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A Cup of Christmas Tea
Published in Hardcover by Waldman House Press (1992-10)
List price: $14.95
New price: $1.44
Used price: $0.01
Collectible price: $14.95
Used price: $0.01
Collectible price: $14.95
Average review score: 
A Cup of Christmas Tea
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-09-16
Review Date: 2008-09-16
"A Cup of Christmas Tea" is a classic! It is the tender story (told in rhyme by Tom Hegg) of a young man who dreaded visiting
a loved aunt after she suffered a stroke and became disabled. But he did visit her and the story is rich with emotion - and
reality. A VERY special story that will touch your heart.
Pure Poetry
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-04-14
Review Date: 2008-04-14
As I sat at my computer, I glanced over at my bookcase and reached for a book. It was a Cup Of Christmas Tea. I began reading
out loud and soon started crying. Several times I had to stop and wipe away tears. It takes you back to when holidays were
simple and pure and about the people you love.
As I finished the book and wiped away my final tears, I decided that I will make our Chanukah celebration something special for my grandsons.
As I finished the book and wiped away my final tears, I decided that I will make our Chanukah celebration something special for my grandsons.
Cup of Christmas Tea
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2007-12-28
Review Date: 2007-12-28
Symbolized by sharing a cup of tea with an elderly aunt and reminiscing about Christmases past - this is a heart warming poem
reminding us to slow down during the holidays and enjoy our time with family and friends.
This book inspires me anew every Christmas
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2007-12-18
Review Date: 2007-12-18
A friend recommended this book to me several years ago, and when I read it, I was moved to tears. Since that time, I have
given countless copies to friends and family because I want to share the message that I received from it with everyone I know.
The text is brief, but very descriptive, so I could picture in my mind the events that the authors were describing. The message
that I received is that monetary gifts are not as important as the gift of time that we spend with others; so often we set
out to do things for others because we feel obligated, and in the end are more blessed than the person who was the object
of our attention. This is truly a wonderful Christmas story to read again and again!
Still as charming as ever...
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2007-01-11
Review Date: 2007-01-11
I think of this book as an adult "christmas book". I have had a copy for some years and purchased this one to accompany a
Spode Christmas "tea pot and cup for one" I gave to my mother. The 25th Anniversary Edition is a celebration of a book that
will never go out of style and is a perennial reminder of gracious traditions and feelings that are the heart's treasures.
Defeat into victory
Published in Unknown Binding by New English Library (1958)
List price:
Average review score:
Defeat into Victory
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2007-11-21
Review Date: 2007-11-21
A comprehensive story of a less well known battlefield of World War II. Some confusion over the repetition of numerical regiments,
but all-in-all good reading.
Honest, insightful, respectful
Helpful Votes: 10 out of 10 total.
Review Date: 2005-06-16
Review Date: 2005-06-16
Field Marshall Slim was ordered from Iraq to Burma to take command of the front in the upcoming Burma debacle. Under Wavell
first, and Auchinlek later, he retreated with the Commonwealth armies into India, and later on led the allied armies into
victory against the Japanese forces.
His writing is clear, concise, and he does not spare himself from criticism, Often after describing an order he gave, or wished he had given, he will go on to explain how his plan was a mistake, and how he should have done it instead. This is precious insight on the mind of the commander. In many first person war stories, we are told what happened, but not why, and when errors are committed, there is always a lot of blame sharing. Here it is different. Slim tells you what he did wrong, when, and why. This is refreshing.
He shows great respect for his enemy, and describes the enemy's gallant attacks and heroic defenses with respect and appreciation for the heroism of the Japanese soldier. He does not fail to condemm the Japanese war crimes.
He exhibits great wit in describing the different attitudes of the Indian, Sikh and Gurkha soldiers. In one instance, after a Japanese attack in Inphal, some Gurkhas had been ordered to bury the enemy bodies. One of these wasn't dead yet, so the Gurkha trooper gets ready to cut the enemy's head off with his Kukri knife; a British officer tells him "Don't kill him!", and the Gurkha answers "But sir, we can't bury him alive!" Episodes like this give a great sense of realism and "being there" to the whole story.
The best book I've read to date on the Burma front.
His writing is clear, concise, and he does not spare himself from criticism, Often after describing an order he gave, or wished he had given, he will go on to explain how his plan was a mistake, and how he should have done it instead. This is precious insight on the mind of the commander. In many first person war stories, we are told what happened, but not why, and when errors are committed, there is always a lot of blame sharing. Here it is different. Slim tells you what he did wrong, when, and why. This is refreshing.
He shows great respect for his enemy, and describes the enemy's gallant attacks and heroic defenses with respect and appreciation for the heroism of the Japanese soldier. He does not fail to condemm the Japanese war crimes.
He exhibits great wit in describing the different attitudes of the Indian, Sikh and Gurkha soldiers. In one instance, after a Japanese attack in Inphal, some Gurkhas had been ordered to bury the enemy bodies. One of these wasn't dead yet, so the Gurkha trooper gets ready to cut the enemy's head off with his Kukri knife; a British officer tells him "Don't kill him!", and the Gurkha answers "But sir, we can't bury him alive!" Episodes like this give a great sense of realism and "being there" to the whole story.
The best book I've read to date on the Burma front.
INSIGHTFUL MEMIOR FOR HISTORIANS AND FOR FUTURISTS
Helpful Votes: 15 out of 17 total.
Review Date: 2006-04-19
Review Date: 2006-04-19
I have always heard that Defeat into Victory - Battling Japan in Burma and India, 1942-1945 by William Slim was an excellent
book for military leaders and planners. Despite this, I was resistant to reading this book for several years. Field-Marshal
Slim, after all, was a failure. He failed to stop the Japanese advance in Burma and took a shockingly long time to retake
Burma.
After finally reading this book, I must admit I was wrong. This book is useful on at least four levels. First, it is a good read on a little known part of World War II. Even if one is knowledgeable about General Stilwell's experience in the China Burma India (CBI) Theater, this highly focused work will provides new and interesting insights on that theater of war. Second, Field-Marshal Slim was forced by circumstances to be very creative is his tactics, techniques, and procedures. It is useful to see how many of these ideas were adopted in modern militaries and how many still might have value. Third, Field-Marshal Slim has some very specific and interesting "lessons learned" spelled out in the last section of his book. Fourth, leadership as applied in combat, in a bizarre multi-cultural environment, and in the disease ridden tropics might be useful for both current military folks and those in business.
It was a surprise to learn about the relatively large number of troops involved in the Burma campaign. Like most Americans, my image is of a few aviation and engineering units and that the bulk of the fighting, to the extent there was any, was done by Chinese units and a handful of "special forces/commando" units. It was insightful to read about the difficulties in mixing the militaries of different nations. The British attempt, largely successful, at outsourcing the fighting to Indian and West African units was meaningful as well.
The use of helicopters and air mobile brigades was one of the many innovations that Field Marshal Slim implemented. The development of riverine forces was also interesting and potentially worth study since the U S Navy has decided to reintroduce such forces based on lessons learned from Iraq.
From page 535 - 551, Field Marshal Slim offers some specific lessons learned based on the Burma campaign. The only area where I think he is less than intellectually honest is his discussion on "Special Forces". Field Marshal Slim rejects the usefulness of special forces, but if one reviews his actual campaign, he seems to be inclined to argue the usefulness of small groups of elite forces that act as enablers of larger amounts of indigenous troops. Likewise, he is adamantly against commando and amphibious troops as "special". His argument is that all troops should be trained to do these types of things though perhaps not to the level that so called special forces are trained to.
Finally, Field Marshal Slim managed to survive in a complex and bizarre multinational environment. It seems as if the United States might be in such situations in the future. Indeed, NATO forces in Afghanistan and Multi-National Forces in Iraq are - while different in detail - much the same in terms of the diplomatic and relationship building that is required of senior military officers.
This is a solid book for a variety of reasons. I highly recommend it.
After finally reading this book, I must admit I was wrong. This book is useful on at least four levels. First, it is a good read on a little known part of World War II. Even if one is knowledgeable about General Stilwell's experience in the China Burma India (CBI) Theater, this highly focused work will provides new and interesting insights on that theater of war. Second, Field-Marshal Slim was forced by circumstances to be very creative is his tactics, techniques, and procedures. It is useful to see how many of these ideas were adopted in modern militaries and how many still might have value. Third, Field-Marshal Slim has some very specific and interesting "lessons learned" spelled out in the last section of his book. Fourth, leadership as applied in combat, in a bizarre multi-cultural environment, and in the disease ridden tropics might be useful for both current military folks and those in business.
It was a surprise to learn about the relatively large number of troops involved in the Burma campaign. Like most Americans, my image is of a few aviation and engineering units and that the bulk of the fighting, to the extent there was any, was done by Chinese units and a handful of "special forces/commando" units. It was insightful to read about the difficulties in mixing the militaries of different nations. The British attempt, largely successful, at outsourcing the fighting to Indian and West African units was meaningful as well.
The use of helicopters and air mobile brigades was one of the many innovations that Field Marshal Slim implemented. The development of riverine forces was also interesting and potentially worth study since the U S Navy has decided to reintroduce such forces based on lessons learned from Iraq.
From page 535 - 551, Field Marshal Slim offers some specific lessons learned based on the Burma campaign. The only area where I think he is less than intellectually honest is his discussion on "Special Forces". Field Marshal Slim rejects the usefulness of special forces, but if one reviews his actual campaign, he seems to be inclined to argue the usefulness of small groups of elite forces that act as enablers of larger amounts of indigenous troops. Likewise, he is adamantly against commando and amphibious troops as "special". His argument is that all troops should be trained to do these types of things though perhaps not to the level that so called special forces are trained to.
Finally, Field Marshal Slim managed to survive in a complex and bizarre multinational environment. It seems as if the United States might be in such situations in the future. Indeed, NATO forces in Afghanistan and Multi-National Forces in Iraq are - while different in detail - much the same in terms of the diplomatic and relationship building that is required of senior military officers.
This is a solid book for a variety of reasons. I highly recommend it.
A tribute to the common soldier by an uncommon general
Helpful Votes: 17 out of 18 total.
Review Date: 2005-04-24
Review Date: 2005-04-24
Field Marshall Slim, Viscount of Burma, never lets us forget that it is the soldiers in the field that win battles: not politicians
in their ivory towers, or generals in their bunkers far behind the action. Slim's theory is that politicians give guidelines
for the campaign, and generals provide the training and backup so that the soldiers can get on with their business. He should,
when possible, not get in the soldiers way.
This is a marvellous account of how the Commonwealth managed to stem the Japanese tide in South-East Asia. The main part of the book describes how he managed to restore morale and discipline in the army that was so humiliatingly defeated in 1943. That part should be compulsory reading at any management school. His solution was simple: he accepted that the defeat was due to faulty planning of the general staff. He then set out to provide training and equipment to the front-line troops. Since he commanded a multi-ethnic international army, he saw that every unit was supplied according to its own special needs. He even put his own staff on half-rations if any field unit lacked provisions - which usually quickly solved the problem!
As few generals and politicians he understood that war is about individuals and small units - they just add up to something bigger.
Slim could really write, the book is full of small anecdotes and self-ironic humour. When he writes about the actions it is af we were really there in the midst of it.
Finally, and most importantly: the book is totally devoid of any racism or demeaning of the enemy, it is incredibly respectful of his own native soldiers and of the Japanese enemy.
This is a marvellous account of how the Commonwealth managed to stem the Japanese tide in South-East Asia. The main part of the book describes how he managed to restore morale and discipline in the army that was so humiliatingly defeated in 1943. That part should be compulsory reading at any management school. His solution was simple: he accepted that the defeat was due to faulty planning of the general staff. He then set out to provide training and equipment to the front-line troops. Since he commanded a multi-ethnic international army, he saw that every unit was supplied according to its own special needs. He even put his own staff on half-rations if any field unit lacked provisions - which usually quickly solved the problem!
As few generals and politicians he understood that war is about individuals and small units - they just add up to something bigger.
Slim could really write, the book is full of small anecdotes and self-ironic humour. When he writes about the actions it is af we were really there in the midst of it.
Finally, and most importantly: the book is totally devoid of any racism or demeaning of the enemy, it is incredibly respectful of his own native soldiers and of the Japanese enemy.
Defeating the Japanese Army in Burma
Helpful Votes: 5 out of 5 total.
Review Date: 2006-10-09
Review Date: 2006-10-09
Field Marshal Slim's excellent memoire of the fighting against the Japanese in Burma and India during 1942-1945 is remarkable
on at least two counts. First, the Allied armies were badly beaten and hustled unceremoniously out of Burma in 1942, yet reorganized
in time to defend India and went on to liberate Burma in 1945. This feat was all the more remarkable for being fought over
some of the most rugged jungle and mountain terrain in the world, under often horrendous weather conditions, at the distant
end of the Allied supply lines. Second, Slim's account is exceptionally candid with respect to his leadership, to include
mistakes made (his and others), to his opinions of his allies and opponents, and to the political wrangling that goes on in
any coalition military effort.
The China-Burma-India Theater of World War II did not include large numbers of American ground forces, and has therefore been left largely in the shadows of the fighting in Europe and the Pacific theater. However, the Allied forces inflicted a massive military defeat on the Japanese Army under extraordinarily difficult conditions; there is much to learn from the common sense, improvisational approach employed by Slim in planning and organizing his campaigns.
Slim arrived in the theater as a brand new corps commander just at the start of the Japanese invasion. His efforts to cobble together a defense were repeatedly overturned by the relentless Japanese attack and by the scarcity of resources. Slim managed to extract his forces and in successive positions as corps and army commander, rebuilt them into the force that went back into Burma. Slim's account is comprehensive, even exhaustive, describing both the operational-level planning and administrative support and much of the tactical level fighting in the jungles. His high regard for his multi-national army, composed of British, Gurkha, Indian, Chinese, and American forces, and his care for their morale is evident throughout his account.
"Defeat Into Victory" is a long read at over 550 pages; the casual reader may be overwhelmed by the length and level of detail. The student of military art without prior background in the China-Burma-India theater may have some challenge putting Slim's account into proper context. The limited selection of maps are a bit difficult to read but enable the reader to follow the course of the campaigns.
This book is very highly recommended to the student of the military art looking for a very readable account of the Allied campaigns in Burma. Those who persist to the end will be rewarded by Slim's retrospective on the fighting in Burma and the surprisingly modern conclusions he draws from the experience.
The China-Burma-India Theater of World War II did not include large numbers of American ground forces, and has therefore been left largely in the shadows of the fighting in Europe and the Pacific theater. However, the Allied forces inflicted a massive military defeat on the Japanese Army under extraordinarily difficult conditions; there is much to learn from the common sense, improvisational approach employed by Slim in planning and organizing his campaigns.
Slim arrived in the theater as a brand new corps commander just at the start of the Japanese invasion. His efforts to cobble together a defense were repeatedly overturned by the relentless Japanese attack and by the scarcity of resources. Slim managed to extract his forces and in successive positions as corps and army commander, rebuilt them into the force that went back into Burma. Slim's account is comprehensive, even exhaustive, describing both the operational-level planning and administrative support and much of the tactical level fighting in the jungles. His high regard for his multi-national army, composed of British, Gurkha, Indian, Chinese, and American forces, and his care for their morale is evident throughout his account.
"Defeat Into Victory" is a long read at over 550 pages; the casual reader may be overwhelmed by the length and level of detail. The student of military art without prior background in the China-Burma-India theater may have some challenge putting Slim's account into proper context. The limited selection of maps are a bit difficult to read but enable the reader to follow the course of the campaigns.
This book is very highly recommended to the student of the military art looking for a very readable account of the Allied campaigns in Burma. Those who persist to the end will be rewarded by Slim's retrospective on the fighting in Burma and the surprisingly modern conclusions he draws from the experience.
The Dark Portal (The Deptford Mice, Book 1)
Published in Paperback by Chronicle Books (2001-08-01)
List price: $6.95
New price: $1.99
Used price: $0.01
Collectible price: $15.00
Used price: $0.01
Collectible price: $15.00
Average review score:
dark portal summarized by C.G.
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2007-02-26
Review Date: 2007-02-26
Robin Jarvis's Dark portal is an exiting, action filled thriller.Some might say it is a weird and an odd topic,but the characters
being mice and rats gives the story an extra push, rather than cats and dogs.Everybody reads about cats and dogs.I like this
book mainly for 2 reasons:1.there is lots of violence and action. & 2.when you read certain parts where she refers to other
events it kind of makes you reread the event she is talking about so you can completly get understand what is going on.
Children 10 and younger probably shouldn't read this book because of the major violence and gore(fighting and blood).
Children 10 and younger probably shouldn't read this book because of the major violence and gore(fighting and blood).
Dark Portal Review
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 2005-04-29
Review Date: 2005-04-29
I really enjoyed reading this book and found it nearly immposible to put it down and I would think about it during the time
I wasn't reading it. I don't generally enjoy books about animals, but this one was fantastic. The society of mice and bats
and rats were fantasticily conciveed by Jarvis, who clearly delivered all aspects of the story. I plan to purchase the second
one as soon as possible!
for all readers
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 3 total.
Review Date: 2004-04-08
Review Date: 2004-04-08
it is the first book in the trilogy and is a great book. the end leaves you thinking that there isn't anymore, but just wait
till you read the Crystal Prison. anyway, this is one of the best book having talking mice and other animals. way better
than what i have read of the Red Wall series.
The Dark Portal Minh's Review
Helpful Votes: 2 out of 3 total.
Review Date: 2005-01-20
Review Date: 2005-01-20
The Dark Portal by Robin Jarvis is 5 stars for excitement and survival.
Albert's life is on the line and his daughter Audrey would risk her life to save him. Albert is very kind hearted and is near death in the scariest place that any mouse would want to go! Will Audrey be able to save her father or will they be eaten by those horrific rats?
I life this book because it shows us that mice have a life that is just like ours.
This book is recommended for all kids that love excitement and really dark places.
Albert's life is on the line and his daughter Audrey would risk her life to save him. Albert is very kind hearted and is near death in the scariest place that any mouse would want to go! Will Audrey be able to save her father or will they be eaten by those horrific rats?
I life this book because it shows us that mice have a life that is just like ours.
This book is recommended for all kids that love excitement and really dark places.
Aweful!
Helpful Votes: 3 out of 19 total.
Review Date: 2004-12-24
Review Date: 2004-12-24
I just don't like rats. They are vile and digusting creatures. I don't like planet Jupiter either. It is a dumb name.
Don't You Just Hate That?: 738 Annoying Things
Published in Paperback by Workman Publishing Company (2004-04-01)
List price: $7.95
New price: $0.01
Used price: $0.01
Collectible price: $10.00
Used price: $0.01
Collectible price: $10.00
Average review score:
Can't stop laughing
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2007-11-24
Review Date: 2007-11-24
I got this book for my friend as a Christmas present and I ended up reading the whole thing before I gave it to her. This
book is hilarious how we all seem to function with the same hates on many tiny things.
hilarious
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2007-04-10
Review Date: 2007-04-10
It's just what you expect to get when you order the product, hilarious. The pages are filled with almost any awkward situation
you have ever been in and then some. It's great to pick up and browse through for a few minutes when you want a good laugh.
Quite simply wonderful
Helpful Votes: 2 out of 3 total.
Review Date: 2005-12-25
Review Date: 2005-12-25
I was overwhelmed and under pressure the day before Christmas Eve at Barnes & Noble. This seemed funny, but I started to
put it back because it was just another one of the many useless gift-y books... but every time I flipped to a random page,
I laughed hysterically.
It's just extremely witty and well-written. I've since decided to order more as gifts for friends of mine. These are the things we think but do not say, or sometimes don't even admit to ourselves because they're so obsessive or silly.
Worthwhile, humorous, and entertaining.
It's just extremely witty and well-written. I've since decided to order more as gifts for friends of mine. These are the things we think but do not say, or sometimes don't even admit to ourselves because they're so obsessive or silly.
Worthwhile, humorous, and entertaining.
This book is a MUST-HAVE
Helpful Votes: 2 out of 4 total.
Review Date: 2004-12-10
Review Date: 2004-12-10
This is the only book I've ever read that basically gave me one long continuous laughing attack.
Can't stop laughing
Helpful Votes: 3 out of 4 total.
Review Date: 2004-12-10
Review Date: 2004-12-10
I bought this book for my parents as a Christmas gift and ended up reading the whole thing in one sitting before I gave it
to them. It completely cracked me up.
Doomsday (2099)
Published in Paperback by Scholastic (1999-09)
List price: $4.99
New price: $1.48
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Collectible price: $10.00
Used price: $0.01
Collectible price: $10.00
Average review score:
Excellent, excellent!
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-07-10
Review Date: 2008-07-10
One of the best series I have read. I started reading the 2099 series in 5-6th grade and I am still reading it in my senior
year of high school now. I must have read them at least 5-6 times by now! They are that good! This series never gets old and
the plot is fantastic. Definitely worth a read! Go buy it! This series needs more attention!
This Series Deserves More Reckognition!
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2007-09-16
Review Date: 2007-09-16
I thouroughly enjoyed this book series in Jr. High. It has everything you could ever hope for from an original sci-fi story!
I'm awaiting a collector's edition collection of all six books in one volume. I would love to see a motion picture adaptation
as well...
doomsday
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2001-12-07
Review Date: 2001-12-07
this book is awsome action packed scifi with a twist i read this in 2 days i just couldn't put it down Tristin a boy who finds
out that he was adopted and is trying to find his real identity when he alerts his clone of his presence that could be a fatel
mistake find out what happens
-podus
-podus
Peel does it again!
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2005-03-07
Review Date: 2005-03-07
John Peel is one of the best authors i know, and i tend to be picky about books. You can hardly put them down, and they keep
you guessing. He has some character backgrounds without making it boring. The character's personalities are very distinguished,
and he has a great way of discribing things. in 2099, the whole planet is almost completly run by machines. Devon (who is
NOT tristans clone! Tristan is Devons clone. Devon was born first.) is set out making a virus to have complete world domination.
It's devons game, and tristan is just another obstacle in his way. Genia, is the 16 year old girl who just happens to get
caught in the crossfire. An exellent hacker, raised in the underworld, she manages to a vital key in devon's game. Inspector
Shimada ( i think...) is the officer on the case, and is determined to track him down. Tristan is one of the accused, and
is a prime suspect to Inspector Shimada, and becomes a flaw in Devons grand sheme. Now devon's out to destroy tristan, as
well as the rest of humanity. (i hope i didn't give too much away...) Doomsday and the rest of the series are nothing short
of exellent! JOHN PEEL RULES!
This book is awesome!
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2001-05-16
Review Date: 2001-05-16
This is the best book! I love John Peel. The characters and the suspense is awesome! Tristan is 14 and in big trouble. Ever
since he fell off his girlfriends roof his whole world has changed. He found out that he is adopted and has a clone! Devon
is Tristans clone and is evil! He (Devon) has created a Doomsday virus that will destroy the world. It's up to Tristan to
save it! With the help of Genia, an outcast,and Mora, Tristans ex-girlfriend. Can he save them? Read the book to find out!
I would recommend this book to anyone who loves fiction, especially science fiction!
Early Christian Doctrines (Black's New Testament Commentaries)
Published in Paperback by Continuum International Publishing Group - A & C B (1993-12-31)
List price:
Average review score:
The Must Read Standard on the Early Church
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-09-21
Review Date: 2008-09-21
JND Kelly does a splendid job of detailing the doctrinal development of the early church of the first five centuries. Particular
attention is given to Scripture, tradition, the trinity, the two natures in Christ, the rise of the episcopacy, the sacraments
and soteriology. Kelly is an Anglican, but does a wonderful job of describing early Christian thought in a way that is free
of partisan bias. Kelly is also an excellent writer. Also, his biography of Jerome is magnificent.
simply put ... a Classic ... in early Christianity studies
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-05-18
Review Date: 2008-05-18
INTRO
This is the magnus opus of J.N.D. Kelly, a Protestant who has done his research on the the beliefs, doctrines, practices and creeds of the early Christians (1st century until 8th century).
CONTENT:
This book has an easy to follow content and table of contents, is very easy to read, and the chapters are all in chronologically increasing order. This revised edition actually contains a NEW chapter - "Mary and the Saints" - which was actually the first chapter that I read. The content and exposition of early Christian's doctrines is very fair, balanced, yet erudite, not trying to lean towards any modern belief-system or pull any punches. The author writes very convincingly and with great prosaic skills.
CONCLUSION:
Eastern Orthodox, Evangelical Protestants, and Roman Catholics will find many fascinating and uplifting facts regarding the doctrines of the early Christians. Even tho the book would benefit from better paper and print quality, and a bible verses index, I hope that everyone reading this book will form or strengthen their collaboration in word and deed with Christians from other traditions/confessions/denominations.
This is the magnus opus of J.N.D. Kelly, a Protestant who has done his research on the the beliefs, doctrines, practices and creeds of the early Christians (1st century until 8th century).
CONTENT:
This book has an easy to follow content and table of contents, is very easy to read, and the chapters are all in chronologically increasing order. This revised edition actually contains a NEW chapter - "Mary and the Saints" - which was actually the first chapter that I read. The content and exposition of early Christian's doctrines is very fair, balanced, yet erudite, not trying to lean towards any modern belief-system or pull any punches. The author writes very convincingly and with great prosaic skills.
CONCLUSION:
Eastern Orthodox, Evangelical Protestants, and Roman Catholics will find many fascinating and uplifting facts regarding the doctrines of the early Christians. Even tho the book would benefit from better paper and print quality, and a bible verses index, I hope that everyone reading this book will form or strengthen their collaboration in word and deed with Christians from other traditions/confessions/denominations.
classic historical theology
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2007-09-17
Review Date: 2007-09-17
If this classic work on the formulation of basic Christian doctrines teaches its reader anything, it is that Christian men
and women once worried incessantly and carefully about matters that we moderns and post-moderns too quickly dismiss as quibbles.
One can consider this obsessive and even perverse, yet it stands in stark contrast to an approach to Christian theology that
is perhaps best described as careless.
A read through Kelly's more than five hundred pages of classic exposition of the processes that led to definitions of Christology, canonicity, Trinity, and the like is a warning shot across the bow of a generation that would be well served by worrying just a bit more about things that matter very deeply.
Kelly's survey comprises four 'parts'. Part I: Prolegomena surveys the trends and material witnesses that formed the basis of Christian deliberation in the first five centuries. Part II: The Pre-Nicene Theology names that Council (325 A.D.) as a watershed, probing deeply into the incipient doctrines that would be crystallized and canonized by subsquent colloquys. Part III: From Nicea To Chalcedon follows the afterwinds of Nicea through to one of the essential Councils. Part IV: Epilogue projects into Chalcedon's future the lines of thought that were developing at the time and picks up a few miscellanies.
Because Kelly's work (see also his Early Christian Creeds stands as a reference point for historical theologians, a deeper survey of his eighteen chapters is in order. The author's first chapter sets forth an apology for his choice of doctrinal development from the close of the first century through to the middle of the first ('The Background', pp. 3-28). On the one hand, it makes sense to begin outside the parameters of the New Testament. On the other, the creative surge of the first five centuries gave way to 'formalism and scholasticism in the sixth.' Kelly's heuristic rubric utilizes a vertical and a horizontal dividing line. The vertical distinguishes the different temperaments of East and West. The horizontal recognizes a concrete passage with the reconciliation of Church and State under Constantine, a development of which Nicea is the emblem. When Kelly surveys the matrix of the post-apostolic era in terms of Judaism, religious trends in the Roman Empire, Graeco-Roman philosophy, Neo-Platonism, and gnosticism, one becomes aware how ahead of his time the author stood in 1960. His perception of a highly traditional Judaism clothed in the language of Hellenism but with a Palestinian soul and his delineation of gnosticism as a habit of thought rather than an organized religion would only later come to represent scholarly consensus.
Chapter II ('Tradition and Scripture', pp. 29-51) examines the interrelationship of scripture and tradition at a time when there was no fixed canonical 'New Testament'. Kelly judiciously treats the combination of oral and written apostolic material that must have oriented the nascent church and the problems forced upon the community by the gnostic utilization of scripture for ends that were not aligned with apostolic teaching. 'The Bible as interpreted by the Church' that became the Christian norm, an affirmation and confidence that would require considerable qualification in due course.
When these scriptures eventually crystallize into a 'New Testament', Kelly judges the composite to have included the deuterocanonical books on the theory of an 'elastic' Hellenistic attitude towards the sacred writings (Chapter III, 'The Holy Scriptures, pp. 52-79). Irenaeus is the first to have used the term 'New Testament' and to lay the uniquely Christian scriptures as equal in authority alongside the Hebrew canon, now by implication called the 'Old Testament'. Sectarian tendencies often led to and/or were generated by a disdainful attitude towards the latter, an historical datum that ought to weigh heavily on the conscience of Christians today. Kelly is particularly helpful when he addresses the Christian hermeneutic that found in the Christ event a fulfillment of scriptural anticipation and even promise. Here he brings to the discussion the differing Alexandrine (alt., Alexandrian) and Antiochene temperaments that were to exist in tension and even contradiction most notably, more than ever in the context of christological controversy.
Kelly initiates his survey of Pre-Nicene theology (Part II of the book) with a chapter on 'The Divine Triad' (pp. 83-108). The word 'triad' is presumably chosen in order not to prejudice the slow and tortuous process that ended in the choice of 'trinitarian' language. The author rightly recognizes that the early conversation's monotheistic assumption was a legacy of the Bible and Judaism rather than philosophy. The secondary nature of the philosophers is evidenced in, say, Justin's conviction that Plato and subsequent Greek thinkers had access to Moses. Yet this visceral monotheism was complicated by Christian conviction, for as Kelly writes: 'Before considering formal writers, the reader should notice how deeply the conception of a plurality of divine Persons was imprinted on the apostolic tradition and the popular faith.' How to reconcile both convictions? Kelly presents the apostolic fathers as witnesses to the tradition rather than interpreters of it. The beginnings of an 'angelic christology' are present in Hermas.
Such conceptual innocence ended with the apologists, who began to develop a language for 'describing eternal distinctions within the Deity'. Yet this new attention to the nuances of plurality do not compromise their fundamental conviction: '(the) Logos was one in essence with the Father, inseparable in HIs fundamental being from Him as much after His Generation as prior to it.' Monotheism was not in doubt, though it's expression in the light of the Christ event and New Testament reflection on it was to require considerable time to reach its mature form. Shades of what would become known as 'economic Trinitarianism' were visible in Irenaeus' writing, though not to the detriment of this pre-Nicene giant's ability to recognize 'the mysterious three-in-oneness of the inner life of the Godhead'.
By the time his gaze falls upon the third century, Kelly is prepared to employ the word 'Trinitarianism' (chapter V, 'Third-Century Trinitarianism', pp. 109-137). This is as it should be, for attention now fixes with regularity upon the distinctions within the Godhead that urge new vocabulary and sophistication if they are to be adequately described. From North Africa, Tertullian framed the question in terms of two diametrically opposed approaches, the first asking about the Three-in-One in his eternal existence, the second inquiring into his self-revelation in creation and redemption. A purely analytical approach would have severed the tendons of monotheistic conviction, but Tertullian of course was alive to that danger and too wedded to the biblical materials to fall victim to it. Tertullian was prepared to designate the Son a persona and to use the term trinitas to describe the Godhead. To speak of distinction between the personae was to discern a distinctio or dispositio but emphatically not a separatio.
Outside of what history would judge to be orthodox, dynamic and modalistic monarchianism was to seek to preserve the deity's unity by ascribing the appearance of plurality to presentation and appearance alone. He is distinct, according to this view, in his operations but not in his existence. Meanwhile, Clement and Origen in the East were temperamentally more inclined to focus on the distinctions than the unity of the triadic God. The three persons were each a 'distinct hypostasis from all eternity, not just ... in the economy'. Clearly this view militates against modalistic tendencies. Kelly lingers over the persistently subordinationist tendencies in Origen's synthesis, a legacy that was to prove both fruitful and complicated.
Chapter VI, 'The Beginnings of Christology', begins with the observation that the primitive confession 'Jesus is Lord' contained the recognition that Jesus Christ was divine as well as human, an affirmation that by its very nature would require the unpacking of its complex implications (pp. 138-162). Christology proceeds along the lines of the 'double premiss of apostolic Christianity, viz. that Christ as a Person was indivisibly one, and tht He was simultaneously fully divine and fully human ... (T)he task of theology (was) to show how its two aspects could be held together in synthesis.' Unilateral solutions to the christological conundrum were not lacking: Ebionism denied the divinity of Christ altogether. Adoptionism, too, considered Jesus to be merely a man. On the other extreme, Docetism (and its cousin, Gnosticism) denied the humanity of Jesus Christ, placing all its christological eggs in the basket of his divinity. The latter attempted to preserve the notion of divine impassibility by rendering the human aspect of the Christ a mere appearance.
One of the considerable achievements of this chapter is that Kelly reminds us how close Gnosticism came to winning the day. 'Orthodoxy' conquered in the end by holding fast to the reality of Jesus' two natures according to the primitive apostolic confession, even when the ambiguities inherent in this stance must have seemed inconvenient and troubling. Tertullian was the first theologian seriously to address the relationship that must exist between the two natures, divine and human. He laid down the important premise that both nature must have remained unchanged. As the chapter title suggests, these searchings represent but the beginnings of Christology. Yet they establish the logical parameters and habits of mind that were to endure into the mature phase of the discussion.
Kelly introduces soteriology as that topic about which 'no final and universally accepted definition of the manner of its achievement has been formulated to this day', a rather startling observation in a book that tends to treat creedal consences reached in the first five chapters with something akin to reverence (chapter vii, 'Man and his Redemption', pp. 163-188). By the time of the Apologists, the relationship of Adam and his sin (as the second Adam and his righteousness, Pauline language all of it) to the rest of the human race has become the soteriological locus of attention. Irenaeus--building upon and moving beyond the work of Justin--changed everything by offering a theory of 'recapitulation' that sought to bring the biblical materials into a coherent soteriological system that did more than simply choose a preferred biblical vocabulary of salvation and ignore the rest. Origin saw humanity being offered a 'new start' in the second exemplary Adam of the biblical drama. The theologians Kelly canvas largely emphasized the example of Jesus, mankind's mystical union with the Christ, or even a species of penal substitution without reaching the kind of detailed synthesis that was to become the gift of the Councils when other areas of theology came under their treatment.
When he comes to the topic of ecclesiology, Kelly notes the poles of particularity and universality that came early to the communal instincts of the Christian movement, together with the emergence in second century between a catholic church that maintained the apostolic faith over against multiple heterodoxies, which did not (chapter VIII, 'The Christian Community', pp. 189-220). Fairly early in its life the Church was forced to declare its mind with regard to the orthodox 'sacraments' and the effect of these (or not) that ensued upon their enactment by non-orthodox parties.
Eventually, Christian reflection upon Christ's deity passed the Nicean watershed and attention became focused on new concerns. The road from Nicea to Chalcedon entailed intricate consideration of the two natures of Christ. The 'Christological controversy', it turns out, was not to end in Nicean harmony. Part III of Kelly's work takes up this next stage of Christology in the making.
The Nicene Crisis was set off by Arius' reduction of Christ's status to that of a demigod, in keeping with his insistence that the Father alone is the eternal God in the fullest sense of the phrase (chapter IX, 'The Nicene Crisis', pp. 223-251). Arianism was condemned at Nicea in 325 in an enduring creed that establishes Christ's co-equality and co-eternity with the Father. Talk of Jesus as a creature would henceforth be considered heresy. Yet the creed's statement hardly specifies the manner in which its Christ can be fully human. In terms of Christology, Nicea represents a penultimate consensus. It is worthwhile to linger over Kelly's treatment of Athanasius, the young Egyptian who represents the 'moderate' position of the Nicene party. Athanasius was able to maintain in tension the deity and humanity of Christ in a way that foreshadows the Chalcedonian achievement. Kelly notes the 'battle royal' that the extant literature portrays with regard to the conflict of Sabellians and Arians. Orthodoxy, in the person of Athanasius and the company of the Nicene party, was to steer a course between such extremes and such articulate extremists. Passion, one might surmise, is not enough to generate orthodox belief.
Chapter XI ('Fourth-Century Christology', pp. 280-309) is the book's pivotal chapter. This is so in part because of the critical christological analysis that came to the fore in that century and in part because Kelly's survey of the 'Word-Flesh' (associated with Alexandria) and 'Word-Man' (associated with Antioch) christologies is masterful in its clarity. Nicea did not only settle problems. It created new ones by the brevity of its claims regarding the Son's deity. Critically, Appollinarianism forced the Church to reckon with the two natures of Christ--human and divine--and to struggle in the direction of articulating their relationship. Even so moderate and intuitively acute moderate Alexandrian as Athanasius was unable finally to provide a satisfying description of 'the structure of the Godhead'. Kelly is surely correct to observe that it would fall to the Antiochenes to bring dogma into vital contact with the historical Jesus. They found 'the Alexandrian truncation of Christ's humanity unacceptable and set about developing the vocabulary that would serve the Chalcedonian project of accounting for Christ's two natures. Though Nestorianism lingered over the horizon, Kelly achieves a sympathetic reading of some fathers who would eventually be derided as 'Nestorians before Nestorius' because of their concrete convictions regarding Christ's humanity. This is surely accurate historiography. This chapter augments the reader's comprehension of how orthodoxy was increasingly becoming the ability to hold in tension the christological paradox without caving in the urge to allow the Son's deity or, conversely, his humanity to practically erase the reality of the other.
Between the years 428 and 451, there occurs what Kelly calls 'the decisive period for Christology, viz. the short span between the outbreak of the Nestorian controversy in 428 and the council of Chalcedon in 451' (chapter XII, 'The Christological Settlement', pp. 310-343). In preparing his reader to understand the collision between the 'Word-Flesh' and 'Word-Man' christologies that shaped the anteroom to Chalcedon, the author alerts him to the prevalence of personalities and politics in what would be mistakenly apprehended as a merely abstract and conceptual controversy. Indeed it turns out that Nestorius himself might not have been a 'Nestorian', though it was convenient for his adversaries to concur with the notion that he subscribed to a view of Christ's two natures as essentially distinct and ununited. If this quintessentially Antiochene figure was willfully misunderstood as dividing the two natures, so was Cyril--his erstwhile Alexandrian opponent--somewhat recklessly said to have united the two natures in a way that denied Christ's humanity.
Curiously, the controversy was in part fueled not by a discrete attempt to define the relationship of Christ's 'two natures', but rather by the question of how Christians should refer to Mary. Cyril, the Alexandrian, preferred theotokos ('God-bearing') while the Antiochenes preferred anthropotokos ('man-bearing') or at most christotokos ('Christ-bearing'). Nestorius suspected that theotokos denied Christ real humanity. Cyril saw in Nestorius' preference for anthropotokos a virtual adoptionism via the denial of Christ's real deity.
It is worthwhile to hear Kelly's own appraisal of Cyril's strength, one that emerges from his focus on the 'structure of the Godhead' not in terms of the need to explain the two natures but rather by an almost chronological scheme that attempted to explain the Son's status before and after the incarnation:
Cyril thus envisaged the Incarnate as the divine Word living one earth as very man. Here lay the strength of his position from the religious and soteriological standpoints; the Jesus of history was God Himself in human flesh, living and dying and rising again for men. Understood in this light, his horror of Nestorius's rejection of Theotokos is comprehensible.
Kelly tells us that it was when Cyril came to accept that it was possible to make a distinction between the two natures that did not imply a separation, the Alexandrian bishop found it possible to accomodate a settlement with the moderate Antiochenes, yet not before becoming rather lavish with the anathemas he pronounced upon his eventual partners-in-compromise.
Personalities and politics also shaped the lay of the land subsequent to the Chalcedonian Definition. Dyophysites (on the extreme 'Antiochene' side) and Monophysites (on the 'Alexandrian')--quotes now seem appropriate in the wake of the Definition--continued to denounce the work of Chalcedon. It would fall to future councils to reassert the substance of the Definition with allegedly increased clarity.
Christian faith necessarily stewards and negotiates reflexes with regard to human nature and the human condition that are profoundly optimistic, on the one hand, and deeply pessimistic on the other. It was the fourth and fifth centuries when this paradox came to the fore in Christian thinking (chapter XIII, 'Fallen Man and God's Grace', pp. 344-374). The dominance of the Bible's creation narratives and the Pauline wrestling with the relationship of Adam and his sin to humanity in general supplied the prevalent motifs.
In the West, Ambrose, Ambrosiaster, and Augustine worked towards a theory of original sin that presumed the race's moral solidarity. Mankind was at least contaminated and possibly even culpable in Adam's sin. Augustine's view of the human race as a 'lump of sin' incapable of helping itself without assertive divine interference ran counter to Pelagius' uber-optimistic conviction that human 'free will' could not be obstructed in any real way and was indeed the pivot upon which a person's destiny hinged. Augustine's logic leads inexorably in the direction of a doctrine of predestination, since human intervention is the sine qua non of any redemptive outcome. Augustine, notoriously for both supporters and detractors, followed that logic to its end, arguing that God elected certain individual from eternity past to know the benefits of faith and redemption, passing over other less fortunate souls who nonetheless have no claim upon their Creator for having overlooked them in his salvific movements.
Pelagianism was, in the end, condemned. The evidence suggests that Augustinianism enjoyed a fate somewhat less than universal approbation. On balance, its penetration of the divine and human wills worked more faithfully with the biblical materials than its rather humanistic alternative, though sectors of the church remained and remain reticent about pushing its logic further than the biblical materials themselves appear to warrant. All orthodox positions underscore that salvation is a 'gift', though different sectors parse the implications of this affirmation in diverse fashion.
At the beginning of his chapter on soteriology, Kelly warns his reader that it was not until the twelfth century that the effective of Christ's redemption would receive anything near the definition that the christological controversies demanded of the church's first five centuries (chapter XIV, 'Christ's Saving Work', pp. 375-400). Instead one finds apparently unrelated theories that Kelly argues can and should be viewed as complementary. The notion of recapitulation--presented by the apostle Paul and developed by Irenaeus--is in Kelly's approach the thread that unites the evident disparity. In discussing physical, mystical, and realistic theories of redemption, the author is particularly attentive to how 'ransom' notions work themselves out in terms of who pays the price, who receives the price, and how exactly the liberation of the ransomed is made effective. Augustine steps for the bearer of a mind capable of uniting the diverse forms of conversation about redemption into the closest thing to a unified theory of redemption that the church of the first millennium would produce.
In all of this struggling to know its mind, the Church had necessarily to establish its own identity. Who merited full inclusion in the great conversation, and on what basis? To whom was full fellowship to be extended and from whom withheld? Though the answers to these questions were for some time held to be implicit, they would be articulated with relationship with the Constantinopolitan Creed in terms of four adjectives: 'one', 'holy', 'Catholic', and 'apostolic' (chapter XV, 'Christ's Mystical Body', pp. 401-421). Because these terms are as much theological as sociological, the proper relationship of the human assembly known as the church--in all its far-flung corners--to Christ himself would come in for intense discussion. This reviewer finds Kelly to be a particularly useful guide with regard to Rome's emergence to preeminence, a prerogative whose merits were not always and entirely clear to all parties.
In chapter XVI ('The Later Doctrine of the Sacraments', pp. 422-455), Kelly portrays the church wrestling with the role of the priest, of the medium, and of the believing recipient in the gradually emerging collection of sacraments. True to form, Kelly wisely indicates the role of the restoration (or not) of Christians who had lapsed under persecution in driving forward the definition of the sacraments, by what criteria they can be assumed to function, and upon whom they should be conferred.
Somewhat unexpectedly, the author's 'Part Four'--entitled 'Epilogue'--contains just two chapters, one on 'The Christian Hope' (chapter XVII, pp. 439-489) and the other on 'Mary and the Saints' (chapter XVIII, pp. 490-499). Several turns of phrase in these two chapters encourage the view that these subjects fall into an 'epilogue' as much because the author was able to come to them only lately as because they are afterthoughts in the development of early Christian dogma.
In his consideration of eschatology, Kelly surveys the twin elements of the apostolic teaching that forever consign Christian thought to managing the tension between the once-and-for-all 'nowness' of a new kingdom, on the one hand, and the expectation of a spectacular consummation at the end of ordinary time, as another. Along other lines, the early church struggled with the nature of resurrection. Was it chiefly a corporate experience or, rather, did it represent the endpoint of individual human existence and its entrance or even release into the world to come? Is the nature of the resurrected body identical with that of what we know in this world's experience or, alternatively, is resurrection metaphorical of the eternality of the soul or is the human body as we know it susceptible to a transformation that requires continuity with present experience in the light of an intensified or glorified extension of it?
Does prophetic and apostolic expectation merge with the famous twentieth chapter of John's revelation in a way that constructs a chiliastic or millenarian hope, or is this vision rather to be construed as a picturesque representation of the church's experience in this age.
Finally, is the blessing of the life to come representative of a perfect contemplation of God or will we yet see through a glass darkly, even if (much) less darkly?
From the perspective of this reviewer, none of these considerations ought from either a historical or a theological viewpoint be consigned to marginal status, and so it is advisable to read this chapter of Kelley's work without undue attention to its label.
Finally, the author takes account of the natural preoccupation of the early church with honoring the mother of its Lord. Defining the nature and duration of her virginity may seem a colossally unfathomable preoccupation to moderns but was arguably a natural sidebar to the reverential instinct. Signs of a cult of Mary are evident, if just, by the third century. Yet the orthodox Church's respect for the person some would both describe and address as theotokos was restrained by the gospel's own witness to her need for correction by her beloved son.
It is difficult to assess a work like this in a few words. One attempt to do so finds recourse to the word 'classic' to characterize the enduring power of Kelly's synopsis of a body of material that easily overwhelms a lesser student. This reviewer has no hesitation in doing so.
Early Christian Doctrines is perhaps the finest such synopsis to see the light in the last century. That it is read still by historians and theology students is testament not to some preternatural ability to anticipate academic development since its first publication, but rather to a uniquely masterful statement of what we knew not so long ago that somehow still stands as an adequate point of departure a half century hence.
A read through Kelly's more than five hundred pages of classic exposition of the processes that led to definitions of Christology, canonicity, Trinity, and the like is a warning shot across the bow of a generation that would be well served by worrying just a bit more about things that matter very deeply.
Kelly's survey comprises four 'parts'. Part I: Prolegomena surveys the trends and material witnesses that formed the basis of Christian deliberation in the first five centuries. Part II: The Pre-Nicene Theology names that Council (325 A.D.) as a watershed, probing deeply into the incipient doctrines that would be crystallized and canonized by subsquent colloquys. Part III: From Nicea To Chalcedon follows the afterwinds of Nicea through to one of the essential Councils. Part IV: Epilogue projects into Chalcedon's future the lines of thought that were developing at the time and picks up a few miscellanies.
Because Kelly's work (see also his Early Christian Creeds stands as a reference point for historical theologians, a deeper survey of his eighteen chapters is in order. The author's first chapter sets forth an apology for his choice of doctrinal development from the close of the first century through to the middle of the first ('The Background', pp. 3-28). On the one hand, it makes sense to begin outside the parameters of the New Testament. On the other, the creative surge of the first five centuries gave way to 'formalism and scholasticism in the sixth.' Kelly's heuristic rubric utilizes a vertical and a horizontal dividing line. The vertical distinguishes the different temperaments of East and West. The horizontal recognizes a concrete passage with the reconciliation of Church and State under Constantine, a development of which Nicea is the emblem. When Kelly surveys the matrix of the post-apostolic era in terms of Judaism, religious trends in the Roman Empire, Graeco-Roman philosophy, Neo-Platonism, and gnosticism, one becomes aware how ahead of his time the author stood in 1960. His perception of a highly traditional Judaism clothed in the language of Hellenism but with a Palestinian soul and his delineation of gnosticism as a habit of thought rather than an organized religion would only later come to represent scholarly consensus.
Chapter II ('Tradition and Scripture', pp. 29-51) examines the interrelationship of scripture and tradition at a time when there was no fixed canonical 'New Testament'. Kelly judiciously treats the combination of oral and written apostolic material that must have oriented the nascent church and the problems forced upon the community by the gnostic utilization of scripture for ends that were not aligned with apostolic teaching. 'The Bible as interpreted by the Church' that became the Christian norm, an affirmation and confidence that would require considerable qualification in due course.
When these scriptures eventually crystallize into a 'New Testament', Kelly judges the composite to have included the deuterocanonical books on the theory of an 'elastic' Hellenistic attitude towards the sacred writings (Chapter III, 'The Holy Scriptures, pp. 52-79). Irenaeus is the first to have used the term 'New Testament' and to lay the uniquely Christian scriptures as equal in authority alongside the Hebrew canon, now by implication called the 'Old Testament'. Sectarian tendencies often led to and/or were generated by a disdainful attitude towards the latter, an historical datum that ought to weigh heavily on the conscience of Christians today. Kelly is particularly helpful when he addresses the Christian hermeneutic that found in the Christ event a fulfillment of scriptural anticipation and even promise. Here he brings to the discussion the differing Alexandrine (alt., Alexandrian) and Antiochene temperaments that were to exist in tension and even contradiction most notably, more than ever in the context of christological controversy.
Kelly initiates his survey of Pre-Nicene theology (Part II of the book) with a chapter on 'The Divine Triad' (pp. 83-108). The word 'triad' is presumably chosen in order not to prejudice the slow and tortuous process that ended in the choice of 'trinitarian' language. The author rightly recognizes that the early conversation's monotheistic assumption was a legacy of the Bible and Judaism rather than philosophy. The secondary nature of the philosophers is evidenced in, say, Justin's conviction that Plato and subsequent Greek thinkers had access to Moses. Yet this visceral monotheism was complicated by Christian conviction, for as Kelly writes: 'Before considering formal writers, the reader should notice how deeply the conception of a plurality of divine Persons was imprinted on the apostolic tradition and the popular faith.' How to reconcile both convictions? Kelly presents the apostolic fathers as witnesses to the tradition rather than interpreters of it. The beginnings of an 'angelic christology' are present in Hermas.
Such conceptual innocence ended with the apologists, who began to develop a language for 'describing eternal distinctions within the Deity'. Yet this new attention to the nuances of plurality do not compromise their fundamental conviction: '(the) Logos was one in essence with the Father, inseparable in HIs fundamental being from Him as much after His Generation as prior to it.' Monotheism was not in doubt, though it's expression in the light of the Christ event and New Testament reflection on it was to require considerable time to reach its mature form. Shades of what would become known as 'economic Trinitarianism' were visible in Irenaeus' writing, though not to the detriment of this pre-Nicene giant's ability to recognize 'the mysterious three-in-oneness of the inner life of the Godhead'.
By the time his gaze falls upon the third century, Kelly is prepared to employ the word 'Trinitarianism' (chapter V, 'Third-Century Trinitarianism', pp. 109-137). This is as it should be, for attention now fixes with regularity upon the distinctions within the Godhead that urge new vocabulary and sophistication if they are to be adequately described. From North Africa, Tertullian framed the question in terms of two diametrically opposed approaches, the first asking about the Three-in-One in his eternal existence, the second inquiring into his self-revelation in creation and redemption. A purely analytical approach would have severed the tendons of monotheistic conviction, but Tertullian of course was alive to that danger and too wedded to the biblical materials to fall victim to it. Tertullian was prepared to designate the Son a persona and to use the term trinitas to describe the Godhead. To speak of distinction between the personae was to discern a distinctio or dispositio but emphatically not a separatio.
Outside of what history would judge to be orthodox, dynamic and modalistic monarchianism was to seek to preserve the deity's unity by ascribing the appearance of plurality to presentation and appearance alone. He is distinct, according to this view, in his operations but not in his existence. Meanwhile, Clement and Origen in the East were temperamentally more inclined to focus on the distinctions than the unity of the triadic God. The three persons were each a 'distinct hypostasis from all eternity, not just ... in the economy'. Clearly this view militates against modalistic tendencies. Kelly lingers over the persistently subordinationist tendencies in Origen's synthesis, a legacy that was to prove both fruitful and complicated.
Chapter VI, 'The Beginnings of Christology', begins with the observation that the primitive confession 'Jesus is Lord' contained the recognition that Jesus Christ was divine as well as human, an affirmation that by its very nature would require the unpacking of its complex implications (pp. 138-162). Christology proceeds along the lines of the 'double premiss of apostolic Christianity, viz. that Christ as a Person was indivisibly one, and tht He was simultaneously fully divine and fully human ... (T)he task of theology (was) to show how its two aspects could be held together in synthesis.' Unilateral solutions to the christological conundrum were not lacking: Ebionism denied the divinity of Christ altogether. Adoptionism, too, considered Jesus to be merely a man. On the other extreme, Docetism (and its cousin, Gnosticism) denied the humanity of Jesus Christ, placing all its christological eggs in the basket of his divinity. The latter attempted to preserve the notion of divine impassibility by rendering the human aspect of the Christ a mere appearance.
One of the considerable achievements of this chapter is that Kelly reminds us how close Gnosticism came to winning the day. 'Orthodoxy' conquered in the end by holding fast to the reality of Jesus' two natures according to the primitive apostolic confession, even when the ambiguities inherent in this stance must have seemed inconvenient and troubling. Tertullian was the first theologian seriously to address the relationship that must exist between the two natures, divine and human. He laid down the important premise that both nature must have remained unchanged. As the chapter title suggests, these searchings represent but the beginnings of Christology. Yet they establish the logical parameters and habits of mind that were to endure into the mature phase of the discussion.
Kelly introduces soteriology as that topic about which 'no final and universally accepted definition of the manner of its achievement has been formulated to this day', a rather startling observation in a book that tends to treat creedal consences reached in the first five chapters with something akin to reverence (chapter vii, 'Man and his Redemption', pp. 163-188). By the time of the Apologists, the relationship of Adam and his sin (as the second Adam and his righteousness, Pauline language all of it) to the rest of the human race has become the soteriological locus of attention. Irenaeus--building upon and moving beyond the work of Justin--changed everything by offering a theory of 'recapitulation' that sought to bring the biblical materials into a coherent soteriological system that did more than simply choose a preferred biblical vocabulary of salvation and ignore the rest. Origin saw humanity being offered a 'new start' in the second exemplary Adam of the biblical drama. The theologians Kelly canvas largely emphasized the example of Jesus, mankind's mystical union with the Christ, or even a species of penal substitution without reaching the kind of detailed synthesis that was to become the gift of the Councils when other areas of theology came under their treatment.
When he comes to the topic of ecclesiology, Kelly notes the poles of particularity and universality that came early to the communal instincts of the Christian movement, together with the emergence in second century between a catholic church that maintained the apostolic faith over against multiple heterodoxies, which did not (chapter VIII, 'The Christian Community', pp. 189-220). Fairly early in its life the Church was forced to declare its mind with regard to the orthodox 'sacraments' and the effect of these (or not) that ensued upon their enactment by non-orthodox parties.
Eventually, Christian reflection upon Christ's deity passed the Nicean watershed and attention became focused on new concerns. The road from Nicea to Chalcedon entailed intricate consideration of the two natures of Christ. The 'Christological controversy', it turns out, was not to end in Nicean harmony. Part III of Kelly's work takes up this next stage of Christology in the making.
The Nicene Crisis was set off by Arius' reduction of Christ's status to that of a demigod, in keeping with his insistence that the Father alone is the eternal God in the fullest sense of the phrase (chapter IX, 'The Nicene Crisis', pp. 223-251). Arianism was condemned at Nicea in 325 in an enduring creed that establishes Christ's co-equality and co-eternity with the Father. Talk of Jesus as a creature would henceforth be considered heresy. Yet the creed's statement hardly specifies the manner in which its Christ can be fully human. In terms of Christology, Nicea represents a penultimate consensus. It is worthwhile to linger over Kelly's treatment of Athanasius, the young Egyptian who represents the 'moderate' position of the Nicene party. Athanasius was able to maintain in tension the deity and humanity of Christ in a way that foreshadows the Chalcedonian achievement. Kelly notes the 'battle royal' that the extant literature portrays with regard to the conflict of Sabellians and Arians. Orthodoxy, in the person of Athanasius and the company of the Nicene party, was to steer a course between such extremes and such articulate extremists. Passion, one might surmise, is not enough to generate orthodox belief.
Chapter XI ('Fourth-Century Christology', pp. 280-309) is the book's pivotal chapter. This is so in part because of the critical christological analysis that came to the fore in that century and in part because Kelly's survey of the 'Word-Flesh' (associated with Alexandria) and 'Word-Man' (associated with Antioch) christologies is masterful in its clarity. Nicea did not only settle problems. It created new ones by the brevity of its claims regarding the Son's deity. Critically, Appollinarianism forced the Church to reckon with the two natures of Christ--human and divine--and to struggle in the direction of articulating their relationship. Even so moderate and intuitively acute moderate Alexandrian as Athanasius was unable finally to provide a satisfying description of 'the structure of the Godhead'. Kelly is surely correct to observe that it would fall to the Antiochenes to bring dogma into vital contact with the historical Jesus. They found 'the Alexandrian truncation of Christ's humanity unacceptable and set about developing the vocabulary that would serve the Chalcedonian project of accounting for Christ's two natures. Though Nestorianism lingered over the horizon, Kelly achieves a sympathetic reading of some fathers who would eventually be derided as 'Nestorians before Nestorius' because of their concrete convictions regarding Christ's humanity. This is surely accurate historiography. This chapter augments the reader's comprehension of how orthodoxy was increasingly becoming the ability to hold in tension the christological paradox without caving in the urge to allow the Son's deity or, conversely, his humanity to practically erase the reality of the other.
Between the years 428 and 451, there occurs what Kelly calls 'the decisive period for Christology, viz. the short span between the outbreak of the Nestorian controversy in 428 and the council of Chalcedon in 451' (chapter XII, 'The Christological Settlement', pp. 310-343). In preparing his reader to understand the collision between the 'Word-Flesh' and 'Word-Man' christologies that shaped the anteroom to Chalcedon, the author alerts him to the prevalence of personalities and politics in what would be mistakenly apprehended as a merely abstract and conceptual controversy. Indeed it turns out that Nestorius himself might not have been a 'Nestorian', though it was convenient for his adversaries to concur with the notion that he subscribed to a view of Christ's two natures as essentially distinct and ununited. If this quintessentially Antiochene figure was willfully misunderstood as dividing the two natures, so was Cyril--his erstwhile Alexandrian opponent--somewhat recklessly said to have united the two natures in a way that denied Christ's humanity.
Curiously, the controversy was in part fueled not by a discrete attempt to define the relationship of Christ's 'two natures', but rather by the question of how Christians should refer to Mary. Cyril, the Alexandrian, preferred theotokos ('God-bearing') while the Antiochenes preferred anthropotokos ('man-bearing') or at most christotokos ('Christ-bearing'). Nestorius suspected that theotokos denied Christ real humanity. Cyril saw in Nestorius' preference for anthropotokos a virtual adoptionism via the denial of Christ's real deity.
It is worthwhile to hear Kelly's own appraisal of Cyril's strength, one that emerges from his focus on the 'structure of the Godhead' not in terms of the need to explain the two natures but rather by an almost chronological scheme that attempted to explain the Son's status before and after the incarnation:
Cyril thus envisaged the Incarnate as the divine Word living one earth as very man. Here lay the strength of his position from the religious and soteriological standpoints; the Jesus of history was God Himself in human flesh, living and dying and rising again for men. Understood in this light, his horror of Nestorius's rejection of Theotokos is comprehensible.
Kelly tells us that it was when Cyril came to accept that it was possible to make a distinction between the two natures that did not imply a separation, the Alexandrian bishop found it possible to accomodate a settlement with the moderate Antiochenes, yet not before becoming rather lavish with the anathemas he pronounced upon his eventual partners-in-compromise.
Personalities and politics also shaped the lay of the land subsequent to the Chalcedonian Definition. Dyophysites (on the extreme 'Antiochene' side) and Monophysites (on the 'Alexandrian')--quotes now seem appropriate in the wake of the Definition--continued to denounce the work of Chalcedon. It would fall to future councils to reassert the substance of the Definition with allegedly increased clarity.
Christian faith necessarily stewards and negotiates reflexes with regard to human nature and the human condition that are profoundly optimistic, on the one hand, and deeply pessimistic on the other. It was the fourth and fifth centuries when this paradox came to the fore in Christian thinking (chapter XIII, 'Fallen Man and God's Grace', pp. 344-374). The dominance of the Bible's creation narratives and the Pauline wrestling with the relationship of Adam and his sin to humanity in general supplied the prevalent motifs.
In the West, Ambrose, Ambrosiaster, and Augustine worked towards a theory of original sin that presumed the race's moral solidarity. Mankind was at least contaminated and possibly even culpable in Adam's sin. Augustine's view of the human race as a 'lump of sin' incapable of helping itself without assertive divine interference ran counter to Pelagius' uber-optimistic conviction that human 'free will' could not be obstructed in any real way and was indeed the pivot upon which a person's destiny hinged. Augustine's logic leads inexorably in the direction of a doctrine of predestination, since human intervention is the sine qua non of any redemptive outcome. Augustine, notoriously for both supporters and detractors, followed that logic to its end, arguing that God elected certain individual from eternity past to know the benefits of faith and redemption, passing over other less fortunate souls who nonetheless have no claim upon their Creator for having overlooked them in his salvific movements.
Pelagianism was, in the end, condemned. The evidence suggests that Augustinianism enjoyed a fate somewhat less than universal approbation. On balance, its penetration of the divine and human wills worked more faithfully with the biblical materials than its rather humanistic alternative, though sectors of the church remained and remain reticent about pushing its logic further than the biblical materials themselves appear to warrant. All orthodox positions underscore that salvation is a 'gift', though different sectors parse the implications of this affirmation in diverse fashion.
At the beginning of his chapter on soteriology, Kelly warns his reader that it was not until the twelfth century that the effective of Christ's redemption would receive anything near the definition that the christological controversies demanded of the church's first five centuries (chapter XIV, 'Christ's Saving Work', pp. 375-400). Instead one finds apparently unrelated theories that Kelly argues can and should be viewed as complementary. The notion of recapitulation--presented by the apostle Paul and developed by Irenaeus--is in Kelly's approach the thread that unites the evident disparity. In discussing physical, mystical, and realistic theories of redemption, the author is particularly attentive to how 'ransom' notions work themselves out in terms of who pays the price, who receives the price, and how exactly the liberation of the ransomed is made effective. Augustine steps for the bearer of a mind capable of uniting the diverse forms of conversation about redemption into the closest thing to a unified theory of redemption that the church of the first millennium would produce.
In all of this struggling to know its mind, the Church had necessarily to establish its own identity. Who merited full inclusion in the great conversation, and on what basis? To whom was full fellowship to be extended and from whom withheld? Though the answers to these questions were for some time held to be implicit, they would be articulated with relationship with the Constantinopolitan Creed in terms of four adjectives: 'one', 'holy', 'Catholic', and 'apostolic' (chapter XV, 'Christ's Mystical Body', pp. 401-421). Because these terms are as much theological as sociological, the proper relationship of the human assembly known as the church--in all its far-flung corners--to Christ himself would come in for intense discussion. This reviewer finds Kelly to be a particularly useful guide with regard to Rome's emergence to preeminence, a prerogative whose merits were not always and entirely clear to all parties.
In chapter XVI ('The Later Doctrine of the Sacraments', pp. 422-455), Kelly portrays the church wrestling with the role of the priest, of the medium, and of the believing recipient in the gradually emerging collection of sacraments. True to form, Kelly wisely indicates the role of the restoration (or not) of Christians who had lapsed under persecution in driving forward the definition of the sacraments, by what criteria they can be assumed to function, and upon whom they should be conferred.
Somewhat unexpectedly, the author's 'Part Four'--entitled 'Epilogue'--contains just two chapters, one on 'The Christian Hope' (chapter XVII, pp. 439-489) and the other on 'Mary and the Saints' (chapter XVIII, pp. 490-499). Several turns of phrase in these two chapters encourage the view that these subjects fall into an 'epilogue' as much because the author was able to come to them only lately as because they are afterthoughts in the development of early Christian dogma.
In his consideration of eschatology, Kelly surveys the twin elements of the apostolic teaching that forever consign Christian thought to managing the tension between the once-and-for-all 'nowness' of a new kingdom, on the one hand, and the expectation of a spectacular consummation at the end of ordinary time, as another. Along other lines, the early church struggled with the nature of resurrection. Was it chiefly a corporate experience or, rather, did it represent the endpoint of individual human existence and its entrance or even release into the world to come? Is the nature of the resurrected body identical with that of what we know in this world's experience or, alternatively, is resurrection metaphorical of the eternality of the soul or is the human body as we know it susceptible to a transformation that requires continuity with present experience in the light of an intensified or glorified extension of it?
Does prophetic and apostolic expectation merge with the famous twentieth chapter of John's revelation in a way that constructs a chiliastic or millenarian hope, or is this vision rather to be construed as a picturesque representation of the church's experience in this age.
Finally, is the blessing of the life to come representative of a perfect contemplation of God or will we yet see through a glass darkly, even if (much) less darkly?
From the perspective of this reviewer, none of these considerations ought from either a historical or a theological viewpoint be consigned to marginal status, and so it is advisable to read this chapter of Kelley's work without undue attention to its label.
Finally, the author takes account of the natural preoccupation of the early church with honoring the mother of its Lord. Defining the nature and duration of her virginity may seem a colossally unfathomable preoccupation to moderns but was arguably a natural sidebar to the reverential instinct. Signs of a cult of Mary are evident, if just, by the third century. Yet the orthodox Church's respect for the person some would both describe and address as theotokos was restrained by the gospel's own witness to her need for correction by her beloved son.
It is difficult to assess a work like this in a few words. One attempt to do so finds recourse to the word 'classic' to characterize the enduring power of Kelly's synopsis of a body of material that easily overwhelms a lesser student. This reviewer has no hesitation in doing so.
Early Christian Doctrines is perhaps the finest such synopsis to see the light in the last century. That it is read still by historians and theology students is testament not to some preternatural ability to anticipate academic development since its first publication, but rather to a uniquely masterful statement of what we knew not so long ago that somehow still stands as an adequate point of departure a half century hence.
Great Book, Terrible Edition
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 3 total.
Review Date: 2007-06-09
Review Date: 2007-06-09
Kelly's treatment of the first few centuries is an outstanding work and a rightfully a standard in the field but THIS PRINTING
IS TRASHY (hence 4 stars rather than 5). The paper is of ultra low grade quality and the binding is pretty crummy also.
You are much better off buying the more recent printing by Prince Press.
It is a classic
Helpful Votes: 2 out of 3 total.
Review Date: 2007-03-19
Review Date: 2007-03-19
I purchased this book because I was told by the most reliable scholars that is this is the classic must read! They were correct.
Eating the Big Fi How Challenger Brands Can Compete Against Brand Leaders
Published in Hardcover by Wiley (2008-11-10)
List price: $29.95
New price: $19.77
Average review score:
Break your own balls
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-01-29
Review Date: 2008-01-29
This book is about breaking through into a world where you don't accept number two status but you focus every element of your
business into being the best of your own category.
Don't accept that this book is just for marketing executives, it should be read by everyone in business to comprehend how crucial it is to change your way of thinking. The entire book is summed up on page 264, where there is a clear four stage process outlined visually. The book is full of stories to illuminate Morgan's theories and outlines 'think tank' processes in order for your business no matter how big or small to 'break with your immediate past' and forge a new way of doing things.
Brilliant book that changed the way I approached business and marketing. I'd not have the drive and success without it.
Don't accept that this book is just for marketing executives, it should be read by everyone in business to comprehend how crucial it is to change your way of thinking. The entire book is summed up on page 264, where there is a clear four stage process outlined visually. The book is full of stories to illuminate Morgan's theories and outlines 'think tank' processes in order for your business no matter how big or small to 'break with your immediate past' and forge a new way of doing things.
Brilliant book that changed the way I approached business and marketing. I'd not have the drive and success without it.
fantastic read
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2006-07-21
Review Date: 2006-07-21
This book did great things for my understanding of a challenger brands greatest strengths and strategies. Not to turn this
into a forum, I have a few questions though: Does anyone know more about Adam Morgan? Did he work for TBWA? Any other agencies?
What was his discipline? Any info would help.
one of the best marketing books available
Helpful Votes: 2 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 2005-08-31
Review Date: 2005-08-31
I own (oooooh) probably between 80 and 100 books on marketing, some are obligatory read for my masters in marketing, some
are handpicked in stores and on amazon and I stand by the title of my review. What can you take out from this book: YOU CAN
compete with big brands, there are attitudes and ways of running your business that can knock down the goliath in your industry,
and this book explains how, giving numerous examples from various industries. Only negative, if I can call it that, is author's
writing style, which was rather hard for me, but then again, I am croatian, so it could be my english, not mr Morgan's :).
A MUST!! have.
Insightful!
Helpful Votes: 2 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 2004-06-09
Review Date: 2004-06-09
Author Adam Morgan went hunting for the second most successful brands. He sought commonalities among them to develop guidelines
for those who are challenging the number one brands in their fields. In other words, if you are coming into the battle in
the number two slot, here's your strategy for winning the marketing wars. Morgan is very adept at breaking things down into
precise action steps. Witty and engaging, he offers a detailed analysis of the current consumer attitude about brands plus
strategies you can use to market your second or third rank brand. We recommend this compilation of competitive ideas to those
who want to boost their "Challenger" brands.
Demolish the 3-piece suits that stand in your way
Helpful Votes: 3 out of 3 total.
Review Date: 2005-08-09
Review Date: 2005-08-09
I don't know how to explain the insightful ideas I have taken from this book.
I have read tens of books on branding and how to gain a competitive advantage, yet none were as ground breaking as "Eating the Big Fish".
While others will tell you "what" marketing approaches they used...this one explains the "why".
I got my copy almost free using a coupon from UnderTag.com
I have read tens of books on branding and how to gain a competitive advantage, yet none were as ground breaking as "Eating the Big Fish".
While others will tell you "what" marketing approaches they used...this one explains the "why".
I got my copy almost free using a coupon from UnderTag.com
Queen Amidala (Star Wars Episode I: Journal Series)
Published in Paperback by Scholastic Paperbacks (1999-06-01)
List price: $5.99
New price: $0.01
Used price: $0.01
Collectible price: $10.00
Used price: $0.01
Collectible price: $10.00
Average review score:
Good book
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-05-10
Review Date: 2008-05-10
This book is a nice journal about the events of Episode l through Padme's (a queen in disguise) eyes. The book keeps you interested
from beginning to end and! leaves you wanting more. It's a very quick read, and I've read it several times and still like
the story. The pages are photo quality, with faded images of events in the background of each page. The text is a larger print
and is very easily read. I wish they had journals by Padme from Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith.
Queen Amidala`s Journel
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 6 total.
Review Date: 2001-04-26
Review Date: 2001-04-26
Queen Amidala is a brave young lady who must rise up to an evil Phantom to save her people, in this book it has pictures of
most of her costumes and lots of fun reading for children 9-13.
Bre's
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2000-12-14
Review Date: 2000-12-14
I wasn't quite sure what to expect when I first bought this book. I can say now that reading it was a most pleasurable experience.
Jude Watson has done an admirable job with this journal. It is the deep introspections of a young girl, told shrewdly with
a great deal of empathy, not only for Amidala, but for all the characters that she interacts with. The journal displays Amidala's
keen insight, and sharp mind, and examines her motives and decisions with great sensitivity. It tells us a little about her
background, and her relationships with the people around her. At the end, I felt as though I had discovered a real person.
One of the best journal books I've read
Helpful Votes: 4 out of 4 total.
Review Date: 2001-02-05
Review Date: 2001-02-05
Though Luke's journal was my personal favorite of the Journal books, this one was definitely the best written. It was better
than Anakin's especially, since this one truly got into the mind of Queen Amidala, whereas Anakin's wasn't as good at bringing
out his character (what little he had) or anyone elses. This one however, not only lets us get to know Amidala, but also
brings out the other characters in a way that made Episode 1 seem much more interesting than it actually was. It was fascinating
to find out more about Amidala,(I didn't previously realize she was only fourteen, in the movie she seemed older!) who I found
a very intriguing character in the movie, though I was confused about where and when she was Amidala/Padme. This book answered
my questions about that also, tying everything together in a satisfying knot. Also, I found Anakin's character much more
interesting in this book than even in his own journal. In the movie especially he irritated me, because he just seemed too
cute and sweet, but here he is much more likable. This book would be good for any Star Wars fan, especially those twelve
and under.
Very good!
Helpful Votes: 6 out of 6 total.
Review Date: 2001-12-30
Review Date: 2001-12-30
Relive the movie "Star Wars: Episode I" through the eyes of the newly elected Queen Amidala. This young teen begins this journal
before the movie began. Readers see the training Amidala went through in preparation for her future post. In the book we find
out WHY Amidala puts lipstick on her upper-lip fully, yet only a slash on her lower-lip. We see the defenses that were made
by the guards, such as a decoy, but never dreamed would ever have to be used. (Oh come on, you did not HONESTLY think those
handmaidens were there for LOOKS, did you?)
**** Not as magnificent as Princess Leia's journal, but just as enlightening! In the movie, Queen Amidala had to keep her face blank so her adversaries could not read her. In this book, we see all the thoughts, fears, and strategies that went on behind the royal mask. In fact, this book made Amidala's character more impressive than the movie did. It can also be used as a quick refresher before you flock to see "Episode II: Attack of the Clones" in the Summer of 2002! Very good reading! ****
The Great Little Book of Afformations (All-New, Expanded Edition)
Published in Paperback by MetaPublishing (2006-10-01)
List price:
New price: $11.95
Average review score:
Great idea
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-09-28
Review Date: 2008-09-28
It is a wonderful idea to ask yourself a positve questions instead of statements, but don't think, that asking a few times
will change your life. You have to ask these questions many times a day. I would also add visualizations and other law of
attraction games.
The only reason I am giving it four stars is because it doesn't explain at all how to use afformations. It says - use it as you would use affirmations, so it asumes, that you already know that. I think that is very important part and shouldn't be left out of the book of that nature.
The only reason I am giving it four stars is because it doesn't explain at all how to use afformations. It says - use it as you would use affirmations, so it asumes, that you already know that. I think that is very important part and shouldn't be left out of the book of that nature.
Great things come in small packages
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2007-11-06
Review Date: 2007-11-06
Love this book! Simple and effective. Better than affirmations. Bought extras for friends and family.
It is, indeed, a great little book
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2008-08-19
Review Date: 2008-08-19
I've been asking myself negative questions all my life. "What am I doing wrong?" "Why do I mess everything up?" "What's wrong
with me?" "Why is everything so hard?" and on and on... I never even really thought about it or what it might mean to me or
to my life. Reading this book has totally turned my thinking around in this area!
I also absolutely identified with the problems of affirmations. I've used them off and on for a while, with mixed results. It's easy to say and BELIEVE that "I am a relaxed and competent driver", but it's impossible to believe that "I am slim and fit". Fact is, at this point in linear time, I am not slim, nor am I fit, and when I try to feed myself that line, some part of me answers back, "Yeah, right!" and rejects it entirely. It's almost like lying to yourself to "affirm" things that you know for sure are NOT true.
Afformations get around that very neatly, and I find it both fun and challenging to figure out ways to "ask" myself things. Now I regularly ask myself, "Why am I so happy?" and "Why does everything always just fall perfectly into place?" and you know what? I AM happy. And things do just fall perfectly into place.
Maybe it's only my personal outlook that has changed the way I perceive the world, and the world is just the same. But the world is as we experience it, so if I change my outlook and my experience, I change my world. Whatever it is, however it works, it's a cool piece of psychology and I'm really glad I bought this book.
I also absolutely identified with the problems of affirmations. I've used them off and on for a while, with mixed results. It's easy to say and BELIEVE that "I am a relaxed and competent driver", but it's impossible to believe that "I am slim and fit". Fact is, at this point in linear time, I am not slim, nor am I fit, and when I try to feed myself that line, some part of me answers back, "Yeah, right!" and rejects it entirely. It's almost like lying to yourself to "affirm" things that you know for sure are NOT true.
Afformations get around that very neatly, and I find it both fun and challenging to figure out ways to "ask" myself things. Now I regularly ask myself, "Why am I so happy?" and "Why does everything always just fall perfectly into place?" and you know what? I AM happy. And things do just fall perfectly into place.
Maybe it's only my personal outlook that has changed the way I perceive the world, and the world is just the same. But the world is as we experience it, so if I change my outlook and my experience, I change my world. Whatever it is, however it works, it's a cool piece of psychology and I'm really glad I bought this book.
Afformations Work!
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2008-04-30
Review Date: 2008-04-30
I like this book. It is small and I keep it in the car or in my purse so I can take it out when I am stuck in traffic or in
a waiting room. afformations work! The mind is a powerful thing. It can work for you or against you! The mind will automatically
try and figure things out if you ask it a question and this is how these afformations work.
Afformations Turns The Old Affirmations Model On Its Head
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2007-11-07
Review Date: 2007-11-07
Not sure what I expected before getting this little book. What I got was a simple (the genius of this is in its powerful simplicity) and more potent(in plausible theory)spin on the old affirmations model that has been with us for for generations.
Personally, doing a kabillion affirmations has delivered only scattered results over my thirty five years of using them. I am pleased that Noah was given this "affirmations on steroids" model by his inner resources that fateful day in the shower. I fear the setting of new intentions in our subconscious mind in this new way is so simple, most persons will fail to try it or stick with it because most of us suffer from a "if it ain't hard, it can't be good" mind set.
Too early in the game for me to report any results with afformations, but I fully intend to abandon doing affirmations that mostly serves to bring to the surface the very thing(s) I was doing affirmations to resolve or transform and adopt the afformation questioning process.
Lastly, dealing with the publisher and co-author of the book, Denise Berard was a good experience. Always answered my email in a timely fashion and shipped the book to me ASAP so I would get it in time to take with me on vacation.
How Would Love Respond?: Imagine If You Were Given a Gift So Powerful That You Knew You Had to Share It with the World
Published in Hardcover by Benbella Books (2008-04-01)
List price: $24.95
New price: $11.80
Used price: $12.49
Used price: $12.49
Average review score:
Simply awesome!!!
Helpful Votes: 2 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 2008-07-14
Review Date: 2008-07-14
Beautifully written. Inspiring and thought provoking. If you want some clear insight to help you gather momentum and live
the life of your dreams this book will certainly inspire you to do so. Many blessings to Kurek for his honest and heartfelt
words.
Great product - Better than what I was expecting
Helpful Votes: 2 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 2008-07-12
Review Date: 2008-07-12
I purchased the book only because of the author, the title really annoyed me, but because I knew of Kurek I had to buy it...
I actually put off reading the book as the title just didnt grab me... But I picked it up a couple of weeks after I purchased it and I am glad I did..
It is an amazing book, and after 10 years down this path of growth, I love that he isn't just talking the talk, he has been there. I can relate to much of what he says...
This book isn't just a book on motivation, its a book on life... Yes you need to keep an open eye in places, but wow, what a ride..
If you skip this book, you may as well skip all the others as well.. This has something for everyone.
John
I actually put off reading the book as the title just didnt grab me... But I picked it up a couple of weeks after I purchased it and I am glad I did..
It is an amazing book, and after 10 years down this path of growth, I love that he isn't just talking the talk, he has been there. I can relate to much of what he says...
This book isn't just a book on motivation, its a book on life... Yes you need to keep an open eye in places, but wow, what a ride..
If you skip this book, you may as well skip all the others as well.. This has something for everyone.
John
Simplicity of Eloquence
Helpful Votes: 4 out of 4 total.
Review Date: 2008-07-01
Review Date: 2008-07-01
Kurek Ashley is a new discovery of mine and I am so pleased to have found his latest book, "How Would Love Respond? a work
of art. You will get caught up in the writing and be enveloped in the consummation of love. Let go, let love in your life.
SIMPLY OUTSTANDING
Helpful Votes: 4 out of 4 total.
Review Date: 2008-06-25
Review Date: 2008-06-25
"How would love respond" I read in a weekend. once I picked it up I couldn't put it down. All I can say is buy it and read
it.
I loved it so much I bought 17 of them, had Kurek sign them for me and gave them as gifts to my friends.
Do yourself a favour and get it.
I loved it so much I bought 17 of them, had Kurek sign them for me and gave them as gifts to my friends.
Do yourself a favour and get it.
A great pick me up and send me in the right direction
Helpful Votes: 4 out of 4 total.
Review Date: 2008-06-16
Review Date: 2008-06-16
I thoroughly enjoyed Kurek's book. It is inspiring and easy to read. Are you in the doldrums? Have an empty space that
just won't be filled? Hungry but don't know for what? A slow and thoughtful reading of "How would love respond" can get
your spirit moving and give you great info on how to get back on track to the good life. I highly recommend "How would love
respond" for everyone who questions why life goes the way it goes and how one can get moving in a positive direction and reap
the rewards of knowing what to do and how to use the insights. Peggy Touchtone Sholly Down Home Delicious
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