Conventions Books

If you are a Texas historian, a Baptist historian, or a Texas Baptist historian of any variety--scholastic, ministerial, or armchair--this book should be items 1-10 on your wish list. Don't wait to buy it for Christmas; buy it for Bastille Day!

Early's meticulous work springboards from the strengths of McBeth's companion volume without inheriting the weaknesses of the primary volume. It is well worth the money for the included sources alone, and Early's cogent introductions are worth paying the purchase price again.

Within a year this will be on the shelf of every serious student of Texas Baptist history.

I got this book for my 90-something old father and we had a blast with it, since so much of this music is the music he grew up with and grew to love.

As we read the chapters on the making of the music and the lives of the composers, song-writers, and song-makers, we sang these songs to each other.

It's a fat book chock full of hither-to unknown facts, marvelous asides on how plugging a song was done before radio. . . how the grammaphone and technology changed the face of musical history.

And, so many pictures! These alone are worth the cost of admission.

--Janet Grace Riehl, author Sightlines: A Poet's Diary

Reed Way Dasenbrock not only took several years to write Truth and Consequences: Intentions, Conventions, and the New Thematics, but in writing the book he was already building on his long involvement with analytic philosophy and literary criticism, an involvement publicly announced at least as early as the publication in 1989 of a collection he edited entitled Redrawing the Lines: Analytic Philosophy, Deconstruction, and Literary Theory. Truth and Consequences demonstrates that Prof. Dasenbrock has spent his time well. Like analytic philosophy itself, Prof. Dasenbrock argues carefully and meticulously, identifying in his own work and in others' the premises (spoken and unspoken), conclusions, and further implications of conventionalist and anti-intentionalist literary theory of the last twenty or so years. For those readers - students especially - who want to see the logical connections in that literary theory, Prof. Dasenbrock's study of recent treatment of personalism and truth may prove indispensable.

Though he focuses on analytic philosophy as a distinguishable body and voice of work in order to make his argument that "a deeper acquaintance with the central figures of analytic philosophy...brings us to very different conclusions from those advocated by...contemporary literary theory in general," (xiv) his arguments are quite capable of standing on their own without that "deeper acquaintance." Truth and Consequences would not only be a much shorter book, but would surely as a consequence be easier to follow. In fact, the force of those arguments rely much less on any kind of head count of who holds those views and who doesn't, be they philosopher or literary theorist, than they do their own internal integrity. Besides, his claim that analytic philosophy provides just as powerful a voice for intentionalism and truth as some have supposed it does against intentionalism and truth, simply isn't the point, which is whether intentionalism and truth work in literary theory or not.

Prof. Dasenbrock does his best work in the book (though there is little in the book that isn't valuable) when he is laying out the actual arguments proposed for and against conventionalism and anti-intentionalism, and anti-conventionalism and intentionalism. The conclusions at which many have arrived - that there is no such thing as truth that isn't profoundly qualified (hamstrung, stillborn, disqualified) by context, and that an author relinquishes any prerogative vis a vis the meaning of her text as soon as she writes it - are themselves straightforward in their meaning. What is not so obvious is why so many have in fact arrived at these conclusions, nor what exactly the implications are for literary theory and the teaching of literature.

Prof. Dasenbrock demonstrates well and fully the provenance of these conclusions as conclusions of arguments. He contends that those arguments are faulty. Many will, or will be able to, in turn find fault with his arguments, and/or with the way he constructs the arguments that he claims to see in the theoretical literature. But if they disagree by taking up an argument themselves, they implicitly accept the rules of argumentation - a game very different from other ways of putting forth one's opinions or attempting to change some current practice or theory. One rule of argumentation is that an argument must be valid if you are to arrive at any truth of the matter, irrespective of context. Dasenbrock demonstrates again and again how many who argue to explicitly deny it hold this notion of truth implicitly.

But there are many who reject the game altogether, who proceed then on pragmatic grounds: Given our time and place, does the particular theory cash out as we want it to? Does it, for example, widen the circle of inclusion of the academic literary canon? Prof. Dasenbrock addresses this pragmatic stream of literary theory head on, and succeeds in bringing out salient features of the principles involved. His work here is valuable, but less carefully extended, and less convincing, than his more formal argumentative treatment of the issues. Nevertheless, on both counts, Truth and Consequences rewards close reading throughout, and deserves as careful a response from literary theorists of every sort.

This book, (along with the others in the series), is the most exhaustive, even-handed, and thoroughly researched account of the conservative resurgence in the Southern Baptist Convention that I have found anywhere. Every Southern Baptist and, I believe, every Christian, should read this and the complete series from cover-to-cover. A thoroughly excellent resource and a must have for your personal library.

I had the pleasure of working with this teacher and let me tell you - she is amazing! Every day that I was there I learned so much about the art of teaching. As soon as I heard about her new book I grabbed it from the book store and have been recommending it to my colleagues. You will not be disappointed!

Great book about the spread of Christianity in Japan after the end of WWII. Dub Jackson, former US Air Force pilot and later one of the top missionaries to Japan, gives a first hand account of Japan immediately following the surrender and the years there after. The amazing works of God in Japan that he shares testify to what God can do and serve to encourage and strenghten one's faith.

From the Preface

The purpose of this book is simple. It is to view some of the teachings of the Lord as they are found in the Gospels and in the writings of the New Church; and to look through these spiritual teachings, as through lenses, in the effort to visualize and make our own that heavenly life which they so vividly proclaim. Our hope is that you who read Where Heaven Begins will find yourself entering into its purpose, and into some real measure of its fulfillment.

Review

This is a book that belongs in every home. It deserves a reading by all who are seeking the Christian way of life. It is a wise and loving testimonial of a minister who knows from experience Where Heaven Begins. The reader need not be wary that he may be led on an uncomfortable "other worldly" excursion, for this little book makes it clear that if heaven does not begin in the human heart and mind right here on this plane of existence, it never will.

Introduction

His fellow churchmen and friends will prize having something more from Everett Bray's hand. His previous book, Why Do Things Happen? appeared as long ago as 1920. At that time Mr. Bray was the pastor of the New Church Society in St. Paul, Minn. He has served a steadily widened circle since then; he is minister at Cambridge, Mass., was for some years the President of Convention, is General Pastor of the Massachusetts Association, and more recently became President of the New Church Theological School, Cambridge. In the present book he offers counsel, then, out of an abundance of pastoral experience. He notes what a wealth of teaching the New Churchman has on all the realities of the Christian life. So rich is this teaching it can easily engross just our thinking, world without end! This wealth of teaching Mr. Bray treats not as an end in itself, but as an aid to the more abundant life--heaven's life. In fervent pastoral concern and in affectionate personal regard he urges upon us that our teachings are "gates of righteousness" through which we may enter a profounder Christian experience.

The unsigned poems are Mr. Bray's, and add to the value and interest this book will have for his many friends.

This book is a fascinating treatise describing the development of Southern Baptist theology from the bedrock of Calvanism to the weeds of docrinal dissention which threaten to choke life from biblical inspiration. It is a well written book which educates, inspires and provokes serious thought about the origins and future of Southern Baptist theology. This book should be required reading for anyone, be they laity, ministers, or all who are curious about Southern Baptists. It is a worthy addition to any library.

Thousands of church secretaries owe their expertise to Lucy Hoskins and her clear, concise insight on how to bring professionalism to the church office. Even though this is a 1981 book, the principles apply. A classic for every ministry assistant!

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