Baker Books

This is the first Webber book I have read. I was originally uncomfortable with his ideas (about five years ago) but having recently been dismayed with all modernist Christianities (be they liberal, Evangelical, or some Reformed), and given a recent interest in Patristic thought, I decided to give this book a chance.

Webber defines "ancient-future" worship as "publically enacting God's narrative." The worshipping church tells God's narrative, which Webber carefully defines, following the Eastern tradition, as "Creation-Incarnation-Recreation." Given this, an ancient-future church will proclaim God's Scriptures as "true," but not merely in the Enlightenment style of "proving the Bible."

Ancient-future worship will climax in the Eucharist. Don't worry, he isn't advocating Roman transubstantiations. His "Word and Table" model, in my humble opinion, is the best I have ever seen. The Eucharist tells the story of the Incarnate, who while being in the womb of the Virgin, united humanity to his nature so that he may redeem humanity and the world. The bread and wine symbolize the life of the world; the life being given to the world. Christ is really present. The Patristics, contra the moderns (be they conservative or liberal), saw the reality inherent in a sign.

Conclusion:
I don't have any cons with this book. It is very easy to read and flows very well. Webber cuts across the so-called "worship wars." He notes how staid traditionalism and silly happy-clappyism easily tend toward idolatry and man-worship. An ancient-future model provides a glorious alternative.

The natives of the former Belgian Congo hated leopards because they attacked humans. A young leopard was watched for six months, then finally caught in a box trap and killed with poisoned arrows. The author relates this and other stories of her family's missionary life during her childhood in the Congo River Basin, known today as the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The missionaries, a doctor and a teacher, were pioneers in the best sense of the word.
Tourists, doctors, missionaries, lovers of African culture and many others will enjoy this book that accurately portrays the challenges of life before African independence, a treasure that will help you travel to a different world.

My 2-year-old loves this book. It has warm, friendly, clear, realistic pictures of common and zoo animals, one for each letter, one letter a page. No extra words, just the name of the animal. A lovely book, good for 1-3 year olds.

This book is beautifully illustrated. The outdoor scenes are very realistic. A clue is given as to what type of animal lives under the rock, log, etc., and then the reader lifts the flap to reveal the animal. Very fun and educational.

For many historians, the battle of Guilford Courthouse was the American defeat that assured final American victory in the American Revolution (1775-1783). Historian Thomas E. Baker gives good reasoning for this claim in "Another Such Victory." Baker's little book is an exceptional account of the legendary battle fought on March 15, 1781. In his books, Baker discusses the men, stratgies, mistakes, and heroism that defined not only this battle, but how it affected the final outcome of the war.
Baker's book is a great read. It shows how a British victory led to final American victory in the war that turned the world upside down. I highly recommend this for both professional and amateur historians!
Grade: A+

Thanks to Wipf & Stock Publishers we now have a reprint of Beckwith's massive (810pp) commentary originally published by MacMillan in 1919. This is one for the scholar with 416 pages devoted to introductory studies alone, but this makes it worth buying. This is a major commentary and is quoted by most of the other scholarly commentaries since then. Amongst recent (1997-2005) scholarly commentators he is still the ninth most quoted author.

He sees the first seal as conquest; the 144,000 as the Whole church of God; the two witnesses are Elijah and Moses; the woman of Ch 12 is the ideal church of God OT & NT; Babylon is Rome; he is premillennial on Ch 20.

This book, unfortunately, went out of print rather quickly. This was probably because of its specialized and intellectually-advanced treatment of an otherwise popular subject: The New Age Movement (NAM). The same thing happened to another valuable Christian book on the NAM by Tom Snyder called "Myth Conceptions: Joseph Campbell and the New Age" (Baker Books, 1995). The target audience for both books was Christian, but most Christians seem to prefer the more popular and less-specialized treatments on the subject. For those Christians, however, who want to exercise their minds with good, critical analysis of some of the principal intellectual influences on the NAM, then there is no better place to begin than with "Apologetics in the New Age," provided that you can find a copy.

After a general introduction to the topic and its importance, Part 1 expounds the thought of some of the primary historical roots (including those within the last century) that influenced the NAM. The first three thinkers (Suzuki, Shankara, and Radhakrishnan) are Eastern whereas the last two (Plotinus and Spinoza) are Western. Suzuki (1870 - 1966) is known for his key role in introducing Zen Buddhism to the West. Shankara (c. 788 - c. 820) and Radhakrishnan (1888 - 1975), on the other hand, were Hindu thinkers. Plotinus (A.D. 205 - 270) was a Greek philosopher whose influence was profound. As our authors point out, Christian theology felt the effects of his work through Augustine and, by way of Proclus, through an unknown monk known as Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite. Pseudo-Dionysius, because he was mistaken as the convert of Paul (Acts 17:34), has had a pervasive influence on medieval works of theology and devotion (mysticism). For further exposition on the thought and influence of Plotinus and Pseudo-Dionysius, see Bernard McGinn's "The Foundations of Mysticism". I must also add, since the authors don't, that Plotinus had a significant influence on Jewish Kabbalah (see Isaiah Tishby's The Wisdom of the Zohar, Volume 1, pg. 237). Kabbalah is highly regarded by occultists (and the NAM in general). Occult orders of the late 19th century such as The Theosophical Society and The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn utilized, with modification, its doctrines. Spinoza (1634 - 1677), a philosopher of Jewish descent, is known for his pantheistic naturalism with its anti-supernatural bias. The authors point out that Einstein said he believed in the God of Spinoza and both thinkers shared the belief that whatever happens in Nature happens by necessity.

Part 2 (Evaluation of New Age Pantheism) opens with Chapter 6 which "summarizes pantheism's common threads" and "ties together similar themes in pantheism and shows how these ideas manifest themselves in the thought of typical New Age advocates" (pg. 13). These themes are fleshed out and analyzed in Chapters 7 - 10. I particularly liked the authors' seven "presumably exhaustive" logical alternatives regarding evil (pgs. 204 - 205). Chapter 11 closes the book with a short review of the arguments and a positive (although too short) presentation of the strength of Christian theism. This chapter points out that one does not have to denigrate rationality to cultivate a sense of divine mystery. This is true, I might add, not only for pantheistic mystics but also theistic (and Christian) mystics.

Another book I recommend reading and critically comparing with this one is "The Mystical Languages of Unsaying" by Michael Sells. This book points out that apophasis (which literally means "speaking away") works as a mode of mystical discourse rather than as a negative theology. He points out that the radical claims of apophatic writers, which have usually been written off as hyperbolic or condemned as pantheistic, are essential to understanding the mystical languages of unsaying. Personally, I think that one of the keys to divine mystery is the doctrine of creation ex nihilo. The relationship between the Infinite and finite involves the paradox of nothingness which is essential to God's transcendence and immanence (not withstanding Moreland's analysis of "nothingness" as used by atheistic scientists to mean "zero energy," see "Scaling the Secular City," pgs. 38 - 41). One of the names that the French mystic Marguerite Porete (burned as a heretic by the Inquisition) attributed to God was "FarNear" (see chapter 84 of her book "The Mirror of Simple Souls"). God is infinitely near and infinitely far away because of the nothingness that ontologically (and epistemologically via ignorance or "unknowing" - see "Mystical Theology" by Pseudo-Dionysius & "The Cloud of Unknowing" by an unknown English mystic) separates and unites us to God. Because God created us out of nothing, there is "nothing" that separates us from God. This "nothing" is not equivalent to space or mere emptiness (The Indian term for zero was sunya which meant empty or blank, but had no connotation of "void" or "nothing", see Dantzig's Number: The Language of Science). My point is that one doesn't have to be a pantheist (all is God) to appreciate some of the profound mysteries that ground Christian theism and can, in a significant way, contribute to a Biblical Christian Mysticism. As a closing note, I recommend replacing, in the Suggested Reading section, Arthur Johnson's "Faith Misguided: Exposing the Dangers of Mysticism" with Winfried Corduan's "Mysticism: An Evangelical Option?" The latter, although at times too critical or shallow in understanding, is at least more sympathetic than Johnson when it comes to acknowledging a mystical element in Biblical Christianity.

Having made extensive use of his Greek/English 2nd edition, this 3rd edition translation of the Apostolic Fathers is a great resource for pastors or interested laypeople. The translations are lucid, clear, and contemporary (without being at all "trendy"); newly expanded footnotes and biblographies for each work make full use of the most recent scholarship. The scripture-reference footnotes for Polycarp's Letter to the Philippians are particularly dense, given that Holmes makes full use of Berding's and Hartog's studies on Polycarp's use of the NT.
If you have more academic interests, the 2nd edition Greek/English is still a very good translation and has a host of technical footnotes not included in this edition. If you just want to read the Apostolic Fathers in clear English, this is the one for you.

Covers the topic well showing formulas that relate to DOF including image magnification, hyperfocal distance, and DOF itself. Some basic lens design information. Discusses Airy disc and degree of print/slide enlargement considerations which is hard to find information. A bit hard to understand at times but I made it through okay. About half of book is Depth of Field charts for 35mm, 6cm x 6cm, 6m x 9cm, 4"x5", 5"x7", 8"x10" formats. Author has written other books and had much experience in photography though his formal education was in Anthropology. In some ways a historic book from an age of history (1985 copyright) when automation was less used and photographers became curious about this subject.

Excellent Esoteric Astrology Analysis. Esoteric Astrology is about the Soul's path, mundane astrology is about the personality issues