It is a thorough analysis of the technological advances of our era and the depth of the internet industry. I was particularly interested in the implications for Latin America and the technological transfer from liberalization. It is a useful book for practictioners and for more academic minds.

Creative Destruction presents a fascinating revival of an old concept in the context of recent technological developments and innovation. It offers a brilliant account of how information technologies accelerate the process of creative destruction today and helps understand how information society articulates with in a wider framework of economic history. Those interested in Latin America will appreciate, in particluar, the recent developments in the telecommunications industry in the region.

This is an outstanding collection of articles. These papers combine scholarly depth with usefulness for practitioners. They will help you understand where we've been and forecast where we are going with the Internet. I teach courses on Internet Business Strategy and will use this collection next year. My favorites are Baumol's "Innovation and Creative Destruction; McKnight's "Internet Business Models: Creative Destruction as Usual" and Lehr's "A New Theory of the Internet Firm." They provide a solid conceptual basis for understanding the implications of the Internet economy. One thing truly unique about this book is the thoughtful and detailed discussions of the implications of the Internet on international business. There are six papers that focus on these issues. I have not seen this anywhere else. In a world where people publish books peddling derivative nostrums about the network economy, it's a pleasure to finally find one that deals with these issues in a serious, thoughtful and, most of all, useful way.

Conversational in tone, interesting to follow, this book reads more like a novel that keeps you turning pages with avid interest rather than another dry "technical" resource. As someone who deals with SQL PL on an almost daily basis, I was pleasantly surprised to find I learned many things going through this book. The authors don't try to cover every tangent on the subject, and end up with an excellent resource with specific examples that deal with the topic it covers well: DB2 UDB SQL PL.

A couple of weeks ago I sent Paul Yip a question about condition handling of messages. He gave me the answer and told me about his new book. Since then, I have purchased the book and it has proven very valuable. It explains SQL procedures, triggers and their scope much better than anything else I have run accross. It has made my life easier.

Excellent Book! . This book has much awaited, much needed information on SQL Stored Procedures. A must read for DBAs and DB2 Developers.

To me, this is a must teaching book for all serious Christians. A book on prayer, spiritual warfare and exercising our faith in a God who loves us.

For Christians, the ultimate goal is to be the Bride of Christ. To do this, as with all those who are awaiting their bridegroom, we must prepare ourselves. This book helps you to do that, teaching in a clear understanding way, what is required of Jesus' church, His bride and how to obtain that goal.This book
will not disappoint you, I promise!

Highly recommended! A must read for Christians that take their walk serious!

The most extraordinary book I've ever read outside the Bible. It has passed Thomas A. Kempis' "Imitation of Christ" and Oswald Chambers' "My Utmost For His Highest" on my list. It is so 'meaty', you cannot just read it through, but must pray over every section til it becomes a part of you. Simply lifesaving! Wonderful!

Finally! - purpose in prayer beyond ourselves!

Billiheimer's book will stand along side those other great classics on prayer written by the likes of Andrew Murray, E.M. Bounds, and Norman Grubb.

For individual devotion or congregational study, this book will challenge typical Christian thinking, enlarge small worldviews and propel the believer into enthusiastic and faithfilled intercession.

For me this book is one of the most profound and important books I have ever read about relationships and communication. Although it is written as a book about marital relationships, it has implications for every kind of relationship, and not only intimate or dyadic ones. And, although it is written as a pop psychology book, I think it makes a real contribution to the social-scientific understanding of relationships and communication -- that is, it stands up well as a general model of communication and relationship. I think it is a great book and would be of great value not only to those trying to solve relationship problems but to those wanting to understand the ways in which self and relationship are intertwined in general. It illuminates all of the areas of one's life in which one communicates with others and, as another reader said, can be as valuable for understanding past relationships as for dealing with present ones.

This book has really come to the rescue in my life. I am 24 and my partner 21. We've been together 8 months and started having conflicts after moving in together about 2 months ago. After a big fight one day, she brought this book home and we agreed to read it together every day.

Since then, there's been a massive change for us. A difficult change too, but so worthwhile. Margie and Jordan are really great people, and they make the book funny, informative and loving, but strong enough to shake you up. It's just so great... learning to learn is difficult, but ultimately incredibly rewarding. 1000 stars!

If you are having conflicts in your relationship, I cannot recommend a better book for helping understand your own reactions to your partner's behavior. This book shed enormous light on my relationship. That relationship ultimately fell apart, but this book helped me to understand why.

Firstly, it is nice and short (140p), good for those who have to study other books for college courses. There are only 4 Chapters and an introduction, with a clear numbering system for each section that should make it an easy book to discuss.

Intro: Full outline of the argument

1. The Setting in family, church, culture, and nations

2. The contemporary challenge

3. An exegetical response to the challenge

4. Conclusion

As you can see from the chapter headings it is a response to a new theology of Justification that denies the imputation of Christ's righteousness. Consequently, it has a polemical style and focusses on the issues raised by this new approach. For me, it is reminiscent of Leon Morris's two great books on the atonement.

The apostolic preaching of the cross (1984)
The atonement: It's meaning & significance (1984)

It is a slightly odd book because 3 out of the 4 chapters are very easy reading, whilst the 3rd chapter is quite dense exegesis. In the first two chapters Piper provides a great overview of the practical importance of the doctrine of imputed righteousness. The fourth chapter is just a summing up of what he has said in the whole book.

Is it worth reading? It depends on where you are at. I found it very encouraging and affirming on the crucial nature of this doctrine. It didn't really expand my thinking so much as provide a solid basis for believing. I also liked being put in the picture about current trends in theology. It will help me spot the position when reading commentaries etc.

The exegetical chapter was clear, solid and well argued but I don't think he has totally proven his case on all points.

John Piper is among the most respected American pastors of our day, in part because he comprehensively integrates pastoral theology with biblical and systematic theology in a way that produces a full-orbed Christian perspective and grounding.

In this book, Piper focuses on the imputation of righteousness that is central to the Protestant doctrine of justification by faith alone. Many giants of the faith regard the doctrine of justification as a showstopper doctrine, essential to a right understanding of Christianity. As such, it is no surprise that similar to other essential tenets of the faith such as the Trinity, the resurrection, and the inspiration and authority of Scripture, the doctrine of justification is a stumbling block for many that has resulted in various forms of retreat.

The latest retreat comes at the hands of Robert Gundry, who attempts to argue that the imputation of Christ's righteousness to the believer as a result of faith is unbiblical. He argues instead that the inherent faith of the believer is what is counted as righteous in the act of justification, rather than a transfer of Christ's righteousness to us through faith. While this might seem a nuanced difference, in reality, it goes straight to the core of what it means to be justified. Gundry's view in a number of respects is much closer to Roman Catholicism's irresponsible mixing of justification and sanctification in ways that render many sections of Scripture unintelligible. Gundry believes that the act of justification (of our inherent faith) defeats the mastery of sin over our lives (which is traditionally the separate work of sanctification), rather than a legal transfer of Christ's righteousness to us as the basis for justification and the sole grounding for subsequent sanctification. Gundry's view represents a basic retreat on the doctrine of justification, a retreat that at its core resembles all other retreats in elevating the inherent abilities of man and taking away from the work of God by wholly underestimating the pervasive nature of human sin and overestimating man's inherent abilities.

It is this position that Piper interacts with in this book. Chapter 3 of the book is clearly the most crucial, since this is where he offers an exegetical critique of Gundry and in the process, validates the imputation of Christ's righteousness to the believer that is central to justification. Piper's examination of Romans 1-6 in particular is outstanding, along with 2 Corinthians 5. He builds a logical, step by step case that reveals how Gundry's position is untenable, and provides believers with a great deal of reassurance that Christ's imputed righteousness, rather than their sin-tainted acts, is the basis of our right standing with God.

I will note some minor quibbles with the book that deserve mention but do not significantly detract from the outstanding presentation given by Piper. First, there are times when Piper tends to devote too much ink to peripheral points (at best). The book is four chapters long, yet the reader will find that a good portion of the first chapter doesn't really deal with justification as much as it is a lament by Piper on the theological emptiness that pervades many evangelical churches. And while this is certainly a view I strongly agree with, I found it a bit misplaced here. Second, in his examination of Romans 5, Piper spends several pages trying to demonstrate that Paul had infants in mind in this passage of Scripture. While the discussion is interesting, it is a peripheral point that is not central to Piper's overall argument that Romans 5 discusses the imputation of Christ's righteousness to the believer in contrast to the imputation of Adam's sin to all of humanity. Lastly, Piper avoids the often thorny topic of whether faith is a gift of God or not. While I admit that my thoughts on this are far from complete, it seems to me that this question is pertinent to the discussion on justification and has ramifications on Gundry's view and Piper's response to it. But it seems as if the whole topic is not in view in this discussion, when I think perhaps it should be.

These quibbles are clearly quite minor, and as such, should not discourage potential readers from picking up this book. The doctrine of justification is possibly the most important issue of the Christian faith that's rarely discussed, and as such, is very vulnerable to wayward error creeping in. This book plugs the leak within the body of Christ on the question of imputation and does it in a charitable yet thorough way. Given Gundry's history of doctrinal hiccups, I have rarely considered him to be an authority on doctrine and theology, but the fact is that many other people do consider him to be an authority. As such, his retreat on justification deserved a high profile response from a solidly evangelical perspective. This book is it.

John Piper is hard NOT to respect. He is among a handful of solid theologians who makes the effort to address the challenges to the evangelical faith (from within) with grace, clarity, and sincerity.

In this work, Piper defends the traditional evangelical understanding of imputed righteousness, i.e., that when a person trusts Christ, he not only has his sins forgiven but is, on the positive side, given the righteousness of Christ. This concept, imputed righteousness, is currently being challenged from within evangelicalism.

Piper quotes the leading proponent of this view, Dr. Robert Gundry, explains Gundry's perspective, and contrasts it to the traditional one. He then explores the relevant Scriptures and demonstrates why Gundry is wrong. He attempts to lead the reader to conclude that the Scriptures do in fact teach that we are counted as righteous once we are in Christ. We exchange our sin for His righteousness.

Piper is not really much of a salesman. Although his language is clear and his sincerity obvious, it is the strength of the Scriptures themselves that do the convincing. And that is not bad! I highly recommend this work. The serious laymen can understand this volume, but it is not "pop Christian" by any means, but requires the reader to think. And that's not bad, either!

As we see more and more challenges either directly toward the heart of the Gospel or the periphery, it is great to have Piper on our side! Here is my favorite quotation from this brief volume. The argument is that if Paul had taught Gundry's view in Romans 1-5, the questions of chapter 6 would never have arisen (this is more formidable than meets the eye; if our version of the Gospel does not result in these questions, we may be preaching the wrong message!):

"The doctrine of justification by faith apart from works raises the question, 'Are we to continue in sin that grace may increase?...And shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace?' The raising of these questions is a powerful indication that justification does not include liberation from the mastery of sin. For if it did, these questions would not plausibly arrive..." Good stuff!

It's wonderful when an author can create a sequel that's just as good as the first book in a series. This is one of those occasions. This book picks up where the first left off and thankfully is just as good. Like the first book, this story is full of drama, adventure, and excitement. The characters grow as they learn from their experiences, and new characters add more interest and plot twists. I'd recommend this book -- even if you don't typically read this type of fiction. It's that good.

This book (like all of Sarabande's books) is worth reading more than once.

I picked up this book along with the first in the series, "Beyond the Sea of Ice" never having heard of the series or the author, in a used book store. I have never in my life been so pleasantly surprised as I have been by these two books. "Corridor of Storms" kept me up every night for a week at least an hour past my usual bedtime; I was so enthralled by the wonderful characters. Anything can and does happen in William Sarabande's vividly animated land of ice and precarious survival. The author is not the least bit afraid to take chances and write out characters in sudden and shocking situations, which keeps the reader on the edge of their seat, never taking any character for granted. I have grown very fond of Torka and his woman Lonit, who had very realistic attraction for the fatally charming Navahk. All characters are true to life, with very human flaws and conflicting emotions. More than anything else, this book has shown with striking clarity what a tenuous grip all human beings had on their very existence in the age of ice. Before I had even finished with "Corridor of Storms", I made another trip to the used book store and stocked up on the next six volumes, eagerly anticipating the rest of the saga.

"'Culture' is indeed a "beacon of the future," a new paradigm that promises ways of using dynamic artistic and cultural understanding as a means of finding new paths for the future. Culture - Beacon of the Future should be in the briefcases of political, educational and business leaders and even more in the consciousness of the public at large. We need an understanding of the whole cultural environment and a realization of how attention to cultural matters could be an asset in discovering the paths to survival as a species and as a civilization. The book deserves promotion and wide readership."

Walter Pitman, O.C., O. Ont., LL'D.

"This volume by D. Paul Schafer expands the decade-long academic attention given to the problem of culture, and sheds much additional light on this subject. It is a valuable contribution in this regard, and specifically in offering an exhaustive and penetrating analysis of the idea of culture itself, stressing its heuristic and normative potentialities towards the construction of a new world order...(T)his work...has merits that transcend the purely technical aspect. It can stimulate and enrich discussion in sociology, anthropology, and social philosophy courses that examine the nature and role of culture in the modern world, and its utility for global welfare and salvation in the future."

- The Great Plains Sociologist

Schafer's CULTURE: BEACON OF THE FUTURE is a noble attempt at defining a new paradigm for thinking about human potentialities and prospects. Schafer suggests we need to go beyond traditional and restricted definitions of human nature drawn from economics, political science, religion, psychology, and so on, and try to see humans, instead, in the broader context of culture as a whole. A more systematic, refined, and advanced view of culture, drawing on insights from many scientific and artistic disciplines, may, Schafer argues, help point the way toward a future in which human potentialities are more fully realized."

- David Stover, co-author of A Mind for Tomorrow with Dr. Erika Erdmann

Las bases científicas de la teoria de mi colega, el doctor Svenson, son sólidas y formidables!
El obeso come porque le falta SEROTONINA, y lo compensa inconscientemente comiendo de más...
Pero Svenson nos da aqui una dieta equilibrada con el elemento NATURAL QUE CONTIENE MAS SEROTONINA: EL CHOCOLATE!
Y no es que solo se coman chocolates, para nada ! Se trata de una dieta commpensada con otros carbohidratos, y al comer cierta medida de CHOCOLATES, SE TE QUITA EL APETITO Y NO COMES NADA MAS !

But it's true!
It functions !
It's THE BEST DIET IN THE WORLD AND DOESN'T MAKE YOU FEEL STARVED OR UNHAPPY!

I don't have to tell you it's DELICIOUS !!
I lost 10 pounds in a month...EATING CHOCOLATES !

This book has had no publicity...But IT WILL GROW WHEN RECOMMENDED MOUITH TO MOUTH!
It's true: Chocolate contains serotonin in a natural state... And what happens? If you follow this miracolous diet, your serotonin level will go up and YOU WILL NOT OVEREAT ANYMORE !

I followed it for 6 months and, with no sacrifice at all, no hunger, wnet down 29 POUNDS !

Just give it a try ! You'll love it !

The four volumes of the Raj Quartet overlap and complement one another, while at the same time forwarding the main storyline of the slow twilight of the British ascendancy in India, always with the rape of a white girl by Indian men as the central lodestone everpresent in the background, the nightmare which is seldom mentioned but which none can drive from their minds. Events occur, are discussed, witnessed as newspaper reports, court documents, interviews, vague recollections from years later, or perceived directly by the main characters. Then the next volume will take two or three steps back into previous events, and these same events will be perceived from another angle, perhaps only as a vague report heard far away across the Indian plain, or witnessed directly by another character, or discussed in detail long after their occurrence over drinks on a verandah. This may at times seem like rehashing, indeed as one reads the four volumes one will be subjected to the account of the rape in the Bibighar Gardens many times over; but what will also become apparent is that additional details, sometimes minor variations in interpretation and sometimes crucial facts, are being added slowly to the events discussed, as though the window to the past were being progressively wiped cleaner and cleaner with successive strokes of Scott's pen. In this way he draws the picture of the last days of the Raj not in a conventional linear fashion, but recursively, and from multiple angles. One gets the clear impression of life in India during the first half of the 20th century as similar in nature: Fragmented, multifaceted, largely dependent upon perspective and experience and never perceived whole or all at once.

Book 4 is the tour-de-force of the series, the longest and the one that covers the greatest distance, emotionally and chronologically. Into the Laytons' social set come Nigel Rowan, an officer in the political branch whom we have met before in Book 2 interrogating Hari Kumar some years after his imprisonment, and Guy Perron, a sergeant in the intelligence service who is "chosen" against his will by Ronald Merrick to serve in his unit. Merrick seems deliberately to surround himself with people who dislike him: Guy Perron, Sarah Layton, and before them Daphne Manners and Hari Kumar. Rowan and Perron, incidentally, are former schoolmates of Kumar's at the posh Chillingborough Academy in England. And they're not the only ones: The British in India seem constantly reminded that Kumar symbolizes the insoluble problem of India's Britishness. He's too British for the Indians and too Indian for the British. Perron is an excellent guide through the final days of the Raj, stolid and proper yet inwardly seething with intellectual outrage. An explosive yet sombre climax in 1947 details the very end of the British presence in India, the beginnings of the Hindu-Muslim riots throughout the country, and gives an expansive sense of just how far one has come from the small town of Mayapore and the darkly deserted Bibighar Gardens.

"A Division of the Spoils" is the fourth and final part of Paul Scott's "Raj Quartet". World War Two is drawing to a close, as is the British Raj. However, Ronald Merrick's career is still on the rise much to the irritation of most of those who come into contact with him: Merrick's involvement in the events following the incident in the Bibighar gardens in 1942 hover around him like a persistent ghost.

Scott brings the events of the three previous novels to their resolution, and examines the agonising death throes of British rule in India: the distaste of empire, of India and of the Indians felt by those Britons posted to India during the War; the displacement and disorientation of those Britons actually ruling India; the Muslin/Hindu rifts in the Indian independence movement and the emergence of Pakistan; and the unease of those Indians who found a modus vivendi with the Raj.

Mixed in with this, almost as a paradigm of the difficult birth of the new nation is the after-effect of the capture of Indian troops who fought with the Japanese in Subhas Chandra Bose's Indian National Army - how should the British deal with them, now that the Raj is nearly over? How will those troops be treated by their fellow Indians - as traitors, as freedom fighters?

As with the rest of this series of novels, "A Division of the Spoils" is written with great assurance and sensitivity. Scott uses different narrators to move the story along and departs from a linear narrative to give the reader different views of past events. It's a superb finale to an excellent work.

G Rodgers

A DIVISION OF THE SPOILS by Paul Scott is the last book in his series known as the Raj Quartet. The four books are classics, that have been read and will continue to be read centuries from now as readers attempt to understand what happened during the last days of the British Raj in India. I read history but I am also a great fan of well written historical fiction and these books are extremely well written historical fiction. Having read them, I am much more enlightened about the struggles which continue today betweem Hindu and Muslim.

Many of the characters from the earlier books converge in DIVISION, and the book introduces a new character, Guy Perron, who is a Chillingborough-Cambridge educated historian whose "period" and place are mid-19th Century India. Guy's character is used to tie up all the loose ends.

After arriving in India as a British army sergeant (he has elected not become an officer although his education and class clearly warrent it), Guy has the misfortune to be "chosen" by the recently-promoted-to-LtCol. and very wicked Ronald Merrick as his aide-de-camp. Merrick is still riddled with class envy, and sees in Guy an excellent opportunity to abuse someone he despises. Fortunately, Guy is able to escape from Merrick through the graces of his Aunt Charlotte who pulls strings to have him released from the army.

Fortunately for Guy, he doesn't escape Merrick before he meets Sarah Layton. Their story is told in this fourth volume and certain elements of the tale bring to mind the earlier story of Hari Kumar and Daphne Manners. In fact, it is through Guy's meeting of Merrick, Sarah, and another Chillingburrian, Nigel Rowan (who interviewed Hari Kumar in prison) that he becomes interested in the events at Mayapore in 1942 and the subsequent consequences for all involved.

As with other great classics, in DIVISION things do not always evolve as the reader would have wished. This book is very realistic -- sorrow and joy are mixed. In JEWEL IN THE CROWN, the first book in the series, Lady Chatterjee says she does not want to go to a heaven that excludes joy and sorrow because being human requires one to feel joy and sorrow.

Perhaps it is because humans can experience sorrow they are capable of experiencing joy. In the end, the reader discovers Hari Kumar's fate and the identity of Philoctetes as well as the difference between Dharma and Karma. This is a powerful series and a fabulous ending to the tale.