This book gives a brief history of the Church, its beliefs, and various other things Catholically related. I think this would be for someone entering the Catholic Church, or for those who have been away from the Church for some time now, but I don't think it's written in the way it should be for welcoming souls into the Church that Christ established. I would suggest reading another book and being well-grounded in your Faith before reading this, because there's nothing you're missing in here.

I am very displeased with this book and it's accuracy (or the lack thereof) of "church" history! I would not have given it a single star if I had of had that choice! This book is very procatholic in it's origin of "the church" and doesn't even mention when it thinks it began! I would recommend this book to no one!

This would have been a very good book (liked the larger print and the timelines) but everything seemed to tilt toward evangelical Protestantism (not surprised being this was a Moody publication). It overlooked a lot of early history that is very important to the Church today.

Protestants are very keen on things just coming from the Holy Scripture and I admire that. But, denominationalism is not in the Holy Scripture. Scholars estimate there are over 2600 groups (denominations) who lay claim to being the Church, or at least direct descendants of the Church described in the New Testament. I repeat 2600! But for the first thousand years of her history the Church was essentially one. There were occasional heretical groups going their own way as alluded to in the book, to be sure, but the Church was unified until the 11th century. Then we have a split, the Roman Patriarch pulled away claiming headship of the Church (we know this to be the Roman Catholic Church).

What happened to the other folks? Of course we know of Luther's Split from Rome and the many, many splinter groups thereafter, but what happened to the other folks? And why didn't Luther re-associate with them?

The authors could have done a better job answering these questions.

I found this book to be most beneficial on church history that I have read. It is compulsory reading at the seminary I attended and for good reason. Its wide arc'ing coverage is second to none. Previous reviewers have obviously bought the book expecting to find the authors to have written from the readers own world view. This is not how historical books are written, before writing a review know the subject being dealt with.

The saying goes "little knowledge is dangerous" but pankrust fits "the cancer". In Ethiopia, it is traditional to represent the wealthiest, the creative, the most resourceful and the developed as "backwards". While the good liars are considered "civilized". Peole get confused where to label foreigner liars like pankrest. If you have not gotten yet what I am saying, visit southern central as well as northern Ethiopia, talk to the people and ask your opinion about the cancer. They will all tell you what pankrest is

Bless Ethiopia is an injustice to the rich cultural heritage of the Ethiopian people. The author overlooks this country's vast antiquities and its modern day universities,museums, and other institutions. This book continues the western media tradition of portraying Ethiopia as a desolate and depraved country when in fact it is one of many middle eastern countries which gave us civilization. It is particularly troubling that the author chose to include photographs of certain individuals with social unacceptable behavior for the purpose of stereotyping the whole country of Ethiopia. Certainly, all societies have miscreants but is that representative of the whole country? The rich history of Ethiopia is documented in the Old Testament of the bible. Surely, if the author of this book was familiar with the numerous historical sites of Ethiopia and its modern day development, he would have included it in this book. This book was less than complimentary to the Ethiopian people and a distorted image of this great country.

Richard Pankhurst is probably the leading expert in the world today on the subject of Ethiopian studies and Ethiopian history. I find him to be very objective and truthfull. I have read many of his works and they surpass any other's in this field, in historical accuracy, depth of study and insight.

For years I have been studying and reading every book on Ethiopia I could get my hands on. I have interviewed quite a few of the elders of the Ethiopian Jews that live in Israel. I have been researching Ethiopian history and gathering material for a book I myself am writing on the subject. I have even traveled extensively in Ethiopia gathering information for my research.

I can honestly say that nobody has helped me like Richard Pankhurst. He has made the study of Ethiopia his life's work and has done so with magnificent zeal.

Local Ethiopian historians such as Bilay Gidday have written a distorted account of Ethiopian history. They are, basically, blindfolded with national pride, corrupting the truth in order to draw a picture portraying Ethiopia as the source of human culture and cradle of both Christianity and Judaism and the Ethiopians as the chosen people.

Richard Pankhurst has successfully managed to fish out the true historical facts from Ethiopia's vast ocean of fantastic myths, legends and folk-tales. For this, he will forever be favoured by scholars of Ethiopian studies all over the world.

I salute him for yet another inspiring piece of work and wish him many more years of such productivity.

Joseph Musael, Jerusalem, ISRAEL.

You may find some of these essays interesting because of the historical material (i.e., quotes from GA's and other church teachings and historical details), but, in general, the essays cover topics far too obtuse to be of interest to the general reader. However, if you are interested in 'deep theological questions,' you may find the discusssions interesting.

With much interest in studying Disney, I appreciate the author's different opinion towards the Disney company. But as a book itself, the author seems to have put up a lot of irrelevant stuff into it, such as where did the word "boycott" in English come from, and what does the Bible say about the act of boycotting, which all seems unrelated to the Disney's issue. The author should have gone deeper into the issue, such as to provide more evidence and analysis to support his argument. But the author has not done that. As a whole, I will instead recommend you only to read the first chapter of the book!

The potential contribution of this little volume cannot be overestimated: Imagine the joy of visiting a Disney theme park unspoiled by the repugnant bigotry that drives Land and York's calls for boycotting Disney. If they are successful in convincing fellow bigots to avoid Disney, then the rest of us will surely have added reason to take our children to "The Happiest Place on Earth." Thanks, Dick and Frank!

If you are looking for a book to helping you get the most from your experiences with the Disney company like I was, this book is not for you. The book was written by members of the religious right and is all about boycotting Disney. Don't waste your time with it.