Bishop Books

This is an amazing story of high adventure, which took me completely by surprise, as it's written by an Anglican missionary. Collison's adventures among the Haidas and Tsimshians of British Columbia are exciting and fascinating. Unfortunately, the recent reprint edition of this book didn't include the Bible verses that headed each chapter of the original. I'm not a particularly religious person, but Collison chose verses that really help set the tone of the chapter.

this book has had an enormous effect on my life, I have read it in one day and reflect on it since. highly recommended for anyone who is still facinated by the simple things in life.

I love historical novels, but they're hard to get into,but once you're captured by the plot you can't drop the book.

This particular novel just had me turning page after page, I didn't even want to sleep until I had finished it and then I wanted to read the book that follows it "So Shall you Reap".

Also if you're a romantic, you will find "Inherit the Earth" adorable.

You fall in love with the caracters and you're able to relate to them even though they are placed two centuries ago.

They have all the passion and struggle to survive in a wretched world, and make the best of it.

While it is doubtless an overstatement to suggest Newton was to Paul what Einstein was to Augustine, I wish to emphasize the importance of the latter's role in the development of Christian theology during and since the dawning of medievalism. Inner Grace is Cary's corrective to the closeting of Augustine's innermost theologizing, particularly, in this case, with reference to the doctrine of grace and its outermost connections with the sacraments.

Although each book may stand alone, the reader who desires to gain the most from Cary's perspective will need additionally to read Augustine's Invention of the Inner Self: The Legacy of a Christian Platonist, and Outward Signs: The Powerlessness of External Things in Augustine's Theology.

To what extent did Platonism enhance or muddy the waters of Christian belief? In what ways did it impact theology? Although Plato's name is nowhere found in the New Testament, I compare him to salt that cannot be seen, but can be tasted anywhere in the ocean. Plato is pervasive, even in the New Testament. Every time I hear Paul say, "For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face," I think of Plato's cave. And I'll bet Paul did, too. Platonism must have flavored Paul's thought as much as Paul and his Platonism flavored the thought of Augustine. But Paul was a Greek-speaking city boy whose background differed from Jesus, the Aramaic-speaking rural boy. How do we sift Platonism in and out of "pure" Christian thought? Cary wrestles the question.

This is not a book written for people who are interested in pop theology. Fully thirty percent of Inner Grace is devoted to appendix, abbreviations, notes, bibliography, and indexing. It is a textbook for ongoing study; I cannot shelve it the minute I finish this review. Fortunately, Cary introduces each chapter with an italicized introduction. He breaks the chapters into shorter sections with appropriate subtitles. He makes liberal use of wit, but never for the sake of mere cleverness; he drives toward relevant points. Without these amenities and room for rumination, a reader with a two-digit IQ (such as I have) would be lost.

Cary's book reminds me of one of my friends who likes to play funny jokes on me. But he has never sneaked into my home and knocked on my door from the inside. That, indeed, would be a startling way to initiate a visit. I think Cary wants to remind us of the Jesus who says, "Behold, I stand at the door and knock." Cary makes me think of a God, politely transcendent, who comes inside when--or if--the door is opened to him.

Of course Inner Grace may be controversial reading for students interested in Platonic philosophy and its impact upon Pauline and Augustinian theology. But they will find themselves confronted with seven correctives--strong statements that bring Cary's argument to a conclusion. To that end, I believe Cary gives his readers plenty to ponder.

Here is a book summarising a great author which actually sheds light rather than rendering obscure what the original author had put well.

As part of the "Great Christian Thinkers" series, Minns outlines Irenaeus' thought and concludes with a justification for his inclusion in the series of Greats.

Minns does a great job of gathering together themes from Irenaeus and presenting them clearly and freshly. Not surprisingly, but worth mentioning, he includes not only Against Hereseies but also On the Apostolic Preaching.

A good read, though I'd still start with Irenaeus.

In this book, Eric Osborn provides a creative and insightful analysis of the intellectual life of a second century genius. Osborn does an excellent job of explaining Irenaeus's ideas in readable style. He illustrates the combination of poetic and logical thinking that led to Irenaeus's theological and philosophical conclusions, and he persuasively presents the second century writer as an artistic genius who interwove "imagery and logic, poetry and argument" in distinguishing Christianity from such second century heresies as Valentinian Gnosticism. He also illustrated how visual Irenaeus was in his view of the Bible and the world. Osborn explained, for example, that to Irenaeus, "The diversity of the world is a splendid harmony from the composer of a wonderful universe." (page 256). Irenaeus was fascinated with "the rich natural beauty in which Adam was placed." (page 256).

The book's primary weakness, I found, was that it reveals both an active and a contemplative side of Irenaeus, and beautifully addresses the contemplative side, while it left me wanting to know more of how Osborn would analyze Irenaeus's active side. Osborn provides an intricate and insightful analysis of Irenaeus's theology and philosophy. However, Irenaeus was not only an intellectual. He was also a pastor and evangelist living at the outer geographic reaches of Christianity in an era of martyrdom. I would like to have had more chapters analyzing the more active side of Irenaeus's work.

Among these, Osborn convincingly argues that Irenaeus was an extremely visual man with the soul of an artist, which cannot help but raise the question of what Irenaeus had to say about women. Indeed, at least one incident that Irenaeus reported in "Against Heresies" beautifully illustrates Osborn's key theses, and helps to explain what motivated Irenaeus to write. I was left wondering why Osborn did not discuss it. Specifically, Irenaeus wrote about an incident in which the wife of one of his own deacons fell victim to the heretic Marcus: "His wife, a woman of remarkable beauty, fell a victim both in mind and body to this magician, and, for a long time, travelled about with him. At last, when, with no small difficulty, the brethren had converted her, she spent her whole time in the exercise of public confession, weeping over and lamenting the defilement which she had received from this magician." ("Against Heresies" 1:13:5.) Irenaeus's description places far greater emphasis on the woman's "remarkable beauty" and her weeping when she returned to the Church and to her husband, rather than railing criticism for her sin. The incident beautifully illustrates Osborn's point that Irenaeus was an extremely visual and artistic man, but Osborn did not discuss it. Elsewhere in "Against Heresies," Irenaeus offers interesting details about women in the second century church and in the heretical sects. I was left wondering what Osborn would have written on the subject of Irenaeus's view of women in the church, if he had addressed it.

The other issue that I wish Osborn had addressed in more detail is Irenaeus's life as pastor and missionary of a martyr church. Osborn offers enormous insight into the active side of Irenaeus, but the references are scattered throughout the text. I would like to have had a separate chapter on that topic. He tells us that Irenaeus settled in Celtic Gaul, where the church had existed since the mid-second century (in Lyons and Vienne) (pp. 2-4). He became bishop of Lyons in 177, after the previous bishop was martyred together with a large number of parishioners (page 4). He undertook to write about heresies because he believed he could bring heretics back to the truth (page 130). He encouraged daily study of the scriptures (pages 160, 173). He quoted from New Testament scriptures 1,065 times in "Against Heresies," even placing the Gospels and Pauline Epistles at a higher level of authority than the Old Testament (Pages 172, 179-180). Irenaeus's church was a martyr church, in which "martyrdom was the peak of moral excellence because it most clearly reflected the ultimate goodness of the cross. . . ." (page 241). Such death must be marked by both faith and love, and "is never an isolated act, but always the act of a member of the church." (Pages 241-242). Such comments were spread through Osborn's pages of theological analysis, offering insight into Irenaeus's manner as a pastor, bishop and missionary. I wish that, in some future revised edition, Osborn would devote more attention to that aspect of Irenaeus's work.

All told, these weaknesses of the text also reveal its strength. After reading the entire book, I was left wanting to study Irenaeus more, and I never once felt exhausted by Osborn?s careful analysis.

This book,written in journal format, by the frog, is excellent for learning about the life and habitat of a frog. Excellent illustrations and use of humor!

James Bishop was part of the nineteen seventies group of minimalists that included Brice Marden, Robert Mangold, Robert Ryman and Agnes Martin. His paintings from that time were subtle and austere examples from the period. This book focuses on the small paintings on paper that broke him apart from the artists mentioned above. He still lives and works near Paris and,since the seventies, has produced beautifully subtle paintings on paper that sometimes measure within ten to fifteen inches(or less). The pieces recall Giorgio Morandi, Cezanne and early Renaissance masters in their sense of space and scale. This is a great introduction to his work and the essays are also outstanding.

For several years, Sun has promoted Jini as a means of developing Java-based distributed computing systems. As a practical matter, these systems are often mobile, and hence wireless. Think perhaps of the increasingly powerful and ubiquitous cellphones, PDAs and laptops. Less familiar to the public, but even more pervasive, are products using embedded microprocessors like cars and home appliances. Typically, most distributed systems have less memory and power than conventional computers, and their network connections may be intermittent. Developing applications to run under these conditions is tough, and Jini tries to make it practical. But in the last two years the pace of Jini development seems to have slowed. A rival open source approach, JXTA, has quickly grown and captured a lot of mindshare amongst developers. Its proponents say that it is far easier to learn and use. Naturally, Jini enthusiasts strongly disagree.

But for the sake of argument, suppose Jini is indeed more difficult to program. Then if you are Sun, it makes sense to develop useful utilities on top of Jini that simplify coding. JavaSpaces, for example. Which is the subject of this book. It is a Jini service (=utility) that can be easily used by other devices on the network. A JavaSpace holds data that can be read and altered in a transactional context. This means that if the set of operations in a transaction fails, it can be rolled back; a fundamental necessity in a distributed system, where things can fail in many ways. As the authors clearly demonstrate, you need know little Jini to understand and use JavaSpaces. The interface is very clean, having essentially only three operations: "write" - to put something into the space; "read" - to read an item from the space into your device; "take" - to read the item into your device and remove it from the space.

The book is short and succinct. The code examples are easy to grasp, without being simplistic. If you have been thinking about using Jini, or perhaps you already are using it, but are stymied, then try this book. In a day's reading, you can get its essence. A low risk investment of your time.

Suppose though that you are a JXTA programmer. Or maybe you are using some other third way to develop distributed applications. There is probably no analog of JavaSpaces in your environment. Consider investing a day of your time in this book. See if it makes sense of have something like this. If so, perhaps you should implement it?

This book shows how faith in God can move mountains. It inspires the reader to seek a closer relationship with God and makes you want to experience miracles, signs and wonders as this man of God has.