Miller Books

This review is based on a reading of only a small part of the book. However that sample provided me with a great deal of enthusiasm for reading the rest.
The subject of 'courage' is one of endless fascination. The definition of Courage as Miller makes clear at the outset of this work is by no means sure and easy. He opens the book by telling a story from the Civil War which he calls the 'Story of the Good Coward" This was a soldier who did all his duties well, volunteered often to help others. And whenever there was an engagement for battle , readied himself, prepared to go into the battle but somehow took fright and could not. What is surprising is that his fellow soldiers did not curse and banish him, but rather tried to support and encourage him. They seemed to understand that he simply did not have what it takes to face the battle.
Miller discusses 'courage' in relation to the overcoming of fear. He raises the question of whether 'courage' is fearlessness, or knowing how to live with and overcome one's fear. He discusses Courage in relation to a wide variety of psychological and moral questions. He uses too a wide variety of sources from battle memoirs to philosophical discussions of the subjects.
He points out that Courage too is in today's world often indicted. And this when his historical discussion notes how the Greeks considered Courage one of the major virtues. Miller considers historical efforts of Plato, Aristotle ,Aquinas ( patience and sufferance, as Christian courage) to define this quality.
This review is in part written because of the attention called to the book by the act of courage of Virginia Tech University Professor,Holocaust survivor, Liviu Librescu. When a deranged gunman came to shoot up the class he ran to the door, he held it closed while being shot, yelled to his students to escape from the windows. Certainly all would agree that the risking and giving of one's life in this way to save others is an act of courage.
The subject of Courage is a vast one. From what I have read Miller's treatment of the subject is an intelligent and informative one .

Once upon a time, there was such a thing as courage. It was at the center of all our stories. Now there are no more stories worth telling and all human beings are weak. At least we still have the stories and this book has some great ones, and true. For example, there's the one about the American GI on the Italian front who "charged" an enemy position on one knee and the stump of his other leg, shot off at the knee.

This is a scholarly work that gives real insight into the nature of courage. It's very well-written. The book draws on soldier's stories from ancient Greece to Vietnam and shows how the concerns about measuring up "when the chips are down" have not changed much despite the passage of thousands of years.

I had the privilege of studying the dynamics of the blood feud culture under Professor Miller. After the class I began reading some of his literature. Miller's historiography and use of primary sources is gripping, and his frank admiration and identification with honor cultures of the past is refreshing in this time of stifling political correctness.
Professor Miller has an extremely rare gift: He sees both himself and others as they really are. His self-examination is as important to his work as his historical analysis and philosophical musings. If you are honest with yourself you will recognize many aspects of your own psyche from Miller's writings.
"The Mystery of Courage" can tell you more about yourself than a thousand psychotherapists. This is a must read- you will never think of honor, bravery, fear, life or death the same way again.

Preface -- A Letter by Henry Corbin. Introduction to the Second Edition. One: An Exploded Cultural Sphere: the Death of God and the Rebirth of the Gods. Two: The Golden Ring and the Growing Blackness: Monotheism, Polytheism, and Theologizing. Three: Sleeping Beauties: Theology as Faith Seeking Understanding. Four: Stars, Sparks, and Luminous Fish Eyes: Psychology as Understanding Seeking Life. Five: The New Polytheism Fifty-One Theses and Some notes. Postscript The Laughter of the Gods. Notes. Appendix -- Psychology: Monotheistic or Polytheistic by James Hillman. Index.

_The New Polytheism_ is a treasure. It's the kind of book I've been longing to find: an intelligent, scholarly and thought-provoking treatise on polytheistic ways of thinking and creating meaning in the modern world. This is a must-read for modern polytheists and Neo-Pagans who hunger for something more substantial than the all-too-prevalent shallow, academically- and theologically-challenged fluff that seems to permeate Western polytheistic communities these days. I especially appreciated the commentary on the experience of polytheism as at first a frightening loss of center, but then a widening of perspective that challenges, inspires and invigorates as one begins to appreciate the diversity and richness of multiple ways of relating and functioning in many different aspects of life. I would love to be part of a group book study using this book.

I first discovered this book 12 years ago, while writing a formal credo for a religion class in college, and I found the book invaluable. I had to fight the urge to quote whole pages at a time. Not only did Mr. Miller explain the complexities of a polytheist-centered world-view clearly, but he did so with a poet's light touch. The only regret I had at the time, and have now, is that I was reading the book with a deadline hanging over my head, and could not luxuriate in his writing as much as I wanted (it is only this fact that makes me uncomfortable giving the book a perfect "5 star" rating).

It is a great sorrow that this book is out of print... But perhaps it will be reissued one day.

It is a pity that this quartet of David Miller's books: The New Polytheism, Christs, Three Faces of God and Hells and Holy Ghosts are out of print. They are simply brilliant examples of Archetypal Psychology's eye (that is, a polytheistic, mythopoeic, psyche-logical eye) turned on the beliefs of a montheistic faith. Not possible you think ? It is absolutely necessary I think, necessary to turn the two Doctors of the Soul (Jung and Hillman's) eyes on a faith whose soul has been long missing. For those Christians who have experienced the polytheism of their own soul and are seeking to integrate this experience into their faith these books are tailor made. I don't know of any other books that have attempted to do what David Miller has done. His accessible style in explaining complex notions is at least equal to that of Thomas Moore (of Care of the Soul fame).

The cartoons are always a hoot. It brightens up my day to see this calendar on my desk and the promise of a new cartoon.

This calendar is cute. Some days are less than exciting, but on the whole it is a fun way to keep track of the date.

This is the second year I bought a Non Sequitur calendar for my wife. Mr. Miller is possessed of an incredible sense of humor. My wife has the calendar on her desk at work but brings home the daily pages because many of the daily cartoons are so funny she doesn't want me to miss out. We especially enjoy the adventures of Miller's character Danae, a jaded, cynical, and politically astute child of eight or nine years.

We are frequently amazed at how current the humor is considering how far in advance it has to be written to produce a calendar.

A sardonic and demented mirror on our world, one that will alternatively have you laughing coffee out your nose and wincing from the awful truth of his point of view (okay, mine too)! His wit is razor sharp, his drawings are brilliant and he does it all in snappy one to four panels of pure, unapologetic genius. Look out 2007 here comes Wiley.

The best cartoonists are right about their subject matter yet make it appear simultaneously bizarre and normal. Wiley is one of the best, as can be seen from this collection. My favorite is a three-caption cartoon that has a man sitting at a bar with two women a couple stools away. He tells the bartender, "But I've always been my own worst critic." The women turn their heads and with smiles on their faces the closest one asks, "So... You've never been married?" Wiley satirizes all aspects of life in the nineties, from those fed up with the world to people trying a new and unusual way to cope with a common situation. Death, taxes and many not so inevitable situations in between are covered, and this is literal. One caption has a funeral where the headstone says, "I thought it was death or taxes."
If life has got you down and you feel the need to fight back by laughing at it, then this is a book for you.

Wiley likes lawyers. Or no, actually maybe not.

It's interesting to see how much this has evolved into something of a daily New Yorker panel written for the Washington Post from its origins as a relatively (logical.. pro-sequitur?) series of little picture stories played out in the Sunday papers. I remember when the life cycle of a mosquito (or dragonfly, or just bug?) was first printed. Interesting to note he draws all his dailies twice (long and square formats) and I think maybe some of the Sunday panels too.

It's worthwhile to check out Homer and Danae as well, but expect to do a lot more thinking. Those strips harken back to the days when people used to READ the comics. I think I might use that line in another review now.

This book is incredably funny. It will make your day.

This is my kind of humor - often reminds me of G. Wilson (Gaham - sp?) style... I want to buy a collection of his "Homer" adventures. Wiley, you're a genius!

Such a breath of fresh air - love the irony too.

if you like your humour drier than a james bond martini and more biting than killer whales'then this one is for you.Warning: no sacred cows are safe from this artist's pen and pencils....LOL

Wiley is one of my favorite cartoonists. Not just my favorite - the National Cartoonists Society named "Non Sequitur" Best of the year, before it even a year old!

These strips cover a variety of Wiley's sub-categories: Danae and Lucy (think the dark side Calvin and Hobbes), Obviousman the balding superhero, Cap'n Eddie and his tall tales, and Ele's new idea of how the dinosaurs became extinct - much the way our species is driving itself into the ground right now. I'm torn. I want more of each, but if I get more of one, I get less of the others.

And I want Wiley's other kinds of creativity, too. Page 88, especially that second cartoon - well, cartoons don't have to be funny to be good. That one is very good.

That vertical format for his Sunday comics, that's no accident. Wiley realized that the ever-shrinking sunday funnies, trying to cram more into less paper, was leaving odd gaps on the page. Cartoonists, Wiley included, are always competing for space on the page. Like any successful scavenger, he discovered a resource he could use without competition, those weird spaces that his vertical strips filled perfectly. Any cartoonist that solve problems like that for the newspaper editors has a valuable advantage. Wiley also says he was the first to use "process color", real halftones, on the funny page, where everyone else used (and use) big, solid patches of color. I can't vouch for the claim, but it is a distinguishing feature of his comics, and adds a lot to his expressive style.

As with Wiley's other collections, I have only one complaint. There's never enough Wiley in the book - but I'd probably say that up to the day he publishes "The Complete Wiley." Even then I'd want more.

//wiredweird

This picture book gives excellent insight into Miller's career. He is one of the best and most subtle political cartoonists active today. He is right on so much of the time especially with the set of morons making the news these days.

The girls are cute maybe a followup should be done on them to see where they are now and how they have held up.

As a local newspaper reporter, I have conducted extensive research into the history of Ocean City. With his third book, once again, Miller proves that he is truly an expert on this resort's history. He presents the events and happenings that shaped the island and its culture in a way that is not only accurate, but also interesting to natives and visitors alike. Miller is both an outstanding storyteller and a meticulous historian.

Fred Miller hits the nail on the head again with his recent view of our growing-up-years in Ocean City, NJ. Many era postcard views, period photographs, and other memorabilia are included in the book to remind us of what OC was like in years gone by. While the images are fasinating in their own right, where this book exceeded my expectations was in the depth and research shown with the captioning. It's obvious that the author spent many hours researching the history of the images and Ocean City. A wonderful addition to anyone's OCNJ collection.

Another look at the history of Ocean City, NJ by Fred Miller and another great book by this author! Miller's third book on Ocean City's history (his other two are "Ocean City:America's Greatest family Resort" and "Ocean City Beach Patrol") continues his facinating look at the history of this very interesting seashore resort. Thoroughly enjoyable!

Until Brueggeman's Old Testament Theology was published in 1997, this was the largest dose one could find in one place. The articles in this collection were all previously published in journals and other collections, but tracking them all down would be a difficult task. Therefore, the volume is very worthwhile. Even in the light of his most recent publications it is still a useful collection for a couple of other reasons. First, these articles were produced over a period of a couple of decades, so the attentive reader can observe Brueggeman's biblical theology as it developed over his career. Second, many of the articles are sustained treatments of individual texts, the likes of which do not appear in his recent Old Testament Theology. Most importantly, these essays reveal the increasing impact of contemporary literary studies on Old Testament Theology. For all of these reasons this collection is a treasure and may be considered a prerequisite for reading Brueggeman's "Old Testament Theology: Testimony, Advocacy, and Dispute."

There were two monumental Old Testament theologies translated from German into English in the early 1960's. One was Walter Eichrodt's _Theology of the Old Testament_ and the other, arguably the superior, was Gerhard von Rad's _Old Testament Theology_.

Using a keen sense of form criticism von Rad showed how the Old Testament grew out of the experiences of ancient Israel. Historical event was followed by layering of theological interpretation. These were arranged by ancient Israel in a cultic confession.

Von Rad noted that the destruction of the Hexateuchal framework made the discovery of the early history difficult. But the matter was very different if one took into consideration that the sequence of events conformed to a "canonical schema of a cultic nature."

The pre-Mosaic ancestors of ancient Israel were not always worshippers of Yahweh. Genesis mentions cults of the ancestors such as the God of Abraham, the Fear of Isaac, and the Strong one of Jacob. Confessional formulae of which Deuteronomy 25.6 is most important coalesced these diverse traditions into the historiography of the Old Testament.

This is the starting point of von Rad's _Old Testament Theology_.

This review refers to the 1962 edition of Gerhard von Rad's _Old Testament Theology: the Theology of israel's Historical Traditions_.

In spite of another good review..., I cannot help myself from bragging on this great "Unfolding of an on-going conversation with this Jewish Book." Due to Prof Bruegge's repeated words that it's an amazingly complex Book...because the Jewish people are amazingly enigmatic, complicated people of history!

From Chap 4: Bodied Faith and Body Politic: "In older, seemingly better days the Bible spoke with a single voice concerning faith and morals... For over a century the dominance of historical-critical work has relativized the absolute voice of the Bible. His footnote, also uttered in Class: "The critique of historical-critism by religious conservatives, in my judgment is correct." Next is a surprise: "Historical criticism was not especially interested in theological interpretation!" (This is news to me.)

Before getting to Chap 4, I was struck by Bruegge's emphasis on, "The issue that Israel and Israel's God (and those who continue this line of reflection) must always face concerns pain..." He pursues this theme in the next two essays: The Embrace of Pain; The Rhetoric of Hurt & Hope: "What is it about the Old Testament that is so odd and disruptive and restless that refuses to behave itself...?" Soon after those utterances he explains this question, "that rhetorical world is odd and crucial because it mediates ethical reflection through 'disclosures of hurt and articulations of hope.' "

My favorite essays, also longest are 7, Old Testament Theology as a Particular Conversation; No 8, The Crisis and Promise of Presence in Israel. A favorite picture of his growing theology is an "on-going conversation" with the OT or other scholars... Eichrodt and von Rad. Plus, "the aniconic character of Israel's God implies more than an absence of images." He refers to the value of metaphors from such scholars as Sallie McFague. His favorite nouns besides conversation are speech, utterance, words of rhetorical questions. His opening prayers for each Class are filled with verbs like brood, command, confess, plead, praise, thank, yearn...also, often coupled in faith, generosity, love, pleasure, purity, silence, trust...evidence of his grouping in fives and sevens.

Since most of these essays have come from his years at Columbia, those who have studied there have watched his authentic, steady, consistent growth and mellowing into an ever-ready approachable Gentle-man! I would not have gotten so much out of this year's Old Testament Theology without his incredible, clearly-stated, expositions in related, on-going conversations... favoring an older student!
Retired Chaplain Fred W Hood

I have found this to be a very reliable resource to understanding the cultural background of the Old Testament. For me it gives a new, deeper meaning to the events of the Bible. It is clearly written, and a great book to have to begin your OT study...if you can find it.

Miller knows his subjects (the people) and his subject (their desperation) with a clarity and fearlessness that most people would prefer to avoid. Viewing his photographs are no easier a task than living wholly and honestly. Skinheads, speedfreaks, Tenderloin whores, friends and neighbors. Lucid, terrifying, and ultimately beautiful photographs from a man of the same qualities.

Miller knows his subjects (the people) and his subject (their desperation) with a clarity and fearlessness that most people would prefer to avoid. Viewing his photographs are no easier a task than living wholly and honestly. Skinheads, speedfreaks, friends and neighbors. Lucid, terrifying, and ultimately beautiful photographs from a man of the same qualities.

The black and white photographs in this volume are strikingly beautiful, achingly poignant, and gritty at the same time. Unflinching, honest portraits of the darker side...

Miller knows his subjects (the people) and his subject (their desperation) with a clarity and fearlessness that most people would prefer to avoid. Viewing his photographs are no easier a task than living wholly and honestly. Skinheads, speedfreaks, Tenderloin whores, friends and neighbors. Lucid, terrifying, and ultimately beautiful photographs from a man of the same qualities.

My Brother bought me Mr. Miller's book: Outdoor Truths Hunting and Fishing For Answers" for Christmas. All I can say is that Gary is funny, motivational and is definately in tune with "human" nature. My 2 most favourite chapters, if you will, are the "Non-Typical" and "Contentment" sections. I think in this day and age, when it seems that so much emphasis,and money, is placed on human physical beauty and the importance of always APPEARING to be busy, I love the contentment section because it really hits home(actually he hits right between the eyes for those of us who are too stupid to see), what a crazy hectic life we live and the importance for us to slow down and not keep up with the Jones' next door!! All I can say is thanks to my bro' Rob, and thanks most to Gary Miller for being such a wonderful, timely writer!
Martha Coady

[[ASIN:160034447X Outdoor Truths

If you love the outdoors, you will love reading "Outdoor Truths". My being raised on a farm, this book takes me back to my own childhood and young adulthood of hunting and fishing in the great open spaces and seeing how majestic God really is. Gary combines his love for the outdoors, hunting and fishing with God's great creation. My wife Pat especially enjoyed the article "Are You Poor" on page 73. I love the tales of the quiteness of being alone in the woods or on the lake. You will enjoy "Outdoor Truths".

This book offers readers a unique perspective on life and the outdoors. Gary has an effective way to relate stories that tug at the heart and teach life lessons. I highly recommend this book for anyone who loves the outdoors.

Outdoor Truths offers readers of every age and persuasion a series of refreshing snapshots at some of the more subtle aspects of the life of an outdoorsman. With a down home perspective, Gary quickly draws the reader into the story thereby making the nugget contained within personal and at times even heart warming. Gary has a way with words that will capture and inform the reader in short order. If you're a hunter, fisherman, hiker, backpacker, or just one who loves to spend time in God's great outdoors, check out Outdoor Truths.

The left page has the original in Latin and the right has an English translation. The set up of the text and plenty of line numbering allows you to easily track the corresponding phrases. There are occasionally some English words or phrases that sound old fashioned which is hardly a surprise since this is a translation almost a hundred years old. The original 1915 translation was corrected for errors in 1921 and the type reset in 1960. The book is a hard cover with good quality opaque paper that will accept pencil notations and erasures without substantial damage. The typeface is clear, well spaced and of adequate size. The six volumes of Ovid's works in this series include two covering the Metamorphoses. I found these to be particularly useful in following what liberties had been taken in other translations of this work.

The Metamorphoses, of course, is one of, if not the, classical world's greatest mythological treatises. The Loeb edition's convenient format of original Latin text opposite a clear, concise English translation is invaluable for anyone who has ever been interested in Latin, and a wonderful study guide for the Latin scholar. Highly recommended.

I wrote a thesis on Ovid in college, so I'm a little biased, but this is one great translation. I love the Loeb series in general, and haven't seen a single edition that hasn't been well translated and edited. If you're reading a classic, read a Loeb.

Ovid is by far the greatest Roman poet. Certainly, Vergil's work must not be overlooked, with his excellent style and powerful emotion (a favorite scene of mine is the death of Laocoon); however, Ovid surpasses Rome's poet laureate by leaps and bounds: Ovid's dactylic hexameter is ornate and precise, and his poetry contains a daring irreverence that outraged Augustus. Few authors have surpassed the power of Ovid's pen, and his _Metamorphoses_ is his best work.

Although I am not entirely impressed with pedestrian prose translations of poetry, the Lobe edition's side-by-side translation provides the reader an adequate aid to begin to grasp the poet's beauty.

(If one desires to read Ovid's _Metamorphoses_ in English, I highly recommend Rolfe Humprhies's excellent translation.)