God is not by Stephen Prothero Video Clips. Duration : 2.77 Mins.
On sale 20th April 2010! At the beginning of the twenty-first century, a dramatic scientific and technical progress with the global economy, and the so-called New Atheists done nothing to change one thing: our world is angry religion. For better or for worse, religion is the only major influence in the world. We accept as self-evident that offer competing economic systems (capitalist or communist) or opposing political parties (Republicans or Democrats)very different solutions to the problems of our planet. So why not let's pretend that the world of religious traditions are different ways to the same God? We moved the sharp differences between the religions to our peril, says Stephen Prothero religious scholars, and it's time naive hope for unity with deep inter-religious understanding of religious differences to be replaced. Prothero in Religious Literacy showed how little Americans know their own religious traditions, and why the worldReligions should be taught in public schools. Well, not in God, Prothero offers readers a much needed content for each of the eight major religions. To say that all religions are equal, it is false that any attempt to solve another human problem. For example: Islam: The problem is pride / presentation Christianity is the solution: the problem is, sin / salvation Confucianism is the solution: the problem is chaos / the solution of Buddhist social order: theThe problem is ...
Tags: God Is Not One, Stephen Prothero, Steve Prothero, Religion, Book Trailer, Religious Literacy, Islam, Christianity, Confucianism, Buddhism, Judaism, harperone
±1±: Now is the time Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years Order Today!
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Over All Rating Reviews : Great Deal : $19.00
Date Created : Jul 23, 2010 16:22:28
The National Book Critics Circle Award-winning author of The Reformation returns with the definitive history of Christianity for our time
Once in a generation a historian will redefine his field, producing a book that demands to be read-a product of electrifying scholarship conveyed with commanding skill. Diarmaid MacCulloch's Christianity is such a book. Breathtaking in ambition, it ranges back to the origins of the Hebrew Bible and covers the world, following the three main strands of the Christian faith.
Christianity will teach modern readers things that have been lost in time about how Jesus' message spread and how the New Testament was formed. We follow the Christian story to all corners of the globe, filling in often neglected accounts of conversions and confrontations in Africa and Asia. And we discover the roots of the faith that galvanized America, charting the rise of the evangelical movement from its origins in Germany and England. This book encompasses all of intellectual history-we meet monks and crusaders, heretics and saints, slave traders and abolitionists, and discover Christianity's essential role in driving the enlightenment and the age of exploration, and shaping the course of World War I and World War II.
We are living in a time of tremendous religious awareness, when both believers and non-believers are deeply engaged by questions of religion and tradition, seeking to understand the violence sometimes perpetrated in the name of God. The son of an Anglican clergyman, MacCulloch writes with deep feeling about faith. His last book, The Reformation, was chosen by dozens of publications as Best Book of the Year and won the National Book Critics Circle Award. This awe-inspiring follow-up is a landmark new history of the faith that continues to shape the world.
±1±: Best Buy I would highly recommend this books placement in the reserved reading section of a University library. It's size makes it too big for a one semester course on the History of Christianity, but could be used for a two semester course. This book is slightly bigger than the other standard in the field (i.e. A History of Christianity by Williston Walker) but definately worthy to sit beside it. It is much more colorful and enjoyable to read than Walker's text, thus making it more captivating and memorable. It also covers many aspects of Christian history few books delve into with their Western focus. It would be worth buying simply for it's chapter on the conditions that allowed for or led to the Reformation. It presents such a good synthesis on this issue, that it would be good required reading for students taking a course that covers this period. I move now to a detailed look at the downsides and positive features of this book.
The downside of this book comes from the fact that it is more interpretive than some of the others in this field (i.e. Walker's). I suppose this cannot be avoided in a book of this size. This can be seen in the first four chapters more than the others as it deals with the formations of Judaism and Christianity delving into times when little was recorded in the historical record. Educated guesses sometimes have to be made with what little evidence there is and it seemed as if MacCulloch did this without making it completely clear what he was basing his conclusions on and why he took them in the directions that he did. When MacCulloch makes these guesses he takes a more liberal direction on them. I will give but one example. He notes the Ebionites (i.e. "the poor") that Saint Jerome encountered on the eastern side of the Jordan. These "Christians" did not believe in the virgin birth and practiced many Jewish customs unlike the Western Church. MacCulloch assumes these are "the poor" that Paul the Apostle mentioned as the church living in Jerusalem and headed by the Apostle James that was later dispersed by the persecution of Temple Authorities and the destruction of the Temple. He goes on to state the reason they didn't believe in the virgin birth is because they could read the Hebrew which says "alma" or "young woman" while the Western Church only knew how to read the Septuagint. These are plausible connections that could explain their name and practices, but they are mere educated guesses. He gives enough information for a careful reader to discern this, but I am not sure everyone will have the habit of reading between such lines. The two chapters before this chapter on Christianity's birth are even less clear. For instance, he states as fact the liberal assumption that Daniel was written not long before the time of Jesus since it had ideas similar to some that were in Persia (i.e. Zoro-Astr). But conservative scholars would contests such a late date for Daniel and there are scholarly debates that continue on this today. Instead of merely stating his view as a fact, it would have been helpful to explain his reasoning a bit more on this issue and perhaps explain plausible views other than his own. And I could give other examples along these same lines.
But once one moves past the first four chapters into the period right after Christ and so on, the book becomes less interprative as the facts are more established (i.e. there are more recorded records from the early church and other secular sources). What I like most about this book is that he not only traces the Western Calcedonian Church, but the Orthodox Church in detail as well. Williston Walker's was typical in that it hardly dealt with the Eastern Church. MacCulloch's book deals with it's divergence from the west and it's history down to our own present day. He also deals with that third wing of the Church that few even touch on: the Jacobite and Nestorian Churches. These churches which lay on the fringes of the Roman Empire never accepted the Council of Calcedon (unlike the Western and Eastern Orthodox Churches) but had more believers within them than the Western Church for a very long time. Missionaries from Syria even planted monastaries as far as India and China at a suprisingly early date. I found it refreshing that MacCulloch even covered the rise and demise of this church. Along with this eye for a comprehensive history of the Christian Church, MacCulloch takes his history to our own day. He covers the Missionary Movements of Roman Catholics after Trent into the New World and the later rise of Protestant missionary movements. He traces the decline of Christianity in Western Europe following the Enlightenment (and other factors), the emergence of the Anglican Communion, the uniqueness of the American (U.S.) version of Christianity and the rising tide of Christianity in new parts of the world (i.e. Africa, China and India). He then ends by stating challenges Christianity faces into the future with positive notes and projections as well. This book would serve well in the task of educating people on the WHOLE history of the Church (i.e. not just the Western Church, or the Calcedonian Churches, or up to Trent but remembering the Third-World as well). The comprehensiveness of his approach not only tells the full story of the Church up to now, but gives students interested in other cultures a stake in this history...
±1±: Now is the time Heaven: Our Enduring Fascination with the Afterlife Order Today!
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Over All Rating Reviews : Great Deal : $14.00
Date Created : Jun 25, 2010 16:00:21
A groundbreaking and accessible history of heaven—from the earliest biblical conceptions of the afterlife to the theologians who frame our understandings to the convictions and perceptions of everyday people
Drawing on history and popular culture, biblical research and everyday beliefs, Heaven offers a new understanding of one of the most cherished—and shared—ideals of spiritual life. Lisa Miller raises debates and discussions not just about our visions of the afterlife, but about how our beliefs have influenced the societies we have built and the lifestyles to which we have subscribed, exploring the roots of our beliefs in heaven and how these have evolved throughout the ages to offer comfort and hope.
She also reveals how the notion of heaven has been used for manipulation—to promulgate goodness and evil—as inspiration for selfless behavior, and as justification for mass murder.
As Miller demonstrates in this absorbing and enlightening book, the desire for a celestial afterlife is universal—shared by the faithful around the world and across religions. It is as old as the Bible itself. While there are many notions of what exactly heaven is and how we get there, Jews, Christians, and Muslims all agree that heaven is God's home. From the Revelation to the Left Behind series, Augustine to Osama bin Laden, Muslims in the West Bank to American Mormons baptizing their dead, Heaven is a penetrating look at one of our most cherished religious ideals.
±1±: Best Buy When I was a little kid, first grade or so, I had a nightmare about Chilly Willie, the penguin cartoon character. Chilly was out in the ocean and he drowned. But that wasn't the scary part. The scary part was seeing the bird sitting on a cloud in heaven. And he was going to be there, doing nothing for ever. That boredom was what scared me. That's why I was happy to see that Lisa Miller, in her book Heaven (Harper Collins 2010), included a chapter entitled "Is Heaven Boring?" Because a lot of adults wonder about that, it isn't just the mini-me. Miller explores many interesting questions about heaven and the answers provided by the monotheistic religions (Judaism, Christianity and Islam) for the last few millennia. Ideas about Heaven from culture (Dante) to pop culture (The Lovely Bones) are also presented. Miller is Jewish, the religion editor of Newsweek and skeptical herself about the existence of heaven. But her interviews with followers of various faiths are fair and respectful. She calls Anne Graham Lotz (Billy's daughter) a friend and listens politely (and uncomfortably) to Anne pleas to take the Christian path to Heaven. She also writes about her respect for prominent atheists. It is interesting to follow the history of views of Heaven through the years and the various ways heaven is viewed today. Is Heaven a physical place or purely spiritual? Does one get entrance to Heaven through faith or works or does everyone get in? How does one's view of Heaven affect the way one lives life? The varied answers to these questions that Miller finds are intriguing, sometime funny, and thought provoking. I knew a lot of the things that Miller writes about. I remembered from my seminary days about Augustine's teaching that unbaptized babies would not get into heaven. (The Bishop of Hippo wrote that just as the thief on the cross would enter Heaven based on his faith, though he was not baptized; babies who are baptized enter Heaven though they have not faith.) I hadn't known (or remembered) that the church father went on to argue that there was a special baby hell, wherein baby souls wouldn't really even notice their torture. (Baby hell is a concept worth pondering.) I was unaware of some of the Muslim theories of the intermediary state between death and the Resurrection. This is a theory that two angels with green eyes and long fangs test the newly dead with a series of questions. Those who pass the test with flying colors will get a window view of heaven. Second tier corpses will get a window to hell with the assurance that they won't go there. Third level is pretty bad because your grave will be set afire and fourth is worse because your sins are turned into wild animals that will attack you. I also found fascinating the archeological evidence that in ancient Israel, people kept their ancestors bones under there house and may have consulted and/or worshiped them. Miller can, of course, present no definitive conclusions with her research. But she seems to believe that it is a challenge to rationalism to believe in Heaven and is very uncomfortable with the idea that there is only one route to get there. Obviously, these are difficult questions. But I believe in a powerful God who can do as He chooses. And that He has graciously choose to give life to His people after life on this earth. And as to that question of whether Heaven is boring, I came to my own conclusions when I attended camp as a kid, a few years after that penguin dream. A speaker at camp pointed to the beauty around us (the spectacular Sierra Nevada Mountains) and the fun we'd had though the week (swimming, games, archery, great food) and said that a God who thought up such great things would have even better things to come. For me, that answered my fear. That's when I trusted Christ for forgiveness of my sins and began looking forward to Heaven. on Sale!
