Virginia Books

With the loss of Colonial Homes magazine, Christmas ideas with a American colonial theme are becoming rare. The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation along with Libby Hodges Oliver and Mary Miley Theobald have created not only a historical account of early American celebrations, but a beautifully designed and photographed book. Decorating starts outside with simple wreaths and pine roping to more elaborate fruited creations. Inside the greenery continues along with ideas on table decorations,the Christmas feast and best way to spoil Christmas guests. Chapters cover candles to Christmas trees along with colonial revival and twenty first century interpretations. This book will be a welcome inspiration for anyone looking for Christmas ideas and traditions.

With its lively, readable text and beautiful photography, Williamsburg Christmas is a must have book for anyone who enjoys Colonial history and Williamsburg. It makes you want to make that visit to Williamsburg during the Christmas holidays.

Informative (and occasionally surprising!) text accompanied by exquisite photographs of the holiday decorating style known as Colonial Williamsburg.

The text is coordinated effectively with the photographs to which it refers, making this a helpful guide for those interested in recreating or adapting the patterns for their own decorations. Lists of fruits and greenery that are or are not historically valid as well as diagrams for constructing bases for fan-style and pyramid decorations are both practical and helpful. For those preferring merely to look rather than do, it's still a lovely holiday visit to Williamsburg.

You don't have to like Williamsburg to like this book. Decorations can be used in contemporary homes, colonial or traditional homes. Good thoughts on how traditions such as the first Christmas tree began. I am giving the book to family and friends. It makes a great Christmas present.

Cornelia Peake McDonald's diary shows us what life was like for the South during the Civil War. This inspiring story shows the noble character of Mrs. McDonald and the people of the South in general as they fought for their homeland and their beliefs. Most of us can only dimly imagine the hardships they endured with courage, authentic trust in God, and sacrifical help from neighbors and friends--hardships which included battles being waged in their yards, the death of loved ones, cruel treatment, and women with children being driven from their homes as refugees.

I stumbled on Cornelia Peake McDonald when I discovered she was a relation. Of course I had to obtain this book when I was surprised to find her diary(or in this case an edited form of it) still in print.

This book is not for the light hearted history buff that wants the stories of battle. It is the diary of a woman living through extra-ordinary times. A diary that her husband asked her to keep when he announced that their town was going to be taken by the union while he had to go to Richmond. Col. Angus W. McDonald organized the 7th Virginia Cavalry and served on the staff of his friend Jefferson Davis.

The town of Winchester changed hands a few times. As such Cornelia was on the front lines. She had to deal with the union occupiers who were not too gentlemenly with seccesionists. Cornelia refused to turn over her house several times. Food was hard to obtain as access was denied to people that did not take an oath to the union. Yet she talks of union soldiers that violate orders and trade for flour and bread. As a good conferate she does not like the union forces as she describes life on the occupation. Yet she finds decent people that help her to what extent they can. In fact she even spoke up for a doctor that stayed in her house and did not bother her too much and kept soldiers from pillaging too much.

She speaks of fears of the occupation as everyday more and more mistreatment happens as people are forced from their homes. Some dropped in the middle of nowhere without food or money. The fact that women are accosted if they walk around in pairs. You feel hear heart ache at the loss of her youngest child.

Eventually she and her family become refugees to Lexington. You learn of her hardships as she deals with starvation and tried to get firewood for the family. Creating Confederate Candles, spinning wool for clothing. She even had to beg a man to make shoes for her boys.

She was faced with breaking up her family. Especially after the Col. died. She decided to keep them together no matter what. After the war, they learn their homestead was unusable and decide to stay where they are.

You also get to hear about the personalites of the war. She sits in a pew near Stonewall Jackson in church. Dinners with the Ashby brothers, meeting Robert E. Lee after the war. There are others that I will leave for you to find. :)

Cornelia is an interesting woman and a product of her era. She speaks out against slavery and yet is offended by actions of freed slaves. She speaks of the short lived effort of reconcelliation of the North that was destroyed by John Wilkes Booth. At first she is happy with Lincolns death as she thinks he got what he deserved. And yet on reflection she realizes it was a big mistake that will hurt the South. She talks about the abuse of Jefferson Davis and the fact an innocent woman and her innocent son go to the gallows for the assassanation.

It should be mentioned this is not the full diary and the fact she lost some of it as she moved around. Yet her memory is rather good as she rewrote events that were lost. She eventually penned a copy for each of her children.

All in all a facinating read about a tough resourcefull woman struggling to keep and feed her family.

I read this journal/reminiscence during a short period in whichI read several other Confederate women's diaries and reminiscences,and something that made this one particularly significant in my opinion was that unlike some of the other southern women whose writings I read, Cornelia McDonald lived along a major battlefront of the Civil War from the early months on. Thus, although she definitely preferred to have the Confederate forces around her and appears to have retained some bitterness toward the Union government after the war, she had a more complex view of Union soldiers than did some other Confederate women who lived further from the warfront through much of the war. She mentions the kindness of a shoemaker in her town who sympathized with the Union cause but made shoes for her large family of children even though she could not pay him, and at one point she even has a good word for the Union general who heads the forces occupying the town where she lives. The story of her struggle to feed and protect her children, help nurse soldiers, maintain tense but somewhat peaceable relations with soldiers who occupy her home, and support her family when she is eventually left alone is a story of courage, resourcefulness, pain, and gratitude. Cornelia had not lived only the life of a sheltered belle before the war, and despite the chaos around her, she manages to combine practicality and a love of beauty to keep enough sanity to survive the war and go on with family life afterward.

This book provides a glimpse into the struggles and mindset of a southern wife & mom and her family during the civil war. Cornelia McDonald's fortitude and faith under extraordinary trials and tragedies is inspirational. We are a homeschooling family and I think this would be an excellent supplement to a high school student's studies of this time period.

I loved this book. It reminded me of my childhood and all of the adventures that children have and the things that happen to you to make you who you are today.
This book was written as if she had lived this young mans life herself. It takes to the heart of it's charcters and leaves you wanting more.

Growing up in a rural area myself this book brought back many great memories of my own teenage years. I loved the setting that Virginia has used and especially the way she has taken life in the City verses life in the country to mold a young boy into a fine man.

Fantastic book. Can't wait for my 10 & 11 year old grandsons to read it.I will read it to my 5 year grandaughter.Hope there are more books coming from this author.Any child that is fortunate enough to leave the city and spend summers with his grandparents in a rural setting has a good story to tell.

Fantastic book. Can't wait for my 10 & 11 year old grandsons to read it.I will read it to my 5 year grandaughter.Hope there are more books coming from this author

I agree--great book
I live in Marlinton, almost in the center of hiking in West Virginia, and just bought this book about a month ago. I have found it to be helpful in learning about new places that I have never heard of (and I thought I was a well-seasoned WV hiker). I also like the author's style of writing in that it flows nicely from point to point as it gives the directions you need to find your way along with wonderful pieces of information about the place you are hiking through. Again, I agree with the previous review. This is the best WV hiking guide I have come across.

Great book. Well written, interesting background on the hikes--both human and natural history as well as detailed descriptions. All of the hikes I've done so far have been very accurately described. Has some well known hikes, but also many others that are just as good, or better. I've used many other guides to the Mountain State--this one is the best.

50 hikes in West Virginia has provided me with information on places that I have been hiking for years, but never knew the background on them, such as the history of the place, why it looks like it does, what plants and animals make their homes there and what their lives are like. So many guidebooks just tell you how to get to a hike and how long it is, but 50 Hikes in West Virginia is so much more than that.

I enjoy sitting down and reading the book before I go on the hike, so that I will know what to be looking for while I'm out there. Get this book and you will have a great time in the wilds of West Virginia.

If you have (or think you have) ancestors who arrived in Virginia before 1624, this book is a "must-have". The research is impeccable, the footnotes are fascinating, and the indices list every ancestor. This three-volume series is an essential aid to any genealogist who is tracking down early Virginia ancestors. Because of a family Ahnentafel chart, I knew the names and relationships of the people I was looking for, but did not know any of their places or dates. Thanks to the indices at the back of each volume of this wonderful set of books, I now have all the dates and places back to 1610.

It's all there! The 1624/25 Muster, explanatory notes, and family listings (A-F only, though -- I'm eagerly awaiting the next volumes for the rest of the alphabet). This new edition is great to look at, and to hold. I especially liked the endpaper maps of the Jamestown settlements, the 1607 ones in the front and the later ones (1624?) in the back. Well worth the purchase price!

Families
Far too large to be published in a single volume, the new fourth edition is to be published in three volumes (see Volume Two for families G-P). This first volume covers founding families alphabetically from A-F, and includes the following:
Andrews, Bagwell, Baley-Cocke, Barkham-Jenings, Barne, Bates, Bayly, Beheathland, Bennett (Edward), Bennett (Samuel), Bennett-Chapman, Bernard, Bibby, Bickley, Bland, Boyce, Boyle-Mountney, Branch, Buck, Burwell, Bush, Calthorpe, Calvert, Carsley, Carter, Chaplaine, Chew, Chisman, Claiborne, Clay, Clements, Cobb, Codrington, Cole, Cope, Cox, Crew, Croshaw, Crump, Curtis, Davis, Dawson, Delk, Digges, Edloe, Epes, Evelyn, Farrar, Fisher, Fleet, Flood, Freeman.

This is Volume One of the fourth edition of the most celebrated compendium of family histories in the entire field of Virginia genealogy. Prepared under the auspices of the Order of First Families of Virginia, 1607-1624/5 in anticipation of the 400th anniversary of the founding of Jamestown, and edited by the foremost authority on Virginia genealogy, John Frederick Dorman, this new edition extends the lines of descent of the founding families of Virginia from four generations to six, bringing most families down to the Revolutionary or early Federal periods.

The purpose of the book is to establish descents--through the sixth generation--of the approximately 150 individuals who can be identified as (1) Adventurers of Purse (i.e. stockholders in the Virginia Company of London) who either came to Virginia in the period 1607-1625 and had descendants or who did not come to Virginia within that period but whose grandchildren were residents there; or (2) Adventurers of Person, 1607-1625 (i.e. immigrants to Virginia) who left descendants. With roots deeply embedded in the social fabric of the United States, descendants of these original settlers today number in the hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, and like descendants of the Mayflower passengers, they claim an ancestry that is unique in American history.

The foundation for this work is the famous "Muster" of January-February 1624/25-- essentially a census taken by the Royal Commission which succeeded the Virginia Company to determine the extent and composition of the Jamestown settlements. In the Muster (which is reproduced in entirety here in Volume One), the name of each colonist appears with the location of his home and the number in his family, together with information about his stock of food, his supply of arms and ammunition, his boats, houses, and livestock. In all, about 1,200 persons are named in the Muster, of whom approximately 150 are shown here to have left descendants to the sixth generation. Most scholars agree that the total population of Jamestown between 1607 and 1625 was about 7,000, so by 1624/5 only about one-seventh of the colonists had survived the punishing conditions of the Virginia wilderness.

In addition to the Muster, this work builds on the investigations of dozens of scholars, correcting, revising, and supplementing the best genealogical scholarship of the past half century. New discoveries, newly available information, and a further reevaluation of evidence concerning previously accepted relationships have led, in some instances, to wholesale changes in the accepted genealogies. In consequence, this fourth edition brings together the results of all the most recent scholarship on these families, expanding the limits of what is presently known and opening up possibilities for research beyond the sixth generation.

And Keep Moving On: The Virginia Campaign May - June 1864 written by Mark Grimsley is a book about the massive operation called the Virginia Campaign about ow Ulyses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee saw the war. But, this is not just a battle book, it is a book with the political context of the 1864 presidential election.

Not only the election, but appraises the motivation of soldiers, appreciates the impact of the North's sea power advantage and questions convential interpretations; andexamines the interconnections among the major battles, subsidiary offenives, and raids.

The Contents of the book is as follows:

Campaign Plans and Politics
The Wilderness
"Grant Is Beating His Head aganist a Wall"
The Collapse of Grant's Peripheral Strategy
"Lee's Army Is Really Whipped"
"The Hardest Campaign"
"It Seemed Like Murder"
The Campaign's Significance

"The art of war," maintained Lt. Gen. Ulyses S. Grant, "is simple enough. Find out where your enemy is. Get at him as soon as you can. Strike at him as hard as you can and as often as you can, and keep moving on." Grant the bludgeoner, Lee the master of maneuver were, in reality, the two commanders were almost identical in style.

Grant took over the hard luck Army of the Potomac and Lee had his Army of Northern Virginia and that ensured that the spring campaign of 1864 would pit the Civil War's two most successful generals against one another in a duel that became legendary.

The fighting was not restricted to a duel between Grant and Lee, either. In order to maximize his chance of success, Grant put into motion virtually every Union soldier in hte eastern theater. As a result, the struggle between the main armies... eventually dubbed the Overland campaign... was only part of a larger offensive that included major expeditions in western and southeastern Virginia as well as numrous impromptu raids aimed at the Confederate transportation infrastructure. Grant and Lee not only had to take these maneuvers into account, they often supervisedthem as well. It is therefore better to think, as they did themselves, in terms of a single, massive Virginia campaign of spring 1864.

Grant confronted Lee with four subsidiary offensives in addition to the Army of the Potomac's main advance: two in southwestern Virginia against Confederate salworks, lead mines, and railroads; a third in the Shenandoah Valley under Major General Franz Sigel; and a fourth in the James River estuary under Major General Benjamin F. Butler. Grant intended these lesser offensives to divert strength from Lee's army and, if possible, to achieve significant results on their own. He had particularly high expectations of Butler, believing that Butler could threaten Richmond, interdict Confederate communications with the Deep South, and help place Lee at a ruinous disadvantage. But by shifting their outnumbered forces adroitly, the Confederates thwarted Grant's offensive at every turn, defeating Sigel and Butler and administrating sharp checks to the Army of the Potomac in the battles of the Wilderness, Spotsylvania, the North Anna and Cold Harbor.

You really get a feel for how the Virginia Campaign was fought in this book making it a definate addintion to you American History library. The narrative is easy going and the insights are engrossing, making for an informative and educational read.

Mark Grimsley does not seek to break new ground in "And Keep Moving On: The Virginia Campaign, May - June 1864". Up front he states: "This is primarily a work of synthesis. As such, my foremost thanks are due to the authors of the specialized studies on which it is based." These specialized studies are, either through their daunting size or their limited availability, unfamiliar to most persons interested in the Civil War. Mark Grimsley has performed a valuable service for such readers by drawing upon those narrow analyses to craft a comprehensive and lucid narrative about the Overland Campaign and its associated operations. In less than 250 pages of narrative text, Grimsley covers the fundamentals of not only such grand battles as the Wilderness, Spotsylvania and Cold Harbor, but also Butler's fumbled thrust towards Richmond, cavalry raids in West Virginia, and fighting in the Shenandoah Valley. Moreover, he relates the pace of military matters to the political background (1864 was a Presidential election year in the North) and to state of civilian morale.

In discussing combat, Grimsley includes sufficient first-hand detail so the reader does not lose sight of the ultimate reality that the contending armies were made up of living, breathing, dying individual soldiers. Nonetheless, the book's primary focus is on the senior commanders. Grimsley states in the preface that he "evaluated the principal leaders as sympathetically as possible, always bearing in mind that they were intelligent men who operated under extraordinary conditions and pressure ... I have encountered few historical actors - even such perennial goats as Ben Butler - for whom I could not muster at least some respect." It seems that Franz Sigel, justifiably in my opinion, fell outside the author's range of sympathy. In writing of the battle of New Market, Grimsley quotes William C. Davis with favor about that hapless officer: "Franz Sigel was not just an incompetent; he was a fool."

The results of these several weeks of combat in the early summer of 1864 are presented by Grimsley as a mixture of limited success and deeper failure for both sides. Grant sought to destroy Lee's army, but he only succeeded in depriving Lee of the initiative while both armies battled each other into stumbling weariness. Lee tired to drive his enemies back from their invasion, but only managed to resist destruction while being driven back to the static defense of Richmond. In an absorbing extension of his analysis of the results of the campaign, Grimsley discusses the historical memory of these battles as filtered through the Lost Cause mythology of the post-war South, which portrays Lee as the flawless soldier of genius and Grant as the merciless butcher who wins by numbers alone. Grimsley rightly exposes such thinking as shallow and inadequate.

In his acknowledgements section, Grimsley pays special tribute to Gordon Rhea who has, thus far, published five excellent volumes on the Overland Campaign. The influence of Rhea's work is clearly evident on Mark Grimsley's book (Rhea's most recent book, "Cold Harbor", was unfortunately published too late to influence "And Keep Moving On"; if it had been available, I believe Grimsley would have rejected tired conventional wisdom about Union casualty rates during that battle and instead would have followed Rhea's illuminating evaluation of the subject), but even an enthusiastic reader of Rhea's histories can find much of value in "And Keep Moving On." The narrative is delivered in an engaging, persuasive manner, moving briskly towards its conclusion without a feeling of being rushed. This volume has found a permanent spot on my crowded Civil War bookshelves, and I can only hope that Mark Grimsley some day may write a similar volume about the Petersburg campaign that followed.

This is not the ultimate book on the overland campaign as Rhea's series of books from the Wilderness through Cold harbor captures all the detail of troop movements, decisions and action along with great documentation. But Grimsley is the big picture book of the overall campaign explaining the global strategies of Grant's attack plan for Virginia with coordinated raids (Sigel, Averell, Crook) along with a major move on Petersburg (Butler) while concentrating on Lee. Excellent short bios on the participants and Grimsley get sraight to it as why actions failed or succeeded. There is a remarkable chapter after the North Anna that covers a very serious side as the author details how the casualties fared as the armies continued to move, he covers the effect of fatigue, battle stress, the fate of prisoners that all grips the reality of war. A very fascinating, and appropriate account of the human effects of war on the participants. The book also comes with very adequate maps and the campaigns are given in fast moving detail. Even after reading Rhea's great books, as I have, I have enjoyed Grimsley's book that virtually stands back and looks at the action and movements of the commanders in broad strokes while explaining their decisions and reactions. For example, after understanding Grant's odd command structure of directly taking charge of Sheridan and Burnside's corps while Meade commands the Army of the Potomac, one understands how stressful and difficult it was for Meade to coordinate his attack plans. If you are going to throw one book in your knapsack for a field tour of the Overland Campaign, this is a great book to read and bring as a reference. Its going with me on my Pamplin Spring tour of the Wilderness through the North Anna this weekend.

I found this book quite helpful in sorting through the maze of symptoms of various autoimmune disorders. It even helped me to self-diagnose one I did not know I had. The information is well laid out; it is comprehensive and current while not overly scientific. The cross reference of other automimmune diseases is particularly useful.

This book is a must-read for all who have or suspect they or family members or friends have an autoimmune disorder. It is presented in a very organized and efficent manner and is helpful to the patient as well as the health care professional.

It is obvious that the authors have throughly researched all the materials necessary to present accurate, unbiased and essential information. The book is well organized, cross-referenced and covers autoimmune disorders from A to Z.

In addition to the book itself, the resources listed in it are priceless!

Even after being a Myasthenia Gravis patient and coping with the disorder for years, I learned more about Myasthenia by reading this book. I also gave my doctor a copy! Those of us with autoimmune disorders should make it priority read!

The interviews with patients were especially helpful and those with health care professionals were excellent. The possibility of a female having an autoimmune disorder is much higher than that of a male, so the book's main focus is on women. However, it is extremely helpful to men, also.

My family and friends now understand much more about my disease. Congratulations to the authors on a much awaited and much needed book.

This book is well presented and full of interesting facts. Although aimed at the layman it uses rather a lot of medical terminology and certainly hits hard. If you have the misfortune to have one or more auto immune diseases and want to be informed about the course of your illness, the medication available and the research into new medication and possible cures, I would certainly recommend this book. However it is not for the faint hearted!

Pam Newman

The Bermuda Hundred campaign -- a May 1864 attempt to seize Richmond by 33,000 Federal troops under Maj. Gen. Benjamin Butler -- has always tended to be caricatured by the Civil War historians who cover it. The usual narrative is that Butler had a great chance to grab the Confederate capital, blew it through world-class incompetence, and wound up retreating into the neck of the Bermuda Hundred peninsula between the James and Appomattox Rivers, where supposedly it was as neutralized as if it had been "in a bottle strongly corked."

Robertson could have followed the old bash-Butler interpretation, but instead set aside the conventional story and looked at the campaign with the eye of a superb operational-level military historian. (He's on the permanent faculty of the Combat Studies Institute at the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College.) While avoiding the opposite error of turning Butler into some kind of misunderstood genius shafted by his superiors and subordinates, Robertson patiently delineates the flaws in U.S. Grant's instructions to Butler, the frictions created by an awkward command relationship with Butler's two corps commanders -- neither of whom he'd met, much less worked with, until the eve of the campaign -- and the modest but genuine achievements of Butler's offensive. He also does a nice job of handling the Confederate side of the hill as well.

This was a wonderful resource for me when I was writing And Keep Moving On: The Virginia Campaign, May-June 1864, and I heartily recommend it.

This is such an outstanding account of a Civil War campaign that I try to reread it every year or two. Aside from
being a great account of the Bermuda Hundred Campaign,
it is such a welcome change from so mant of the books currently being sold under the description of Civil War history, when they are in reality just junk. This is basically
a "how to" book on how to write and bring to life a Civil War
campaign, especially welcome in that it deals with a relatively obscure campaign in 1864 Virginia. Buy this book!

Wonderful description of the Union successes in almost capturing the little protected Petersburg and the incredulous defense by Confederate forces against huge odds. This book has details on the campaign that actually starts from the Suffolk area where Union cavalry penetrate the lightly defended no man's land southeast of Petersburg outside of Suffolk that even today is lightly populated. The Union cavalry penetrate through small towns like Ivor on route 460 and Windsor heading all the way to the Weldon railroad south of Petersburg. This raid rivals the Grierson raid made during that was made during the Vicksburg campaign. The audaciousness of the Union cavalry
led by Kautz in a series of raids below and above Petersburg rivals Stuarts trip around McClellan in 1862. This is excellent writing as Robertson writes in efficient prose about the early aspects of the Petersburg campaign that has not gotten enough print. The book follows Pickett's stressed out attempts to protect Petersburg with just a few thousand troops and his physically collapsing as soon as Beuraguard arrives to take command. The book also describes the fluttered attempt by Butler's surprise move on Petersburg that fails only because Generals like William Smith stop their attack impressed by Confederate forces that establish a bold front with small numbers, numbers so small that Smith could have steam rolled them and entered Petersburg. The book also describes Beauregard's attempts to get Lee's attention to get more troops and the description of the strained relationship between the two. Very well written description of the Confederate defense of Drewery's Bluff on the James (a wonderful tour stop today) and the counter attack along the Bermuda 100 that seals Butler's forces on the Peninsula as a "cork in a bottle" as Grant was alleged to have said. The author makes a good point that Grant's continued attack of Lee at the Wilderness and Spotsylvania may also have been to divert Confederate pressure and attention north away from Butler to protect Butler's forces allowing an opportunity for victory. The defense of Petersburg is very exciting as the Confederates thin defenses and response forces barely held on for modest reinforces defeating the Union attack. It's truly a miracle that the Confederates held on. This compact book tells the story rapidly but is well written with an easy to read style.

The Virginia Civil War Battles and Leaders Series appears to be underappreciated. The series is excellent and all of the books I have seen from it are first-rate; I currently own 4 books and have leafed through many others. They also represent the only book-length accounts of some battles.

The Battle of Cloyds Mountain is a great example of the quality of the series. It details the events of a relatively small campaign that occurred in the western portion of Virginia during the spring of 1864. The campaign was launched by the Union with the goals of destroying part of the Virginia and Tennessee railroad and the Confederate saltworks at Saltville. The main battle of the campaign took place near Cloyds Mountain. The result was a Union victory with 688 Federal casualties and 538 Confederate casualties.

The book is very well written and easy to follow. McManus provides a balanced treatment to both sides and clearly presents the events seemingly without bias. 7 maps are provided which are of very high quality. I strongly recommend this book to Civil War buffs. This is likely to be the only account of this campaign to be written for the foreseeable future.

Howard McManus discovered and researched this forgotten Southwest Virginia battlefield. Before his research, even the location of the battlefield was unknown. This interesting battle deserves more attention than it has gotten. Not only is McManus a thorough researcher, he can write also.

A terrific account of a very often overlooked Civil War battle. Quite detailed but still manages to be a good read.

This book is great. when we read the book, we find the new possibility.But It is not perfect.He said, Christianity is not seperated from contemporary phiiosophy.Therefore We who believe in God can expoud to the phiiosopher who deny God severely. I respect him to try speaking the the phiiosopher .You,too may assent.

This small work of Tillich's is one of his later publications; deriving from a lecture series in the 1950s, it shows in very short order the combination of Tillich's philosophical and psychological ideas coupled with his view on the authority of biblical scripture in a Christian context.

Tillich states that if humans enter the levels of personal existence which have been rediscovered by depth psychology, there is a collective unconscious in which we participate. This draws together all of our ancestors. Remember here that Tillich speaks in other contexts of the Ground of Being, so ideas such as this one make a consistent sense.

Tillich continues to be criticised for the philosophical language he uses, how radical a departure it seems to a more scripturally-based faith (students in my classes perennially complain of this). However, Tillich takes on the challenge here to look at this contrast in language, arguing that in fact it is impossible to separate out the language and meaning of philosophy from the imagery contained in the biblical texts.

Tillich's overarching idea through his entire body of work is to reconstitute the importance of theology and faith into a culture, academic and secular, who have been drawn away by seemingly more objective, rational enterprises such as science. The Enlightenment project of rationalism over all led to the questioning of orthodoxy -- Tillich maintains the questioning, but draws back in the ideas of God and biblical witness to religion in the terms of the modern academy. Nowhere is that project more clear than in this text.

Tillich means for the connection between biblical religion and philosophy to connect at a personal level. He states that from pimitive religion to the present time, religions have had a personalistic level at the deepest heart of the experience. 'Whenever the holy is experienced, the person-to-person character of this experience is obvious.' However, this changes when considering the Ground of Being, and Being Itself. As Tillich states, when we talk, it is to somebody, but we participate in something. This distinction becomes key to Tillich's overall analysis.

In the last chapters, Tillich examines different ideas of ontology versus the subjective and objective sides of biblical religion. Tillich's final paragraph encapsulates a classic sense of Tillichian analysis -- faith comprises both itself and its negation. Tillich clearly states that there is no particular philosophical framework necessary for salvation -- neither Plato nor Aristotle, neither Kant nor Hegel, and so forth -- but that there is an ontological question implied. The God of the philosophers is the same as the God of the bible (Tillich proclaims, contradicting Pascal).

Many Christians are still unconvinced of the value or necessity of philosophy in religious thinking; indeed, many are positively suspicious. Tillich's work helps to explain the value of connecting the two, even if one does not draw the same conclusions. This is a very short text (a mere 85 pages) that can be read most likely in a single sitting, and represents a good introduction or a good refresher to some key Tillichian ideas.

Paul say's it best in the first chapter of this book..."Religion is a function of the human mind, it is a futile attempt to reach God, it moves from man toward God, while revelation moves from God to man and it's first work is to confound man's religious aspirations."
This sums up the essence of Paul Tillich and his own personal search for Ultimate Reality...but there is so much more!