Saint Mary College Books

The world is coming to an end when powerholders are self-absorbed and the masses persist in feeling charitable. Charity is one of the side effects of contemplation, which is more than having exalted visions of the divine. Contemplation is within the reach of all who have been baptized, all who embrace God as more than a 911, all who go beyond worldly ambitions in prayer, all who take part in the Mass. Emptying the mind of what we have created may at first let in a depressing darkness, sort of like seeing angels leaving a hill: my sister calls it the shrapnel of scrooging through how you have lived your life. Ultimately, finding peace and strength in Godly love is WHAT IS CONTEMPLATION is all about. Author Thomas Merton includes his own illustrations and the book's message links well with THE CONTEMPLATIVE HEART by James Finley, GOLD FRANKINCENSE AND MYRRH by George Maloney, and DARK NIGHT OF THE SOUL by St John of the Cross.

The St. Mary's Press College Study Bible offers the New American Bible translation of Scripture treasured by our Conference of Catholic Bishops. The articles and support materials offer sound scholarship that supports the faith development and educational goals of students from Catholic, Ecumenical Christian Denominations and Inter-Religious heritages. I have used the SMP College Study Bible in parish, senior high school and university teaching. My students and I find it an excellence text. The use of BCE and CE rather than BC and AD to identify historical eras, is essential. Students need to recognize language that is in virtually all their college textbooks in the humanities. As a person of faith, I find that the designation of BCE and CE can equally mean Before the Christian Era and the Christian Era.
Respectfully,
Dr. Sheila O'Connell-Roussell,
Marylhust University Faculty Scripture and Pastoral Ministry

The college years are years of questioning and searching and seeking understanding to the deeper meaning of one's life. The College Study Bible from Saint Mary's Press is an excellent resource for these deep questions of faith, offering supportive and definitive articles, maps, illustrations, charts, art and photos to enhance the learning process. Young adults will find this Bible an important companion to their learning and relevent to their lives today. Still in doubt? Read the introduction by college students Brigitte Fischer and Carolyn Olson to catch a bit of their excitement about this new Bible...and then go and get your own!
Barbara Murray, D.Min.
Facilitator, Virtual Learning Community for Faith Formation, University of Dayton

Wow finally a Bible written to a college/High School student user friendly, wait a minuite, in the introduction of the text, in several places we see the use of the term BCE (Before Common Era) and CE (Common Era) what happened to BC and AD a term that has been in use for over oh I don't know hundreds of years, is this some kind of way to water down Catholic Christianity, some kind of way to be politically correct? This totally discouraged me about this Bible in the wrong hands this could cause confussion with people, I wish they (the publishers) would call it what it is. BC/AD

This bible is a treasure for the serious student. It gathers in one place much information required for unbiased scripture study. It has proven to be invaluable in my exegetical research, containing a scholastically-accepted scripture translation, as well as extensive notation to aide in understanding of the text. It is augmented with many maps and charts, as well as explanatory essays that aid in viewing the scriptures in light of the social and historical world in which they were composed and had early use. I have also found it valuable for my own personal spiritual use in interpretation of scripture. I would recommend it to students at high school level or above, as well as anyone seriously examining the meaning of bible scripture.

This small book is a large treasure. This book is very helpful to teenagers who are undergoing the transition of high school to college. The short reflections are comforting and give these young adults a sense that they are not alone in this transition. I also think it helps adults get a spiritual sense of what young adults face when they move through the various stages of life.

I was impressed by the power and depth of some of the reflections and poems listed in this work. Suitable for young adults/teenagers, especially as a resource for anyone who is involved in youth ministry.

This small book is a large treasure. This book is very helpful to teenagers who are undergoing the transition of high school to college. The short reflections are comforting and give these young adults a sense that they are not alone in this transition. I also think it helps adults get a spiritual sense of what young adults face when they move through the various stages of life.

I was immediately captivated and drawn into the "college" world by Professor Lawry's rich details and shared personal experience with his daughter, Lili.
An intimate, effective and beautifully old-fashioned form of communication, which the recipient can refer to throughout life to recall her loving dad's presence in her life.
To me, this is the ultimate way of expressing love and guidance without making demands and issuing threats. "Lili" can read on her own terms, whenever/wherever, doing so in private and express her feelings of acceptance or disagreement in a safe, silent zone.
Professor Lawry's unabashed model of sharing love and patience with his students instills a comforting feeling that, as a learned and scholarly man, he has grasped the true meaning of life and not just how to survive one's college years.
I recommend these "letters to Lili" to anyone for any reason. You will find humor, wisdom, practicality, numerous references to poets and other valuable authors to further your understanding of reading and learning and lots of heart and soul.
I've given copies to "parent" friends and to their children who are about to embark on college life.
Pie Dumas
Author & Life Coach

John Lawry has an excellent way with words when it comes to describing college to freshman. In this book, he and his daughter communicate about how her freshamn year is going. Since Lawry is a college profesor himself, he has alot to add. Another one of his books, "College 101", I also reccomend, if you enjoy this one. Definetly an excellent choice for parents to not only read themselves, but to send with their child to college.

Garlow and Jones soundly refute the charge that the church was and is antisex. But then again, this is an age-old trumped-up charge, going back to ancient pagan Rome, and still leveled against those who do not agree with the hedonistic and libertinistic practices of the accusers. The same holds for those who accuse the church of being sexist or misogynist (anti-woman), as the Da Vinci Code does. It is routine for feminists to call anyone sexist or misogynist who has the temerity to disagree with their ideology or their policies.

Garlow and Jones show that there was no such thing as a matriarchial society. They also expose the irony of the fact that the Da Vinci Code presents the Gnostic writings in a positive light even though Gnostic writings contain obvious misogyny!

Garlow and Jones elaborate on the persecution of witches. It turns out that most instances of such persecution were instigated by secular rather than religious authorities. What's more, witch-baiting is a great exaggeration. The number of victims was quite small--perhaps 50,000 witches executed over a long period of time, certainly not millions. What Garlow and Jones do not mention is the fact that the persecution of others by the Christian church is dwarfed by the persecution of others by atheists. The hundreds of thousands of victims sent to the guillotine by the Jacobins during the French Revolution and the tens of millions of innocent people murdered by the atheistic Communists come to mind.

A major shortcoming of Garlow and Jones' book is his failure to contextualize the DaVinci Code trash as a manifestation of overt anti-Christian bigotry--yes, a form of bigotry that would never be applied to any other religion. After all, the DaVinci Code (yes, I have read the book) not only attacks the Christian faith as an error, but accuses the church of being a deliberate conspiracy that is attempting to conceal a fraud. The fact that it is admittedly fictional does not change the fact of this bigotry. If Hollywood made a fictional film accusing the Prophet Mohammed of being a fraud and concocting a conspiracy to hide the true origins of Islam, it would be widely denounced as Islamophobic bigotry. Were Hollywood to make a film that positively portrays the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, even as fiction, it would be universally condemned as anti-Semitic. The real lesson of the DaVinci Code that needs to be stressed by Garlow, Jones, and others is the fact that anti-Christian bigotry is now just about the only acceptable form of bigotry, and that this is an ominous portent for the future. Christians, wake up!

What does it mean when someone gets excessively-defensive?
It doesn't express that they have peace or comfort with themselves.

Writing sludge like this just fuels the fire - that I suppose they are trying to put out. If .. there .. WAS .. ever .. a .. fire.

I bought this book hoping for a Christian perspective on the Christian-themed The DaVinci Code by Dan Brown. What I paid for is unabashed preaching on how the Gospel can be spread through never re-interpretting or revisiting the collection of stories called the Bible.

These two theological scholars don't add any additional light to Brown's story nor do they actually show proof that the DaVinci Code couldn't have been true (which, in fact, I agree that most of Brown's work is fictional interpretation.)

It seems like another opportunity for Christians to talk to themselves and reinforce a narrow viewpoint through villianizing the "mass media" and the general population. Pure back-patting fluff.

This book is an excellent affirmation of Christian values that must be read by anyone who didn't realize that "The Da Vinci Code" was a work of fiction. Please reread that sentence; "The Da Vinci Code" is a work of fiction, like "Star Trek" or "Harry Potter". Unfortunately, the same people who fail to appreciate this fact are the same people who actually need to read "Cracking Da Vinci's Code," in order to restore balance to a worldview so easily upset by Dan Brown's clever yarn.

Unfortunately, this book is poor ammunition for anyone actually hopeing to defend the Christian faith from a popular fascination with the romanticized Cult of the Magdelene presented by Dan Brown. Doctors Garlow and Jones, both highly educated evangelists, have crafted a book that is more or less comfort food for their audience, not any scholarly attempt to address the factual underpinnings of Brown's novel. Somewhat pointedly, Garlow and Jones choose some of the weaker elements of Brown's novel to base their case on. For instance, by way of dealing with non-Canon gospels (the Gnostic gospels, and the somewhat-less-offensive Apocryphal texts), Garlow and Jones give a selective history of the Council of Nicea which posits that they merely reaffirmed a version of the New Testament already in circulation. This is somewhat true, but ignores how the wording of the gospels were decided to specifically reaffirm the Nicean view of Christianity at the expense of other popular Churches of the time (including churches established by the very disciples of Jesus). They cast aspersions on non-Canon texts without actually addressing why they are or aren't considered reliable. Likewise, when it comes to a discussion of Paganism and its influence on Christian theology, the authors steadfastly refuse to acknowledge even the possiblity (much less the accepted fact) that rituals central to Christianity - such as baptism, the eucharist, and chrism (annointing with oil or ashe) - were all employed by pagan cults for thousands of years prior to Christianity. Instead, Garlow and Jones rely on the emotional impact of the epithet "pagan" on their reader to cast aspersions and reinforcce doubt.

Most disappointing about this book is that the authors attack fiction with fiction. Where there exist stronger points in the scholarship that underpin Brown's fiction (and I can't emphasize enough that "The Da Vinci Code" is JUST an entertaining story), Garlow and Jones turn instead to a fictional couples experience attending a discussion group of Brown's book and it's central thesis, which naturally involve secularist ridicule of faithful Christians engaged in acts of ministry.

There are even a few instances where the authors manufacture assertions by inferral that were never made by Brown or any of his characters. Half way through this book, I got the distinct impression that neither Garlow or Jones (nor their editor) ever actually read Browns fictional works.

This is one of those rare books where I was relieved to finally have finished it. There is no vice in the spirited defense of ones faith through the presentation of facts in support of rational argument. Unfortunately, this book is very light on facts, and frequently resorts to emotional arguments. The Gospels tell us that Jesus himself debated with authority found in a thorough knowledge of the law, and was skilled in avoiding rhetorical traps. Garlow and Jones do the opposite: they count on the unfamiliarity and uncertainty of the general population, and frequently employ rhetorical traps. Anyone seeking to be Christ-like, and defend their faith, would do well to not rely on this book.

Highly recommended, very easy to read, yet well-researched.

The chapters are subdivided mostly into three sections describing the major historical/theological claims of The Da Vinci Code (DVC), a Christian rebuttal to these claims, and short narrative in each chapter about a hypothetical college student's related experience. If you want to head straight for the claims and rebuttal, and by-pass the narrative, it is very easy to do. But the narrative is quite useful in understanding the types of arguments and beliefs you can encounter with devotees of DVC and how to respond to them. The narrative describes the student's doubts about Christianity, the pagan rituals that go along with DVC, and the responses of Christians who gently lead her to the real truth. It also has a good series of questions that can be used for a group study situation. The index is available only on the Internet.

A few examples from this book showing the lunacy of buying-into DVC follow. "The Priory of Sion," claimed to be the keeper of the secrets since the Middle Ages, is a complete hoax, started in France in the 1950s by a person who thought himself to be heir to the French throne (112). Nearly all of the New Testament was documented as recognized scripture by no later than 200 AD, or 125 years before the Council of Nicaea (142), contrary to DVC's claim. Christ's divinity was not decided by a "close vote" at Nicaea as claimed by DVC: the vote was "two" against and over 300 "for" (96).

In summary, this book adeptly exposes the major supposed "facts" that Dan Brown claims DVC is based on as a series of neat deceptions and lies, and built upon the wishful thinking of the aging New Age Movement.