5 comments about Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War.

1. I can't actually review the book itself, since it was a gift, and I haven't read it. I ordered it specifically for my dad who is having difficulty reading while awaiting cataract surgery. The book did arrive quickly and safely.



2. I was disappointed in Mayflower by Nathaniel Philbrick. The writing and exposition are tedious and uninspired. I found it rather a slog getting through. It seemed he was writing in the style of most tepid history--and then this happened, and then that happened, etc. etc. Furthermore, most of the events described have little more historical merit or glory than gang fights on the streets of LA and are about as brutal. Indeed, I came away from reading this book depressed by the almost unremitting brutality of the Europeans and the Indians and the apparent crudity and greediness of their lives. None of the characters in this historical account emerged as great and admirable individuals.
   
   Philbrick attempts toward the very end of Mayflower to express some of the greater significance of the events he so tediously and in such detail has recounted, but his effort is feeble and unconvincing. Contrary to what other readers and reviewers found, I did not find that Philbrick was able to breath any life into this story or give it any real significance. I learned a few new facts especially about the background of the Pilgrims and early colonial Indian wars, more than a few actually--too many; most of which I will soon forget. I do not recommend this book.
   
   On the other hand Philbrick's Sea of Glory is a wonderful book and story. See my amazon review. Sea of Glory is an exciting book well worth reading. I do not believe that Philbrick's heart was really in the telling of the story of the Plymouth Colony and the brutal Indian wars that take up so many pages of this book.



3. Excellent and informative. This book is a must for history buffs and teachers. Mayflower busts most myths about our early settlers.



4. In this well researched, superbly well written book, Nathaniel Philbrick who wrote the brilliant In The Heart Of The Sea, tells us about the Pilgrims, where they came from, why they came here, how they landed at Plymouth in December 1620, how they managed to survive etc; and then he goes on to tell in more historical detail than I needed about King Philip's War (1675-6) when the ground of New England ran red with the blood of colonists and Indians. But there was more to this story than history for me because it is a case study in habitat change and culture clash, so when I get through with the history part we'll talk about that.
   
   First, about the story itself. You know it: The Pilgrims were a dedicated group of religious believers who broke away from the Church of England (too lax) and , called Separatists, emigrated to Holland where they had lived for a year or so in Leiden before 102 of them (the original Pilgrims) left the port of Delfshaven in two ships - Speedwell and Mayflower - for America. But it didn't work at first. Speedwell was too small and rotten. Mayflower, 100 feet long, was a typical merchant vessel of the time and seems to me to have been a pretty good sailer, everything considered. They were forced to leave Speedwell in Plymouth and on September 6, 1620 Mayflower sailed from Plymouth with 102 men, women and children crowded into her `tween deck - five fee high and maybe 100 feet long. Sixty-five days later after a stormy voyage but with all of her exhausted passengers still alive they sighted the coast of Cape Cod. But before any man put a foot ashore he signed the Mayflower Compact whereby they were bound "together into a civil body politic, for our better ordering and preservation" and agreed to "enact...such just and equal laws...from time to time...as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the general good of the colony, unto which (we) promise all due submission and obedience."
   
   They had sailed for the mouth of the Hudson. But fate, storm and wind had taken them 300 miles north to a sandy spit which promised no refuge from wind or storm nor soil for sustenance, so after exploring for several weeks they settled on Plymouth harbor and came ashore to stay in the second week of December. They were starving, cold, complete strangers on an inhospitable and unknown shore in the dead of winter three thousand miles from home, completely on their own and 500 miles from the nearest English settlement. Yet nothing affected or diluted the faith they had that God would seem them safely through.
   
   No, they were not simpletons nor impractical zealots. They had a military leader (Miles Standish), guns, food and seed and they were not afraid to use any of them. They were there to establish a colony and stay the course, but it almost didn't work. They lost 50 out of 102 people to starvation and disease before spring; and had it not been for Massssoit, the leader of the local Indian tribe (Pokanoke) the colony might not have survived; but he gave them the support needed to see them through that first year; and when they really had a feast with the Indians that November (1621) it was truly a Thanksgiving, although it was not until the 1860s or so that it was so regarded and when our Thanksgiving legend began.
   
   (An aside: They not the first to explore the coast. Cod fishermen from Spain, Portugal and France had been off the coast for years and some had come ashore for brief periods - bringing with them the diseases (measles, typhus etc.) which had decimated the Indians to the point where large portions of the coast were unpopulated. Then there were the earlier explorers, too. These people were not a good advance party for the Pilgrims!)
   
   Next, about the rest of it: The rest, as they say, is history. The next year others joined them. Then Englishmen settled in what is now Boston, an area which had a much better and more natural harbor than Plymouth. In ten years the area contained maybe ten thousand settlers, my great-great-great-great-great-great grandfather William Phelps being one of them. Twenty one thousand people came shore between 1632 and 1642; and by the time of King Phillips War (1675) all of New England could be termed "settled" in the sense that settlers were within walking distance of each other along he navigable rivers and their tributary valleys throughout most of the area.
   
   The expansion came at a cost, at an environmental and human cost. The Indians were pushed out of their hunting grounds and out of their ancestral homelands, subjugated by treaty and force and disease. The forests were felled. One village of 200 homes used 75 acres of woodland per year for fuel. Beaches and tidelands were denuded of shellfish. The beaver were trapped out, game destroyed willy-nilly. This was a textbook example of environmental change, but Philbrick doesn't really hit on it.
   
   Then came war. Philip, the grandson of Massassoit, went to war and in one year there were terrible casualties through the colony. The colonies lost 8 percent of the adult male population killed. (In WWII it was 1 percent, in the Civil War it was between 4 and 5 percent.) But the Indians suffered more. Nobody knows the numbers but war and its consequent atrocities of pillage, burning, forced marches and massacres killed thousands upon thousands of men, women and children. It was a war to the death. Settlers vs. the Indians; and the settlers won - big time!
   
   Philbrick has done a good job. I got tired or reading about the war against the various tribes, how the tribes collaborated or didn't etc. etc. and, frankly, King Philip's War bored me a bit. But it was on the whole a great book.
   February 2008



5. Fascinating first half that makes for highly recommended reading. I felt educated and filled with wonderment how the english settlers facing danger and diesese at every turn, relied on their faith and perservered to allow later generations to prosper in New England and beyond. The second half of this book outlined the wars with Indians and was hard for this reader to handle. I think it makes me believe that war is always a condition of man. Especially when higher spirtual ideas are set aside. Even the Indians were in war with other Indians before the english got here. It seems to me, so much bloodshed could have been avoided if cooler heads were left to govern. Something that's so relevant today. Very eye opening and very sad to a large degree.

5 comments about Godless: The Church of Liberalism.

1. After reading this book by Ann Coulter, I am now a fan. She has enlightened me about serious issues in a very articulate, organized fashion that is easy to read, understand, and with a wit a humor that left me laughing my head off almost after every paragraph. She is right!! Liberalism is a religion and has all the components that identify it as a religion. Stunning.
   
   Yes, I am a fan, now, Ann. Your chapter on evolution was fabulous!! I have memories of a child sitting in my classroom having the teacher display pictures of these moths on trees that changed color because of pollution. Then the next lesson was on since the moths changed color, blah, blah, blah; man evolved from apes. I remember thinking to myself; well, yes, the moths changed colors, but they ARE STILL MOTHS. Does that make me an ape? What does moths changing colors have to do with humans evolving from apes? And why are there still apes if we evolved from an ape? I'm really angy to find out that the picture of the moths was a scientific fraud in the first place. I feel like, no, I know, I am living in a world that is filled with deceipt and lies.
   
   So weird to think back on that memory. It is as clear as day sitting in my classroom as a third or fourth grader trying to figure this all out. And, no, I wasn't raised in a christian home. I come from a very liberal, secular, democratic family.
   
   
   Deadpan? Who wants to read:marked by an impassive matter-of-fact manner, style, or expression (anyways). That's boring. We have enough of that from the deadpan media. She just won a "convert" with this book. I was never really impressed with her short interviews on TV, but, WOW, this book is great and should be read by every average American, especially the Democrats. Going to pass one out to each and every one of my family members. 5 Koodos!!



2. Global warming started with the sun...not al gore.
   Internet started with the advent of the computer...not al gore.
   Al - the world - according to real scientists - is cooling.
   Al the internet was created before you could spell A.L..
   So the inconvenient truth is....
   You, and your kind, are liars:
   L.iberals
   I.gnorant--
   A.L-iberal
   R.uins
   Society.



3. Ms. Coulter does an excellent job of explaining the controversy about evolution and intelligent design. She creates some confusion, perhaps, by not explaining the evidence for what is called common descent. It is this evidence that makes evolution "....the most pervasive principle in biology, and a thematic thread woven throughout this book."
   
   The quote is on p. 110 of the fourth edition of the textbook used by 65% of biology majors in the United States: Biology by Neil A. Campbell.
   On page 77, Campbell replicates the probability calculation for random mutations given by Coulter to show that evolution is absurd. The point Campbell is making is that evolution does not apply to the origin of life, but only to what happened after the first living cell began to replicate. The idea that Campbell is in need of a lecture about biology is nonsense.
   
   It is also clear from Campbell's book that evolution only applies to animals and the bodies of human beings. It does not apply to the souls of human beings, which were created by God. This is generally overlooked because there is a lack of understanding of a method of inquiry called existentialism or metaphysics. Free will, God, the human soul are existential concepts. They are not mentioned by Campbell because his book is about science, not existentialism. To deny that the subject matter of evolution is the bodies of human beings is to make a statement about existentialism.
   
   This point is also overlooked because many popular accounts of evolution don't say it. Francis Ayala, for example, in Darwin's Gift: to Science and Religion, says that the human soul is a religious concept. Religious concepts are matters of faith and revelation and can't be proven. In my review of this book, which was published by Sight Magazine [...], I prove that human beings have souls.
   
   It is true that Campbell doesn't mention the arguments against evolution set forth in Godless, such as the irreducible complexity of molecular machinery and the complexity of the human eye. The reason for this, I suggest, is that everybody already knows these argument. Another reason is that advocates of intelligent design use these arguments to promote intelligent design which is more existentialism than science. It is perfectly okay to spend time figuring out whether the big bang was caused by an angel or by God, but it is not science.



4. You can't fault Ann Coulter's passion for her political views however, BUT you can completely dismiss her scientific views. You can agree or disagree with political views but when it comes to making factual statements about the natural world you either stick to the science or spout a bunch of logical fallacies. And it is logical fallacies that this book is peppered with when Ann Coulter's pen turns to anything related to science.
   
   Ann Coulter makes the big mistake of making all her arguments from a value-based (politics and religious) position. Science is not a matter of conjecture or democratic vote. She does this by making fallacious claims about evolution simply because the bible says something different. She then goes on to describe evolution as a 'godless religion' that is worshipped by liberals. If this is her argument for conservatism then she is making a big error in judgement.
   
   If it was a simple dichotomy such that Liberals accept evolution while Conservatives do not, then we could quite happily say Liberals accept facts while Conservatives do not. Apparently this is the case.
   
   Secondly, if evolution were to be a religion with Darwin as its prophet, why isn't she trumpeting the same argument with Newton (Gravitation), Einstein (Relativity) and Watson/Crick (DNA)? Presumably these are all prophets and religions too given Liberals would accept their discoveries as valid? Evolution is purely singled out because it provides a natural explanation to life that directly contradicts the bible. By this logic, we ought also accept the bible definition of pi at 3 and completely massacre all of geometry and engineering.
   
   You have every reason to be skeptical of someone who makes a bunch of claims and then attacks the science that undermines their position. Any ideology that requires a smear campaign on real world evidence needs to be seriously criticised. In Ann Coulter's case, the case could be argued that because she should know better, her flagrant abuse of science and reason is completely unethical. How does that fit into the conservative "moral" case?
   
   Of course, any criticism of biblical claims to fact is viewed as Godless by Ann Coulter. I would hope the need for criticism of blatant abuses of reason isn't only a Liberal value but if it is then Conservatives really need to examine their own beliefs.
   
   
   P.S. For those who claim Evolution is "just a theory": A Theory in Science is a label applied to a hypothesis heavily supported by experimental evidence from multiple strands of inquiry. In 150 years, Evolution has been criticised and analysed by scientists (this is how the scientific method works). It remains standing as the unified theory of biology, something physicists are striving to attain in their field. If you wish to undermine evolution, you must necessarily dismiss genetics, the fossil record, molecular biology, ethology, zoology, germ theory... One must be incredibly confident of the antithesis claim to say they can dismiss an entire field of science.



5. Ann Coulter is so caustically funny and bitter as she rips through this listing of sacraments in the church of liberalism that at times it appears she can't be serious or sincere. But in the last chapter she wraps it all up in strong words that makes this book worth of the rating.
   
   Our rules (God's rules), she concludes, "are decreed by a legislator whose opinions are not subject to appeal by the ACLU. . . The truth is the truth whether we like it or not." She speaks the truth about evolution and its impact as clearly as Ken Hamm, in words stronger than he would ever use, with an attitude that would never be approved behind a Christian pulpit.
   
   Still, its fun, its fast, its factual...and in the end, she's right, she knows it . . . . And you'll know it too..

5 comments about When Men Become Gods: Mormon Polygamist Warren Jeffs, His Cult of Fear, and the Women Who Fought Back.

1. "When Men Becomes Gods" is a portrait of oppression. Wrapped in religion, perhaps, but it's about controlling others. The book, thoughtfully researched and carefully laid out, is a chilling tale. How could so many look the other way? Why did it take so many hard-working private citizens to bring the evidence forward? It made me think: what other issues is government generally avoiding because it's just plain inconvenient? It's obvious courage was needed to break up this sect of the Mormon church, to protect young women, and it's obvious that courage came from individuals working independently--and relentlessly--to bring Warren Jeffs to justice. Sure, the formal wheels of justice finally move in but the key word is "finally." This is a book about heroism but it's played straight, built on solid reporting and research. Singular doesn't play for high drama or sensationalism. His steady reporter's eye writes the facts and facts are in abundance here. "When Men Are Gods" assembles a rich cast of real people on all sides of the equation and yet there is no problem keeping track of all the major and minor players. That's a real feat. He does it with colorful, highly detailed and colorful brush strokes that render the scene and characters in vivid relief. In the end, read "When Men Become Gods" and wonder about overly righteous men who cloak themselves with false power and exert control over the helpless. This is an intriguing, three-dimensional struggle about the power of the individual, the whims of government, and the false pretenses of gods on earth. The detail about the interior of the SUV Jeffs was riding in when he was captured? Well, that just about says it all.



2. This book was done before the April, 2008 raid on the FLDS property near San Angelo, Texas, which put the cult back in the news again following the events depicted here. It is essential background in understanding how the Texas stronghold of this religious sect might play out. Why this group appeals to women at all is a mystery to me, but it seems like a good deal for a man, as long as he does NOT cross the self-annointed prophet, who functions as God on earth to the thousands of members. The man can have many women, including teens. The women, or "wives" in a non-legal, spiritual sense, can't contradict or refuse to service their husbands or especially decline to let the husband accept another "wife" into the family. You've heard the name Warren Jeffs, the now disgraced prophet, but this book tells you about his damaged personality, his crimes against his followers, and his short time as the supreme leader. One surprise is that many of the people still living in the twin cities of Hildale, Utah and Colorado City, Arizona, the original home of the FLDS, are no longer following the Jeffs' prophet-producing line, or taking underage girls to bed. That's good news. The bad news is that many living members apparently practiced pedophilia, incest, and (in effect) pimping their daughters to curry favor, while abandoning and rejecting their teen sons in order to make more girls available for older men. It is unlikely many of them will ever be prosecuted in this life. If you have even a casual interest in the doings of the FLDS cult, this book will be useful to you. We have not yet figured out why so many people are susceptible to the divine claims of the David Koresh/Jim Jones/Warren Jeffs brand of psychopathology, and this volume does not address that question except to note that if you are born into that belief system, and isolated enough so that contrary views are never presented to you, it is pretty damn hard to break out. The HBO series "Big Love", about a man with three families in an urban setting, is well-written and well-acted by beautiful men and women. Some of the secondary characters represent the darker side of fundamentalist LDS life. This book presents more about the less pleasant folks, and less prominent are the articulate, educated plural wives and hard-working husbands seen in the television show.



3. Warren Jeffs is indeed a twisted man. But the author is either ignorant or has an unexpressed agenda. I've done some reading on the Mormon's enough to know that they excommunicate polygamists like Jeffs, or in his case, his father who started this sect.
   
   So, to include in the title of the book the phrase "mormon polygamist Warren Jeffs" is misleading. In fact, I understand it to be an oxymoron -- once a mormon becomes a polygamist, he is excommunicated, so can no longer call himself a mormon (since "mormon" refers to the Church of Jesus Christ of latter day saints -- the one with HQ in salt lake). But then again, the author may have done so purposely in order to sell more books which, after all, is the objective, true?
   
   I would look elsewhere for info on these Fundamentalist LDS groups and for info on the Mormons themselves.



4. First of all, I need to point out that indeed Warren Jeffs is not a "Mormon Polygamoust." He is a fundamentalist Mormon, which the author does enforce many times throughout the book. I wonder why this is part of the title...
   
   Anyway, I found this book very objectively written, and very respectful of the FLDS members themselves, which I applaud fullheartedly, however, the book wasn't as interesting as I expected it to be. It was full of legal jargon and drawn out courtroom scenes.
   
   This is certainly worth the read if you have read "Stolen Innocence" by Elissa Wall. It puts her story in a different light and very interesting to compare the two books.



5. I know, I know, I should wait until I finish reading this. But I am 2/3 of the way through this book, and it gets better every day. I can't wait another moment. I bought it because I worked with Mr. Singular in Denver 25 years ago. He was a great writer then, and he's better now.
   
   This book goes way beyond everyone's repulsion at the sex-with-a-minor charges or the polygamist-cult aversions most of us have. It drills way down into the history of all of the players in this drama. A saga like this doesn't grow and build for as many years as this one has unless it's complex and has a huge cast of characters with a variety of needs/lusts.
   
   It covers the willingness of the U.S. government to turn a blind eye for many decades (and still seems to be doing so, in many cases). It names names, and introduces us to the people who got passionately involved in exposing Jeffs and his cohorts for what they really stand for. And, perhaps best of all, Singular tells us the stories of the women who were (are) victimized by this man and his way of life. It shows us how they each came to the realization that the way of life they'd grown up with was wrong, and how they extricated themselves. It introduces us to others who have come in from the outside to protect them, and why.
   
   This freak has affected so many people--Singular also goes into great detail about the society of "Lost Boys"--countless "useless" male teens (these communities have an excess of men, who are useless because they can't carry children) he threw out of their homes and cast into the streets with no education, no skills, and no normal socialization experience--and the efforts to save them. Efforts that seem to be working.
   
   Others have written books on this subject, but I venture to say this is the best researched and most detailed. This book shows us how easily a religion becomes a cult. At the end of it all, which religion doesn't have a dark side?

1 comments about Surprising Work of God, The: Harold John Ockenga, Billy Graham, and the Rebirth of Evangelicalism.

1. This book showed this child of a fundamentalist church that there was another side of orthodox Christianity. It showed the National Association of Evangelical as a continuation of the Great Awakenings. Therefore it returns briefly to them to define them. It shows the revival of the late 40's and 50's both North America and worldwide were the same kind.
   
   To do this, the focus is on two men: Billy Graham and Harold John Ockenga. Ockenga's life is written more about than Graham's.
   
   The great thing is the documentation. There are many footnotes, large bibliography and an index.

5 comments about A History of Christianity in the United States and Canada.

1. I was required to read this book for a seminary class and instead of being intimidated or turned off by its over 500 pages, I found the book to be an extremely enjoyable read.

   Noll describes the spread of Christianity from the Roman Catholicism of the 1500s to today's pluralism. Particulary enjoyable were the chapters on: the Puritans, The Great Awakenings, Churches in the American Revolution, Evangelical America during the Civil War, Intellectual Challenges to the Christian Faith in the Early 1900s, certain personalities (Billy Graham, Martin Luther King, Fulton Sheen), and the Southern Baptist Convention.

   A very interesting read, I highly recommend the book to anyone interested in the history of Christianity in America!

   Read and enjoy and do not be turned off by the size of the book!




2. This is a nice read for history books. A lot of information. This is also good for someone who is studying American Literature because it is a good background source.



3. This book helps us to remember the Christian Heritage of our country. By studying the Christian Heritage of our country we can see how the secular history has played out too and how they go hand in hand. This book by Mark A. Noll helps to bring this rich history in an easy to read format. This book is also a great resource for research and to help with illustrations for sermons and Sunday School lessons.



4. This is a very good book for Church History. It is a single volume that is written on a fairly east-to-read level. If you've not read a Church History reference before, this would be a good choice with which to start.
   
   Mark Noll's works are always good.



5. This excellent, detailed history shows what was new about Christianity in the New World. It portrays the dramatic contrasts between official colonial churches and various refugee sects, with their different visions of how they might relate to each other. Where the first colonies, provinces or states usually had official state churches, Noll documents the issues of church relations on the borders or frontiers between these domains. Into these zones, dissidents of all stripes fled from state-backed religion. And in areas where no religious group had a majority, Noll records how people learned to meet their community needs and get along: "The result was a degree of interdenominational tolerance probably unknown anywhere else in the world at that time". (p. 89) Noll's statement may overlook the religious diversity of India or China, but for the Christian world it applied.
   
   Of course Noll's book holds far more, and is of interest to people of every denomination in Canada and the USA. I was just most impressed by the explanation of how religion in North America escaped state control.
   
   --author of "Different Visions of Love"

5 comments about Out of Many: A History of the American People, Volume II (Chapters 16-31) (5th Edition).

1. The book was received in perfect condition and the seller followed the sale with notification of shipment in a prompt manner.



2. This book is a great experience for me. Will blow your mind if you really want to know about modern history.



3. As a mid-30s woman who never got into history, I was afraid of this class... the text was excellent- a wonderful experience helping anyone to understand what REALLY happened. Very easy reading with notes on origin of conflicts that were never out in the open (Bay of Pigs... inherited from Eisenhower). Highly recommended.



4. I use this book in school as a student, and it is probably the best book to learn a detailed history of the United States.



5. This book was useful for my history class and I learn some interesting things from it. That being said I dont think I would have brought it outside of this class nor do I think I would will read it now the class is over.

3 comments about Studying Congregations: A New Handbook.

1. This book provides a step-by-step process for analyzing a congregation-- its theology, context, culture and identity, dynamics, resources, and leadership. For church leaders looking for ways to figure out what's *really* been happening in a congregation, what its mission might be, and where it might be headed, this is a valuable book!



2. The book is great. It outlines how to study a congregation with objectivity as the key. It also provides sample surveys, which is great. Good for individuals or for group research.



3. The book is specific in focus and excellent in application.
   It is everything it is presented to be.

5 comments about The Faithful Departed: The Collapse of Boston's Catholic Culture.

1. I have read many publications attempting to highlight the cause(s) of the wide-spread sexual abuse of children and teens by the Catholic clergy, but this book is particularly interesting in that it is a long-range examination of this using the Boston Archdiocese as the epicenter. This book proposes there were numerous "fault lines" that gradually led to conditions that permitted this horror to continue and grow. It also dissects the reponse of the American Bishops to the scandal. I highly recommend this to all, but particularly to Bostonians, Bishops and Catholic clergy.



2. I was not familiar with the political flavor of Boston Catholicism described in this book, but now I understand the development of underlying culture of deceit that enabled the attitude of "keeping quiet." Americans for the most part are law abiding members of society, and what really disgusts me is that this trait of "protection of the bishop" is pandemic across the US in many Catholic diocese's.
   
   The most telling sentence of the book is on the back cover where a conservative bishop tells "the road to hell is paved with the skulls of bishops." That told by St. John of the Cross who had his own problems with bishops in his native Spain nearly a thousand years ago.
   
   In my own case, I grew up with a priest who was elevated to the episcopacy and now retired but is embroiled in a abuse case back in his home town. I personally don't think he did it, but then one has to ask, how many priests are guilty of abuse and are not fingered...and, how many are not-guilty of anything but are being charged anyway.
   
   Mr. Lawler doesn't make a distinction between guilty or not, but he does write a compelling expose' of the catholic church in the US. The real problem is that he thinks the problem is still among us with the bishops not learning from Cardinal Law's mistakes. In fact, he tells tales of other "princes of the church" who are still part of the problem. I believe that pressure has to come from the "pew Catholic" in this matter, according to the book, the Vatican is neither unable to or impotent in this problem. I suspect, the Vatican is afraid of loosing its most financial prosperous givers to the till.
   
   A great read and I wish more expose's would come forth.



3. Well written, well researched and carefully thought out book proposing the hypothesis that the sex abuse scandal in the Catholic Church was only the most visible manifestation of a general malaise in moral leadership among the hierarchy.
   I would have liked footnotes to many of the assertions in the book.



4. The author sees the basic problem clearly, the effort in Boston to "make it" by Catholics as if they constituted a sort of race rather than a religion. I think he errs in suiggesting that this atttude was universal in the USA.



5. Lawler uses the failings of the Boston Archdiocese not only recently but over its history as a platform to review the scandals besetting the Catholic Church in America that have been so much in the news.
   
   He rejects the notion that the sex abuse scandal was a series of aberrations, but had at its root the unwillingness of bishops and priests to be faithful to Catholic dogmas and discipline. Outstanding analysis - and a critically important book for understanding not only the sex abuse scandal but also the contemporary situation of the Catholic Church in America today.

5 comments about The Civil War as a Theological Crisis.

1. This book shows how the beliefs and assumptions held by American Christians in 1860 precluded any kind of critical reflection on the Civil War. If you've read Nathan Hatch's Democratization of American Christianity, this serves as an excellent second installment in the saga. Many of the ideals whose development Hatch chronicles played important roles in paving the way for the Civil War ethos. This book is also a nice supplement to Harry S. Stout's Upon the Altar of the Nation. Stout beautifully chronicles Americans' moral ambivalence, but doesn't really go into the root causes to the extent that Noll does. Nor does Stout explore foreign commentary on the war. Noll's exploration of foreign commentary, in fact, was one of the most fascinating aspects of the book. Foreigners seem to have seen fairly clearly what nobody in America could see.
   
   If you're looking for a rousing or moving narrative, this isn't the book for you. But if you'd like to understand why American theology was paralyzed in the face of the slavery crisis, this little book is ideal.
   
   That it's a "little" book is also nice. Noll says a whole lot in only about 160 pages.



2. Great stuff, I don't have the time to review this, because I'm writting for a Phd and using several of Noll's books. This one (for me) is valuable because it sets the scene for American Evangelicalism up to the period/person I'm working on...as do other's of Noll's works.



3. This is the book that every Protestant evangelical who invokes "the sole authority of Scripture," and who insists upon the "simplicity," "plain meaning," and "clarity" of its message, should read. I wish a similar monograph had existed when I was in seminary, and that my professors had made me read it as a case study in hermeneutics (the study of the interpretation of Scripture). Why instead of unanimity was there an "interpretive standoff" regarding slavery among Protestant believers, an "unbridgeable chasm of opinion" that tore the nation in two? Why was the evil of slavery eradicated not by the theological arguments of Christians but by the military might of armies? How can you argue against slavery when both the Old Testament and New Testament condone it?
   
   Mark Noll, for over twenty-five years a professor at Wheaton College and now at Notre Dame, examines a broad diversity of religious viewpoints-- mainly American Protestant, but also foreign Protestant, Jewish, and Catholic (both American and foreign) -- about the theological crisis provoked by slavery. This was a question partly about what the Bible said (how to interpret the Bible), and partly about what God was doing in history (providence). Disagreements about what the Bible said about slavery, Noll demonstrates, were deeply influenced by American assumptions about common sense rationalism, economic individualism, race, gender, and political democracy (which is why his two chapters on Protestant and Catholic opinions abroad are so helpful). Even worse, the far deeper issue of racism was barely broached; people separated "the slavery question" and "the negro question." No one in their wildest imagination considered the enslavement of whites (as in OT and NT times), even if they thought it acceptable to enslave blacks, and so even though the war abolished slavery, horrific racism and its evil twin economic disenfranchisement continued unabated. Finally, interpreting the ancient text and applying it to our contemporary context was further complicated by the Protestant insistence that there's no authority above the Bible itself, which was another way of saying that everyone and no one had the ultimate authority to say definitively "what the Bible means" about slavery.
   
   It's a short step from Noll's theological case study about slavery to virtually every other important issue that Christians face--women's ordination, homosexuality, abortion, politics, economics, and race. The Scriptures, said the Westminster divines, are "most necessary" for Christian faith and life, and every believer ought to study them often and well. But as Noll shows, earnest appeals to the authority of Scripture, however necessary and well-intentioned, are the beginning and not the end of the serious work of studying the Bible and then living according to the letter and spirit of its message.



4. Noll has done a splendid job identifying the theological considerations that neutralized the ability of Christians to help the nation avoid the recourse to arms to settle the slavery question. His examination of how various Christian leaders, north and south, viewed divine providence is enough to make anyone uncomfortable with a self-assured approach to understanding the ways of God. His inclusion of European theological perspectives on slavery and the American scene are an added treat. This is a fine book.



5. This book is an excellent resource for understanding the origins of all slavery, not just the slavery of the black people. It explains the root causes of the Civil war due to differing views of the meaning of the Bible and the workings of providence prior to the Civil War. I would recommend this book very highly.

5 comments about My Descent Into Death: A Second Chance at Life.

1. Parts of Mr. Storm's story don't hold up from the very beginning. Are we really supposed to believe that in "a large public hospital" in Paris in 1985 he had to be transported on a gurney "for several blocks" on the sidewalk outdoors in order to get from the emergency room to his hospital room? And that because it was the weekend there were no surgeons available in the entire city to perform the operation he needed? And that the diagnosis and severity of his condition wasn't communicated from the emergency room doctors to other hospital personnel? And that when hospital personnel didn't seem to understand the emergency nature of the situation it didn't occur to his wife or to the English-speaking patient in the next bed or to that patient's wife to contact the doctor who made the original diagnosis or the emergency room doctors and ask them to intervene? Please.



2. This book was worth every second i spent reading it. I actually finished in in 24 hours, i just couldnt put it down. It greatly shows the love and mercy of Christ that although some people may not believe in him he loves you regardless. This book is amazing and you wont regret purchasing it.



3. This is a most interesting book in which the author describes his experience of entering Hell, and then being transported to Heaven. Not sure I believe it all, but his experiences are certainly in line with other books I have read on heaven and hell. His experience is believable to a point, and it does seem to have changed his life, but does seem to get carried away with his projections of the future (life in this world will get better and better, happily ever after and all that) and his many visits from angels. Can't say that it is definitely NOT true though, so I think it is worth reading and you decide. And it certainly makes you think more about eternity and where you may be spending it.



4. This is a must read book. I have shared with several friends and all have had a postive feedback from reading this book!



5. First, I would like to say that I am so tired of the christians & the catholics with their bible opinions about this book. New age is not really new age it's old just as Gnostic Christianity/Jewish Mysticism are ancient religions. Nobody disrespects your religion don't disrespect others for their beliefs. BTW who wrote the bible? How does anyone know that is truly the word of god & not lies? Everyone knows that the bible has had texts taken out, manipulated texts, & things added in by the catholic church. So do not assume that you know the truth because really no one does & all religions will bring you to god. As for this book I loved it & I thought it was absolutely beautifully written. Truly inspiring!!!