Bishop Books

Elizabeth Bishop was an elusive and multi-faceted woman. Gaining a glimpse of her through her poetry, some details through her prose, she has remained enigmatic, despite the many volumes of criticism and biography dedicated to her life and art. Her paintings show us another side of her creativity, and in "Exchanging Hats" we are provided with a greater depth of understanding of her creative abilities. The paintings themselves, spare and pragmatic, are as geographical and domestic as her poetry. More subtle than they first appear,they illuminate her life from a different perspective. For anyone interested in Bishop,this book is essential.

A Book of important value to the church on the Kingdom of God and the Church.
Bishop D. J. Young

This is a fascinating collection of stories featuring creatures from the deep seas, deep caves, and deep space. Every story ends with a life lesson. The illustrations are fabulous and include many details. At the end there is a resource section with notes about the different creatures featured in the stories. A great gift for all ages!

"Faithspace in the Workplace" is an excellent volume tackling a subject of extreme importance - how do we squeeze more meaning out of our vocations? The authors cover a variety of topics in the 50-chapter format including the death of our dreams, the source of our unhappiness, and the danger of dollars as the bottom line. This book describes a personal God who takes his children beyond the pursuit of wealth, recognition, and success into a partnership with his purposes for the world. Use this to see your vocation from a different point of view.

The table of contents is as follows:

Introduction

Commentary on the Lord's Sermon on the Mount

Retractions: Book I: Chapter 19

Sermons:

53. On the Beatitudes

54. How to 'Let Your Light Shine Before Men'

55. On Taming the Tongue

56. On the Lord's Prayer

60. On Almsgiving

61. On Almsgiving

72. On Almsgiving

94. The Slothful Servant

109. The Adversary

346. On Life's Pilgrimage

4 (Denis). Christ: Lamb and Lion*

5 (Denis). Life From Death*

6 (Denis). The Holy Eucharist*

7 (Denis). Sonship or Servitude*

8 (Denis). On Baptism*

13 (Denis). Christ: The Glory of Martyrs*

11 (Morin). On the Beatitudes**

Index.

* The sermons so marked and the numbers assigned them are taken from a collection published by Michael Denis in 1792.

** Taken from Dom Germain Morin's "Miscellanea Agostiniana".

Although the title work of this book is Augustine's close commentary on the Sermon on the Mount, the book also includes the chapter concerning the commentary taken from Augustine's "Retractions", as well as seventeen of Augustine's sermons: ten of which took their themes from the Sermon on the Mount, and seven others that were included because they had not (at the time of writing) ever been translated into English.

Scriptural commentary is not generally regarded as Augustine's greatest strength as a theologian; held closely to the text and the order of presentation in the text, he could not address the deep questions which the text as a whole raised, but at which individual passages in their immediate context only hinted, and it was in addressing the deep questions that Augustine excelled.

Apart from their questions concerning their excellence, Augustine's method of commentary may seem quite surprising to those familiar with the more modern historical approach. Augustine's focus is on symbol-systems. Here, for example, is Augustine's commentary on the first part of Matthew 6:6:

"'But,' says He, 'when you pray, go into your bedrooms.' Now, what are these bedrooms but the very hearts that are signified also in the Psalm wherein it is said: 'The things you say in your hearts, be sorry for in your bedrooms.' He then continues: 'And closing the doors, pray in secret to you Father.' Our entering the rooms is not enough if the door be left open to the importunate, for external things rush brazenly in through this door, and lay hold on our innermost affections ... Therefore, the door must be closed;"

By way of contrast, Daniel J. Harrington, in the modern form, writing on the same passage from "Sacra Pagina: The Gospel of Matthew", says:

"The Greek word tameion can refer to a 'storage room' or 'pantry', the innermost room in the house. In either case the idea is the room least likely to attract public notice. Perhaps such a room had no windows ... Matthew 6:1-18 functions as part of the attack against Jewish opponents of the Matthean community."

Of course, the two forms of commentary are not mutually exclusive - a reader may hold both, either, or neither to be good readings. Some of course, may hold to the Harrington's form exclusively, and reject Augustine's symbol systems as imaginary. Others may hold to the Augustine's form exclusively and reject Harrington's Matthean community as imaginary.

With regard to the sermons in the collection, Augustine himself always regarded his sermons as unsatisfactory, but he seems to have been alone in that assessment. His sermons were admired and his style imitated for many centuries afterwards, a fact that has greatly complicated trying to determine which sermons Augustine wrote, and which were imitations of his style.

The editiorial material in the book includes the introduction, which provides a historical view of the works, both prior as regarding their composition, and later as to their reception and impact. Additionally, footnotes give exact references for Augustine's scriptural citations, translation issues, and references to other works of Augustine's or of others. Finally, the work has an index, which is, however, only fair.

This book contains a pair of unfinished works by Augustine on the Book of Genesis. The table of contents is as follows:

Introduction (Roland J. Teske)

Entries from "The Retractions" on the two works

"Two Books on Genesis against the Manichees"

"On the Literal Interpretation of Genesis: An Unfinished Book"

General Index

Index of Holy Scripture

Augustine regarded the interpretation of Genesis as important to Christian belief, but also found it difficult. These works were his two first attempts at writing interpretations of it, but he thought them only partly successful and did not see fit to complete them. Neither work is to be confused with Augustine's "The Literal Meaning of Genesis", which is a later and much longer work on the same subject that he successfully completed (that work is available in two volumes from Paulist Press).

Augustine's special interest in Genesis had two roots: apologetic and theological. His apologetic interest was a response to frequent attacks on Genesis by non-Christians and what he felt were inept defenses of it by uneducated Christians. His theological interest sprang from the critical importance of the Fall to Augustine's theology.

The first work, "Two Books on Genesis against the Manichees", was primarily apologetic. It was written not long after Augustine left the Manichees to return to the Church, and was intended as a rebuttal to the Manichee attacks on Genesis. In this context, Augustine discussed Creation, Eden, and the Fall, but the work ended there - Augustine felt that he had not yet learned enough to complete the task he had undertaken successfully. The section on Creation was largely literal - reading it as a record of events that had occurred, but the section on Eden and the Fall was largely allegorical, reading it for the spiritual truth within the literal account. The chief interest I found in the work was that the description of the Eden and the Fall shows the strong influence on Augustine of classical virtue ethics, but none of the theology of Original Sin that is of such importance in his later writings.

The second work "On the Literal Interpretation of Genesis: An Unfinished Book", was aporetic in character: in it, Augustine deepens the reader's understanding of the text by raising questions about it rather than by giving answers. This work was written not long after the previous one, and again Augustine found himself ultimately unequal to the task he had set. This work is even shorter than the previous one, and gets less far into Genesis, ending after the Creation days. I found the work pleasant to read; the aporetic style provides a sense of intimacy - that the author is sharing not only his answers with the reader, but also his questions, even if he doesn't have an answer to give.

The supporting material in the book is quite good - the only fault I would find is that the introduction generally refers to works by the abbreviations of their Latin names, which made me break from reading the text to his table of abbreviations (about 30 in all) far too often, a fault compounded by the fact that English translations for the titles in that table were not provided. Still, this is a pretty minor quibble.

As a final note, thanks are due to Teske and CUA Press for providing the first translation of these works into English.

As a student horticulturalist I have tried several different publications trying to find the best to aide me in my study of plant identification. The Woody Landscape Guide is the best I've yet to find. Excellently illustrated with full colour pictures and containing clear information on uses, planting suggestions, and cultivars for the southeast, this book is a definite companion for Michael Dirr's Manuel of Woody Landscape Plants and a must have for students.

I have read these 50 Sonnets and am surprised by the beauty of the writing of these poems and by the profound sentiments they convey. These poems can be read and understood by people of all ages with great profit for their soul and their intellect. Everyone should buy this book and I can assure you all that your life will be enriched by this reading. This book is readily available for all and a great read.

Tippet analyzes Fijian material culture: clubs, canoes and boats, turtle fishing nets and house types. Excellent theory and triangulation method. Critique of museum collections and sensitive insight of problems inherent in displaying artifacts out of context. Fascinating material interlaced with stories and reminiscences from his Fijian friends. A must read for anthropologists, and interesting enough for curious people. The best book I've read on any material culture.

This is a great book... I'm hoping she writes a sequal! The characters are well written and loveable. I'm going to read it again!