No comments about Raphael.

1 comments about Raphael (Getting to Know the World's Greatest Artists).

1. The book Raphael, by Mike Venezia, tells the story of the life of the Renaissance painter Raphael. This book shows some of the many paintings Raphael did throughout his life. The pictures in the book are in color and look very lifelike, so that you can see even the smallest details of his paintings. The author also tells the meanings behind some of the paintings and tells why Raphael painted them. His art was special because it shows movement and makes the people he painted look very lifelike.

   This book tells about Raphael's life and what he did. Raphael was born in Urbino, Italy in 1483, and learned a lot about art from his father, who was a painter. When Raphael was older, he was apprenticed under one of the greatest artists in Italy, but soon his paintings became as good as his teacher's.

   After that he painted many paintings on his own, and learned from two of the greatest artists of the Renaissance, Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci. He became very famous, and even became the pope's favorite painter. He died on his 37th birthday, leaving behind all his magnificent paintings.

   I really enjoyed learning about Raphael's paintings, especially the Sistine Madonna and The School of Athens. I like the way the author added the cartoon pictures to the book, because it made the book more enjoyable to read. The author also did a good job of explaining about Raphael in a way that was easy to understand. I would recommend this book for kids of all ages. Even my five-year-old sister liked it!

5 comments about Wolf of the Deep: Raphael Semmes and the Notorious Confederate Raider CSS Alabama (Vintage Civil War Library).

1. first off...it bugs me to no end that official and customer reviews refer to both Semmes and the CSS Alabama as "privateers." The Alabama was a ship built and comissioned in England by the Confederate States of America, and Semmes, her captain, was a Confederate Naval Officer. What she did, and did quite well, was commercial raiding, which was to destroy the enemy's commerce whenever possible. The Union ships did the same when they found Confederate blockade runners, and one can say they were performing the nautical version of what Sherman and others were doing on land.
   
   That said, this is one outstanding book. I'm not partial to historical biographies, and even less to military ones, but I tore through this one in two days. Military, political, and sexual intrigue--a real flair for characterization---Fox has all of the ingredients for an old-fashioned potboiler--and this is all a true account of an overlooked Civil War navy commander of whom little was thought until late in his career.
   
   Semmes and the Alabama are both fascinating characters--but the supporting roles of the crew--and those that love them--and those that plot aginst them--and the exotic ports of call the lovely Lady Alabama finds herself in and her many harrowing escapes until her final battle--all make for a book you can't put down.
   
   Most historical tomes by Brown history professors aren't devoured like the latest beach novel. For me, this one was, but it was a far more satisfying experience.



2. ~Wolf of the Deep: Raphael Semmes and the Notorious Confederate Raider CSS Alabama~ is a fluid and captivating tale of the Confederate Raider helmed by the Confederate Admiral Raphael Semmes. This book, in particular, focuses on his almost two-year stint as captain of the infamous Confederate privateer, the Alabama.
   
   In 1860, the Union strategist Winfield Scott devised a shrewd plan to strangle southern commerce with a naval blockade. The Confederates answered by building up their tiny Navy, though they never really could effectively counter the formidable power of New England shipbuilders. The South lacked the shipyards and iron foundries to build great ships, and had to turn to England for naval implements of war. One such ship was the CSS Alabama that set sail from Birkenhead, England in 1862 after being built by John Laird Sons and Company.
   
   At the onset of the war, Semmes was first placed in command of CSS Sumter. That tour would last six short months. He raided commercial shipping while eluding pursuing Union warships. In January 1862, the Sumter required a major overhaul. Semmes attempted to have her repaired at Gibraltar, but the arrival of U.S. warships ended her career, and Semmes narrowly escaped to England, where he was promoted to captain. There he acquired a sizable commercial vessel. He then went to the Portuguese island of Madeira in the Atlantic and had that vessel converted into a formidable warship that became world-famous as CSS Alabama.
   
   The CSS Alabama was a screw sloop-of-war built for the Confederate States Navy at Birkenhead, England in 1862. At capacity, it had a crew of some 145 officers and sailors. All told, the Alabama sunk 62 vessels, mostly merchant ships. Its captain was the illustrious Raphael Semmes. Stephen Fox gives a nice background to Semmes' life leading up to the war. Semmes had spent his early years in the U.S. Navy, and was married to an northern woman. A native of Maryland, Semmes practiced law in Alabama. When Alabama seceded in 1861, he served the Confederacy as a blockade runner and had great success raiding Union merchant vessels in the Caribbean and Atlantic. Playing cat-and-mouse games in the vast gulf of the Atlantic and Indian Oceans, the Alabama preyed upon Union commercial shipping. The ship bounced around ports from the Caribbean to England to the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa.
   
   On 11 June 1864, Alabama arrived in Cherbourg, France. There Semmes requested permission to dock and overhaul his ship. Pursuing the raider, the American sloop-of-war USS Kearsarge lied in wait. Eventually the two met, and though the Alabama fired more shots at the Kearsarge, the Union ship plowed a deadly shot at a section of the Alabama's waterline sending the ship hurling to the bottom. The Union ship received the vacating crew of the Alabama.
   
   All things considered, this is an intriguing and fascinating account of Raphael Semmes and the notorious Confederate Raider CSS Alabama. The book is engaging and it has some nice pictures and illustrations, which enliven the narrative.



3. This book is an outstanding account of the little known actions of the Confederate Nany during the war between the states. The book is very well written and offers a "Southern Perspective" of Captain Semmes actions during this tragic time. I found the book riviting and highly recommend it to history buffs.



4. Raphael Semmes is/was my great great grandfather. It is a matter of pride, if of no other significance, that I share a birth date of September 27th with him. An appreciable amount of my 78 years has been consumed in correcting error and wrongful expressions relative to Raphael Semmes, often by authors who borrowed liberally from his memoirs. For example the use of the words "notorious" instead of "famous"; the term "pirate" by authors better deserving the term; "rebel" by persons purporting to be historians. Fox appears, at times, to have used the philosophy of no proof to the contrary in his conclusions, especially his conjecture that one of Semmes's children had been born out of wedlock. This musing was based upon his time at sea and the unlikelihood of a 10 month pregnancy. Had one read all the error in the advertising of the book, this would come as no surprise. Semmes's character is best described in the words of Warren F. Spencer who wrote a factual book about Semmes during the Mexican War and the War between the States: "One other person inspired me to complete this writing:Raphael Semmes. His personality comes through all of his writings; his strong intellect constantly challenged me. I have learned from him the meaning of honor and the value of sacrificing one's self for the sake of one's convictions. My travel through Raphael Semmes's life has, in the sunset of my career, given me a new meaning to this period of my own existence. And for that, I thank Raphael Semmes". Spencer provided an accurate recounting of the life of a good man. The value of Spencer's thoughtful approach is well expressed through words of John Paul II: "People have always needed models to imitate, and that need is all the greater today, amid such a welter of confusing and conflicting ideas".



5. Stephen Fox (who, I assume, is either a Yankee or has Yankee sympathies) has written a superb, sympathetic and pretty well true (I have read with interest the review by O.J. Semmes and I respect it) thriller based on the exploits of Captain Raphael Semmes (O.J. Semmes's great great grandfather) and that of his principal and most important command, the C.S.S. Alabama, the extraordinary Confederate raider that wrought havoc amongst Yankee shipping during the War for Southern Independence. It's the sort of book that's almost impossible to put down as, though one knows how the ship's story ends - sunk off Cherbourg, France, by the U.S.S. Kearsarge, on Sunday, the 19th of June, 1864 - the Alabama's creation at Liverpool and her career at sea makes for endless fascination, as does the life of Captain Semmes himself. For this Britisher, however, one of the most interesting aspects of the book is the careful cataloguing of the Confederacy's many supporters who were 'over here,' some of whom I knew of but about some of whom I knew next to nothing. Any present-day supporter of the cause of the Confederate States of America should remember with pleasure the parts played on 'our' side of 'the pond' by such as (in alphabetical order) James Dunwoody Bulloch (an uncle of Theodore Roosevelt), William Ewart Gladstone, M.P., Henry Hotze, the Laird ship-building brothers of Liverpool, William Schaw Lindsay, M.P., Senator James Murray Mason, Matthew Fontaine Maury, Senator John Slidell, James Spence, and, of course, the Revd. Francis William Tremlett and his sister, Louisa. These fine folk played their parts in the great drama and I am proud of all of them, British and American, but it was Semmes and his ship that nearly turned the tide of history and, despite losing the last battle, had lasting effects on both Great Britain and the United States. Read this well-written book: you'll love it like I did!

1 comments about Eugenie Grandet (Oxford World's Classics).

1. Monsieur Grandet, the father of the titular heroine of Balzac's short novel "Eugenie Grandet," is not just a miser; he is a caricature of a miser, a modern Midas whose first love is gold, as ornately drawn as Dickens's Scrooge, but somehow more believable. He is an elderly vintner living with his wife and daughter Eugenie, his only child, in a provincial French town called Saumur, and even they don't know exactly how much money he has. He is so stingy he has let his house fall into decrepitude and doles out basic necessities like sugar, candles, and firewood as though there were a shortage. He is so sinfully avaricious that even on his deathbed he can only lust for the priest's silver crucifix. He is devious, too--he has a disarmingly strange business manner in which he feigns stammering and deafness to derail his opponent's train of thought. He is, in short, one of the best characters a reader could hope for.
   
   Given the power of Grandet's presence and the extremity of his greed, a reader might expect him to be due for a fall, but Balzac is more interested in demonstrating how Eugenie becomes a noble woman despite, or perhaps because of, her parental influence. The story concerns the fortune of her spoiled but innocent cousin Charles, the son of Grandet's younger brother in Paris, and how she deals with his change in personality after he goes abroad to seek employment after his father's debt-induced suicide and returns having engaged in the cruel enterprise of slave trading. (I was reminded of Ibsen's Peer Gynt, who is hardened by the competitiveness of world commerce into rationalizing his immoral business pursuits.) He forsakes his love for Eugenie by arranging a marriage of convenience to another girl to increase his social status, revealing himself to be as cold and calculating as his uncle, but Eugenie triumphs in the end through her magnanimity.
   
   This is the third Balzac novel I've read, and the third I'd label a masterpiece. Here we have a fascinating study of the interplay between four very strong characters--Old Grandet, his sheltered and naive but soon-to-be-wise daughter, his libertine nephew, and his trusted female servant Nanon, who appears to have the most goodness and common sense of anybody in the story--woven into an elegant tale that has the simplicity and moral lucidity of a fable with the substance of a Shakespearean drama, the work of a playwright at heart who prefers to write in prose. Whether or not it was his intention, Balzac convinces us, with delicious satire instead of tedious didacticism, that there are lessons to be learned from the examples set by flawed as well as virtuous people.

No comments about Mike Leigh on Mike Leigh (Directors on Directors).

No comments about Vasari's Lives of the Artists: Giotto, Masaccio, Fra Filippo Lippi, Botticelli, Leonardo, Raphael, Michelangelo, Titian.

5 comments about Room Service.

1. The absolute stunning beauty of Adam Raphael's latest work reduces one to such primitive exclaimations as the above.
   
   The photographer has corralled his usual cadre of boys next door and photographed them in various locales of an upscale hotel. Aside from the luxuriousness of the setting, another difference emerges in this collection, the use of nudity. As an artist of unerring taste, though, Raphael presents nothing gratuitous or grotesque. The naked glimpses are of several shapely backsides and nothing more (and nothing more is needed). Raphael trusts the imaginations of his viewers to fill in any erotic gaps.
   
   The book's design is magisterial, the paper luscious, the lighting ethereal.
   
   Adam Raphael has entered the ranks of the masters. And in ROOM SERVICE he has produced not merely a masterpiece but the finest male picture book ever published.
   
   One would be wise to purchase a copy now, as it will no doubt someday be a collector's treasure on the order of Bruce Weber's early books (and of Raphael's own FRIENDS from several years back).



2. Yes, the pictures in this book are beautiful... beautiful men, beautiful lighting. But unfortunately there's no frontal nudity in the book -- it's all artfully concealed. So I'd say it's definitely high-quality photography, but unfortunately it leaves me disappointed.



3. I've seen lots of photographic art books of the male body, but this one is truly amazing. The lighting is perfect. The color and clarity of the images are crisp and natural. Special praise must be given to the publisher/printer for recreating them in book form.
   
   To say the men are beautiful is an understatement. They make the guys from the old A&F catalog look frumpy in comparison. Two particular models come to mind. One has green eyes that I could lose myself in and never find my way out. Another has the squarest jaw I've ever seen on a human being. The epitome of Scandinavian perfection.
   
   They were all photographed in hotel rooms. The captions for each photo has the model's name along with what room number they were in at the time. I've done only a little traveling in my time, but these hotel rooms represent an order of magnitude of elegance I've never experienced myself.



4. Boring. I was expecting stories, but it's a very expensive book with just photos of very feminine looking boys.



5. Move over Bruce Weber, there's a new shooter in town! Adam Raphael's work is in what I would call the Bruce Weber school, but the student surpases the master in many pictures. This beautifully bound book (that will actually stay open when you lay it flat) is equally suitable for the living room or the bedroom. Adam's work has a quality and depth that will take your breath away, he has included a variety of body types with a concentration on fitness. Included are some of today's most sought after male models including Joseph Sayers, Paul Tornabene, and Evan Wade. If you pine for the Abercrombie & Fitch Quarterlys of yesterday, you'll be more than satisfied with Room Service.

5 comments about The Hebrew Goddess 3rd Enlarged Edition.

1. Dr. Raphael Patai, a noted Hebrew scholar and anthropologist and author of the HEBREW GODDESS is also the co-author of HEBREW MYTHS with Robert Graves (THE WHITE GODDESS). Those who wish to continue reading about the goddess in ancient religions will find parts of the HEBREW GODDESS quite interesting, however, Patai's book is not as lyrical as Graves' and not as readable in some sections as others. I found passages dealing with archeology in the Holy Land and quotations from the Old-Testament more interesting, and the sections dealing with the rabbinical writing of the Talmudic period proved difficult to follow (and stay awake).

   Essentially, Patai is not suggesting Judaism has reverted to polytheism or kept a goddess in the closet all this time. He says "the legitimate Jewish faith, beginning with the earliest formulations of its belief-system ...has always been built upon the axiom of One God. He says Maimonides, the greatest medieval Jewish philosopher said, "God is not a body, nor can bodily attributes be ascribed to him." Still, mere mortals have had difficulty understanding God as an abstract concept, and thus have ascribed human characteristics to "him.".

   Patai says throughout it's history Judaism has stressed the moral and intellectual aspects of God and often neglected the affective and emotional dimensions. However, since the earliest times, the Jewish people have understood God through myths and these myths personify God. This personification of God has included the goddess worship Jerimiah decried, the female attributes of the Cherubim that guarded the Ark of the Covenant, the myths of Lillith, the visions of the Shekina during the Talmudic period, and the rise of the Matronite in the 15th-18th Centuries.

   Kabbalism during the Middle Ages was mass movement among Jews. During this period, a popular-mythical version of the Matronite overtook and dominated the scholarly-mystical variant. The attachment among Jews to the Matronite (mother of God) had a marked resemblance to Marioloatry among Christians in the Latin countries. Kabbala mysticism was associated with the Sephardic and Hasidic elements of Judaism which also associated with the Latin countries.

   Apparently, the Ashkenazi Jews were not as "irrational" and after the Jewish Enlightenment, their perspective became the dominant Orthodoxy. Still, the Sephardic practicies associated with the Sabboath, which men were instructed to keep "Holy" continued. Patai describes the rituals of Friday night which included the Seder meal and sexual consumation of the scholar and his wife as serving the purpose of reuniting God with his wife--Shekina.

   Patai's original book has been expanded with new chapters covering the Shekina in greater detail. Although he stresses the importance of the theological it is not clear even yet that ordinary practicioners understand the difference between the Goddess personified and the female aspect of the One God.




2. This book is a very in depth, intelligent read. It draws from an intense amount of research and states things clearly for the reader to feel that they can envision the social, political and spiritual enviroment during the reign of the Goddess. I would recommend this book to anyone. In fact I think Everyone should read it. Ishtar, Innana, Shehkina, Astarte, Before Christian or Muslim, There was was the Goddess.



3. Patai's The Hebrew Goddess is an excellent popular treatement of a subject he takes up in more technical depth in other writings (like in his Jewish Folklore, a collection of his essays). This book is enlightening; it takes an area of study that is easily overlooked or distorted in the popular imagination and the religious mind-frame, and exposes it to light. The role of the divine female and divine figures in the Abrahamic religions was a frequent stumbling block for those faiths, but more often than not, an area of expansive cross-fertilization with other religious traditions and source of profound (and at times humorous) creativity.



4. As a Jew and a student of Judaism this sits among the most important books I have read, although it took ten years for me to finish it. In a few words, it provides me with a factual-critical-intellectual basis for my engagement with the feminine in my tradition.
   
   I am only sorry the Dr Patai has passed on, may his memory be a blessing, so he will not be able to update The Herbrew Goddess to account for:
   
   a) more recent archaeology, and
   b) the recent flowering of the femininine in Judaism
   
   David



5. Patai presents a vast lore of the Hebrew goddess in all her names and legends - Shekhina, Sophia, the Matronit, the Shabhat Bride. As a classical scholar in Hebrew legends, he shows us a mythology rich in female powers. What does it mean, for example, that a traditional term for the Hebrew goddess was "the neglected cornerstone", and then Jesus spoke of building on the cornerstone which the builders neglected?
   
   The book touches on numerous sides of Jewish heritage. For example, concerning the underworld of old fashioned demonology he explains:
   
   "At night, the female Liliths join men, and the male Lilin women, to generate demonic offspring. Once they succeed in attaching themselves to a human, they acquire rights of cohabitation, and therefore must be given a get, or letter of divorce, in order that they may be expelled. Jealous of the human mates of their bedfellows, they hate the children born of ordinary wedlock, attack them, plague them, suck their blood, and strangle them. The Liliths also manage to prevent the birth of children, causing barrenness, miscarriages, or complications during childbirth." (p. 225.)
   
   This old myth suggests a certain equality of male and female evil spirits. The spirits are of both sexes, and afflict both men and women equally. The human hosts of evil are innocent victims, who must be somehow saved from harm. This is roughly what Jesus believed about demonic possession.
   
   Patai's work gives an enriched view of the biblical heritage, exposing the massive contribution of Jewish mothers through the ages.
   
   --author of "Different Visions of Love"

5 comments about Feng Shui Step by Step : Arranging Your Home for Health and Happiness--with Personalized Astrological Charts.

1. Excellent book for a beginner. Very clear instructions on how to set up a room or a whole house. I recommend this book as a starter course. If you don't want to buy more than one, make it this one.



2. My first language is Spanish. Even when I can read, write and speak English, sometimes I rather to read books in Spanish to avoid to run to the dictionary when I don't have very clear an idea.

   I checked out the price of this book for the edition in Spanish and it is TOO EXPENSIVE ($48.80). Comparing to the English version ($14.70). I know the author and/or the editorial house have to pay to a translator and expenses for printing and advertisement, and bla, bla, bla, but 3 times the price of the English version + another $4.70 is TOO MUCH!!! Now just wondering who sets the price on the books




3. I can't begin to tell you how many books I own or have borrowed regarding Feng Shui... I kept getting confused with each book. However - Raphael's step by step approach made it really simple and basic. I have donated all the other books but refuse to let my friends borrow the Step by Step one -they can buy it for themselves!



4. Feng Shui Step by Step is a book of some 200 or more pages...most of which are informative and useful. The book is a good size so you don't get that small print overpacked info feeling when reading. The author invests ample explanation clear and understandable about the basics. It doesn't have a lot of boring introduction but gets straight to it without skipping essentials. The introduction actually has a handy "Personal Data" sheet in which you can write down all your relavent information for organize and clear reference. While it gives the read a taste of what is to come with the "personal data" sheet..what good does it do there so early in the book?. It Better off as a tearout if itis going to situated right at the start or it could be within or after all the necessary information.
   
   The first 85 pages including the intro proves the reader with a sturdy foundation. There are drawings for visual reference througout the book. "The Five Elements" chapter goes through each element in detail via the subheading: Your Season of Birth, Mental and Physical States, Occupations, Shapes and Colors, Weather, Flower, Directions in Space, and Parts of the Home. In this chapter also you learn about the cycles. There are "Excerices" after each chapter.
   
   The next chapter "The Nine Stars" is where the reader is introduced to finding their Kua number or Birth Star. The author maintains consistancy with what has been introduced in prior pages. Each Birth Star is dealt with in detail via subheadings. His subheading approach is very helpful as it provides a clean and organized view for the reader. Also in this chapter you learn about your doorway directions and how to harmonize. The following chapter after these is for harmonizing the situation for two people.
   
   The next parts of the book "Diagnostic Methods" involves staking out your space. The author has been up to now basically following Compass School. He is better off staying with this as it is by far the most useful, clear, and accurate method in the book. Using this method we learn about applying colors to balance areas. The other two methods are "The Eight Point Method" and "The Stick Figure Method". As a very basic beginners excercise the stick figure approach is cute and interesting since it correlates with health/the body with areas your space. I can see how that works..but thats as far as it goes.
   
   The Eight Point is none other that a watered down Black Hat Ba-gua. Whats even worse is that the author suggests "reassigning" the eight points to take up more space if it doesn't fit your floorplan as it should. This is fraught for problems, unprofessional, and regresses. Not to mention that this "Eight Point Method" has NO HEALTH section...how great is that!?. Black Hat often puts Health as center of the trigram ..however that works. The stick figure methods also uses the eight points..not recommeded.
   
   The remainder of the book addresses spacial and placement issues decently via several chapters. Its not heavy on the cures approach but deals with it sparingly or generally..e.g "Lighting and Mirrors". It also deals with case scenarios (which are given according throughout the book as well) with more than one person living in a space. Each persons' "Personal Data" and their doorway are taken into account. The end of the book deals with a case scenario in "Making a New Home and Alterations"..which is good for those especially in the position to do so. Also miscellaneous adjunct information is offered. In the back Appendices...are charts and visuals that basically repeat the info given earlier but in a more comprehensive; full circle way.
   
   This is is good to have around in terms of its sturdy information and consistancy throughout the book. It doesn't seem to loose itself much..expect for the "Methods" section. Its good on how to understand and apply the elements and directions to your space. The author is more focused on the color interior design, however, he does offer other decorating guidelines in the opening chapters.
   
   Advanced folks would already know much of what this books has to say..so its a good one for advanced beginners to the novice. It will keep them very busy for starters!.



5. I am brand new to Feng Shui and recently picked up two books. Unfortunately, this was one of them! (The other being "101 Feng Shui Tips for Your Home". Thank goodness I read that one first -in one evening, and got a grasp on the concept. I found this book misleading because the cover makes it seem like a beginners guide ("step-by-step" blah blah), furniture placement, etc., when in actuality, this book was highly technical and confusing. It demands way too much time, concentration and adaptation for it's principles to click! -perhaps after a few simple less structured books, this highly technical one will make more sense. But for now, this is the first book I will ever be returning to Amazon! -no wonder in the preface he says 'don't jump around, read each page'. He knows what he's talking about. You just want to skip it and cut to the chase. -which never happens.

5 comments about Church in Emerging Culture: Five Perspectives.

1. Here are six individuals, actually five participants and one moderator/editor who tackle between themselves the topic of what does Christ do in changing, emerging cultures.
   
   As reviewers have pointed out, salient to this dialogue is the method exhibited of each of five providing essay, then other four comment as it seems at will. The essayist than at the end responds to this sprinkled comments.
   
   Of course, one of my confession would lean towards Horton, who certainly wins the day with his comments seeking return to text and history, rather than inventiveness and questioning always from our cultural arrogance stance.
   
   Useful to see contrasts. Too much of McLaren. Would like to seen more "orthodox" participants in line of Horton.



2. The book gives five different perspectives, from five different authors, on how the church should respond to an increasing post-modern culture. It is in a sense a modern day discussion of H. Richard Niebuhr's classic text Christ and Culture. The five perspectives are introduced by Leonard Sweet with a four quadrant matrix. The matrix represents the church's response to cultural change on two axes, change in method/form/style and change in message/content/substance. The four quadrants are then described with the following four phrases: preserving message/preserving methods, preserving message/evolving methods, evolving message/preserving methods, and evolving message/evolving methods. The five perspectives then deal with each of the four options (with two taking up the first option of preserving message and preserving methods.
   
   List strengths of book.
   The main strength of the book is that it covers the topic very well, with good dialogue going back and forth between the five authors. The topics are discussed with great thoughtfulness and insight. I especially liked the use of the matrix mentioned above, in the introduction by Sweet.
   
   List weaknesses of book.
   While the book was very interesting to read it shared little practical advice for the church to actually engage the culture. The book would certainly have been strengthened with examples of theory that was shared by each author. Additionally, I found the chapter by Erwin McManus to be the weakest of the five perspectives, it seem almost incoherent at times.



3. Andy Crouch. Skeptical of postmodernism, Arminian, (but curiously) open to the New Perspective of Paul & Law, seeks recovery of baptism and eucharist as the enduring means of grace. "Postmodernism is encroaching consumer culture which we must overcome via service and sacraments".
   
   Michael Horton. Reformed, dismissive of postmodernism as a determinant of Christian thinking, critical of 'low-church' theology, believes that justification by faith is Scripture's key question. "Postmodernism is the next bad thing in secular modernism which we must resist with truth and tradition".
   
   Brian McLaren. Emergent, path-finder for a storied, multi-layered, 'refreshed' Gospel centered in Christ. "Postmodernism is the new world in which we must embody and communicate God's message."
   
   Frederica Mathewes-Green. Eastern Orthodox, practical, down-to-earth in a mystical kind of way, offers a relational kind of atonement theology. Postmodernism is irrelevant to our role as God's healers and questioners."
   
   Erwin Raphael McManus. Metropolitan, multi-cultural, urban jungle orientation, pitching an all-out-for-Jesus, never-give-up, all-it-can-be church. "Postmodernism is a radical God-starved jungle we must love and serve!"
   
   The Church in Emerging Culture: Five Perspectives - a book examining different views on the relation between church, world, gospel and discipleship, in no particular order.
   
   After a good introduction from Leonard Sweet (which some say was worth the price of the book alone - I'd agree, if the price was lowered...), Crouch and Horton locked horns from the start with McLaren on the issue of what postmodernity/ism is and much space was spent clearing the misunderstandings surrounding the word (McLaren even claimed Crouch was paying 'rhetorical hardball'). Crouch virtually ties postmodernism to consumer culture and Horton can't seem to take his eyes off postmodernism's negatives (labelling it 'most-modernism' given the impossibility of there truly being a radical break with the supposed modern past).
   
   Crouch is non-Reformed evangelicalism at its 'safest' i.e. neither too liberal to earn Horton's wrath or too stiff to have his books shunned by pro-emerging folk. McLaren, as one might expect, took the postmodernism challenge best to both Horton and Crouch with his creatively worded 'yes-but' subversive poking at their (largely traditional) strongholds.
   
   It's clear, though, that - unless Crouch and Horton don't mind rethinking their ingrained definitions (let alone value-judgments) of postmodernism - a lot of work still needs to be done to even get pomo emergent and 'modern' conservative evangelicals on the same page. To really 'connect' with people like McLaren, McManus, etc., folks like Horton/Crouch have to empathise far beyond what their present suspicions and arms'-length repudiation of postmodernity are allowing them. Criticism and the use of what's "tried and true", undoubtedly the favorite tool of theologians, isn't going to be very helpful here.
   
   Naturally, Horton isn't pleased at the slightest shift away from established Reformed doctrine. He continuously red-flags (what he sees to be) false dichotomies and liberal theology by the others (especially McLaren and McManus). Horton's write-up, IMO, embodies precisely what many are frustrated about in the church : People are exploring new directions, asking new questions, even seeking new experiences but not only are the responses by conservatives not very different from decades ago, it seems like one could reprimanded for not thinking traditionally(!).
   
   If you've not read McLaren before, his essay should be a good first blush with his thinking (although maybe 'questioning' could be a better word). Via questions and reflections, McLaren came to (tentatively, I'm sure) conclude that the Gospel is narrative-formed, multi-layered, cumulative, performative, catalytic i.e. so much more than what tradition and churches have extolled it to be (hence, the annoyance many have with church). Typically emergent, McLaren counsels a spirit of inquiry, continuous seeking, asking, trial-and-error and rethinking as a way of proclaiming a Christ-centered Gospel in ever-changing situations.
   
   In the midst of the Horton vs. McLaren encounters, Mathewes-Green and McManus were more or less cheer-leaders, questioners and one-line provocateurs (especially the former).
   
   Interestingly enough, I found Mathewes-Green's write-up to be the most relaxing and inspirational. Hers was a good break, done in a subversive Q&A format, from the standard 'pop-academic cum evangelical' style of the first three. I'll never forget her line which went, "What might real rebellion look like? Standing outside an abortion clinic on a cold Saturday morning wearing really uncool sneakers and an uncool cardigan, praying."
   
   McManus' essay read more like an inspirational for church growth and ministry and less a theological for-or-against towards postmodernity. Nevertheless, it's clear he's on the left of McLaren with statements like, "In modern times, Scripture have been demeaned into God's comprehensive encyclopedia...we have moved from a missiological hermeneutic to a theological hermeneutic and have lost the power of the Scriptures in the transition."
   
   When all is said, though, this is a book whose gist I find hard to "grasp" and say I've truly understood. The novel format - where comments and questions from the co-authors are inserted within a presenter's essay - was both boon, as it depicted a 'real' conversation, and bane, as it was distracting. Tip: IGNORE the addendums until you've finished reading each section on its own.
   
   Read Crouch and Horton for the best in time-tested theology and if you want some material for a largely cerebral "Intro to Postmodernism" lecture. Read McLaren and you could be quietly inspired to do something new, although you could have more questions than answers. Read Mathewes-Green and you'll want to pray. Read McManus and you feel like jump-starting the next urban crusade.
   
   With such a spectrum of slants and priorities, this book is both a mindtrip and a minefield for learning - you'll learn a lot, but you may not be sure where to step next: Welcome to the new church/world(?)



4. I have greatly enjoyed this book. The conversation format provokes thought and adds a level of depth and clarity that is rarely experienced (especially in books concerning the Emergent Church). Moreover, the contributors approach the topic from different views, which allows the reader to see different sides of the issue and make a decision for him/herself. If you are curious as to what the key issues are for this topic/discussion, this is the book for you!



5. The Church in Emerging Culture was generally unremarkable. Each of the five essays contained thought-provoking ideas, but overall they lacked coherence. The points brought out by one author were so unrelated to the points brought out by the next that the reason that any two essays were collected together was a mystery to me. The format of the book was a mixed bag as well. Comments by other authors inserted directly into the essay seriously broke the flow, even though it was fun to see the "immediate" reactions of other authors. All of the authors, except maybe McManus, made much stronger points in their responses to others' essays than they made in their own.
   
   I was relatively unmoved by the first four essays, but I was pleasantly surprised by McManus, with whom I was unfamiliar before reading this. My theology lies more along the lines of Horowitz (I was appreciative of his comments to the other essays), but I thought that McManus's essay really addressed the issue at hand. He made some powerful statements ranging from affirmation of our unambiguous knowledge of God to practical evangelical issues like the need to change the passions of people, not simply their beliefs. His essay was clearly the crème de la crème and the only one that I think really addressed the relationship between the Church and culture.