EP Sanders delivers a memorable and convincing book on the subject of traditional Palestinian Judaism and Pauline theology. The major thrust of this book revolves around the idea that Judaism was not a works-righteousness legalistic religion which many 20th century scholars have attempted to prove; Instead, Sanders argues that traditional Judaism is a covenant religion where one maintains his status within the elect group through his piety and obedience.

To bolster and support his argument Sanders relies on textual support from Rabbinical sources, Qumran literature, and several apocryphal texts. Sanders argues that Jews believed their obedience did not earn their salvation but maintained their status within the covenant group. In other words, obedience was the condition and not the cause of salvation. This covenantal nomism as Sanders dubs it makes for an interesting argument and deconstructs the idea that Judaism is a works-righteousness religion.

Although Sanders' treatment of Paul leaves something to be desired, he does devote some serious time to reworking and understanding Paul's beliefs. Sanders sees many similarities between Paul and traditional Judaism, but also many huge differences that separate the two camps. According to Sanders, Paul believes that the only righteousness that matters comes from Jesus. Paul doesn't believe that the law cannot produce righteousness, but that the righteousness it produces isn't adequate. Paul's soteriology is extremely Christocentric and because of this the law has become irrelavant.

Also striking is Sanders' belief that Paul argued for a participatory function in Christ's death and resurrection. Sanders sees more than just an expiatory or forensic meaning in Paul's theological language. Unlike traditional Judaism which believed that righteousness was forensic and legal based on the law, Paul sees the Christians role as one of suffering and participating in Christ's life. The believer is mystically joined with Christ and through this union the believer dies and and will eventually rise with Christ. As Sanders notes the idea of being a member of corporate Israel and being a member of Christ are two starkly different concepts.

Although this books is a bit lengthy and does devote more time and study to Judaism in comparison to Paul, it is still a welcome addition to any library. This book is valuable simply for it's deep study of the Jewish faith and what the Rabbis and early 1st century Jews really believed.

In his thorough, Paul and Palestinian Judaism (1977), E. P. Sanders attacked two of the most sacred views of Pauline scholarship. The first was the view that Rabbinic Judaism as a legalistic religion based on works righteousness. Second, was the idea that St. Paul's thinking is Jewish. The power of this book has not diminished after nearly thirty years. It is without doubt the greatest and most important work on the theology of Paul in the latter half of the 20th century. This is compulsory and compulsive reading.

From the cover one is in for a treat, both to the eye and palate. The photography in this cookbook is simply gorgeous. How can one take a shot of a man holding a rooster in front of a bin of corn and make it look like a million dollars? It's here.

The recipes are the best of the tradition which the French are world famous for. Here are stressed the best in ingredients, cooked lovingly with patience and care and technique to bring out their succulence from French Regions.

Feast on such as "Cod and Vegetables with Garlic Mayonnaise" "Stuffed Breast of Veal" "Lyon Style Onion Soup" "Veal Stew" "Pears in Beaujolais."

Truly Bon Appetit.

Bravo Monsieur Bocuse. Finally, an authentic French Cuisine Book. The recipes are simple and truly traditional. The ingredients are available at your corner grocery store and THAT is a refreshing change. The only French Cookbook you will ever need.

This is a very enjoyable story retold with the most captivating illustrations. The vocabulary telling this story is wonderful and is a great book to read to the young and an excellent book for the early reader. Children will enjoy this enhanced version! This is not a book to miss.

Students are sure to enjoy this hilarious account of how many of our nation's wonders were created. This tall tale has been "spruced up" with a rich and colorful vocubulary, and is combined with illustrations that will keep the reader coming back for discovery time and time again. Steven Kellog's series of tall tales are invaluable in the classroom as students experience various literary elements such as: genre, author/illustrators, and theme related impressions.

Paul Cadmus: The Male Nude was just named a Lambda Literary Award Finalist in the Visual Arts Category. Congratulations to author Justin Spring! The winners will be announced on May 29th, 2003 in Los Angeles.

This book is a treasure for any Cadmus fan. While Lincoln Kirstein's 1992 monograph includes reproductions of all of Cadmus's major paintings, it only has a dozen or so of his figurative drawings. Justin Spring's book more than makes up for this lack (it has 67 color plates). The fact that he does so by taking on the seemingly narrow focus of male nudes is truly appropriate. While the paintings are often highly active, heavily detailed social satires with not-so-subtle homoerotic elements, the drawings are calmer, context-free, more admiring meditations on the male form. They are clearly the work of an attentive observer and a disciplined draughtsman. When the art world was going ga-ga over abstract expressionism and slap-dash gestural drawing, Cadmus was painstakingly working in virtual isolation. And though a number of sketches are included in this volume, it is the finished drawing that most interested Cadmus. Reginald Marsh, Jared French, Pierro dela Francesca, Michaelangelo, Signorelli, and Ingres were his dominent influences. Along with ballet photographer George Platt Lynes. And from writer E.M. Forster he acquired a philosophic outlook that would guide him both as an artist and as a man: "tolerance, good temper and sympathy--they are what matter...if the human race is not to collapse."

Spring's five essays (Introduction, Beginnings, Development, Maturity, Conclusion) provide everything you need to know to fully appreciate the plates. He addresses Cadmus's homosexuality directly and without sensation and discusses Cadmus's well-reasoned reluctance to be associated with more blatantly sexual gay art (including his refusal to have one of his works reproduced in a biography of Tom of Finland, an admirer of Cadmus). Spring also identifies the models for many of the drawings; this is significant because Cadmus considered his drawings to be a collaboration between himself and his models. Cadmus's life partner Jon Anderson was his frequent subject from the late 60s until the artist's death, and it is fascinating to see how Anderson's body changed over time; the model clearly never lost his sense of comfort and ease modeling nude.

Not revisionist history, just a long overdue update on a neglected but significant American artist of the 20th century. Universe Publishing (a division of Rizzoli International Publications) is to be commended on the design and quality of this book.

"Rational Metric Notation" was written toward the end of Paul Creston's life. It is an eccentric book with distracting deliberate misspellings and not really representative of Paul Creston's thought--something of an embarrassment actually. On the other hand, "Principles of Rhythm" is a vital book no musician should overlook. Read Paul Creston's "Principles of Rhythm"; listen to his music whenever you get the chance; and forgive him "Rational Metric Notation."

This is a published master's degree (I think) thesis. Its prose is rather plodding, I'm sorry to say, but its subject is certainly worth treating. It's a very sad thing that the two Paul Creston books referred to above, "Principles of Rhythm" and "Rational Metric Notation" are now unavailable. I've never had a chance to look at "Rational Metric Notation", but in my opinion "Principles of Rhythm" is one the most important books about music ever published and the only logical exposition of rhythm ever published. (By the bye, I'm also rather fond of "Pentatonic Scales for the Jazz-Rock Keyboardist" by Jeff Burns, very much still available.) To sum up, I give "Paul Creston" five stars just for existing.

Through the words of Dr. Haggai and the life example of Paul J. Meyer, I have been unexpectedly swept up into the exciting world of sacrificial giving. There are very few examples like this of businessmen who model the JOY of sacrificial Christian giving. All I can say is that when I read about Paul, I was challeneged to do likewise. The book truly was the start of a great adventure for me as a businessman. Read it and let it transform you as well.

It is interesting how some of the best restaurants are littlehole in the walls that are hard to find. That is the case here with'Paul J. Meyer and The Art of Giving'. This book is a gem, and even amazon.com says it is hard to find.

This book is a testamentary to the goodness in giving. We all know it is better to give than to receive, Paul Meyer is a perfect example. There is story after story of the rewards in giving. You will receive the strength to lead your life in stewardship from this book. "What goes around comes around!" That saying is so true when it comes to giving.

The biblical basis in this book is a very strong feature and a welcome breath of fresh air in a book. "Give, and it will be given to you" Luke 6:38. "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything in prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus" Philippians 4:6-7. "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." Phillipians 4:13. These are just a few, all good for the soul and one's strength in spirit. This is a great book. Read it and be blessed. Thank you.

This book is, without competition, the greatest work I have ever read. Laffoley, through his artworks and inspiring text manages to lead the reader into a higher dimensional realm..

Talk about mind expanding literature!!

Yes, that's right. This book is one of those sleepers by a 21st century megagenius that, like a few other megageniuses, won't be recognized as such until the rest of the world catches up with him. But he's planning on it... Laffoley thinks that this next century will be a time of evolutionary unfolding that will be as much a jump as the Renaissance was, and, again, he's making a very good case for it in this book. He's calling our new Millennium the beginning of the "Bauhauroque," an elision of the Baroque and the Bauhaus... Let Paul fill in the rest.

Paul Laffoley is a painter, by the way, and his images, reproduced in a good number of color plates in this book, give a very graphic expression to the phenomenology of revelation. This is a seminal book, and a very great value for the price. Just consider how much a first edition of, say, James Joyce's Ulysses might bring... And all you have to do is wait...

This is film is based on of one of the finest short stories ever written. Eric Roberts is nothing short of brilliant as the young man I always thought had to be the prototype for Holden Caulfield. The sensitivity & simplicity of this film is to be commended because it never would have worked as well as it does otherwise. This movie should definitely be seen by a far wider audience.

Based on Willa Cather's stunning and justifiably one of her most famous short stories about a refined but underpriviledged youth whose dreary existence and desire for escape leads him toward a devastating end. Immediately evokes echoes of "The Great Gatsby"--ironic since it was published in 1905, 20 years before Fitzgerald's masterpiece, but makes me seriously wonder if he reviewed Cather's work before embarking upon his novel. Both have as their central character a wistful young man at odds with their lowly backgrounds and its inaccessibility for riches, culture and beauty, and as a result of their escapist desires and wild fantasies both become unrealistic, grand dreamers who meet a terrible fate. But whereas Fitzgerald's novel leaves one inspired in the end because we're left with the awareness that Gatsby represents larger-than-life qualities that transcends his physical self and will continue to live on despite his demise, Cather's story is utterly dark and bleak with the unmistakable impression of the same qualities dying with Paul. To fully appreciate this story one has to understand the context in which it was written. It was The Industrial Age, and along with all the positives of that era--unprecedented growth, progress and wealth--there was a dark underbelly evident in the widening gap between rich and poor, workers dehumanized and viewed as expendable, and the working class' deprivement of beauty and culture, which Cather viewed as necessities for the soul and spirit and makes her "case" excellently in the character of Paul (a young Eric Roberts), a 17-year old Chicagoan from the working classes who is alienated from his good-hearted but no-nonsense father and does badly in school, as he has no friends among either his teachers or fellow students. Paul finds his dreary home and school life unbearable and escapes at the theatre where he works as an usher--here he truly comes alive as he marvels at the glorious patrons, loses himself in the beautiful paintings for hours at a time, and mingles with the glamourous stage actors. But this pleasure comes to an end when Paul gets fired and his father finds him a dull job as a clerk, which unwittingly provides an opportunity to turn his dreams into reality when he steals $2000 and takes off for New York. Here he stays in a grand hotel, buys resplendent Brooks Brothers clothing, dines on fabulous cuisine, and is in his element among the smart set. But with all this luxurious living two grand doesn't last long and with the authorities and his father closing in Paul becomes disillusioned when he faces reality and rather than go back to his dreary old existence in Chicago, he takes a drastic, final, tragic action. Faithful adaptation with very sparse dialogue, appropriate since Paul's enchantment with culture and beauty is best expressed not by words, but by the people and objects, sights and sounds which make such unfathomable impressions upon him. Initially I hesitated about paying almost [price] for a 52 minute film--included is an excellent introduction by Henry Fonda--but am glad I did. A must-see for fans of Cather's story, as well as those of "The Great Gatsby," as this is as a fascinating companion piece on the dark side of The American Dream.

Riesner's work is very helpful in the study of Pauline chronology. There are several reasons to buy this book: 1) his clear survey of chronological constructs by other Pauline scholars, 2) his thorough bibliography, 3) his excellent treatment and background study of numerous events in Paul's early ministry, and 4) the clarity, thoroughness, and balance of his arguments. Riesner sets a new standard with this study, and it is very high. It ought to be utilized by all involved in Pauline studies.

Riesner contends (and rightly so) that the interpreter's view of the chronology of the early church will influence how the interpreter understands the theology of the early church. With this thought in mind, Riesner seeks to define, with as much supporting evidence as possible, the early chronology of the church, which is essentially a chronology of the early ministry of the Apostle Paul.

Riesner begins by surveying contemporary scholarship's contributions (and confusions) over the chronology of Paul's ministry. Two groups in scholarship emerge. One group suggests that Acts is essential to developing a correct chronology of Paul's ministry. Acts is able to do so, since it is essentially accurate in historical details. A second group tries to do with Acts, since Acts (in their view) is essential inaccurate concerning historical details. Riesner points out that nearly everyone depends, at least at some point, upon details in Acts.

Riesner recognizes a problem in the chronologies proposed in the literature he surveys: often one or two 'absolute dates' are given, and the rest of the chronological details follow from those few established dates. In the next section Riesner seeks to go point-by-point through a chronology of the early ministry of Paul, discussion the evidence at each point for particular events in Paul's life and ministry. He is wary not to merely fit a date into a chronological scheme without providing good support for that date independent of other chronological markers (if possible).

Riesner interacts with both conservative and non-conservative literature. The bibliography is massive (80 pages, with approximately 30 sources per page!), and footnotes in the volume indicate that Riesner is, indeed, familiar with the literature. He acknowledges that Acts must be used as an historical source for reaching conclusions concerning a chronology for Paul's ministry. As one example where he isn't afraid to reach a conclusion typically reserved for conservatives, Riesner accepts the South Galatian view for the destination of the letter to the Galatians.

In this review's opinion, Riesner has admirably accomplished his purpose. He has constructed a well-supported chronology of Paul's early ministry. This work is only for the serious student or scholar-it is not light reading! Riesner expects that the student knows Greek and other languages, though the work can be read profitably by English-only students. This work is a must-read for New Testament professors and any seminary students doing work on the chronology of Paul's ministry. Without doubt, this book earns a five-star rating.

Glenn L. Weaver glweaver@mninter.net Adjunct Professor, Central Baptist Theological Seminary

I am a youth pastor in a local church. I have often struggled with the current model we have of the American church. The traditions we hold so dear are so often not based on clear New Testament teachings. I have longed for a church where "one another" passages are lived out, where accountability is strong, where the pastor is not a CEO but a servant, where leaders are biblically chosen and where the Church is not divided on various theological camps. The only place to usually find this, sadly to say, is in cults (where the gospel is not preached in its power or truth).

Banks will offer you hope if you are like me and you are burned out on "church as usual." He will challange you to examine Scripture with fresh insights into house churches in their historical context. He will challange your notion of "Church" in our westernized thinking and will lead you to a biblical and fresh restoration of the true Church of Jesus Christ. We must move away from the Institutionalized church and return to the New Testament pattern that Banks gives in detail in this book.

Robert Banks interpritation of the Apostal Pauls view of the Church is enlightening to the modern reader of the New Testament. Banks presents a contextual historical account of St. Paul's understanding of the Church of his day, which in return spurs the thoughts of the reader to contemplate the state of the Church in this day and age. This is an excelent book for those interested in understanding the historical beginings of the Church as well as what Paul understood the church to be. I recommend this book to all who are contemplating what the Church is called to be in this day and age, by looking at what it originaly was.