapuscinski's father (a hunted partisan) has recently been in the house. Things like this is not a big deal, but it makes you start thinking about the quality of the translation in general and if it can be the case that the author underplays the role of ordinary people as informers in the terror.

-In his story about the war in Pinsk 1939, his memory of the events as a child probably is an important expalianation behind the qualities of the stories. In the memory of a child events that would probably be described as horrorful and sad by a grown up, in the eyes of a smal shild gets exciting, intriguing, colorful and down to earth.

All in all, Kapuscinski is good reading and Imperium is a great intruduciton to the former Soviet Republics. To get true insight in the contemporary former Soviet Republics, you will need further reading though.

Perhaps history will never be told better than through the eye of this travelling writer (or is it a writing traveller?). Read and be awed by the staggering proportions of recent history in the vast empire that is no more, the Sovjet Union. And be chilled to the bones by the unimaginable amounts of suffering inflicted by the sovjet leaders on their own people. And be astonished that in the midst of the most utter despair, poverty, and enslavement, Kapuscinski can find optimism, humor, and love of life.

I purchased this book after reading about the author in the Wall Street Journal. He died earlier this year. The author, a journalist, kept two notebooks while on assignments throughout the world, one for his assignment and one for himself. In this book he combined his observations from several trips he took within Russia and its states over a span of many decades. At times his writing style can be quite poetic, and the book is not unlike a travel book, although Soviet Russia was not a friendly place at the times of his visits. I intend to read his other books, and highly recommend this one.

A lyrical masterpiece by this superlative writer! Nowhere have I found a dissection of the Evil Empire done with such fluid verse. He goes from the periphery into the heart of the beast and everywhere he discovers that appearances deceive and what seems to signal change is really a re-hash of old. Kapuczinski's sharp analysis and trenchant comments will be sorely missed!