Conventions Books

This was especially interesting to us as it mentioned several women we had been researching for genealogy.

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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je crois que les enfants du tier monde, souffrent beaucoup dans ces pays. Pour cela il faut lutter contre l'abusement des enfants ,le plus vite possible. Par exemple au maroc on a constitué le parlement de l'enfant comme première étape dans les droits de l'enfant.

Forster has written a deceptively light, subtle, and entertaining novel
about decent, educated, lily-white English folk whose only real sin is a
polite timidness of spirit, one of the "curses of a refined nature." The
Forster narrative is correspondingly gentle and good-humored, with chasms of despair lurking in the background and momentous decisions explained with understated matter-of-factness. Some fiction achieves a status like Holy Writ. This novel might.

The central characters in >A Room With a View< are as follows.
1) Lucy Honeychurch:
a. "I can't think," Lucy said gravely.
b. Lucy did not know what to do nor even what she wanted to do.
c. She gave up trying to understand herself, and joined the armies of
the benighted, who follow neither the heart nor the brain, and march
to their destiny by catchwords.
In short, Lucy is searching for a point of view, a sense of self.
2) Cecil Vyse;
a. Of course, he despised the world as a whole; every thoughtful man
should.
b. Cecil had been hesitating whether he should despise the villas or
despise Sir Harry for despising them.
c. "Hopeless vulgarian," exclaimed Cecil, almost before they were out of
earshot. "It would be wrong not to loathe that man."
Honestly, Cecil feels intimidated by social interaction.
3) George Emerson:
a. "A nice fellow," Mr. Beebe said afterwards. "He will work off his
crudities in time. I rather distrust young men who slip into life
gracefully.
b. "I only know what it is that's wrong with him, not why it is . . . .
The old trouble; things won't fit."

The curious catalyst for the relationships that develop is Italy. As Lucy
searched for "ma buoni uomini," the good men, the Italian escort led her to George.
1) "Eccolo!" he exclaimed.
2) At the same moment, the ground gave way, and with a cry she fell out of the wood. Light and beauty enveloped her.
3) "Courage!" cried her companion. "Courage and love!"
4) George had turned at the sound of her arrival. For a moment, he contemplated her, as one who had fallen out of heaven. He stepped forward and kissed her.

Lucy's "muddle" finally reaches its climax. She was "driven by nameless
bewilderment."
1) "I've seen so little of life," she said. "One ought to come up to
London more. I might even share a flat for a little with some other
girl."
2) "And mess with typewriters and latch-keys!" her mother exploded, "and
agitate and scream, and be carried off kicking by the police."
3) "I want more independence," said Lucy lamely. She knew she wanted
something, and independence is a useful cry. She tried to remember her
emotions in Florence; those had been sincere and passionate, and had
suggested beauty rather than short skirts and latch-keys.

A wonderful story, >Room with a View<, perhaps one of the greatest in the
English language.

Forster's wit, irony, and well-drawn characters make this an enjoyable read. If you're not used to reading pieces from this period, you may need to warm up to the style, but once you do, you'll enjoy this.

Followed the PBS special almost to the word but the book's ending was much better.

Do not buy this version. It is not formatted correctly for the Kindle. It has fixed line lengths which wrap awkwardly on the Kindle, making it very difficult to read.

Edward Morgan Foster (1879-1970) lived a long life as a Cambridge don and world traveler. However, most of this author's fiction was completed in the first 20 years of the 20th century. "A Room With a View" is a gently satirical view of the English abroad and at home in the late Edwardian Age. Perhaps we can view England as the cozy room of normality and routine while the sunny Italian landscape provides us a view of a wider world outside our usual gaze.
The short novel is divided into two parts. In part one we are introduced to a group of English travelers in Italy. We meet Charlotte
an old maid aunt who is chaperoning the upper middle class young lady the fetching Lucy Honeychurch. (Charlotte reminds one of the governess types described with right on accuracy by Charlotte Bronte). The women want a good view of Florence so reluctantly switch rooms with Mr. Emerson (a dreamy transcendentalist like older man who reminds us of the philisophical musings of Concord sage Ralph Waldo Emerson) and his stra handsome son George. (George is to become a knight saving Lucy from the clutches of the effete snob aesthete Cyril Vise). On a sightseeing picnic Lucy and George kiss and then depart. Lucy goes to Rome meeting her future fiance the artistic and bookish Cyril.
Part II is set in England. After several complications the course of true love is finally set on its right course. Lucy jilts Cyril and finds true bliss with George. The novel is cyclicalbeginning in spring and ending with Lucy Honeychurch's honeymoon with George. This occurs in the same Florentine hotel in which they met. A year has passed and it is spring again for these young lovers.
Forster provides a gallery of colorful characters: Mr Beebe the clergyman who hopes Lucy dumps Cyril for George; Eleanor Lavish a comically drawn mystery writer; Lucy's brother Fred and a Cockney hotel owner in Florence.
Forster wishes to open the stuffy door of Victorian fiction with a new frankness on sexuality and freedom of expression. His scene in which the major male characters bathe in a pond is an example of this theme. Forster favors physical and intimate love to the aesthetic passionless p love which Vise has for Lucy. George is athletic and earthy while Vise is a nerdy bookworm. Forster's book is good in the use of witty dialogue. His understanding of the British class system leads him to satirical comments on its rigidity.
A quibble. The characters don't have much depth seeming to be actors in a stage presentation. Forster is worth reading for his advocacy of true love and emotion in a society of elaborate and often hypocritcal rules. He is a good author worthy of your time.

Of many books I have read on the misdeeds and mistakes of the Bush Administration in Iraq, Afghanistan, and the War on Terror generally, this is the best. Its impact sinks in page after page, horrific detail after horrific detail.

Jane Mayer has written a well-documented analysis of how the White House succumbed to the sociology of groupthink and pretty much froze out those who disagreed with or questioned the wisdom of allowing torture under any name.

There are a lot of books about the machinations of the White House available, but I think this one is the best.

While this book does not mince words, about the horrific tactics that our government has done, I found it informative but tedious. The public must be informed but the main objective I think is to "vote the rascals out!"

(From a conversation with the author on a local radio call-in program)
Somehow, i endured to the end of this frightening book. It frightened me in ways i didn't know i could be frightened. I found your vignettes well-supported and the story they tell, coherent and overwhelming. They are even more overwhelming when read as a whole than as a series of episodes.

By the time I got to the bottom of page 274, and read that Ramzi Kassem, whom you describe as having taught at Yale Law School, had reported that his Yemeni client "told him that during his incarceration in the Dark Prison [which you report as being near Kabul Airport] he had attempted suicide three tines by ramming his head into the walls..." By that point, knowing that I still had 60 nightmarish pages to finish, i found myself considering beating my own head with the book, so i wouldn't have to read them.

I have three questions. First, how have you defended "The Dark Side" against people who continue to support what i'd term Cheney/Bush's "security über allez" irrespective of constitutionality approach? Second, have you faced charges that you are merely "swiftboating" Cheney/Bush; if so, how would you defend yourself? I ask these questions so that i might better help you defended your book when people around me question your work. [The author answered that not a single claim had been challenged by anyone involved, or by any agent of the government,]

Finally, in view of Dan Levin's 'magic footnote' (my term) which stated that "nothing that the [US} government had previously authorized would be considered criminal under [Levin's] new interpretation of the law" (page 306, bottom), do you, Ms. Mayer foresee any possibility of criminal charges being brought against either Cheney or Bush under US laws? ... or War Crime charges being brought at the World Court? Is it possible that any of the Principles Group cold be arrested under international law, as General Pinochet was in England? [The author responded that this was unlikely to happen in the US,, but more likely to happen in another country---so, I say, let's start up a Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld international travel fund!]

Thank you for writing this truly troubling book.

If you truly love your country, you must read this book. I have to be honest, because I love my country, because the ideals of this nation are so important, because due process and the rule of law are what separate us from our enemies, I felt incredible sadness, even shame as an American, reading this book. Still, it must be read, and it should be read by everyone planning to vote in November. Quite simply, Bush, Cheney, Addington, Yoo and others betrayed this nation and, I believe, should be brought up on war crime charges. And, if you think I'm just another liberal, you're wrong. I supported the first President Bush and John McCain in 2000, and I honor of memory and legacy of Ronald Reagan.

The truth is never easy to accept, but it must come out. We should always remember John 8:32.