Conferences Books

This is life changing...
Siple but, deep principles that leads you to experience a Victorious Christian Life.

I have not found something like it!

Simple, easy solutions for producing high-quality video conferencing are gathered under one cover in a title that covers the hardware needed for both business and personal use. Learn about requirements, protect privacy with firewalls and control systems, understand different set-ups and options, and integrate your system with the perfect choices with Video Conferencing Over IP: Configure, Secure and Troubleshoot.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

Vladimir Solov'ev: Reconciler and Polemicist by International Vladimir Solov'ev Conference, William Peter Van Den Bercken, Manon De Courten, Evert Van Der Zweerde (Peeters) Vladimir Solov'ëv (1853-1900) is regarded as the most original and systematic of the Russian philosophers in the 19th century. Ηe has once again become the subject of international scholarly attention both in Slavic countries and the West. This volume contains selected papers pre¬sented at the international conference on Vladimir Solov'ëv held at Nijmegen University, The Netherlands, in September 1998. The scope of this conference was wide-ranging, dealing with theological, metaphysical, philosophical and historical themes.
Though SοΙον'ëv's broad intellectual activity defies any strict attempt at categorisation, the editors have classified its major themes under the dual characteristic of reconciliation and polemics. Solov'ëv was pas¬sionately committed to the reconciliation of all beings under the idea of all-unity, which he attempted to achieve by engaging in uncompromis¬ing polemics with his contemporaries.
The thirty contributors to this volume are specialists from Russia, ,Ukraine, Bulgaria, Western Europe and the United States. The volume makes a significant contribution to the intellectual reassessment of Vladimir Solov'ëv since the rediscovery of his philosophical heritage in his own homeland in the late 1980s.

On November 24, 1947 the heads of all the movie studios gathered in a private suite in New York's plush Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. One month earlier, the House Un-American Activities Committee had held hearings into Communist influence in American movies, eventually indicting ten men for refusing to name names. Now, just before Thanksgiving, the moguls got together to decide how to keep the Government's hands out of Hollywood's pockets. It was a secret meeting; no notes were taken, no minutes were kept, and it was never discussed afterward. But 24 hours later they emerged from the room having invented the Blacklist. This all-star play is a dramatic speculation on what went on in that room.
-- Nat Segaloff (co-author of "The Waldorf Conference" with Daniel M. Kimmel and Arnie Reisman, which explains the five stars)

I bought this book at the Harpers Ferry Park bookstore. It is a great book that tells you anything you need to know about the Harpers Ferry area. Everything from memorable floods, to the Civil War, to the buildings, and people that shaped the town. It includes great photos and maps. It was first written in 1983. The 20th Anniversary edition is the one I own. It's a shame Amazon no longer carries it. If you ever visit the park, you must get this book!!

All of the books from the BYU Women's Conference are wonderful, uplifting, entertaining, and surprisingly candid.

This is one of the latest collections of papers dealing with the global spread of English and thus offers some interesting papers by the most notable scholars in the field. Particularly interesting is Kachru's collection of resources for teaching and research which I used extensively for my own work.

This is a collection of papers delivered at a conference held at the Library of Congress May 5-6, 2005 commemorating the bi-centennial year of Joseph Smith's birth. The seventeen papers are divided into five parts. Each part, except the third, presents a main paper with other scholars, many of them non-Mormon (but not hostile), discussing the points made in the first paper and providing additional points about the topic. The overall theme of the conference is captured by the title, Joseph Smith has become an even larger figure in American (and World) History and has to be understood in multiple ways and in many contexts. He defies the simple dismissal that many of his critics have used to avoid dealing with him in a serious way. These dismissals have failed for more than a century and a half and continue to lose power and momentum.

The five sections are:

1) Joseph Smith in His Own Time. Richard Bushman presents his reasons for seeing Joseph as a world figure and one that must be seen other than the tiny boxes of his past critics. He discusses many authors and their views, but uses the arguments of authors Fawn Brodie and her derivative views, John Brooke and his hermetic gnosticism ideas, Jan Shipps with her insider-outsider status, and Harold Bloom and his literary critic approach to Joseph and what Bloom sees as a brilliant resuscitation of gnosticism.

Robert Remeni, Richard Hughes, and Grant Underwood provide commentary on these ideas that are enlightening, informative, and at the end each reader can choose what ideas and arguments he finds persuasive and which he can set aside, at least for now.

2) Joseph Smith and the Recovery of Past Worlds. While this section centers on the Book of Mormon, but also of his translation of the Bible, the books of Moses and of Abraham, and so forth. Terryl L. Givens provides a very interesting opening paper and Margaret Barker provides additional insights that are even surprising coming from a non-Mormon. For me, however, the most important paper and the one with the strongest points is provided by John Clark, an archaeologist and anthropologist from BYU whose Ph.D. is from the University of Michigan.

Dr. Clark's paper lays out the powerful notion that a work of fiction should correspond to nothing in the real world and get less true over time. He shows what the early critics of the Book of Mormon said and how the subsequent evidence as required multiple revisions in the critics' arguments. Clark also shows how supporters and critics have both done Joseph a disservice through misunderstanding the realities of the book and Joseph's role in bringing it forth rather than as its author.

John Welch also presents a powerful paper on how to weigh evidences in the Book of Mormon.

3) Is a paper given by Dallin H. Oaks who was a scholar studying the life of Joseph and his critics as a younger man, but who is now an apostle in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He talks about the personal life of Joseph and his life as a husband, father, and founding of the Church. There is also a picture section that shows us what materials were on display at the Library of Congress during the conference.

4) Joseph Smith in the Theological World. These papers discuss the doctrine that Joseph revealed and its relation to other religious traditions. How it challenges all of them in various ways, and yet includes so much. I enjoyed the examination of Mormon Christology. However, I do take exception with those who are basically advising the Church to moderate its doctrine and to become more "mainstream". Thanks, but no thanks.

5) Joseph Smith and the Making of a Global Religion. These papers, all but the last by non-Mormons, discuss Rodney Stark's famous claim from awhile back that Mormonism, given its range of growth trends, would have a membership of more than 250 million by 2080 and would be a world religion, the first to rise since Islam. The critics all take exception to these statements in various ways. One of them sees the LDS Church as comparing even unfavorably to the Jehovah's Witness movement. As usual, they see the growth of the Church slowing and becoming just another relatively small sect. Jan Shipps defends her statement that Mormonism does represent a new religious tradition and does so quite well. The last paper, by Roger Keller, who joined the Church as an adult, shows a different view of the growth and world significance of the faith.

While I found the papers very interesting and picked up some new views of some things that I am grateful for, I was also disturbed at the idea of the rise of Mormon Studies programs at various universities. Why would this disturb me? For several reasons that I can only state briefly. First, the gospel and its doctrines is not something that is subject to intellectual debate nor does such examination provide a road to improve the Church. Rather, it can lead to phony disputations and generate more discord than provide help. Second, providing tenured careers will inevitably lead to revisions and new arguments and approaches. This is simply because to get a tenured job requires an original piece of scholarship. Once the simple truths are all dug up, examined, and put down on paper, the next generation cannot exist to simply transmit that knowledge. The whole institution of intellectual examination and debate exists to overthrow the previous work with something "better". However, it often is nothing but different and too often destructive.

Third, and this is what bugs me the most, is that these degreed and tenured people will become authorities and consulted about the Church. And they will be forming the minds of young people for generations. Yet, in the reality of the Church, they have no authority and their opinions are actually meaningless. However, it will not be seen that way in the press and in academic circles.

This is a fine book that anyone interested in Joseph Smith, the Book of Mormon, and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will want to read.

A delightful read! I started and couldn't put it down until I'd finished the entire book. It contains wonderful stories of an instution that began as an Orphans' Home right after the War Between the States. It has very detailed research that will more than satisfy the historian -- especially those interested in Georgia history, Methodist history, Civil War history, etc. Lister states that he has plans for follow-on volumes and hope this book prompts others to tell their Home-related stories. I do to; those stories were definitely highlights and put a human face / voice on what can sometimes be viewed as an impersonal institution. I look forward to much more from this writer!

Défrichant un domaine peu connu, cet ouvrage inverse la problématique courante en montrant l'imprégnation de la grande littérature européenne par le yiddish et les résurgences de ce dernier, souvent inattendues. Excellent ouvrage dans non moins excellente collection