Fuller Books

"The House that Love Built" is a testament to what God can do through open and willing minds and hearts. Bettie B. Youngs takes Millard and Linda Fuller from their childhood years through college and huge financial success to a crisis that led eventually to a radical new way of living.

In 1968 the Fullers, working closely with Clarence Jordan, co-founder of the Christian community Koinonia outside Americus, GA, laid the foundations for what would become Habitat for Humanity. The world-wide success of Habitat for Humanity under the Fullers' leadership is legendary, but in 2005 the Fullers were fired by the Board of Habitat for Humanity International, who wanted the organization to look more like big business than a Christian ministry. Youngs is able to relate the facts behind this shameful ouster without bitterness or recrimination--and to tell of the Fullers' faithfulness to God's call to eliminate poverty housing throug the newly organized Fuller Center for Housing. An inspiring story of faith at work and of the power of God to transform lives.

Sweet story of the founders of Habitat for Humanity. I loved how he learned so much in business and was able to walk away from it all to become greater than the norm. They have drive and I'm happy they pulled so many behind to make the world better for everyone. More of this!

Millard and Linda Fuller's life story is an inspirational account of their lives and their calling. It is amazing to read how they gave up so much, created a truly ingenious way to help people help themselves, and overcome all of the obstacles thrown in their path. To be treated so poorly by the organization they created and then move on to start all over again shows what faith and the Holy Spirit can accomplish!
After reading their story I am challenged every day to live up to their example!
The book is well written and easy to read, and I highly recommend it.

From beginning to end this amazing story of unwavering love and faith speaks to anyone who has ever held a dream in their heart. The Fullers are truly fascinating and inspiring people. It was vicious what the Board did to them when they were ousted out of their own agency, but they simply rose from the ashes. As would be expected of these two. Thank you for telling the story, it is well worth the read.

A great read for anyone looking for guidance in the area of what to do with their lives that truly matters. The story of Millard and Linda Fuller and their journey that ultimately built Habitat for Humanity is a story worth telling anyone you can find. This is not just a "feel good" story but one that also points out that doing something good with our lives is not always easy. I appreciated most the willingness of the Fullers to share what really went on without any sugarcoating.

Faith in action is what this book is all about.

I love the receipes in the book. The only thing I have a problem with is that the book states that "No more weighing", however it does not explain what an actual serving size is, it mentions briefly that you can weigh your food to get an idea of what a serving is, and then use your judgement from then on. Well, being someone that is over weight and has a problem with determining what an actual serving is poses a HUGE problem. That would mean, I WOULD have to weigh my food to figure out whether I am eating a serving or more. The title of the book is misleading, as well as the excerpts on the back and front cover.

I bought this cookbook back in 1993 and have been using the recipes in it ever since. I get so many requests for the recipes I've made from it I have bought extra cookbooks to give out to people as gifts. The title is deceiving because it doesn't seem like those bland old diet cookbooks that you usually get. I lost the weight that I wanted to lose and have maintained my weight by keeping these recipes on hand. Also, I love that the cookbook has a picture for every recipe which is rare in most cookbooks. As stated earlier in someones comments about the serving size......It states how many servings the recipe makes they just figure you can divide equally.

Very easy transaction -- price was great -- shipping to a friend's address went off without a hitch. Hightly recommend.

I loved the pictures! I own alot of cookbooks, and this one has fast become my favorite. I liked the Classics section as well as the easy-to-understand calorie needs/bmi explanation in the front of the book and the 14-day menu planner. It contains good old fashioned dinners as well as easy gourmet-type delights. My husband is excited about this too! My whole family will enjoy losing weight while eating great tasting food without feeling they are on a diet!

My husband and I lost a total of 100 pounds in 5 months by using the delicious recipes in this book. The food is tasty, easy to prepare, and satisfying. The variety of foods from the traditional to the more exotic or ethnic gives the range of choice often missing in "diet" books. I have purchased this book as a gift for several friends who have also found it enjoyable.

I think the book should be titled "Mildred Gillars". The "Axis Sally" period, although the most notorious part of her life was relatively short. Mildred Gillars life took so many turns I found it difficult to put the book down. The story is a real page turner. I applaud the author Fuller for doing an outstanding job of writing and organizing the story. The book should be made into a movie.

I must admit when I purchased the book I was expecting a bland biography of Mildred "Axis Sally" Gillars, but my curiosity of this person was strong. For years, the media likened the deeds of various women to Axis Sally without an explanation of her. Who was she? What did she do? M. Williams Fuller tells us by going beyond the limits of a biography and breathing life into the story with dialogue, and what a wild story it is.

I just finished reading Axis Sally and as often happened when reading a good book; I wanted the writer to go on. I'm sure the remaining part of Mildred Gillars life was a story in itself that someday will be told. .

Fascinating, entertaining, historical, thought provoking, all the above plus. This is a totally well rounded story of a woman unwilling to be satisfied with a mundane status quo life. The author had me laughing, crying and wondering all the while what next? My criticism is that I found it difficult to stop reading and get on with my work. I was constantly tempted to turn just one more page

Reading Axis Sally, I am amazed at the ability of the author to revive the era and quickly get into the person of Mildred Gillers as she is entering Hunter College as awkward freshman in the fall of 1925. At first, I felt a kinship to Mildred Gillars and her desire to exceed her ordinary birth given fate. As she proceeded to make choices to achieve recognition, I wanted to caution her as to the ramifications of the directions she was taking, but of then, I am only the reader. In the end, the recognition she received far exceeded her wildest expectations or nightmares. It is a magnetizing, story of one of the most notorious women of the 20th century. The author does an outstanding job of bring the people, the times and the events to life.

If you want to learn how to use PHP and XML this is the book. I have several others but this is the one that shows you how to do it with real life code exammples.

The problem with this book is that one example relies on examples from another chapter. Therefore, you have to pretty much read the entire 900 pages to get an example in the latter chapters to operate properly.

An additional problem is the reference to downloading classes on websites that no longer exist.

If you already know XML parsing, then this book is fine, but then I guess you wouldn't need the book.

Wrox Press seem to have become masters at putting together volumes from a large number of authors. This 600-page volume is another example. This way of working does have some drawbacks, there is a little repetition of some basic stuff throughout the book, but not enough to truly detract from it.

The book, after some expository material, details 11 projects of increasing complexity. They use PHP, MySQL, PEAR::DB, Smarty and PHPLib. The target audience, according to the book jacket, are programmers who already have a good knowledge of PHP, SQL Databases and XML. Frankly, I think they overdo the amount of experience you need to use and benefit from this book. If you are on top of all those topics well enough to consider yourself ¡°professional¡± then this book may be too simple. If, on the other hand, you are, like me, conversant with PHP and SQL but would like to take yourself up to ¡°professional¡± use of technologies like XML, templating and WAP enabling then this book will be good

PHP itself is usually very straightforward and easy to understand, but throw in the world of XML and things can become overwhelming very quickly. DOM, RSS, SAX, XPath, XSLT, XSL, XML-RPC - wow! Professional PHP4 XML will answer the questions "What is XML?" and "How do I use XML within PHP?"

The book starts off with a nice introduction to PHP, including the use of classes and file functions. It isn't meant to teach you everything you need to know about PHP, but to be refresher course for information that will be used throughout the book. It was nice to see the promotion of the new superglobal arrays in this section of the book.

Next, they jump into a chapter devoted to XML Fundamentals. This chapter explains the rules and syntax that a well-formed XML document must adhere to. DTDs and Schemas are discussed as methods to validate XML documents as well as define XML vocabularies. All in all, after reading this chapter you should have a good base to build upon for the rest of the book.

The rest of the book is devoted to giving you detail on the different derivatives of XML and how and when do use them with PHP. Topics covered include:

* SAX via PHP's Expat parser
* DOM
* XPath
* XSL via Sablotron
* Third party class for PHP such as XML File and phpXML
* RSS
* XML and databases
* SVG
* XML-RPC

One of the things I love about this book is that for each of these XML derivatives, they provide a detailed list of advantages and disadvantages. This enables you to determine which of these technologies is best suited for the application you are designing.

This book is an excellent resource for the beginner and advanced programmer alike. It is a mixture of a tutorial and reference book without comprising either. If you are serious about developing applications with PHP and XML, this book should be in your collection.

I echo the praise already given in detail by the other reviewers here. This book gives an excellent detailed account of XML technology as well as the application of XML in combination with PHP. I was completely new to XML and found the text easy to follow and the concepts were easily applied by examining the example code. Please note that this is NOT a book for those new to PHP, it is for an experienced PHP programmer (in my opinion). It does give an overview of many aspects of PHP, but if you are brand new to PHP, I would recommend starting with a Beginning PHP text. Beginning PHP4 by Wrox is an excellent place to start. There are several others. If you're familiar with PHP, though, and looking to expand your skills or your project to include XML, this text is the place to look.

Can't go wrong with Spurgeon. I bought these volumes for a deeper study of the Psalms, and so far they have been amazing. There's more for each psalm that I can really get in to, but that which I do has been all that I could hope for: reinforcing lower view of self next to high view of God; the only kind of perspective that brings any real sense of hope and encouragement.

Spurgeon is still the best. This 3 volume set is essential for a deep and meaningful study of the Psalms. Great for teaching and preaching research. I'm happy to have purchased it and I recommend it highly.

While Spurgeon's magnum opus is neither technical nor devotional it can meet either of those needs. It is inconceivable that anyone would have an interest in the Psalms and not have these volumes on the shelves.

This writing has really opened the book of Psalms. The teaching of Spurgeon is just beyond words.

This is a great commentary series on the Psalms and has the same feel as Spurgeon's sermons. Great resource for any teacher and pastor to prepare in study for the Psalms. Very detailed, which I can't say the same for other commentaries done during this same time period.

The price once again shows how many people have lost interest in both commentaries and our past church saints.

If you are going to be going through the Psalms in your own study or teaching you should definitely have this at your disposal.

This book is probably very true however it may be more applicable for families living in larger more metropolitan cities. Still, it is worthwhile reading for any parent of a teenager.

"Promise you won't freak" out is book with great characters considering all of them are real. That is right, a teenager is putting her, and her close friends and family's lives on a plate for you to eat up. There is a lot of flavor on the plate that she is handing us including the first two most racy topics you could think about talking to a teen on. Sex and drugs. Well those are just two of the many juicy chapters. The setting changes from time to time but is set in common day, as in 2004. It teaches, parents, and teens alike new vocabulary, most of which is rated R. But if you can put up with the views of an over-protective mother, and her rebellious teenagers, Greg (in collage now) and Natalie, then this is a pretty good book.
It moves along quickly but it's content makes it so that you keep looking over your shoulder to make sure that the person behind you does not see that word that you just read. It kind of makes you feel guilty when you are sitting in the back of your car with your mother driving, and she asks you about the book you are reading as glance up learning the definition of an even more interesting word from the chapter titled Sex Period, and your reply is "oh, just a teen novel!" I must admit that it is educational. Not just the sex and drugs part about it either. It tells you how to start conversation with your mother on hard topics, and how to handle the stress of teen-hood.
I have gotten to know and love Natalie, not always agreeing with her decisions, but still seeing her point of view. Every mother and daughter should read this book together. Aside from dreading the fact that my mother now knows the Web sites for security programs that e-mails her every time any obscene language or Web site is used on my account (not that I ever would) thanks to Nat's mother, it helped me reach a level of understanding with her. Now every time I go to school, I will be more aware: More aware of the new language that my supposed best friends are pushing on me, more aware that any second I might have to refuse drugs, more aware that I am now a teenager, and that I have no choice in the matter of whether I should grow up or not, because it's happening right now.

Extremely well written and interesting. Every teenager and every parent of one should read it, regardless of their own situation (and even if they can't relate to the examples). A good study book for schools and churches. Although the subject matter covers many of the lapses of integrity in today's teens, the book itself reeks of honesty. The authors are courageous in putting their lives out for public view. The excellent conversation starters should help any parent.

From a grandparent in Flagstaff, AZ.

Finally, a book that reflects the way I want to raise my soon-to-be teens, but I didn't know it! I'd read several books, all of which didn't touch a nerve until this one. It also helped me to realize it's time to connect up with other non-judgmental guerilla moms.

I don't want to put my teens in a bubble, and then be in denial whenever the bubble bursts behind my back. Instead, I want to weather their teens with them, keep an open dialogue to a reasonable degree, and maintain my composure in their presence. How else can they develop their judgment than by some experimenting coupled with accountability and a parent to talk to? This parenting approach is not for the faint of heart, as it requires objectivity and self-honesty, but I'm ready. It also requires confidence that you've instilled good judgment in your kids.

It's a relief to finally have a way of thinking about raising teens that works for me.

Wish I'd had this book earlier in my parenting. I learned a tremendous amount, but the biggest value was in ideas for conversation starters with my teens. I tried a few suggestions and was amazed at the discussions that followed. I left the book on the kitchen table during a teen party and the kids zeroed in on it immediately, particularly the chapter on sex (no surprise there!) I have made gifts of the book to my younger sisters, telling them it is an easy read, well written, and packed with useful information and suggestions. Read this book if there are teenagers in your life.

I read Sam Fuller's, A Third Face: My Tale of Writing, Fighting, and Filmmaking, after seeing three of his more mainstream movies on dvd. Told in a tough-guy no-nonsense style (with a bit of mild profanity), the book is a blast.

Parts one and two (the first 229 pages of the paperback's 562 pages of narrative) rank among the best memoirs I have read of the first half of the twentieth century. In the first part he tells of his youth in New York City's vigorous newspaper business in the 1920s--from selling papers to copy boy to crime reporter--followed by his years in the 1930s hoboing around the country doing free lance journalism, ultimately ending up in Hollywood writing for the Hollywood machine. Part two is his account of his years as an enlisted man in the First Infantry Division, the Big Red One. It is interesting to find out how many happenings in his film of that name actually occurred. If you have a friend who only reads about WWII, you can recommend this to him/her just for part two; s/he will thank you.

The remaining parts recount his experiences in Hollywood making movies, then the years when things fall apart, and finally his years as a famous man in France sought after by many young filmmakers. It is amazing to read how the Pentagon once called him to Washington (and he went!) to grill him about one of his movies and how J. Edgar Hoover objected to certain aspects of his films as un-American.

The book's many illustrations are well chosen and fit the text where they appear.

Fuller had an amazing life and an ever active imagination. In his last days he produced a book well worth reading even if you have never seen any of his films. Highly recommended.

Sam Fuller has a strong, cult like following. He made a couple great films, but to be honest, the rest were very choppy, B grade thrillers that get a bit overrated by that cult.

A THIRD FACE is his greatest work.

This is an absolutely wonderful autobiography. Following his early days as a newspaper writer, his time in WWII, and his years as a writer and director. This is honestly more fun to read than any of his films are to watch.

The most amazing thing about the book is that it is written in his voice. If you ever saw him interviewed, or act in a film, he had a very distinctive voice. The book sounds just like he spoke. With short phrases, lots of exclamation points, just like he sounded!! It is the closest you are going to get to him reading it to you.

Even if you aren't familiar with his films, this is a great read.

"A Third Face" is one of the great crusty, caustic autobiographies of recent years. Fuller died a few ago, an old cigar smoker of pithy phrase, maverick tendencies and artistic courage. As a crime reporter in New York in the 20s, as a hobo in the 30s, as a GI in World War II, as a novelist, screenwriter and director of noir and war movies ("Pickup on South Street," "House of Bamboo," "The Big Red One"), Fuller was a force of nature, a no-BS realist who knew how to tell a story. The photo on the back cover speaks volumes: raised pistol in one hand; a camera lens in the other. Yet he was, at core, a powerful pacifist. He was a survivor.

Fuller's style is profane, anecdotal, street wise and hugely engaging. It's no wonder, since he was the young protege and buddy of hard-boiled writers like Gene Fowler and Damon Runyon.

Fuller's account of his "dogface" years as a G.I. in North Africa, Italy, France and Germany is one of the best descriptions of WWII Army life I've read.

Later, Hollywood studios offered him big money to make their blockbusters ("The Longest Day," "Patton"), but he turned them down so he could make little movies his own way. ("I make A movies on B budgets," he liked to say.)

Out of curiosity,I recently rented a couple of his movies. "Pickup on South Street," with Richard Widmark and Jean Peters, just crackled. "Shock Corridor," with Peter Breck, was ambitious but flawed.

Though I can't wait to see some of his other films, my hunch is "A Third Face" will stand as Fuller's single greatest artistic achievement.

In later years, Fuller became mentor to many young directors: Jonathan Demme; Tim Robbins; Jim Jarmusch, Martin Scorsese. It's clear from Scorsese's introduction that they idolized him.

As a writer, Sam Fuller teaches this lesson: Write fast; never give up; to hell with the naysayers. His final two or three paragraphs offers a capstone philosophy that all should embrace.

I loved this book. It saddens me to finish it.

A Third Face: My Tale Of Writing, Fighting, And Filmmaking by Samuel Fuller (with the posthumous and collaborative assistance of his wife Christa Lang Fuller and longtime friend Jerome Henry Rudes) features a Foreword by Martin Scorsese and and presents the reader with an autobiographical account of one of Hollywood's most prolific and independent writer/director/producers. The late Samuel Fuller (1911-1997) made 29 tough, gritty films from 1949 to 1989. His film "Park Row" was inspired by his years in the New York newspaper business. His years of service in the army during World War II provided material for his films "The Big Red One", "The Steel Helmet", and "Merrill's Marauders. From "Pickup on South Street" and "Underworld U.S.A.", to "Shock Corridor" and White Dog", A Third Face provides the story behind the films and the man who created them. A Third Face is highly recommended and inherently fascinating reading for film buffs and students of 20th Century American Cinema.

"Film is like a battleground. Love. Hate. Action. Violence. In one word, emotion." That line of dialogue, ad-libbed by Samuel Fuller in Jean-Luc Godard's `Pierrot le fou,' seems to more or less sum up his philosophy of film making. Those of us who aren't fans of the film director may mourn the absence of words like `coherence' and `plausibility,' but there's no denying that most of Fuller's film literally burst with energy.

As does his autobiography `A Third Face,' written with wife Christa at the end of a long and event filled life, even those who find Fuller's film a little too energetic will find this book interesting. Starting out in New York City, where he found working as a copy boy and reporter on Park Row more interesting than the high school he'd abandon without graduation, to his service in the 1st U.S. Infantry Division (the Big Red One) in World War Two, through to his post-war career as a screen writer and film director, Fuller is never boring.

With the possible exception of `The Big Red One' (1980), a film that he'd nursed for years, Fuller's career peaked in the mid-60s with independent productions like `Shock Corridor' and `The Naked Kiss.' Although Fuller claims he was offered both `The Longest Day' ("My own vision of war and the world made me say no") and `Patton' ("After my war experiences, I didn't have the necessary detachment to do a picture celebrating the man"), it's as intriguing to contemplate how he might have directed these films as it is to wonder how serious were the offers. After all, as he admits, he `was prone to excess' and loved to grab the audience and shake them. Not necessarily what you look for in a big picture director. The third face, to Fuller, is the inner person that nobody else sees. "My third face was my own holy sanctuary... It was a storage room that nobody but me could enter... It wasn't just a concept for me but a very real locale, captivating and whimsical, cozy and seductive, the geisha girl of my brain." A Third Face is captivating and whimsical, cozy and seductive, too. A strong recommendation for this one.

I bought this book for my husband who was one of those rare men who can't grill! He has used several of the recipes in the book and hasn't failed yet! The book contains all the info that a novice needs to know about grilling, whether it be a charcoal grill, a gas grill, a smoker, or an indoor grill (like a George Foreman). The grilling recipes give instructions for both gas and charcoal- something you usually don't find. I would recommend this book to anyone who grills!

The friend I bought this for told me that the recipes she tried turned out to be succulently delicious.

Plastic spiral binding with spine lettering lends to both lay-flat handy use and easy location in a cookbook collection, enhancing the appeal of a new 2nd, updated edition packing in over 800 recipes and well over a hundred color photos to support them. This combination makes NEW GRILLING BOOK exceptional - as does the attention to different types of grills and methods, from charcoal and gas to smokers and indoor grills. From Lamb with Spinach Pesto or Gingered Tuna Kebabs to Raspberry-Sesame TriTip Roast, NEW GRILLING BOOK is a top pick any home griller must have - especially audiences seeking new recipes and innovative ideas.

I can't wait for grilling season. There are so many great recipes I want to try. This was a great purchase.

I bought this book for my Dad for Father's Day and he LOVES it! Of course, I wouldn't expect anything less from Better Homes and Gardens! I love my red plaid book!

Reviewed by Elizabeth E. Gibson-Evans for RebeccasReads (5/08)

The theme of this book, "Trust in the Lord," by Deen Kemsley, is the journey to know Christ; it is the journey to know the deepest, best element of ourselves. If we embrace this divine element within us by genuinely believing in Christ, we experience the wonder of being born of God, and we discover that Christ's power to heal is deeper than our deepest pain.

As Christ transforms us, He instills in us the genuine concern for others and the desire to serve and sacrifice without regard for worldly praise or reward. If Christ were merely an effective teacher, He couldn't evoke such enduring praise -- this is a witness of the literal Son of God.

We may not always receive specific answers to the questions we pose, but if we listen carefully we will receive a deeper answer -- Christ is in the Eternity overhead; Christ is in the eyes and faces of our young children; Christ is in the tears and joy of these whom He transforms; and Christ is deep within our hearts. "God is there, He hears our prayers, and He loves us."

Often it's in the common bond of Christ that we most clearly perceive our common eternal inheritance. "As we step out of the mire and temptations of this world and begin to ascend the mount of the Lord unto the tabernacle of Eternity that is within our hearts, we will find the true Holy of Holies -- Jesus Christ Himself. No matter how far we may have strayed from Him over time. We will learn He has always been there on the look out waiting for us to return.

"Trust in the Lord" takes you through a true spiritual journey of what it means to truly depend on the Lord our Savior as He Himself trusted in His own Holy Father during His walk as one of us. You learn the way to handle loneliness. Discover answers to the many tough questions we all have or have had. But, most importantly you learn true faith and that no matter what "He hears us and He loves us!"

If you have even small doubts about the reality of a living Savior that knows you, loves you, and is aware of you, this book was written for you. It's a book that will most likely change your life. I am half way through my second reading and I feel like a new person. The book doesn't tell me how to run my life, but because of this book I can feel my Savior's direction. He really does care about me and my life. Thank you, Deen Kemsley, for sharing this important message. This is a book for everyone.
-Ardent Reader

One of the first things I noticed about Deen Kemsley's Trust in the Lord is that I had initially misread the subtitle. Having mistakenly misread it as "Reflections on Jesus Christ", I was startled to find it actually read "Reflections of Jesus Christ". The distinction is not a minor one. In Kemsley's own spiritual sojourn, Christ is not just an abstract idea to be reflected upon but an active force in our lives that is reflected in the wonder of everyday things. The beauty of nature, the laugh of a child, the kind act of a stranger, all in some way reflect the love of Christ to a fallen world and give light to lead us back to Him.

Meditating upon the joys and disappointments of his own life, Kemsley points to the subtle ways in which God moves in all our lives that are often only noticed in retrospect. While there may not be an empirical demonstration of God's existence that would satisfy the doubts of skeptics, this is less a reason to abandon God than a reason to understand the limitations of our methodologies. God may not answer prayer in a loud roar nor the way we want but He does hear and He does answer. Moreover, He does love us.

The meditations cotained in Trust in the Lord are rich and one may find wisdon in reapeated readings that did not seem apparent at first glance. In this beautifully written and faith-filled little book we do indeed see the love of Christ reflected.

Deen Kemsley's writing resonates with uplifting encouragement, inspiring challenge, and amazing insight in is new book "Trust in the Lord." He captures the heart of Christ's own thoughts as he reflects and shares intimate experiences of his own spiritual journey.

Kemsley invites the reader to recognize the Savior at the cross to receive a fresh vision of who Jesus is. He draws from his own experiences and those of others as he speaks about the underlying foundation of the Christian faith as the undeserved, limitless miracle of the love of God demonstrated on the Cross of Calvary. He shows how this love produces joy in circumstances of tribulation, suffering, and persecution. These poignant illustrations draw the reader into an eager search for a fresh encounter with the Lord Jesus.

I experienced a personal call to revival, to recognize my own helplessness without the hope redemption provided through the cross. I am eager to sense the enrichment of God's presence in my life as he works to produce wholeness.

"Trust in the Lord" is for those hungry to contemplate and reflect on the sacrifice of Jesus and His great love, to see fullness replace emptiness and harmony replace loneliness. The book offers the readers freshness in purity as motivation for their actions in their search to fulfill their deepest, truest potential.

Professor Kemsley's personal stories bring to life eternal truths in this book. I found that I could relate to several of his stories making it much more enjoyable. This book truly brings one closer to Christ.

Apologetics Concerning the Nature of Religion

Apologetics or is it antiapologetics, I have read Hodges arguments about cause and effect, primary and secondary causes in his work on systematic theology which was written a hundred years after this work. RC Sproulamong others discuss similar issues today with a contrary conclusion. David Hume's dialogue about the existence of God and the attributes of God does form some of the frame work for further philosophic and theological discussion. Some seems quite aimless like his discussion whether God is wholly other. Some theologians may make this statement and argument, but this certainly is not fundamentalist or scriptural perspective of God. What I found most interesting in this work is his discussion of causality. Mr. Hume's focus was on Natural theology or the idea that God could be perceived or not perceived through nature. But also included was knowing God through rationalization. To this he compared three notions:

{1} That there is a self existent Being who always existed, never created, and is the ultimate Cause of the whole universe. Something that never was caused, but is the cause of all else.

{2}That there is no ultimate cause. History is an infinite amount of causes and effects that has no starts or ends. Matter in some form has always existed and matter has always been in motion. Universe or galaxy may have a point of beginning, but not what it is composed of.

{3}At a point in time there was no matter, then at another point of time there was matter. The matter move in motion to develop things as we know it.

David Hume does not discuss the concept that simply nothing really exists. I would guess in an earlier work he had dismissed it in some form. It is my conclusion Mr. Hume found point one as absurd as point 2 or 3.

The other major focus of discussion in this work how an all knowing creator, who has all power, and has the capacity to perceive every thing that is going on can create a world that has the highest being of creation suffer pain and evil among each other. The argument is made in this work that the universe does not function in a rational manner, therefore such all knowing, all powerful and all powerful God does not seem to exist. Some reviewers consider it a complete debunk of intelligent design and it certainly a source of comfort for those who do desire.

With the possible exception of his incalculably influential A Treatise of Human Nature, this, I think, is Hume's finest work. The Dialogues is a paradigm of sustained philosophical argumentation on a single subject, and I can't think of a more inspiring work of philosophy. Another reason to read this book is that Hume is one of the few philosophical figures whose work is worth reading as literature. His prose is, of course, lovely and clear as can be; and the Dialogues is packed with the sort of evocative passages that readers of Hume except to find in his work. Furthermore, he's clearly mastered the dialogue format as a way of writing philosophy. He never turns his interlocutors into ciphers spouting the details of their respective positions. Each character has a forceful and distinct personality, and each of them comes to the debate with a well-defined position and adequate means of defending it. In short, I can't recommend this book highly enough.

Most of the Dialogues is devoted to discussion of a posteriori arguments for the existence of God. The main argument considered here is the classical argument from design, which Hume seems to understand as an analogical argument of the following sort: the complexity and order of the universe show that it is similar to artifacts created by human intelligences; similar causes have similar effects; therefore, the universe must have been created by a being with something like a human intelligence; therefore, the universe must have been created by God.

Hume's objections to this argument are legion, and many of the individual objections are both ingenious and forceful. He provides reasons for thinking that the universe isn't all that similar to artifacts created by human beings. He argues, for instance, that at least in some respects, the universe resembles animal or vegetable life more than it resembles artifacts created by human beings. Hume also provides for thinking that, even if we think the universe is similar to a human artifact, we ought to think the universe was created by a being quite unlike God. The relevant empirical evidence, he argues, provides us with no good reason to think that the universe wasn't created by multiple beings (large human artifacts are usually created by multiple beings), or that the being(s) who created it are still alive (human creators die), or that the being(s) who created it were infinite (it's not clear that creating the finite universe would have required infinite power), or that the being(s) who created it were morally perfect (the universe, with all its misery and despair, certainly isn't what one would expect from a perfect being). Furthermore, he proposes certain alternative naturalistic explanations of the existence and nature of the universe; and he claims that it's unclear why an appeal to divine creation is to be preferred to these speculative naturalistic stories of the universe's creation.

As I hope this all-too-brief synopsis suggests, Hume's cumulative case against the argument from design is quite impressive. It is, of course, possible to avoid some of these criticisms in various ways, and his speculative naturalistic explanations leave quite a bit to be desired. But the total case is a philosophical demolition par excellence. Indeed, I'm pretty sure that Hume has shown that the argument from design is more or less worthless as support for anything resembling traditional theism. So, if you're enamored of that argument, I suggest you pick up book and wrestle with the criticisms found here.

Now, this isn't all Hume discusses in the Dialogues. There's a section discussing a priori arguments for the existence of God; it focuses on arguments against a version of the cosmological (i.e. first cause) argument. And Hume's arguments concerning the cosmological argument also rule out any sort of ontological argument, as he claims that no sense can be made of the idea of a necessarily existing being. The book also includes a few some brief discussion of particular issues concerning religion.

Where, in the end, does Hume come down on the issue of theism? It's hard to tell, as it's not clear that any of the particular characters speaks for him. Philo, the character who often appears to be speaking for him, never denies the existence of a deity; he simply denies the ability of human reason to discover anything substantial about what such a being is like. That Hume agrees with this is, I think, the most we can glean from this text about Hume's own religious views. It seems clear that he has no sympathy for organized religion, or for any religious views that purport to describe the nature of God, His intentions, or how and why He created the universe as He did. And the only positive religious claim that is given respectful treatment here is the bare claim that we have reason to think that the cause of the universe as a whole is somewhat similar to a human intelligence.

But does acceptance of this minimal thesis amount to his being a theist? Again, it's very hard to tell. First, of course, one might wonder whether this fairly vague positive view is enough to amount to some form of theism. But let's put that issue to one side. Even if it is enough to support some form of theism, it's often difficult to tell whether Hume means to be advocating such a position here. The problem is that it often seems Hume's explicit advocation of this position amounts to little more than a description of what he thinks is an inevitable human tendency to think this way. Given how our minds actually work, he seems to think, we're bound to think something like this about the origin of the universe. Yet it's somewhat unclear that he thinks forming beliefs in this way is reliable. It may simply be that we have a brute instinct to think in a way that insures we'll see the world as resulting from some human-like intelligence, and it's at least not clear that that isn't a debunking account of the plausibility of theism. (For more support that this is a debunking explanation, see his The Natural History of Religion, where the explanations of various religious beliefs certainly seem to be one's that suggest those beliefs simply aren't plausible.)

David Hume made a reputation by writing on reason and its limits. The main thrust of the Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion is to question whether theological arguments for God that assign Him positive attributes (omniscient, omnipotent, omnibenevolent, etc.) go beyond reason's limits in assigning these attributes. We watch Cleanthes (believer in theological arguments), Demea (believer more on faith) and Philo (disbeliever in theology's efficacy) hash out whether reason and experience alone give us reason to say anything whatever about God.

Hume explores all of the major arguments for God's existence. First, the a posteriori argument is explored; the argument that just as seeing a house gives us reason to assume an architect and builder, seeing the world should give us reason to infer a designer. Hume (through the skeptical voice of Philo) sees much wrong with this argument. Why? Because the reason we infer a builder for a house is because experience has shown us that houses have builders, thus when we see a house, we assume that, like other houses we've seen, this one too has a builder. But experience does not tell us that where there is a world, there is a designer. The leap is extra-experiential. Further, even if we DID infer a designer, why infer just one? Houses have construction crews of multiple people; if we analogize between the house and the world, then why not infer that the world, too, might have infinite creators? (And why infer that the world's creator is omnipotent, if all that is needed to create something is to be more powerful than the thing created - no more, no less?)

Next, we go through the a priori argument - the argument from first cause. Hume (Philo) is quick to point out the obvious flaw with this. If everything needs a cause, then what caused God? If God is said to be eternally existing, then why couldn't the natural world - rather than God - be thought eternal instead? And further, why is a infinite chain of causes and effects so unimaginable, anyhow? (Isn't it just as sensical as an eternal God itself not caused?)

Lastly, Philo brings up the argument from evil. In a nutshell, Philo suggests that while theology sees all the perfections of the world, proclaiming them clear evidence of remarkable design, theologians dismiss or downplay the imperfections. If God is said to all-good Himself, then why did he create humans with such flaws? (one assumes that an all-powerful, all-good God could have avoided those errors).

Still, the main thrust of this book is that Philo, far from challenging whether God exists, challenges theologies capacity to assign ANY characteristics to God by reason and experience alone. Hume does a good job not only in outlaying arguments as to why reason is not capable of knowing a thing about God, but also in making believable dialogues (compared to Plato, whose characters are all made to be one-dimensional foils for "Socrates.") As in so many other areas, Hume was a pioneer in the realm of the philosophy of God. This book furnishes strong proof of that!

David Hume, a philosopher of the period often classified as British Empiricism, is the intellectual associate of philosophers John Locke and George Berkeley. Born in Edinburgh in 1711, he attended the University of Edinburgh but did not graduate. He went to France during his 20s, and spent time there working on what would become his most famous work, 'An Enquiry into Human Understanding', first published under the title 'Treatise of Human Nature'. However, Hume was a prolific writer, and dealt with many areas of philosophy, including politics and ethics, epistemology, and metaphysics. He wrote in the area of history as well, and had a politic career as British ambassador to France and a post as a minister in the government for a few years. His final work, 'Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion', was published posthumously in 1779, although work had begun on it as early as the 1750s.

Hume was very concerned about rationality. Hume was never publicly and explicitly an atheist, but his rational mind, concerned about sensory and intelligible evidence, led him to question and doubt most major systems of religion, including the more general philosophical sense of religion and proofs of the existence of God. The primary arguments in his 'Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion' deal with the Argument from Design, and the Cosmological Argument. There is an assumed distinction here between natural religion and revealed religion, an especially important distinction in the Enlightenment and post-Enlightenment philosophical structure.

- Natural Religion and Revealed Religion -
Natural religion is the idea that we come to know and understand God (and, consequently, what God wants or expects of us, if anything) simply from nature and our sensory perceptions, as well as our interpretations (emotion and rational) of this kind of understanding. From very early in his writing career, Hume attacked the idea of natural religion and most of its conclusions, drawing a sharp line between what we can actually know and what ends up being fanciful extrapolations based on other-than-rational ideas and evidence. Revealed religion is primary what most religions base themselves upon - the burning bush to Moses, the resurrection and post-resurrection appearances to the Apostles, the Buddha's enlightenment under the tree - these are examples of revelation. While Hume does take on the idea of revealed religion in his other works, this particular text does not concern itself with that topic, and stays in the domain of addressing natural religion.

- The Argument from Design -
Arguments from Design have always had a strong appeal to believers within religious frameworks; they have often been used as tools of evangelism, as attempts to show that beyond the revealed doctrines, the very nature of things points to a creator. In very short order, the Argument from Design in Hume's newly-industrial time might have read like this:

- Machines are designed by beings with intelligence.
- The world and the universe it is in resembles a machine.
- Therefore, the world must have been created by means of intelligent design.

This is an argument by analogy, and is convincing to some, but often more convincing to those already inclined to believe in the existence of God.

- The Cosmological Argument -
The Cosmological Argument is at once both more subtle and more simple. The most simple way of stating it would be that God is the 'first cause' of everything. If everything has to have a cause (even the whole universe), then that first cause must be God. In the twentieth century era of thinking of a universe that began with a Big Bang, it seemed to some that the Cosmological Argument was confirmed.

Hume would have been familiar with Leibniz's more subtle form of the Cosmological Argument, which argues for a world of infinite contingent causes. However, there has to be something outside of this system of infinite causes that produced the series - thus, even in a universe with no set beginning or ending, there would still need to be an overarching cause.

- Hume's Arguments -
Hume argues on many levels. His first criticism of the Argument from Design is that this analogy (as are most arguments from analogy) is faulty and not exact; we have no idea if the universe is like a machine. Even if it was, machines are often designed and built by several designers - why argue for one God rather than several? How do we know that matter and the universe don't have their own, internal self-organising principles?

With regard to the Cosmological Argument, the argument is a little more strained. Hume argues that, in any series of causality, once one knows about each cause, it makes no sense to inquire beyond the sequence of causes to some other effect. This is a very Empirical argument, to be sure, and while perhaps not entirely satisfying, it still has merit in philosophy to this day.

- Hume's Structure -
This is a dialogue, set up in the classical way of people talking with each other about the subjects. Hume draws primarily from Cicero, whose work 'On the Nature of the Gods' uses characters of the same names. However, whereas Cicero was concerned about the nature of the Gods (their attributes, powers, etc.) and not their existence, it is the very existence of God that occupies Hume's thoughts.

Hume, despite many years of work on this text, probably never quite thought it was finished. He left the work to Adam Smith (the noted economist, and friend of Hume in Edinburgh), who also thought the arguments against the existence of God were too strong, and likely too damaging to Hume's overall reputation. The tug-of-war over the publication makes for interesting reading in and of itself.

These are important arguments, worthy of discussion and dialogue in philosophy classes, theology classes, and among others who ponder the existence of God.

This short and artfully written book was published after Hume's death. Hume did not wish to experience the controversy engendered by the arguments advanced in the book. It is likely as well that Hume was concerned also with offending some of the moderate Presbyterian clergy who were his personal friends and had been his partisans in other controversies. This book is primarily an attack on the idea that the exercise of reason and logic provides support for religion, and particularly that application of reason leads to strong evidence for the existence of a beneficient God. This line of thought had become particularly popular among liberal theologians in the first half of the 18th century and was a widely held notion among Enlightenment intellectuals across Europe and North America. This idea is still widely held today and can be seen in the writings of the so-called 'intelligent design' advocates of creationism. Hume's criticisms, then, are not only of historic interest but continue to have relevance to our contemporary lives.

The Dialogues are constructed as a 3 cornered argument between three friends. Demea, a man upholding revealed religion against the idea that reason provides support for the existence of God. Cleanthes, an advocate of natural religion. Philo, a skeptical reasoner who attacks the positions held by Demea and Cleanthes. For those who like Hume's sprightly 18th century style, this is a fun book to read. Hume artfully divides some of his strongest arguments between Cleanthes and Philo, and gives the Dialogues the real sense of a dispute among 3 intelligent friends. Philo is generally taken to represent Hume's positions but Cleanthes articulates some strong arguments and provides some of the best criticisms of Demea's fideism. Much of the book is devoted to attacking the argument from design, which Cleanthes attempts to defend against assaults from Philo and Demea. In many ways, the argument from design is the major idea of those supporting the natural religion approach to existence of God. Hume's critique is thorough and powerful. It even includes an anticipation of Darwin's idea's of selection, though the basis for Hume's critique is primarily epistemological. In the later parts of the book, Hume attacks also the comsological argument for the existence of God, though this discussion is relatively brief and a bit confusing. Hume's analysis is consistent broadly with much of his philosophical work. In many ways, his great theme was the limitations of reason, and this book is an example of his preoccupation with the relatively limited role of reason in establishing certain facts about the universe. He finishes with short criticisms of the idea that religion is needed for a stable and well ordered society and defends the usefullness of skeptical reasoning.

It is important to view the Dialogues as part of a critique of religion that Hume sustained in several works. His Natural History of Religion, the On Miracles section of the Enquiry Concerning Human Understacing, and other essays comprise a broad criticism of religion. Other pillars of religion, such as the existence of miracles and revelation, are criticized in his other work. While Hume denied being an atheist and was apparently disturbed by the dogmatic atheism of French philosophes he met in Paris, he was certainly not religous in any conventional sense.

This is a short and very readable book but the power of its arguments are totally out of proportion to its length.