This is an interesting little book that brings to light that our loved ones are not as far away as we sometimes believe. I have read the other books by Barbara and Trudy, and have been successful with their techniques.

This book uses the same techniques that the authors have outlined in the past to contact your angels or spirit guides, but this time teaches how to contact those we love in spirit. Included in the book, are also many personal stories of contact. I tried the techniques right after I read the book, and was able to contact 5 people that were very meaningful in my life. It was interesting because there was a distinct "voice" to each one. Still skeptical, but armed with my written pages of contact, I had a meeting with a Medium the next day. Sure enough, she brought through a few of the people that I had contacted, gave me the same messages that I had received myself, and even used the same language and nicknames that I had received in the contact. That was enough confirmation for me!

This book is also a wonderful gift to give to someone that is in the process of grieving. It is uplifting and gives a way for the grieving to reach out and find some peace. This book combined with a lovely journal would make a great gift.

Although this is a very wonderful book, I feel I have to let you know that the information in this book were edited to the point that some of the TRUE stories are not so accurate. I was very disappointed because one of the stories was my mother's own story about my contact with the other side. It was changed enough that I almost didn't recognize that it was her story. We do have the ability to contact those that have crossed over to the next life, but, I am very sorry for the inaccuracy of the information given in this book due to unnecessary editing. God Bless.

Heaven and Beyond is a lovely book of insightful information to help all of us as we go through illness, our own or a loved ones, and our natural transitions from this earthly realm to a higher, more beautiful realm in Heaven. So many families go through the caregiving phase doing the best they know how to do and sometimes with no help in sight. Realizing that help is available everywhere if we just ask for it, is many times the hardest thing to see. Sometimes the caregiver does not realize how much better the quality of care would be with a little time out to restore their energy to themselves that such a close relationship requires... because the very word caregiver tells us that this is a close loving relationship and the caregiver role is very complicated in it that so many emotions, thoughts , memories and hopes and desires for the present as well as the future are present, and also incorporated into this situation is all of the daily stuff one must also try to accomplish... and attention to all of the other family members as well...so our plate is full and we really want to do this and now we must step aside and let our hearts see what is best for our loved ones and when we realize that death is not the end and truly a new beginning we can let compassion fill our hearts and let our loved ones go if that is their wish...only out of our sight but still connected to us in all ways...always because God has told us so...because He loves us. The caregiver definitely needs time to recover the energy that is sent to their loved one and this is the time to learn about Hospice Care. Hospice care is devoted to letting the normal stages of our transition take place but with attention to the dying loved ones needs. This is truly a very difficult time because by the time we get to this stage we desperately need help because all of our resources of energy and coping skills are gone. It is hard for us to think that our loved one will soon be out of our sight but they are only gone from their earthly existence to their eternal spiritual existence which is forever. So by leading with compassion and understanding and the training that the special Hospice nurses bring our loved ones don't have to suffer one more moment and this is the gift of love from all of the special Angels...the Hospice nurses...we love you all! This message to Barbara and Trudy is a beautiful message to share with us that we are never alone...ever...and even though it may seem so at times all help surrounds us...for Gods lovely Angels are always here and all we have to do is ask! Blessings of Gods love and light and all the Angels embrace the messages shared in this book. Believing it will make it so. How things are brought into our awareness are really not so surprising if we remember that we are always connected to God through His lovely Angels of Light and that when we on earth are ready to step up to another level of understanding all pathways will open for His love to arrive. Accepting this love is easy to do then acknowledge He who sent it and do your part to share this message so that all hearts will be healed by this love...and all the stars in Heaven danced and Heaven and Beyond is just the first step up to our new level of understanding that will connect all there is forever in Love. A very Special thank you to the Hospice nurses that helped us so gently through my Mother's transition to Heaven...my heart to yours! Love, Linda

At last a Bible where you can get a clear idea of how traditional but not fantical Baptist think. The bible is well laid out with outlines and vital information on each book and the footnoting is excellent with a rich variety of comments from some of the better thinkers of the Baptist way.

For a Baptist the book is a plus for a non-baptist it is educational tool in comparative christian thought and theology.

This study Bible is one of the best versions out there. It is very easy to follow and understand. It has outlines and footnotes that allow you to apply each verse to everyday life.

I am a Seminary student and have gone through many study bibles. However, this work by W.A. Criswell is by far the best in the business.

Professor Steven G. Marks' new book: "How Russia Shaped The Modern World" comes out at the time when Russia itself is deep into the sweeping transitions and uncertainties of the monumental post-Soviet collapse of the 1989-91.

Decoding specific Russian roots of various political and cultural movements transplanted elsewhere in the world, the book looks an appealing endeavor in trying to use a unifying approach in showing how this particular blend of Slavic philosophy, based on exaltation of human suffering and repudiation of satiety, went on shaking and reconstructing established human societal and creative conventions in Europe, Asia, Africa and, to a lesser extent, on both American continents.

Author deserves particular credit for elements of the book that deal with the Russian creative influence, still abound around the world today. Sergei Diaghilev in ballet, Leon Bakst in costume design, Konstantin Stanislavsky and Vsevolod Meyerhold in theatre, Vasily Kandinsky and Kazimir Malevich in painting and visual art are all interwoven neatly and convincingly into the paradigmatic influences in their respective and inventive artistic expressions.

Overwhelming amount of reference material and specific reading that went into writing these chapters, which appear to require very little extra in order to turn them into a separate and valuable book on continuity and history in arts, speaks volumes about S. Marks' commendable meticulousness in dealing with people and their ideas.

Continuous relevance of Mikhail Bakunin, the father of anti-bourgeoisie anarchism and radicalism with his passion for destruction, his penchant for secrecy and his willingness to use brutal force to establish new egalitarian order, linked naturally through multitude of revolts, revolutions and "liberation" movements of the XX Century could hardly be denied in the present "(new) terrorism age".

One of Fedor Dostoevsky's brilliant and infectious social admonitions, telling us, that "one (dictator) could rule (despotically), but as long as he took care of the submissive people's most basic survival needs, (and) mankind will run after (him) like a flock of sheep, grateful and obedient", expressed in Brothers Karamazov, persists in bordering on absolute, by the very lure such "economic certainty and psychological protection" brings, in return for our willingness to give up the burden of our personal freedom.

Steven Marks' particular allusion to this forewarning by Dostoevsky, although hidden deeply in the thick of his book, and the substance of this intuitive comment by the great Russian writer, has never been truer in our "liberating" times of neo-liberal governing agendas.

The book's topical chapters, dealing with such specific philosophical torrent as Tolstoy's "neprotivlenie zlu nasiliem" (non-resistance to evil by violence) and, separately, with domestic Russian/Soviet Communism and Dictatorship, including their "export" variations, found elsewhere in the world, are sprinkled with witty observations, and clever remarks, but, overall, are less enticing.
Probably because of the far-reaching nature of writings on philosophy of "peaceful" resistance, exemplified by Mahatma Gandhi or found in texts on the equality rights movement of the 1960s American blacks. And, in second case, because of even more exhaustive multitudes of the anti-Communist writings, that by now, easily form a separate branch of the Western Social Science.

Russia continues to defy conventions and many old and new questions are still waiting to be answered.

XXth Century had proven to be one of the most turbulent in the country's history as it went through two sweeping and devastating societal changes: first in violently replacing old Imperial and Czarist Russia with Socialist ideas and ideals, and forcibly uniting hundreds of the Russian and ethnic millions under its banner, and then, quietly expiring and disintegrating under the unsustainable economic and political burden of its own existence, just over 70 years later.

How could it happen that Russia, whose best intellectual minds felt closest in spirit to German philosophical currents, and drunk freely from Hegel, Marx and Engels, had fought two bloody wars with the Germany's military in a span of less then 30 years?

How, standing (secretly) ready to join the German-Italian fascists and the Japanese in the Axis triangle in 1940, Russia ended up on the victorious side of Western Allies and survived another four and a half decades of the cold war, while the seemingly more "viable" regimes ended in disaster of the 1945 defeat?

Finally, how is the USSR, which was labeled unequivocally and rightly to be a "totalitarian" state, has shown ability not only for the radical internal self-reformation, but more amazingly, the ability to annihilate peacefully in taking the volunteer path to extinction? Extinction that, to be sure, was catastrophic, but came to pass without gory destructions or civil war?

Many of these and other important questions are just as sure will perpetuate the nature of Russia's mythical influence in the world, as has always been the case, and insure our unrelenting continuing fascination with it in times to come, as this book ably affirms.

Steven Marks has written a most original book. While historians almost invariably deal with western influences on Russia, he is the first to demonstrate that there was also a reverse process, especially from the late nineteenth century on. He traces these influences in the fields of politics (revolutionary terrorism and anarchism), psychology (Dostoevsky), religion (Tolstoyanism), destructive Judeophobia (The so-called "Protocols of the Elders of Zion") as well as modern ballet, theater, and design. The two concluding chapters deal with the influence of Communism on Fascism and National-Socialism. While these two chapters are somewhat weakened by the author's ambivalent attitude toward the concept of totalitarianism," they nevertheless provide useful evidence to validate it. In all, an impressive achievement.

Don't be put off by the title, this book by Steven Marks covers new ground which should please both academics and the general public. While the thesis behind the book at first seems all encompassing, each chapter builds a case in detail bringing together several seemingly unrelated strands.

The book is well researched and very readable. It makes accessible little known facts about anarchists, expressionism, dance and politics. The chapter on the origins of the Protocols of Zion is not to be missed, Marks objectively tells the story of the single most influential Anti Semitic documents of the 20th Century.

I'd recommend this book as an addition to both a personal library and/or a college level text.

This book is excellent introduction to the thorny topic of human biodiversity. The book's real strength lies in the fact that Marks brings in historical material which illuminates the ideological underpinnings of work on human diversity. Dr. Marks, at the time this book was written was a visiting professor at UC/Berkeley. He had studied anthropology at the University of Arizona and genetics at UC/Davis. According to a note on the copyright page he is known for his work in molecular anthropology. The book's 14 chapters take an extremely broad view of human diversity, both cultural and biological, and of the attempts to understand and explain that diversity. The book covers the history of anthropology's attempts to understand human biodiversity, the evolution of primates, the eugenics movement, a critique of the biological race concept, patterns of human variation - both phenotypic and genotypic, the nature and function of human variation, the role of human variation in health and disease and a critique of hereditarian theory. An appendix discusses DNA structure and function. The chapters are generally well written and referenced. The book is written for an academic audience or at least a reader with a strong foundation in biology. I found the critique of the biological race concept to be the most lucid and well thought out one that I have ever read. Marks points out that a division of humans into three or four primordial races seems to ignore the long history of human intermingling. Either there has always been intermingling among humans - in which case the very concept of biologically separated races is wrong from the start - or intermingling is a more recent phenomenon in which case race may have been relevant in the past but no longer is. Marks points out that the three major races identified in the US - White, Black and Asian - correspond to the three major immigrant groups in US history - from Europe, Western Africa and Eastern Asia. [I note that he did not discuss Native Americans.] There is an excellent discussion of the history of race thinking as it was applied to the ABO blood groups. This makes palpable the argument that within-race diversity is much greater than between-race diversity. Marks devotes a fair amount of time to discussing how cultural values impact on scientific work. This is illustrated by numerous examples, many drawn from a critique of the eugenics movement. It is difficult, however, to figure out what he thinks we should do about the fact that science is not "value neutral." He appears to suggest that scientists be better schooled in the humanities and pay more attention to the social implications of their work. It is unclear to me, however, that the problem with eugenics was that the scientists were unschooled in the humanities and unmindful to the social implications of their policies. Could one not criticize Marks for simply displaying his own values when he writes, for instance that: "The resolution of the problem of racism is not to deny group differences, which obviously exist; nor to deny the human urge to associate with like-minded people, which is undeniably strong; but to ensure that the diverse groups of people in contemporary society are given equal access to resources and opportunities. In other words, to assure that individuals are judged as individuals, and not as group members. The opportunity for self-improvement is vital to a free and cosmopolitan society, and the possibility to take advantage of it must be independent of group considerations." (p. 168)? How does Marks assure himself that these values of his do not subvert his scientific studies? The question is particularly troubling because many of the concepts surrounding work on human diversity - such as "innate ability" - are loaded with social judgements. Is innate ability a static thing? Should society reward provide greater rewards to people with greater innate ability? Marks repeatedly makes the observation that studies of humans are different than studies of animals, because there are practical implications to the results of studies on humans. But his book amply demonstrates how studies on animals - such as studies on "rape" in scorpionflies - have also been misused to draw conclusions about humans. One could easily argue that all science is inevitably based on values. The book appears to be a collection of lectures and unfortunately there is a fair amount of repetition. The book might have been stronger had it developed one central thesis. Nonetheless I found this to be a clearly written and very informative book.

This book is very similar to Gould's "The Mismeasure of Man" except it attacks eugenics more straightforwardly and is even more shameless; just a series of lies and half-truths. But first, let me say that the eugenics movement at the turn of the century did have two fundamental stumbling blocks: a belief in simple Mendelian principles of heredity, and a belief in class and elitism. Until universal education finally took hold in only the last few decades, where bright students are encouraged to get advanced degrees, elitism or a sense of aristocracy and moral certitude was part culture. But culture changes. So this book, like Gould's, uses old arguments against new concepts that are no longer relevant.

What is even more strange however, is that almost every diatribe against understanding group differences and investigating why and how humans behave has now been turned around. At one time, like folk medicine, folk eugenics was in fact largely pseudoscience in that doctrine drove the science without adequate academic peer review or oversight. But now, the opposite is occurring. The radical egalitarians, those die-hard Marxists that reject science they do not like, are attacking academically reviewed work without providing any evidence to the contrary. This is how he describes pseudoscience, and it is in fact what this book is all about. Half-truths and accusations against behavior genetics and evolutionary psychology, fields that have now matured and are solidly in the mainstream. And social scientists? Still floundering around trying to make sense of failed programs and broken promises. They accuse institutional racism for poverty but they provide no proof or evidence. They claim that redistribution of wealth will make everyone equally smart without one study to show that this is possible. The Gouldian Marxists have now become the Pseudoscientists, fighting a rear-guard defense by making claims and accusations that are clearly incorrect.

This book was written in 1995, but it reads like it was written in 1970. The author has conveniently ignored all of the most recent research in human evolution, sociobiology, and differential psychology. It is as if, in order to make his claims seem credible, he had no way of addressing the scientific progress made the last thirty years. And just over the last five years the few caveats he may have had about such matters as the correlation of brain size to intelligence have been laid to rest. Numerous recent studies from around the world using sophisticated MRI methods have confirmed that intelligence does correlate with brain size, and is different for men and women for different parts of the brain. This is just one example of the obfuscation conjured up in this book.

So is it good reading? By all means. Existing Marxists will have their prejudices reinforced, while those of us who are unabashed empiricists can take pleasure in the hackneyed attempts at dislodging good solid science. That is, it was for me a pleasure to read because on almost every page, the arguments against eugenics could be turned around against the radical environmentalists. It is similar to an atheist reading the bible to confirm, chapter after chapter, the inconsistencies and absurdities of the text to reaffirm their position.

I read this book while taking a correspondence course in physical anthropology from Univ. of Cal. at Berkeley. It is a textbook for a course on biodiversity.

The book is about 280 pages and is subtitled genes, race and history. It has 14 chapters. The book's major theme is how culture and science have interacted around the issue of race.

Marks is both an anthropologist and a biologist, so the book presents a clear and thorough explanation of genetics in the context of how Western culture has chosen to interpret--and misinterpret--human differences.

It was the clearest, most enjoyable and thorough inquiry into the idea of race I have ever read. It greatly changed how I view human biodiversity.

Examining this book was enjoyable, educational and insightful. Mark Mason challenges the reader to go deeper into church history and examine the motives behind the actions then that influence us even now. It is the subtle quality of this book that makes it so powerful. And tying the past to the present is no small task, but Mr. Mason does a thorough job of doing just that. A must read for the serious student of history.

Well written, full of revelant historical information that allows the reader to grasp the foundation of the fall and decline of tribal Christianity; or my love of Jesus is better than your love of Jesus. The final chapters highlight the need to overcome this Christian demonimalization, or eventually, all Christians will witness the erroding of the sacred message enunciated by Jesus the Christ.

Mark Mason's In Search of the Loving God can be very helpful for former "Born Agains" (such as myself) whose intuition has always told them that there must be more to God than the punishing father or unreachable "bearded guy in the sky".

The author skillfully gives cultural and historical insights into the life of Christ and the Christian church of past and present. He offers reassurance based on etymological and cross-religious evidence that indeed, God is most definitely knowable and loving.

Far from being a dry document, the book is written in a personable, self-disclosing style which I found engaging to read. The extensive references and bibliography are also quite impressive and helpful.

This book is very helpful in learning about the concept of knowledge-based systems. I must caution though, that if you are familiar with artificial intelligence there is a lot of material in this book that will act as a review.

When purchasing this book, I was hoping for material on developing a knowledge-based system from scratch. While it does an outstanding job in teaching you the fundamentals (clear through diagnosis and troubleshooting), it seemed to leave me slightly incomplete and in search for additional material on the subject.

It's not a all-in-one book, but this is book is definitely one to consider.

The author gives an exceptional and in-depth view of the topics of search, reasoning with time, space and uncertainty and also on classification. It should make a good text at the graduate-level. The book also gives excellent exercises and open- research problems. A true classic in this area. A must on the desk of every AI practitioner

The book covers many aspects of knowledge based systems including knowledge representation, problem solving by search,the marriage between knowledge and software engineering(which is a rising issue at present), temporal and spatial reasoning, uncertainy modeling and many others. The book ends with a chapter on troubleshooting, which attracts many practitioners.The book is rich with good contents. Many examples and illustrations are used to introduce the concepts. I liked chapter 6 very much for its beautiful presentation on probabilistic networks.Chapter 4 and 5 on Reasoning about time and Reasoning about space respectively are also interesting. Readers of different background will find the book extremely useful for its beautiful writing style.

I was disappointed in the way that the book was written. It was hard for me to stay interested because they just jumped from one thing too another and some things that you had already read were repeated.

Jacob Frank speaks with a voice that comes from an ever distant time and place. He grew up in Poland, in a Jewish Society that was almost totally destroyed during the Holocaust. Out of the sixty four members of his family in Poland, Jacob Frank is the only one that survived. The only physical remnant of his entire family that still exists is a single photograph of Jacob Frank and his wife Dora. Mr. Frank carefully sewed the photograph into his clothing, and kept it hidden during nearly six years of survival in concentration camps and prisons in Poland and Germany. He wanted always to remember his wife and family; and to keep their image in his mind and heart. The poignant photograph of Jacob and Dora Frank is included in the book. With great courage Jacob Frank tried to protect his family and to help other people in the concentration camps, but he was trapped in a nightmare world where life had little or no value. There was not much that he could do to protect himself, or anyone else. Jacob Frank was valuable to the Nazis, because of his great skill as a master tailor. They needed him to make uniforms and suits. Because of his forced duties as a tailor, Mr. Frank often came into close contact with some of the leading Nazis; including Heinrich Himmler and Adolf Eichmann. He felt intense fear when he was in their presence, and sometimes he could not bear to look directly at their faces. He could only see shadows of evil when he glanced at them. As one who was there and survived, he speaks with a deep and unique insight into the Holocaust. He helps us to understand what really happened; and the men capable of carrying out a plan of genocide on a huge scale. He helps us to understand the great tragedy of entire families being murdered and lost forever. The witness and memory of Jacob Frank provide a valuable service to the world. His important book sheds light on a time of great darkness, and helps to stand guard against any future Holocaust.

I loved the book...I hated the book. What can I say? It's a wonderful story about a terrible time. From the time I picked up the book I found it difficult to put down. Knowing that Mr. Frank is indeed a survivor, I needed to get to the part where he was safe. I especially liked the way author Mark Lewis presented the very essence of Mr. Frank by not altering his accent, his syntax. The question and answer format was interesting. Not too many questions, rather, enough to help clarify certain points.

As the story begins, Jacob Frank a youth full of hope and dreams embarks on his journey. Who could imagine that choices, decisions made at such a tender age would so dramatically impact his life? As the years pass, the hope, the ambition, the joy of this wonderful young man is slowly, systematically robbed from him. It is a story too horrible to imagine yet Jacob Frank recalls every detail. He describes these events with simple details-not so dramatic as to be unbelievable. The idea of the Holocaust is unbelievable, unfathomable. Thankfully, for survivors like Mr. Frank, the world will know the horrible truth.

This book describes itself as a brief survey of the philosophy of history intended for novice historians and beginning students of history. It is brief, only 140 pages including the index, but it packs a lot of information. It begins with an overview of our Western heritage, starting with the Hebrew notion of a linear history and the Greek notion of a critical rationalism in the study of history. Then it carries us through to modern history, stopping along the way to describe the positions of such thinkers as Augustine, Voltaire, Hume, Kant, Hegel, and Marx, along with a host of lesser well-known theorists. It distinguishes between the speculative and analytical approaches to the study of history, providing a chapter for each approach. It moves into the more modern debate between the positivist and idealist approaches and ends with the current debate between the possibility of objectivity and accusations of subjectivity by postmodernist thinkers. It covers enough of each approach to give the novice a basic understanding of the issues involved and a knowledge of which historians took what side. It is a very good book that serves well the purpose it was set to serve.

Mark Gilderhus surveys the important topics and works of historiography. The book serves as a great introduction to the pursuit of history. I wish I had this book to refer to when I couldn't explain why I was chasing an M.A. in History (even my professor couldn't explain what we were doing their, but at least I had Marc Bloch to guide me in just doing it).

An excellent book introducing the origins of historical thought, the changing ideas and methods of history, and the challenges of history in the postmodern era. Also, the introduction provides a great discussion on the importance of studying history. A very understandable and readable book, only 135 pages. I recommend it highly for anyone interested in studying historical philosophy.

This deck wouldn't have been something I would have normally bought. I have been doing tarot for years, and I thought this deck looked too "fluffy". However, I was delightfully surprised when I found this on Lightworker as an On-line tarot program. Far from thinking "Oh, now I don't have to buy it" I thought "Wow, this deck is really cool, I wonder how much it is".
Put it this way, it just went on my wish list...
The best thing I love about these cards is, you don't really have to be a tarot reader to use them. Almost everyone knows these stories, even children, and can therefore make use of the symbology and bridge the gap between misunderstood "instrument of Satan" and "subconscious trigger mechanism."
For as long as I have been doing tarot, one might think it would be hard for any deck to give me a new perspective, but this one did. Very nice.

I am a collector of Tarot cards, more than I am a reader of them. The oil painting-like artwork for this deck is beautiful. The artist utilizes bold and rich colors in keeping with its faery tale theme.

Each card in the deck represents a character in a folk or faery tale. The Major Arcana runs it's choices parallel to the archtypes in the typical tarot.

For instance, the "Fool" card (Number Zero) is represented in this deck by Little Red Cap (the forerunner to Red Riding Hood- and it is also the card featured on the cover in the picture above.)

The High Priestess is the Faery Godmother, the Moon is represented by Cinderella, the Devil is represented by the Big Bad Wolf (a foil to Red Riding Cap and the Three Little Pigs, another card in the Major Arcana).

The titles of the cards are the names of the characters, not the archtypes (which are only noted in the book), so parents won't need to be squeamish in trying to explain to curious little seekers what a Heirophant is instead of pointing out Aladdin's Genie.

The minor arcana does away with the traditional court cards, meaning no kings or queens, but rather replaced with cards like The Seeker of Wands (all topped with butterfies) or the Guardian of Crystals (replacing the pentacle suit).

The accompanying book to the deck is a nice read, but a thicker companion than many of the tarot decks that are on the market right now. Experts may want to skip to the source and insight areas detailing each card. Beginners may be more interested in the different layout and reading options.

The cards themselves are larger than normal decks (and harder to shuffle if you have smaller hands) but very detailed.

This is a good deck if you are a collector of childrens stories or interested in folklore, and a fun one to look into if you are looking for an alternative/compliment to some more of the somber tarot decks that are out there.

Isha Lerner brings through profound wisdom in her cards that have both captured the essence and brought solutions to any difficulty I was facing. Every time I drew cards, they were so on target, that I felt myself uplifted, inspired and genuinely guided towards wholeness.
I highly recommend Inner Child Cards to anyone who wants to connect with their true self, the beautiful child within that we may have forgotten about, as we became adults. I own many different card decks, however, this one is my favorite of all. Highly recommended for inner healing!

Mark Nanos continues to challenge the conventional interpretations of the New Testament. After what I thought was a homerun in The Mystery of Romans, Nanos came slightly back down to earth with this text. By all means however, this is definitely an interesting perspective and logically sound and contextually accurate so far as I could tell. With a little imagination, one can certainly place themselves in the timeframe of early Church and see these events unfolding before your eyes giving rise to at least the possibility of this alternative reading being correct. What I hold most dear is the ability of the author to reconcile the differences between early Christianity and Judaism in a way that shows that the two sects are not at different and at odds with one another as we make it to believe in today's society. I'll be looking forward to the more critical reviews that come out of the "scholarly" community. This book at least deserves a consideration but I believe its going against the flow of mainstream interpretations will likely get this book ignored for no other reason than pride. Grass roots students will surely appreciate this book.

I really do enjoy reading Mark Nanos insightful studies of NT books. I wish he could somehow cut his sentence length by 1/2 to 2/3's. This would make for easier reading & less difficulty connecting the multiple ideas, contrasts, & comparisons often found within a single sentence--there a joke in there somewhere. Perhaps suffice to say you won't get through a sentence of this book in a "Nanos' second"--it takes much longer. I found his conclusions both plausible & well supported, but not as thought provoking as his Romans work was (for me anyway). Maybe it's just because I anticipated what I could expect from him after reading his Romans book. Overall, an informative book that Reader's Digest ought to consider for it's Condensed Version Library.

Mark Nanos argues that Galatians must be understood primarily as a letter of "ironic rebuke", Paul's knee-jerk reaction to the news that his Gentile converts have begun to accept circumcision, and thus the "whole Torah", as a complement to their faith in Christ. Furious and exasperated ("like a parent scolding children being influenced by their peers"), he wrote this letter with smoldering sarcasm and vilifying rhetoric -- neither of which portray his converts or those advocating their circumcision (or Paul himself!) very accurately. Nanos calls this "ironic rebuke", which served the purpose of redirecting the Galatians to his circumcision-free gospel by means of humiliation and shame.

Nanos strikes quite a blow in redressing the identity of the circumcision advocates, and he dispenses with some misleading labels: (1) "Judaizers" is a misnomer, since the verb "to Judaize" is intransitive and would thus refer not to Jews who impose the law on Gentiles, but to Gentiles who choose to adopt the Jewish law. (2) "Opponents" is misleading, for it implies that these advocates explicitly opposed Paul's gospel with their "circumcision gospel", rather than seeking perhaps to complement the former with the latter; it implies that Paul wrote to defend himself, his gospel, and his apostolic authority. But far from defending himself, Paul was making an offensive and preemptive strike, well anticipating that these advocates would (indeed) become his opponents after the letter arrived. (3) "Agitators" or "troublemakers" have no place in an historical discussion, since they are simply drawn from the surface of Paul's rhetoric; he thought they were troublemakers, but they themselves obviously didn't, and many of his converts apparently didn't think so either. (4) "Teachers" has been the fairest label to date, but no evidence suggests this specific vocation. For all these reasons, Nanos cautiously speaks of "influencers" -- local Galatian Jews in charge of administering proselyte conversion (circumcision rites) to Gentiles. These influencers represented minority (Jewish) groups in terms of the larger pagan communities of Galatia, but they represented the majority in terms of Jewish interaction with the Christian coalitions.

This naturally denies the traditional view that the influencers themselves were Christian. With powerful and robust exegesis, Nanos shows that Gal. 1:6-7 and 6:12 actually point to non-Christians -- who, furthermore, had no ties to distant Jerusalem. They are made parallel to (but not identical with) the "pseudo brethren" who had invaded the private Christian meeting in Jerusalem (Gal. 2:4), and to the "circumcision faction" who afterwards appeared at Antioch (Gal. 2:12). Just like Peter who capitulated to outsider influence, so now the Galatians were succumbing to social pressure from wider Judaism.

So Paul's converts didn't really want to become Jews per se, anymore than they desired returning to pagan practices. These were attractive options (Gal. 5:2-3, 4:8-10) only in so far as they allowed the Galatian Gentiles to "fit in" and escape marginalization from the wider Jewish community (and the much wider pagan community) of which they were a part. Paul cannot stomach these options in any case, for they would undermine precisely what Christ's death on the cross had accomplished for the Gentile race (Gal. 2:21; 3:1; 3:13-14). When he vilifies everyone -- cursing the influencers (Gal. 1:8-9, 3:10) and wishing castration on them (Gal. 5:12), deriding his own converts as "bewitched fools" (Gal. 3:1) -- we learn more about his offensive and exasperated state of mind than the actual character of the parties involved. If Paul could have foreseen the consequences of his rhetoric in the centuries to come, he might have decided to "change his tone" (Gal. 4:20) after all.

Mark Nanos is one of those rare biblical scholars capable of being innovative while maintaining a focused respect for every chapter and verse of the text. One reviewer has already called this book "the most thorough and innovative investigation of Galatians since Betz's commentary in '79", and I heartily concur. In fact, on many points, Nanos has superseded Philip Esler, whose own compelling work on Galatians presents a sharply sectarian and less "Jewish-friendly" Paul. Both represent the best that scholarship currently has to offer.