Bishop Books

A fascinating, extremely well-written look at the life of a major figure in the history of the Roman Catholic Church in North Carolina, and while that may seem like a limited audience is available, it is a fascinating biography for any reader interested in a nuanced look at a complex figure, which Leo Haid certainly was. Baumstein, who is a specialist in the life of Haid, brings a compassionate understanding to the life of a man who judged himself not completely successful, despite the raft of accomplishments at his death.

Karen and Garth Baker-Fletcher used to teach at my seminary; both are now on faculty at Claremont School of Theology. Both are theologians who put their beliefs into strong practice, working out through their lives what it means to model and reflect their principles in their relationship with each other and with the world.

This is modeled in the very structure of this text, My Sister, My Brother: while it follows the pattern of being a systematic theology in its broadest sense (looking at the different categories of traditional theology - God, Christ, Creation, Ecclesiology/Tradition, etc.), it does so from two perspectives that are related but distinct, with a conversation engaged at at each section's conclusion. This is in keeping with the sense of theological conversation methodology a la David Tracy and Gordon Kaufmann, adapted by Will Coleman to the term 'tribal talk'. This conversation has many aspects -- it is inductive, iconoclastic, concerned with social and historical position, and diunital (appreciating the differences, what biblical scholar Walter Brueggemann calls living in the tension between).

The two perspectives here are Womanist and Xodus thought. Karen Baker-Fletcher takes the womanist perspective, drawing from the resources of her own background and the intellectual developments of womanism from Alice Walker, Delores Williams, and others. Womanism derives firstly from a reaction to Feminist theology, done primary by academic women of European background. Black women, while relating to many of the aspects of feminist theology and thought, saw that important elements of their own experience were not included. There is a unique perspective to women who were also black, having to endure the double-discrimination of gender and racial inequalities (Grant would later add a third category, the economic/poverty issue, that also plagues so many African-American women).

Garth Baker-Fletcher writes from the Xodus perspective -- Xodus being a term of his creation, firmly planted in the second-generation of Black (male) theology, a liberation response to the continuing situation of African-Americans in the United States of inequality and racial injustice. Xodus derives in part from the same impulses that compelled Malcolm X to adopt the 'unknown' as his last name, recalling both that which was lost and that which can be reclaimed. Xodus also inspires thought about the biblical text Exodus, in which the people of Israel are led out of captivity into liberation. Xodus looks beyond simple liberation to issues of reconstruction and renewal, looking with alarm on the situation confronting 'ordinary' African-American persons in America today from economic and societal pressures. As do many theologians, Garth Baker-Fletcher adapts the language to suit his context -- using capitalisation, boldface, italics, and Ebonics-derived terminology (often in what might be traditionally considered ungrammatical or non-standard ways), he shakes up the reader visually as well as intellectually.

While both Karen and Garth Baker-Fletcher speak from these perspectives, they are careful to speak for themselves only, inviting others from their perspectives to add their voices to the theological discussion. Both Womanism and Xodus thought qualify as liberation theologies, looking for freedom, equality and justice for all.

There is life here. There is love here. There is commitment and dedication to the betterment of all of humanity here. These two voices call upon others to join the chorus in proclaiming liberty and bringing the future into being.

"'If it weren't for supernovae, we wouldn't exist,' says Alex [Filippenko]. 'The carbon in our cells, the oxygen that we breathe, the calcium in our bones -- all were cooked up in the stars and expelled in to space by these explosions.'
"The heat and pressure in stars fuse simple atoms, tiny particles of matter that make up everything we see, into other, more complex atoms. Without supernovae, these larger atoms, such as carbon and iron, would stay locked inside the stars forever. But when supernovae explode, they scatter these atoms throughout space.
"Eventually the atoms created in supernovae swirl together like water in a whirlpool to form stars and planets, such as Earth. Carbon and other atoms come together to make up our bodies and the bodies of the plants and animals we see around us. Without supernovae, there would be no flowers or forests, no hummingbirds or humans.
"Supernovae are also helping scientists understand a mystery that lurks in space. The discovery of a new substance called dark energy has stunned the scientific world. Until the 1990s, no one knew this strange energy existed. In fact, if you had asked a scientist about dark energy twenty years ago, you would have been told to stop watching so many science fiction movies. In contrast, today astronomers think it's very real."

This stuff is all so amazing! When I consider how little of the information in this book I knew --- when you consider how little of this information anyone knew until recent years -- you come to understand why it is so essential that dated science books be constantly removed from libraries and classrooms in order to make room for such exceptionally engaging, up-to-date, and stunningly beautiful, informational books as THE MYSTERIOUS UNIVERSE.

"According to Carl Sagan, a well-known astronomer, the total number of stars is greater than all the grains of sand on all the beaches of Earth combined."

THE MYSTERIOUS UNIVERSE is out of this world! Similar to what I've found from reading other volumes of the noted SCIENTISTS IN THE FIELD series, I just learned a wealth of mind-blowing facts -- this time about the universe and matter -- by following an inspirational scientist doing his thing. As noted in the book's fore-matter, Dr. Alex Filippenko is a Berkeley prof who has been voted the "Best Professor on Campus" five times. We trail Alex and one of his student assistants to their nights of observations at the twin Keck telescopes which are perched 13,796 feet above sea level at the peak of Hawaii's Mauna Kea volcano. Then we ride shotgun as Alex heads up to the Lick Observatory on Mount Hamilton, to the east of Silicon Valley.

"A teaspoon of material from a neutron star would weigh more than a pile of a billion cars."

It's all in the presentation: I can just imagine how boring this subject matter could have been presented if it had been done Twentieth-century institutional-text style. Instead, you have a work of art that is dominated by the craftsmanship of award-winning photographer Nic Bishop (and whatever higher power may be responsible for setting in motion the process that results in spectacularly stunning supernovae, along with dark energy and black holes). The actual text here takes up roughly thirty percent of the book. The remainder is a rich mix of vivid, captioned photos. The book concludes with resources, bibliography, glossary, and indexing.

Scientists now hypothesize that 96 percent of the universe is composed of dark matter and dark energy. If you only know about the other four percent, you definitely need to take a serious look at THE MYSTERIOUS UNIVERSE.

If you care about cutting through a lot of theological ruminations which are often circular and painstaking I think you will find Dr. Kenney's "Rereading" a most worthwhile study. I found his selection of texts helpful to a deeping awareness of the presence of God in my life intellectually, as well as prayerfully. Some of the book is scholarly yet the authors ability to use language well doesn't overwhelm the reader. Well done John Peter Kenny. Bravo! You've opened up a very important text for all of us.

This book contains the words and translations for many traditional hawaiian chants. But as importantly, the introduction gives an explanation of the poetic structure of hawaiian chants - how they are constructed, the role of Kaona (hidden meaning), how they are classified. If you want to understand how hawaiian poetry is expressed through chant, you must have this book.

Hello- :-) I'm "Clare Bowman".. and I periodically browse on our (correct) book title to see what new comments or info may have appeared since my last visit. This time I discovered that some short quotes from our book - NAN, SARAH AND CLARE: LETTERS BETWEEN FRIENDS- had been quoted in yet another book (which has happened a few times before).. and I also discovered that this particular Amazon listing for our book does not use the correct title- (so I thought I'd just mention that to save another browser any confusion about what the actual title of our book is!) [Again- the correct title is NAN, SARAH and CLARE: LETTERS BETWEEN FRIENDS - not 'Claire' and not A MESSAGE BETWEEN FRIENDS !!] Thanks!

In 36 pages this document, whether in Spanish or English, confirms the truth of America's Founder's prophetic wisdom contained in his letter to Samuel Kercheval, January 19, 1810: "but a short time elapsed after the death of the great reformer of the Jewish religion, before his principles were departed from by those who professed to be his special servants, and perverted into an engine for enslaving mankind, and aggrandising their oppressors in Church and State..."

Every true American concerned about the high crimes condoned by Congress, not the least of which is their "blind eye" turned toward our exposed border and flood of illegal aliens, can buy "The National Pastoral Plan for Hispanic Ministry" and read a specific and enumerated stratagem for promoting illegal immigration to "take back" that which the U.S. Conference of Roman Catholic Bishops instructs was stolen from the ancestors of their faithful from Latin America: Our Land.

Rome has organized an invasion. The document for sale here should bolster every patriot with the knowledge that Our Whig Founders were in fact Prophets bequeathing us "The New Secular Order," "Annuit Coeptis," and "E Pluribus Unum" as shibboleths not to be violated by that which they knew to be "the real Anti-Christ."

I have seldom encountered a book with as much excitement. This can be a wonderful addition to any reader's library. Seldom has an author been able to write with such clarity and verve. Once you start reading, you will not put this book down.

Nic Bishop's FROGS provides photos of big frogs and tiny ones and provides nearly fifty pages of frog facts, including a glossary and index. The blend of natural history and colorful frog photos makes for an outstanding presentation perfect for either reports or leisure learners.

NOTHING JUST HAPPENS HELPS YOU TO UNDERSTAND THAT EVERYTHING THAT WENT ON IN YOUR LIFE HAPPENED FOR A REASON AND THIS MESSAGE IS VERY POWERFUL AND WILL FREE YOU I YOU FEEL EVERYTHING YOUR WENT THROUGH WAS IN VAIN THIS MESSAGE HELPS YOU TO UNDERSTAND THAT GOD HAS A PLAN FOR YOU AND YOU MIGHT HAVE GONE THROUGH BUT GOD WILL GET THE GLORY IN YOUR LIFE NO MATTER WHAT. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS SERMON TO EVERYONE.