Tarazi's unique thesis is thought provoking and intriguing. From a linguistic point of view it is certainly interesting: hermeneutics based on word play, grammatical and syntactic structures, and intra-textual relations. It also suggests a historical reconstruction of the struggle between Paul the apostle and the heads of the Jerusalem church. It furthermore posits a thesis that the Gospel according to Mark is a systematization in narrative form of the whole struggle from a Pauline point of view. This thesis is worked out with those linguistic methods mentioned above. However, unlike what the reader from Warwick, RI stated, Tarazi stresses that most probably NO ONE accepted Paul's authority, and that is precisely why he set his preaching in writing. If everyone accepted his authority he would not have needed epistles or a biased written Gospel. To undermine this point, namely that Paul was utterly ALONE (with the exception of Timothy and a few others), implies that the reader totally misunderstood the work. It also seems that the reader from RI also misunderstood what the struggle was all about: the Jerusalem pillars accepted Christ as Messiah, so the struggle is not "between faith in the crucified Christ as Messiah and the function of the Mosaic Law for the messianic community". It is a struggle for the canonization of the authentic (in Paul's case, his) midrash on Scripture. It is therefore solely about the function of the Law for the GENTILIC messianic community based on the ASSUMPTION of Jesus's messiahship (cf. the "apostolic council" in Jerusalem). That is the "matrix" which the RI reader skilfully misses. The "matrix" of Scripture is: whose word will eventually be authoritative. It is not "assumed" as the RI reader naively states, thus undermining the whole argument! As for the king and priest vs. prophet model, the RI reader has to be careful not to make simplistic statements. The post-exilic situation in Yehud, which is somehow biasely reflected in the priests/prophets struggle in the Hebrew Bible, is far more complex than a simple "prophet vs. priest", which allowed the RI reader to make the quick analogy to Paul vs. the Jerusalem church not to say that that is not implied. Nevertheless, critical caution is necessary. It is precisely the occasional hastiness and quick leaps into assumptive conclusions that mark the small weakness of Tarazi's arguments. Some of the jumps he makes in his laudable analysis of the personal names (cf. reader from Washington DC) in Mark are simply shaky and need further evidence in order to strengthen the argument. Moreover Tarazi sometimes "overuses" the intra-textual relations in order to posit a historical reconstruction and not simply a linguistic/textual hypothesis. Although, in general, his textual/linguistic evidence is sound whenever it refers to related texts or whenever it posits literary dependency. The work is definitely worth reading and if it gets scholarly notice it might reshape Marcan scholarship.

Professor Tarazi's valuble work presents first and foremost a hermeneutical key to the writings of the New Testament. Mark and the Epistles of Paul are explained by the same thesis which runs through the OT and NT. Tarazi's new work builds on his monumental commentary entitled "Galatians: A Commentary" (SVS Press, Crestwood, NY 1994). In that commentary, Professor Tarazi presents Paul's thesis of the function of Scripture. The baptized Galatians, like Israel, reject God, even after they have accepted Paul's preaching. The Galatians accept Paul's Scriptural authority as from God as revealed in Paul's preaching of Christ crucified, in whom the Galatians were baptized. Paul's thesis is that the prophets were rejected by the kings and temple priests (cf. P.N. Tarazi, "Introduction to the Old Testament, 3 vol, SVS Press, Crestwood, NY). Paul's epistles are each a reminder of the condemnation from God for those who heard his word and reject it (the destruction of Jerusalem in 587 and the exile of Israel), and the mercy of God on those who have gone astray and return to him (cf. Intro to OT, vol. 2). In "Paul and Mark" Prof. Tarazi demonstrates how Mark's Gospel is a history of the continuing struggle between the prophet and the king (Paul and the Jerusalem pillars), as much as this struggle is between faith in the crucified Christ as Messiah and the function of the Mosaic Law for the messianic community. Fr. Paul's powerful insight further provides an explanation of the canon based on Scripture itself, without need for appeal to patristic sources, and the function of the Nicean-Constantinopolitan Creed of Faith. This is a book which is the first in a series which returns NT biblical scholarship to the biblical text. Its explanations of the function of Scripture, Paul's thesis, and the Gospel of Mark are illustrated with numerous examples taken from everyday life which most Americans can recognize. Its common sense exposition is the key to making Fr. Paul's thesis accessible to all. His style is direct, even suspenseful, and often witty. This work is a resource for biblical studies which has no equal in print.

This first volume in a proposed set of four provides a hermaneutical key to Mark's gospel by analyzing it as a literary production based not only on the life of Christ but also Paul, many of its events symbolically depicting the vehement conflict between the Pauline mission and the church in Jerusalem. Its analysis of Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic wordplay is invaluable (i.e. Barabbas translated as bar abba, "son of the father", prefixed by "so-called" to symbolize the kind of "false son of God" or "false messiah" who advocates military rebellion), and its view of many of the gospel's characters as literary stand-ins (John the Baptist as Paul himself!) provides a challenging yet coherent view of a gospel that has often been viewed through history as a lesser composition than subsequent synoptic books. All in all, it provides a unique contribution to the field of Markan studies.

NIGHTSHADE is quite a fun romp. The book is a bit cliched and predictable in places, but such a solid adventure that it's quite easy to excuse its flaws and simply appreciate it for the enjoyable escapade that it is. The characters are very well drawn and the setting fits perfectly with the story that's being told. If you're in the right mood for this sort of thing, then you'll find it to be a complete delight.

There are quite a number of Doctor Who cliches present throughout the story. Thankfully, Mark Gatiss has the good sense to set up many of them slightly differently than we're used to, so that the majority are not particularly annoying. Still there are moments of predictability and a few sections suffer because of their lack of originality. The ending in particular is a bit of a disappointment, as it feels jerky and uneven after the smooth and slow build-up. On the other hand, the beginning and middle sections feel deceptively comfortable and safe, which would most likely be a deliberate ploy, given the theme running through the story that highlights the dangers of nostalgia. Those who dwell too much on the past will be doomed to have no future (by having their souls eaten by loud, slobbering nostalgia-monsters, one presumes). Although the theme is hit a bit too loudly at a few points, for the most part it makes a nice backdrop.

The town and the characters that inhabit it are fairly stereotypical of the average sleepy English village, but for what the story was attempting, they work perfectly. Despite the relatively large number of people mentioned, most of them are given enough brushstrokes to seem realistic. The back-stories provided are quite effective and excellent at showing how the past continues to live on in the present. There are several nice touches that subtly demonstrate the link between then and now that thankfully manage to stop well short of beating us over the head with the imagery. The retirement home, the graveyard, the old semi-abandoned church, and the monastery are all quite successful at establishing this. And, of course, the most blatant reminder of one's past comes in the form of the TV serial, Nightshade, and the actor who portrayed the title character.

Fortunately, Mark Gatiss chose to use Quatermass as the basis for his television nostalgia-fest rather than the Doctor Who television show itself, thus sparing us from a lot of silly fandom in-jokes (the Professor X gags would come from elsewhere and become less funny with each passing reference). The sections featuring Edward Trevithick, the actor who had played Professor Nightshade, are far and away the best parts of the book. Gatiss obviously had a great affection for this character. He gets the most interesting background, his part of the story is the most exciting, and he certainly is the character with the most depth.

NIGHTSHADE isn't the best Doctor Who story out there, but it certainly one of the more enjoyable ones. For a fairly standard story it packs a surprising amount of subtlety. The nostalgia theme is done well and is not overused. It's certainly an entertaining tale that manages to rise above the comfortable runaround status that it could so easily have fallen into. Rereading this book in 2002 means that it seems much more light than it did ten years ago (or even eight years ago when I read it the first time) given all that has happened in the Doctor Who novels since NIGHTSHADE's publication, but it still manages to pass the test of time.

This is one of the best Doctor Who novels ever written. It's tightly written and superbly paced. The characters are crafted well, and the baddies are - well, the baddest. It is a genuine atmosphere story if there ever was one. Read this, and you will get the heebie-jeebies. It's fantastic.

England, 1968, and Edmund Trevithick is a retired actor, best known for his lead role in the science fantasy series, 'Nightshade'. The days of fighting imaginary monsters are long gone, and Edmund has settled down in a sleepy village. And then the Doctor and Ace arrive, the lines between fact and fiction get blurred, and Trevithick finds that 'Nightshade' is more like nightmare...

The publishers of Doctor Who novels finally realised that there was really nothing to their story arcs (Timewyrm and Cat's Crucible) that really warranted having them, and so a new era of more-or-less stand alone novels kicked off with this one - and a very good choice too, its an absolute corker!

Mark Gatiss has gone on from this to not only write a number of very good Doctor Who novels, but to co-author and star in the wonderful 'League of Gentlemen' series and, indeed, play the Doctor himself.

This novel is often wonderfully understated and gets deeply into the emotions of the characters, which is quite important to make the science fiction-horror elements come to life.

Hey, stop reading this review and order it!

In Novel History, editor (and contributor of one essay) Mark C. Carnes has gathered together an interesting collection of essays written by historians examining works of historical fiction with, often, rebuttal essays by the authors of the books. I will admit that I have only read three of the novels selected for this collection but that did not stop me from enjoying this book at all and, in fact, has lead me to purchase a couple of the historical novels discussed. Not all the pieces work effectively. It is a little awkward having Thomas Fleming discuss his work both as a historian and a writer of fiction and Richard White was too harsh in his assesstment of Annie Dillard. For all these quibbles, though, this was a fine and interesting exercise and it does make one look at historical fiction in a different way and appreciate the complexity of the form and the energy and skill in producing it.

This is an absolutely fabulous collection. The organization is simple: each historian/critic presents his/her argument and each author defends his/her novel. It is always charitable, never mean-spirited, but doesn't quibble about addressing the tough issues of historical representation. It is not, however, the confrontation that is memorable, but rather the gifted, mind-blowing, awe-inspiring writing. I read this book with angelic joy radiating from my face. Word choice, grammar, imagery were perfect. It is a masterpiece. I re-read and own this book with pride. Mark Carnes should be rewarded for superb editing and compiliation skills. I cannot recommend this book enough.

This is a companion volume to Mark Carnes' "Past Imperfect", which examined the historical accuracy of some popular movies. In the current book, several well-known historians contribute appreciations of some famous historical novels and many of the authors respond with essays of their own. Eugene Genovese adds a new essay on William Styron's "The Confessions of Nat Turner"; it's his first treatment of the book I've read since Genovese became identified as a sort of neo-conservative. What is new is that he finds deep religious themes in the novel, which is somewhat surprising for Styron, the self-proclaimed atheist. He also deftly analyzes Styron's deconstruction of the romantic revolutionary hero, showing that figure to be more problematic than the Left supposed. Genovese's conclusion: "Confessions" is far more than an artifact of the 60's--it will live on.

Joanne B. Freeman provides a perceptive explication of Gore Vidal's "Burr" as a satire. She finds that Vidal is attuned to the contingency of early American politics and the unsureness of whether the American experiment could survive--conditions which Joseph J. Ellis also explores in his Pulitzer Prize-winning "Founding Brothers". We tend to think of the Founders as marble statues who could never have screwed up; Vidal shows us their all-too-human sides (especially T. Jefferson.) Vidal responds with a witty essay defending the accuracy of his historical novels.

Other works that come under scrutiny are "The Great Gatsby", Gary Jennings' "Aztec", Wallace Stegner's "Angle of Repose", John Updike's "Memories of the Ford Administration", Russell Banks "Cloudsplitter" (by "Battle Cry of Freedom" author James M. McPherson.) Larry McMurtry's "Lonesome Dove", T. Coraghessan Boyle's "World's End" (with a nifty reply from Boyle), Barbara Kingsolver's "The Poisonwood Bible", Charles Frazier's "Cold Mountain" (by Tom Wicker), Tim O'Brien's "In the Lake of the Woods", and Don DeLillo's "Libra, among many others, are examined. In short, this book is a feast for history buffs and lovers of good fiction. Buy it immediately.

On the Rim is a fascinating study of the power of the Grand Canyon in American Culture. The author's breadth of knowlege is impressive, pulling together elements of anthropology, history, philosophy, sociology and literary/artistic criticism. His scholarship is impeccable, but the strength of the book is his personal stories of the people he has met and his own encounters with the Canyon.

This book is as grand in scope as the canyon itself, taking in ethnography, history, biography, and criticism. The thoroughness of Neumann's research, the sensitivity of his observations and the insight and wit of his language are reminiscent of the work of new journalist masters such as Gay Talese and Jane Kramer. Neumann brilliantly documents how "spectator culture" goes far back into U.S. history, into the receding zone of nostalgia that we look to for our origins. Also fascinating are his accounts of how the canyon has been framed by science and religion, and how the canyon's developers staged it in the manner of a theater or museum. I especially appreciated Neumann's sensitive and thoughtful use of tourists' stories. It would have been easy to make fun of the canyon's tourists and to present them as the ultimate mass culture nightmare. Instead, Neumann prompts the reader to think about the popular logics and traditions that lie behind tourists' practices. Neumann concludes with a meditation on why people keep coming to the canyon through "the depths of time"--what they come looking for, what they think they can create or recover. It is a moving finale for this fine book.

Having traveled to the Grand Canyon many times during my life I am always taken in by its true greatness and wonder. This book goes beyond the countless picture books that have been published on the canyon by giving the reader some real insight. The author gives several different perspectives on the canyon that you are not likely to learn by just touring the canyon for a few hours. This book lets true Grand Canyon lovers experiance the canyon in depth and make the reader eager to return and see it from a deeper perspective.

The illustrations are really what make this book special. My 7 year old didn't find it scary enough to be cool, though he looked interested as we read it, but my 5 year old thought it was funny. This is a nice story about three friends having a surprising Halloween adventure, just right for children who like Halloween to be just a little spooky, not frightening.

The characters in this story are two boys, Wendell, Floyd, and a girl named Mona. The story takes place on Halloween night. Wendell is dressed as a doctor and he has invisible potion that makes him invisible. Then four witches come and call the kids names. I could relate to this story because people have called me names. This book is a good book to read around Halloween time.

My 3-year-old just loves this book. He chants the witches' taunts over and over, and he likes looking for the black cat in the illustrations. He refers to me as Leona from time to time...

This book was very exciting and influential about the lives of SEALS in the Vietnam war. i would recommend to anyone.

Your in the jungle...... charlie is all around you, what do you do? Blow the c**p out of them, thats what. If enjoy special forces novels this is the book for you!

This book really does justice to the SEALs who risked their lives in the jungles of Vietnam. The use of a hydrogen bomb in the story really pulls the reader in and the book never gets boring. I just can't wait 'till the next one comes out.

I really enjoy this book and come back to it for an enjoyable evening read. The book is organized by engine size (and separate chapter for Turbos of all years). The color photos are great. Published in England (printed in Hong Kong) with many photos of rh drive as well as lh drive cars. Does not include as many cosmetic details/differences as Mark Haab's book, but the well-written text covers the major functional changes and then a summary at the end of each chapters lists options, colors, chassis number ids, and the production data for each year and model.

This is one of the best books about classic Porsche 911s available. It provides detailed information and pictures of the specs (incl. interior & exterior trim, engine, available colors, option-lists and many more) of all 911 series. You want to know, which model exactly you are looking at, next time you see a classic 911? Read this book and you'll know.

This book presents a good overview (facts, models, pictures) of the Porsche 911 since its creation until mid 90's. It does include some vehicle numbers and performance data. But it is not a technical manual. I think its a good start from potential 911 restorers, to get acquainted with the 911.

This is a very good book for the general reader. The author is a practicing psychiatrist (which aroused some of my worst fears), but he will not tolerate any of the psychiatric nonsense which has been written about homosexuality. In particular, the Freudian antagonism to same-sex behavior is very accurately dismissed as "based on faith," a clear indication that the author has tumbled to Freudianism as a religion, just as much as Christianity, Judaism, or Marxism.

The author rightly gives more attention to Kinsey than to Freud, and I say "rightly" because Kinsey was a scientist and Freud was not.

The historical treatment is a little weak, but this does not harm the book fatally, in my opinion. The coverage of the Ancient Greeks is fairly good, although I am a little bit reluctant to follow the author down the current modern trail in discussion of Greek pederasty. What had been a scornful and shocked moral condemnation now seems to have been replaced by a condemnation based on "power differences" between the mature erastes and the younger eromenos. This is clearly an argument which stems from feminist philosophy, and it is not one which I think any man or boy involved in such a relationship would accept. The primary factor in such relations is love, according to the people involved. And, indeed, the younger partner holds all the power in many cases.

Leaving that aside, the major weakness in the historical account is that Mondimore accepts John Boswell as his only source for "gay history" between the Roman Empire and the Middle Ages. This is simply an error, and a regrettable one. Boswell was a propagandist, not a historian.

There are several good chapters on biology and genetics, and Mondimore correctly notes that "there is now little doubt that sexual orientation is substantially influenced by hereditary factors in both males and females."

Having covered the history of the subject (with the errors noted), and the science which needs to be understood by both experts and laypersons, Mondimore winds up with a good overview of the struggle for gay emancipation, AIDS, and the rest of the modern tale, which bring us up to the present day. The book closes with a stirring call for acceptance and freedom.

The only thing I really missed hearing about in this book is something most Americans never fully appreciate because it is such a fundamental component of American culture: the taboo against two males displaying physical affection for one another. Aside from a few jocular exceptions (for example, during combat or sports), this taboo is part of the air we breathe. The taboo is not enforced too strictly against little boys, but once puberty sets in, God help the boy who wants to hold his boyfriend's hand, or walk arm-in-arm, or just sit comfortably nestled with male friends.

This taboo against any display of physical affection at all is absolute. School principals will punish boys who violate the taboo. So will peers and so will parents. At the first hint of physical affection, the hatred begins flowing: "Faggot! Queer! Sissy!" It's enough to make Americans believe that every society must act like this, but this is a radically false concept. Other societies accept male friendship and rejoice in it; in some cultures it has been normative.

So this is a slight difference in perspective: where Mondimore calls for acceptance and freedom, I would suggest that we simply need to dump a trashy and stupid taboo. But, again, like the Boswell mistake, this does not destroy the book. It's a good one, suitable for reading by anyone, and highly informative.

Mondimore's book helps shed light on a subject where more heat than light is perennially generated. As a pastor who deals with the issue and needed basic information to inform my views, Mondimore does a valuable service for readers looking to research the often misinformed and misunderstood issues around homosexuality. The book follows a well thought out sequence and it is clearly written. Most valuable are the sections on the history, anthropology and sexual biology of homosexuality. As the church wrestles with this topic --from an often uninformed and polarized position, Mondimore's book can be a useful reference tool to explore and dialogue about the issues.

I had to write a book report for Biology class and I thought this was the least boring choice on the list of acceptable books. When I got my hands on it, though, it looked so nasty, old, and clinical that I wasn't too eager to settle down and read it.

Well, it turns out the author broke the book into sections focused on particular topics, such as historical, social, and biological points of view, so that you don't get overwhelmed. Inside each topic, there are a number of sections (like for biological analysis: effects of levels of particular hormones reaching the fetus during embryonic development, retrospective and prospective studies, hormonal organizing, and tests on lab animals) so you can get at exactly what you're into.

Mondimore also makes connections from one topic to the next, and building this way makes it flow well and somewhat organizes it all as it spills into your head.

Overall, it's one of the better all-in-one overview books, and the author is queer but presents his material objectively, so if you're trying to pick out a book on this topic, I'd recommend this feller.

A collection of 10 essays by Tully, this book presents some of the facets of Indian life in a very objective manner. Certainly, the content reflects the fact that Tully understands India as well as any Indian. He covered mostly politics and religion only. The books includes a few pictures too.

This book gives a far more in depth picture of India than one is able to get by traveling around the country as a Westerner not familiar with the many languages of India. Tully has a great love for the country, but bares the many contradictions and conflicts that exist in the vast Indian society beyond the small English speaking elite.

Mark Tully writes with great sympathy for India and this book of impressions is full of surprising insights. I recommend it strongly!

Six lectures delivered by Carlyle in 1840. He classifies six kinds of heroes: as Divinity (Wotan, paganism); Prophet (Mohamed); Poet (Dante, Shakespeare); Priest (Luther, Knox); Man of Letters (Johnson, Rousseau, Burns); and Ruler (Cromwell, Napoleon). The trait that defines a hero is: absolute sincerity and firm belief in his principles.

In his highly rhetorical lectures, Carlyle highlights and reinforces the role of the individual in the social process, as opposed to the role of the masses. And he did that precisely when the foundations were being laid for the most influential "pro-mass" movement in History: Marxism. The tragedy of Marxism, at least one of them all, is that, when translated into action, the blind masses were also led by "heroes" of the most authocratic sort. Not properly the work of an historian, these lectures are vivid, inflamed and enthusiast. Their uselfuness for our present age is precisely that they remind us of the crucial role significant individuals play in history, to accelerate or slow down (and even reverse) the process of social change, which is usually more gradual, diffused, and diverse.

Carlyle is not properly a historian or a philosopher, but a moralist, a fervent admirer of excellence, and a prose-poet of the first rank. Six meditations deal respectively of the hero as: Divinity, Prophet, Poet, Priest, Man of Letters, and King. If this book can't rightly be shelved with philosophy or history, it belongs in Literature with a capital "L," and Poetry. Carlylye loved the English Language and used it masterfully, energetically, and reverentially, without a trace of the trivial overindulgence of self-conscious and self-absorbed "poets."

This is an extraordinary work, let modern liberal critics say what they will of their 'mass movements' and 'diversity'. Long after they and their productions have bitten the dust, Carlyle will continue to speak to the enlightened few, and perhaps one day, it is to be hoped, to the enlightened many.

This work is much more than just a study of various influential men in history. Carlyle has very interesting notions of the historical process itself, the spread of religions and their demise, the importance of "true belief" in things, as opposed the unbelief that merely follows rituals and procedures. For Carlyle, true belief, is the beginning of morality, all success, all good things in this world; Unbelief, scepticism, the beginning of all corruption, quackery, falsehood.Unbelief, for instance, is at the root of all materialist philosophies, eg Utilitarianism which find human beings to be nothing more than clever, pleasure-seeking bipeds. It is also at the root of all democratic theories: faith in a democratic system means despair of finding an honest man to lead us.

Whether one agrees with Carlyle or not in his appraisal of democratic and other systems, one must admit, at least, that very little good is to be gotten from "the checking and balancing of greedy knaveries." If we have no honest men in government or in business, but only a bunch of self-interested quacks, then we cannot expect any system, however ingenious, to save us. Even the most skilled architect will not be able to construct a great building, if you give him only hollow, cracked bricks to build it with. Find your honest men, says Carlyle, and get them into the positions of influence; only then will it be well with you.