Stanley Books

I have listened to the teachings of Dr. Charles Stanley for many years. He is a servant of the Lord who teaches the simple truth and takes the time to break it all down so you can fully understand the Word.
I must confess that although I intended to open this devotional every single morning so I could start my day with a brief uplifting message, I haven't always taken the time. However, when I do, through Dr. Stanley, God always tells me exactly what I need to hear at that moment. Coincidence? I think not.
We don't always have to be in church to hear from our heavenly Father. He speaks through people, He speaks through songs, and He speaks through books like this devotional. Buy it and let Him speak to you.

One of my favorite books and one of the most inspirational. Each day has a short but powerful message which I use to start my day. Throughout the day I use it as a guide for my thoughts & actions. At the end of my day I reread the devotional message to reflect upon what happened throughout the day. It is a small book that is small enough to fit in a purse, coat pocket or lunch box. The book itself is well made with great quality pages and very sharp easy to read print. It should hold up well for many years of use.

Very nice read when you have a small amount of time. I like to sit with coffee in the morning and read the devotion for the day, nice way start each day.

This is a wonderful addition to our office library of reference materials. My CNM/WHNP colleagues have overviewed it and find it very helpful on those hard to manage patients.

This book served a vital purpose in what I'm having to achieve in clinical. I'm just now doing my OB-GYN rotation and I think this book is great. It has already helped me with what I need to know. OB-GYN is not my strong point, but this book has provided me with easy to understand, experience based information right at my fingertip.

This book was a required purchase for our NP program...and it was well worth what I paid. The insight and easy reading was invaluable during my OBGYN rotation. Highly recommend this one as reference if not required reading for your program.

My father bought this book just before shipping out to Europe during the war and it remained his favorite novel until his death several years ago. It contains reminiscinces of the War Between the States which are as authentic feeling as any I've read. I believe the author was a military man who must have used the memories of his own battlefield experiences in writing the book. The segment on Pickett's Charge has stuck in my mind since I was in the ninth grade. This is the book by which I measure other combat novels and memoirs. It is also a very thought provoking book- more so than most other novels of its type. I have searched for other books by Pennell but to my regret have found none. Highly recommended.

The History of Rome Hanks" remains in the recollections of those of us who read it when it was first published in 1944 as one of the truly great American novels. Sinclair Lewis called it "one of the richest and most pungent novels of this decade", and The New Republic described it as "...a view of the Civil War worth putting beside Brady's photographs, Grant's "Memoirs", "The Red Badge of Courage" and "Miss Ravenels's Conversion".It was one of 1944's best sellers.

The central figure of the novel is a young man trying to sort out his memories of the tales of the Civil War told him by his grandfather and his father, and to imagine what their lives must have been like,and what the War had done to them. The tale ranges from past to present, from Gettysburg and Savage's Station and Shiloh to present-day Kansas. Pennell employs a fragmented, interior-monologue narrative style, giving his reader a view of the War as his characters must have experienced it, and he does it with dazzling control. It as, and remains, a genuinely great war novel.

Four years later Pennell published his second novel, "The History of Nora Beckham: A Museum of Home Life",(Charles Scribner's Sons; NY, 1948), which is an extension of the lives of his people into their postwar lives. And after that this brilliant novelist disappears from the literary radar screen-- absolutely disappears. In more than fifty-five years of searching I have found only the occasional mention of "Rome Hanks" and Joseph Stanley Pennell.

Perhaps one reason for such undeserved obscurity is this: the book was published in 1944, when paper was rationed, press runs were limited, and the writer's most likely readership was still overseas with another war on their minds and no access to a book which would have made perfect sense to them. Even so, the literary historians have failed readers grievously by their silence since.

This is the classic example of the author who has one great book within him. He apparently had thought about writing a fictionalized recollection of an ancestor's Civil War experiences. The thought took decades to germinate. The novel, when it appeared after World War II, was enormously popular, and was never followed by a second book. This book is extremely moving, not only for its combat memories but for the day to day observations of life and nature. There are passages which taken alone would justify the read. The book was out of print for many years, and fortunately is available again. You could call it a longer Red Badge of Courage, only it is much broader ranging and more laden with insights. It is not preachy in the slightest. You will find it a memorable book for all ages and both sexes.

Fundraising for America's schools has gone way beyond the bake sale. You cannot bake enough cookies to give America's chools the money they need. However, you can buy this book and learn from legendary fundraising guru, Stanley Levenson, beneficial strategies, techniques, tools, and templates for creating an A+ school fundraising program. Levenson is rare among fundraising strategists because he focuses as much on "friendraising" as "fundraising." This book helps everyone, from beginners to expert grantwriters, to cultivate the skills, relationships, and savvy it takes to be successful in the competitive arena of public school fundraising. Stan Levenson also understands the central role of public education in a democratic society and how to use fundraising as a means of increasing public responsibility for quality education at a time when public school budgets are being slashed across the nation.

In an era of diminishing resources, Stanley Levenson's book is an invaluable tool for schools and districts alike. His easy to follow recipe for writing winning grants gives school personnel the confidence to write their own proposals without the need of contracting an outside consultant. His book includes examples of successful proposals which he also uses to familiarize the reader of effective writing styles. What I also found tremendously helpful were his fresh and creative approaches to fundraising which many schools and school districts tend to overlook. For a very small but wise investment, our schools have profited from Dr. Levenson's insight. I'm sure many others would, too.

Dr.Stanley Levenson has written a much needed book for public educators. Today, in a time of monetary crisis for many school districts in the nation, any book that can shed light on where to get money for innovative and creative programing is welcome. Dr. Levenson's does that and more.
Classroom teachers can use his work as a guide to understanding what it takes to write a grant proposal. Nowhere in a teacher's college education is anything like this taught, or for that matter, mentioned. Yet, teachers are constantly trying to be innovative and creative in their teaching. Sometimes, without funds it is hard to try the new and "impractical" in the classroom. With the guidance of Dr. Levenson's book, teachers are walked through the grant writing proposal step by step. But the book does not stop there!
He lists places where money can be found. The federal, state and local government all have some money earmarked for educational innovation. He lists them. Private funds and foundations, an area where money for the public school systems is growing rapidly, are listed and studied. Levenson tells what types of grants each foundation likes to fund (an extremely important idea).
As someone who has written and won school grants, I would have appreciated this book when I was a public school teacher. I think all school districts should have at least one copy of this book in each of their schools. It will encourage teachers to do what they can do best-teach, think, and write grants creatively.

This is one of the best books on parenting I've ever read (and I've read a lot). I'm currently reading through it for the fourth time, because there's so much truth in it, and I want to really internalize all the wisdom Stanley offers up. I recommend this book for any parent who sincerely wants the best for their kids. An absolute masterpiece!

I read this book three times (and I dislike to read) my children are 20 and 18 now and I purchased this when they were 3 and 5. I have purchased this book on-line now to give to parents with new babies. I only wish I could purchase it in stores. It's an excellent, excellent book. Don't pass this one up. For someone who dislikes to read, I couldn't put it down. Thank you so much Dr. Stanley, because of this book, I have to wonderful young gentlemen.

I read this book three times (and I dislike to read) my children are 20 and 18 now and I purchased this when they were 3 and 5. I have purchased this book on-line now to give to parents with new babies. I only wish I could purchase it in stores. It's an excellent, excellent book. Don't pass this one up. For someone who dislikes to read, I couldn't put it down. Thank you so much Dr. Stanley, because of this book, I have to wonderful young gentlemen.

I received the book in only few days, in excellent conditions.

Thanks,

Janny

Recipient of the Nobel Prize in Economic Science, Becker has pioneered the aplication of economic analysis to human behavior in such areas as dicrimination, married, family, etc. This book is a classic study of the consequences of investing in a person's knowledge and skills. According to his theory, investing in an individual's education and training is similar to business investments in equipment.

One of the principal book about Human Capital Theory.

This book is very technical in nature and not "a light read." However, it is an essential resource for anyone interested in labor economics and human capital. Dr. Becker is brilliant. Highly recommend!

I thought that I knew what the downsides of hysterectomy could be since so many of my friends have had to submit to one and I've done some reading here and there. But I learned a great deal more from this book. The title sounds a little alarmist, but the actual writeup is very thoughtful and well-supported information.

Read this book before you agree to having a hysterectomy. I have had two doctors recommend that I undergo hysterectomy. I refuse. A woman's uterus is her vital female organ, and there is no reason to have it removed unless there is cancer present. Find a physician who is skilled at performing myomectomies, or consider embolization, but don't let them cut out your uterus. Dr. West gives clear, eye-opening information, and much detail to allow a woman to make an informed decision. Dr. West also gives important information about the after-effects of having a hysterectomy. This is one of the most important books that a woman will ever read.

I was fortunate to have read this book before my surgery in 2001. 2 Gyns were sure I needed a hysterctompy but I insisted on open abdomen myomectomy and asked my surgeon to do everything in his power to take only the fibroids. I came out of surgery with my uterus; minus a 4 lb. 20 cm. fibroid...ONLY ONE!!! This book gave me the courage and the fortitude to discuss my options with my gyn and ask many questions...questions that my gyn wasn't as receptive as he should have been...but he honored my decision. Dr. West provides insight into a topic that women must be educated about. Indeed, he is right, hysterctomy is a hoax...in most cases it's not necessary. Perhaps it happens as often as it does, because surgeons are not trained to save a womans organs. I commend any gyn who has the courage to learn how to avoid hysterectomy. My gyn will forever be my number one!!!!

..yes that Pat Burns pat@techos.com

Carol Friedman's book, The Jazz Pictures, changed my life. If it wasn't for her pictures I would have become terribly obese and died.

Picture after picture, you are inspired by Carol's constant search for "truth" in her images. The naked "truth" about these Jazz artists is captured by her awe inspiring pictures

Patristic-style (true catholic) Christology doesn't get any better than this. It would be a great idea for
Benedict XVI to read great stuff of this high quality. It may change his mind regarding the folks that are,
not only Roman Catholics, but true catholics. Pannenberg is THE apologist for the Nicene Fathers in our age
and time and this is his most important single work on Christ.

The previous reviewer has done an admirable job in presenting why Pannenberg's book is important. I do not wish to traverse ground that has already been walked. I did read the whole review and thought it was admirably done. Thus, just a few observations regarding this outstanding volume. Interestingly, Karl Barth asked Pannenberg not to publish this book, because he knew that Pannenberg was re-visiting 19th century German liberal theology in method, purpose, and content. Pannenberg, like Moltmann, was not the child of peace and promise for which Barth hoped; meaning that Pannenberg was not the heir to Barth's theological gains. However, be that as it may, this book is an outstanding contribution from an historical perspective and theological perspective because Pannenberg orients his theology beautifully with regard to the past. The historical discussion would be worth the price of the book alone. My only other comment is that Pannenberg, for all his brilliance does not quite pull off what he hoped--because his Christology, in the words of the late Colin Gunton, is in the end adoptionistic. See Gunton's book titled: "Yesterday and Today: A Study of Continuities in Christology." Sadly, any Christology that begins at the bottom and strives upwards is bound to fail no matter how brilliant the attempt. Having said that--buy this book, read this book, study this book, learn from this book--I would like to fail in anything as brilliantly as Pannenberg has here. This is one of the rare theological masterpieces of the late 20th century, by one of the few theological geniuses still living.

I have been a reader of Pannenberg for some time now, but it was not until recently that I finished Jesus: God and Man, and I must say that I was left, after finishing this book on a second read-through, simply amazed. Pannenberg is, in my opinion, one of the most profound theologians of the 20th century, though, unfortunately (especially at conservative Bible-colleges like the one I attend) there is a surprising reticence on the one hand, and an unfortunate ignorance on the other, that truncates any viable discussion of Pannenberg. The same could, of course, be said about Moltmann, or Jenson or (as my friend Halden would undoubtedly champion) about von Balthazar's theology (of which I myself am admittedly fairly ignorant).

Reviewing a book of this scope always makes me pensively deliberate with myself how I could possible isolate key parts of the text to present a viable synopsis. This book is no different. One of the additional difficulties with Pannenberg is due to his systematic nature: it is hard to "isolate" pieces of his work, say a quote or an idea, without running the enormous risk of completely misrepresenting moments of Pannenberg's systematic flourish. Hence, and this is very important for those of you who stumble across this review: it is probably going to be long. So, without reading the whole thing, here: Buy this book! I wholly and totally recommend it for reading in Christology. It is a classic that should be in every theologians library. No one will agree fully with Pannenberg, but this book will nonetheless stimulate converstation and thought! With that disclaimer then, I begin.


As one can easily ascertain from the title, this monograph by Pannenberg is on Christology. Though to speak of this as "Christology proper," would be to overstate what Pannenberg is attempting to do. This is really a book of Christological methodology, rather than material conclusions (though, of course, these are present as well.) Pannenberg is attempting to put forth the program he hinted at in his very first publication Revelation as History, which runs decidedly obverse to the anti-historical leanings of Bultmann's demythologization, and the so called "neo-orthodoxy" of Pannenberg's mentor, Barth. Though the term is frequently misunderstood, especially in reference to Pannenberg's use of it (to which we shall return) one could roughly describe the program as "from below." Whereas in theology "from above," Jesus' divinity and the doctrine of the incarnation stand at the center, Pannenberg's is an attempt to show why the confession of Jesus as divinity is materially legitimated by Jesus' own life and from within the horizon of Jewish apocalyptic expectation. Indeed, one of the repeating themes that resonates throughout this book is a tireless drumbeat evaluating the evolution of Christian belief in Jesus through the history of traditions. If a belief in Jesus (say, Divinity) can be shown to be a foreign addition of Greek metaphysics (ala Harnack's thesis), or say, the idea of a descending and ascending redeemer to be a Gnosticizing tendency of the tradition, then the basis of authentic proclamation has been defeated.

This leads to another central theme of the book, in dialogue with the concern for material legitimation: the Resurrection as the center of theology. This is perhaps the most misunderstood part of the book, in my opinion, and so garners the largest portion of this review. What occurs here is a wholly unique and (at least in my opinion,) convincing "demonstration" of the hypothesis of Jesus' divinity, centered around his Resurrection. To understand the importance of the Resurrection, we must understand 3 things: 1.) Jesus' pre-Easter proclamation, activity, and commission 2.) What exactly was entailed in so called "apocalyptic eschatology" of the Jewish tradition(s) and 3.) how the Resurrection ties these first two together:

Jesus' pre-Easter proclamation, according to Pannenberg, was to proclaim that the Kingdom of God was near, and that the fate of men in relation to this coming kingdom was decided in relation to Jesus (e.g. the Son of Man sayings in Luke 12:8 and parallels) where people's current community with Jesus would determine their relationship to the coming Son of Man who would stand as Judge. On top of this, of course, Jesus also freely interpreted the law, which implicitly gave him authority higher than that of Moses. Jesus placed his "but I say to you..." (e.g. Mt. 5) in the center of the proclamations. Since in Jewish tradition the only authority that was higher than Moses was God, this is a claim to equality with God. Related to all this is Jesus' claim to forgive sin, which is an important part, but doesn't stand as an "isolated" or "immediate" claim to divinity as many conservatives have supposed, but stands in a meaningful relationship to the proclamation of the kingdom of God (which will be explained in a moment).

This brings us to the Jewish apocalyptic expectation. Only at the end of history, according to such expectation, could God be fully revealed: "In the Old and New testaments do speak of the subject matter (revelation) as a self-revelation of God, although it is not terminologically so designated. In the Old testatment this involves especially the so-called erweiswort ("word of demonstration") formulas that designate knowledge of YWHW's divinity as the purpose of the divine activity in history. The more all happenings were perceived in Israel as a single great historical unity, the more the full knowledge of YHWH became an event that would be possible only at the end of all happenings. YWHW would complete the entire course of world events, world history, in order that man might thereby know his divnity. Only at the end of history is he ultimately revealed from his deeds as the one God who accomplishes everything...correspondingly, Jewish apocalyptic expected God's full revelation as an event of the end of time." (p.128)

This sets up the relation of Jesus' proclamation of the coming kingdom (essentially the end of time) and his ability to forgive sins. What is salvation (i.e. forgiveness of sins)? Pannenberg defines it at its core as "openness to God," being open to God's future. This is in line with the Jewish apocalyptic understanding where salvation, and the ultimate "forgiveness of sins" in the judgement of God, is not only an "immediate, vertical" reality, but precisely is immediate because of the promise of God's coming at the end. Only in this way is it present: because it was beleived that God would judge justly *at the end*, already then his servants stand justified because God is Lord of the entirety of history, not the other way around. The presence of salvation has a proleptic, anticipatory structure: it is "now" because the "it will be" is present through the promise---the fulfillment being what retroactively confirms the presence of salvific reality "already" present. Hence in the proclamation of the kingdom, in Jesus' immanent expectation, because salvation, the fulfilled destiny of man, consists in the fulfillment of openness for God, it is already present for those who accept Jesus' message, and so are placed in a relation of immediacy and openness to the God-who-is-coming. For this reason Jesus could grant salvation directly: "Blessed are the eyes which see what you see!" (Lk 10:23) Jesus' claim to forgive sins is an *eschatological* concept that stands related to the proclamation of the kingdom (an insight lost to many evangelicals), and is an intimate effect or conclusion from Christ's eschatological consciousness. Moreover, stated in another way: "the nearness of the immanent Kingdom of God [calls men to repentance and obedience, and] puts all things into that relation to God which belonged to them as God's creatures from the very beginning. It is just this that demonstrates the universal truth of Jesus' eschatological message: it reveaals the 'natural' essence of men and things with an urgency nowhere achieved outside the eschatological light." (p.231)

Yet, as Pannenberg notes critically regarding several theologians, if we leave it here, what have we really "shown?" All of this up to now has remained at the level of assertion. How are Jesus' claims, his immanent expectation, verified? Indeed, as has been pointed out, the kingdom did not come, at least not in the way perhaps expected. This is where Pannenberg really shines. Jesus' immanent expectation was fulfilled in his own resurrection. We have to understand the the resurrection is not just an isolated or individual occurence, but one that stands in relation to the end of history, according to the apocalytpic expectation (e.g. Is. 26:7, Dan. 12:1-3 etc...) Pannenberg, from this, puts forward several thesis, a couple of which I will touch upon: If Jesus has been resurrected, then the end of the world has begun in him. This is the first closely related to a second: If Jesus has been raised, in the Jewish mind this could be nothing else than a verification by YHWH of Jesus' past life. No Jew would have thought such an occurance as happening outside the jurisdiction of their God. These two thesis interact: If Jesus' past life has been validated, not only through the validation of his immanent expectation of the end in his own resurrection, but also since Jesus' claim to forgive sins (an eschatological concept, remember) has been retroactively validated, this means that *the end is present proleptically in Jesus*. Jesus' resurrection verified his claim to authority, and hence it is also a confirmation of his proclamation that the kingdom of God is near. This is the basic structure of salvation, that Jesus proclaims the nearing kingdom and hence places everything in its `natural' relation to God, because at the end of all events in the eschaton the essence of things will be revealed to be what they are because of their standing in relation to the totality of all other things in light of God's revelation. Because the resurrection is a validation of this basic expectation, and also a validation of Jesus' understanding that he himself was inaugurating that kingdom and able as such to present salvation as already present, that it was present in himself, the material fulfillment of Jesus own expectation in the eschatologically significant event of the resurrection indicates that the kingdom actually IS present in Jesus' proclamation of the coming kingdom, that is, salvation is already occurring (proleptically) in the form of men's relation and belief in Jesus because this reorients them wholly to the kingdom.

But as such, since the kingdom can now be seen as actually present in Jesus' proclamation, that the eschaton is proleptically present in him, because the resurrection (given the apocalyptic connotations) is a material fulfillment of Jesus' basic expectations, then *God has been revealed in Jesus because in him the end has occurred*. Hence it is not JUST that Jesus has been resurrected that we can say the end has begun in him (though this is the epistemological and ontological locus of the decision) but the retroactive verification of Jesus' individuality through the apocalyptic act of God indicates that that Jesus was correct in his placement of himself as executor of the end, as able to eschatologically forgive sins in the immedate present and hence the end is present in Jesus. Just so, because the end is present in Jesus, Jesus is God's revelation as God can and will only be revealed at the end of all events. Hence Jesus' own claims to know God as father and to reveal him (e.g. Matt. 11:27) are related to this basic eschatological horizon which understood God as "near." God can no longer be thought without Jesus, in whom the end is proleptically present: Jesus is God's revelation of Himself.

Pannenberg then follows a line started by Barth: If Jesus is God's revelation, if God now, because He would only be revealed in total at the end of all events, is now revealed in Jesus then the following occurs: "Jesus' resurrection from the dead, in which the end that stands before all men has happened before its time, is the actual event of revelation. Only because of Jesus' resurrection, namely, because this event is the beginning of the end facing all men, can one speak of God's self-revelation in jesus Christ...The concept of self-revelation includes the fact that there can only be one single such revelation...When someone has disclosed himself ultimately in a definite particular event, he cannot again disclose himself in the same sense in another event different from the first...thus either there is always only a partial self-disclosure of God that is perceived under one-sided aspects, or there is in one instance a revelation that certainly is unique by definition, because a plurality again would abrogate its character as revelation...[and] the concept of God's self-revelation contains the idea the the Revealer and what is Revealed are identical...If this were not so, then the human event of Jesus' life would veilthe God who is active therein and thus excluse His full revelation...If God is revealed in Jesus Christ, who or what God is becomes defined only by the Christ event. Thus Jesus belongs to the definition of God, and thus to his divinity, his essence. The essence of God is not accessible at all without Jesus Christ." (p.129-130) "And in view of God's eternity, the revelatory character of Jesus' resurrection means that God was always one with Jesus even before his earthly birth. Were it otherwise, Jesus would not be in person the one revelation of the eternal God." (p.153) Hence "The representation of the Christ event as the descent and reascent of the redeemer hardly involves a Gnosticizing reinterpretation that misconstrued the Jewish tradition and that would be explained as a lack of understanding for the original...Christian message...Rather the resurrected Lord's essential unity with God leads to the idea of preexistence through its own intrinsic logic." (p.153-154). The fullest statement of this comes at the end of the book, and combines the various ideas here presented: "The transition from Jesus' announcement of the imminent Kingdom of God to the confession by his community of Jesus' own kingly rule is to be understood as a materially established step in the primitive Christian history of traditions, not to be judged as an arbitrary leap or even as falling away from Jesus' proclamation. Because Jesus' resurrection confirmed his earthyl claim to authority by the fulfillment of the eschatological future in his own person, he no longer just anticipated the judgement of Him with whom the eschatological reality begins as he did in his earhtly activity, but he himself has now become in person the reality of the future eschatological salvation...Differently expressed, through the resurrection, the revealer of God's eschatological will became the incarnation of the eschatological realit itself; the ultimate realization of God's will for humanity and for the whole of creation could therefore be expected from Him. Moreover, because Jesus' claim was eschatological in character, no other could be conceived alongside Him to bring in the eschatological consummation..." (p.367)

PHEW! Well that was a long winded explanation, and this is only a SMALL portion of the entire book (though I would argue the entire book is essentially an unpacking of this basic concept.) The book itself is longer than the pagination would have you believe due to the incredibly small print used. If one were to use the font size in Pannenberg's Systematics for this book, it would swell another 100 pages (give or take)! There need to be some disclaimers on Pannenberg's method as well, the first is short, the second long (ya I know, roll your eyes...well you don't have to read it): The first is that Pannenberg has often been criticized for his "from below " approach. There are many who argue that Pannenberg needed to supplement also a "from above" approach, a criticism that Pannenberg wholly agrees with. He never intended for this book to be read by itself, but in light of his entire project. The Systematic THeology represents more the "from above movement" (for an appraisal and summary of methodology, see: F. LeRon Shult's The Postfoundationalist Task of Theology)

The second disclaimer: , Pannenberg has occasionally been accused as being an Adoptionist. (See: Donald Bloesch, Jesus Christ Lord and Savior p.142, who accuses Pannenberg of seeing Christ as adopted at the time of His Resurrection). But this is simply not the case. Those like Bloesch (and others) that say Pannenberg believes Christ to have been adopted at the Resurrection have both 1.) missed explicit statements to the contrary (e.g. JGM pp.127-141, esp. p.135) but have also, in general, misunderstood Pannenberg's metaphysical philosophy. See: Wolfhart Pannenberg, Metaphysics and the Idea of God (Grand Rapids, Eerdman's Publishing, 2001)

Metaphysically speaking, any perception of finite parts, or the finite parts themselves (which Pannenberg terms "noetic" and "ontic" conceptions of the limit respectively) can only be understood in relationship to other parts. So to speak parts are parts only in their relationship to other parts. Every time we draw a border, says Pannenberg, we have thought, however vaguely, of something that lie beyond that border. This leads to the dialectical concept of "whole," because parts are parts, almost tautologically, in relation to a whole of the parts.

Every finite thought, then, borrowing from Descartes formulation, presupposes the infinite "unifying unity" that lay behind the whole. This Pannenberg calls a "nonthematic perception" or intuition of the infinite contained in every finite content of consciousness. So to speak, every finite content, both in our understanding of it (noetic) and in itself (ontic) has (to borrow Gadamer's expression) an expressed and unexpressed association to the rest of the totality of reality. What this does then, is to point to the future as the source of completion or totality, because only when (if) the future is completed (which Pannenberg later draws affinities to the Christian understanding of the eschaton) will objects be given to themselves their totality, and hence their essence.

This breeds a specific problem, however: if the preceding is true, then can it be really so that everything is not "what it is" yet? Pannenberg answers the affirmative while circumventing relativism or skepticism. He says that everything that is, exists in a mode of anticipation of its potential completion, and as such, everything's essence exists in relationship to a potential future completion, the future being the source of the wholeness of finite being. Pannenberg ends chapter 5 of Metaphysics with a particularly mind-bending statement: "the essence of events and forms within the natural world changes over the course of time; that is, what they are changes...only at the end of their movement through time, or at the end of more complex series of events, could anyone actually decide what makes up their distinctive character, their essence. At that time, one would have to maintain however that this [final state] had been the essence of the thing in question all along [emphasis mine]...the decision concerning the being that stands at the end of the process has retroactive power...if motion is understood as goal directed becoming, then the goal at which it aims, which will be 'completely' reached at its end, must somehow be already present and efficacious during the motion...if one allows this description (strange as it may seem) to sink it a bit, holding back the overused metaphor of seedlike predisposition and developement, it becomes clear that the presence of the entelecheia in the process of becoming has an anticipatory structure: it implies an anticipatory realization of the eidos before actual realization." (pp.105-106)

Pannenberg points to Jesus as a particular elucidation of this structure: Jesus Resurrection points to a general future resurrection from the dead, but in essence "the eschatological resurrection is viewed as already having broken into history as an anticipation of its final state. The final reality of the eschaton is present proleptically in Jesus as anticipation of its final consummation." (Ibid). But, more importantly, in JGM, Pannenberg writes "Nevertheless the idea that Jesus had received divinity only as a consequence of his resurrection is not tenable. We have seen in our discussion of the meaning of the resurrection event that the character of the confirmation of Jesus' pre-Easter claim is connected with the resurrection. To this extent the resurrection event has retroactive power. Jesus did not simply become something that he previously had not been, but his pre-Easter claim was confirmed by God. This confirmation, the manifestation of Jesus' `divine Sonship' by God, is the new thing brought by the Easter event. However, as confirmation, the resurrection has retroactive force for Jesus' pre-Easter activity, which taken by itself was not yet recognizable as being divinely authorized and its authorization was also not yet definitively settled. However, this has been revealed in its divine legitimation in the light of Jesus' resurrection." (p.135) He goes on to write that "Had Jesus not been raised from the dead, it would have been decided that he also had not been one with God previously. But through his resurrection, it is decided, not only so far as our knowledge is concerned, but with respect to reality, that Jesus is one with God and retroactively that he was also already one with God previously." (p.136) Hence this isn't just an epistemological retroaction, where Jesus is now just SEEN as always having been one with God, but Pannenberg would argue that the ontological state of the event is inseperable from any epistemology we derive from it. Hence Pannenberg is attempting to take seriously the actual course of history.


Well, for anyone who read the whole review, bravo! I recommend this book to anyone interested either in Pannenberg or Christology. Just be prepared for an intense read!

"futures markets run on a potent mixture of adrenalin fear and smarts...where 10% take home 90% of the winnings..."

Kroll doesn't mention that his role model often quoted, Jesse Livermore went bankrupt 3 times, and killed himself.

And every strategy that I've tried in this book has never worked (for me ). This book is cursed!!!

Entertaining read though.

This is, in my humble opinion, the best book ever written on futures "investing". Although dated (1987) the lessons in the book ring true in the 21st century. Kroll touches many issues, but the gravamen of the book is from the standpoint of long-term trend following. Kroll appears more of a discretionary trader (as opposed to systems traders such as John Henry, Ed Seykota, and others covered in books such as Covel's Trend Following) and although I cannot say that it will make you rich overnight, this book will help you lose less on the road to futures mastery. Sadly, this book is out-of-print, but luckily there are many copies available on the secondary market. I even own two copies--it's that good!

This is one of the best book on trading. I've read it for three times and I can say that I will read it again.

Kroll talk about how the market discount news, how everyone has his own trading system, and also not forgeting the golden rule of cutting your losses short and letting your profit run.

In short, if you have time for only one book on trading, this will be the one.