Compiled and edited by David Alan Black, (Professor of New Testament and Greek, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary) Rethinking New Testament Textual Criticism is a selection of essays by five learned authors concerning interpretations of the New Testament and the various methods to determine the original text among conflicting readings. Topics addressed include the case for reasoned eclecticism versus the case for thoroughgoing eclecticism, the case for a Byzantine priority, and more in a thoughtful account that spans debate from the nineteenth to the twenty-first centuries. The essayists include: Eldon Jay Epp (Issues in New Testament Textual Criticism: Moving from the Nineteenth Century to the Twenty-First Century); Michael W. Holmes (The Case for Reasoned Eclecticism); J. K. Elliott (The Case for Thoroughgoing Eclecticism); Maurice A. Robinson (The Case for Byzantine Priority); and Moises Silva (Response). Enhanced with both a Subject Index and a Scripture Index, Rethinking New Testament Textual Criticism is a work of confidently recommended scholarship and a welcome contribution to Christian Studies reference collections and reading lists.

This is an excellent book that tries to fairly portray the three major streams of N.T. Textual Criticism; Reasoned Eclecticism, Thoroughgoing Eclecticism, and Byzantine Priority. Eldon Jay Epp writes an extensive introduction and talks about some of the main issue facing modern textual criticism. He is followed by Michael Holmes who presents the case for Reasoned Eclecticism. Then J.K Elliott argues for Thoroughgoing Eclecticism, and Maurice Robinson sublimely conveys the Byzantine Priority point of view. Moises Silva consummates the book with a tongue in cheek critique of the all of the views presented, making no apologies for his own bias in doing so. All in all, an excellent book, Epps article was especially engaging, and I'm afraid the dust is still settling in my attic. This book is definitely worth the price.

From virginal Eden to lascivious lavatory, this frightening photo-document exposes the moral corruption in its most vivid form. Consider yourselves warned!

"Long live the new flesh!" This quote from David Cronenberg's cinematic playground of perversion, Videodrome, announces the theme of Torture Garden, the inimitable London nightclub established in 1990. We are not allowed to categorize it as simply a fetish club, because it is "multi-dimensional, ever evolving and mutating." One way to get a handle is to peruse the strict dress code on its website. Your look better be: burlesque, fantasy, theatrical, period costume, glamour, drag, alien, cyborg, cabaret, mutation, cybersex, fetish, SM, body art, rubber, leather, PVC, or uniforms. Sounds like the East Village on a Saturday night.

You take the Angel Tube to get to the current site of Torture Garden's monthly parties. You really do. These partygoers don't engage in much actual BDSM play, although there is some walkabout bondage. It's mainly a Stand and Model venue, a nightclub/dance scene. There's no room to swing a cane anyway. There's a floor show by some of the top out-there acts in the world. There are performance photos here of (among others) Miranda Sex Garden, the Genitorturers, Ron Athey, Medieval Magick, and Angel Grinders & Chainsaws, who use industrial equipment to send fountains of sparks gushing from the groins of troupe members.

The production package of Torture Garden, the book, is superb. Chaplin's candids capture the feverish ecstasy of a world where nothing is true and everything is permitted. They are brilliantly grouped and sequenced. Sivroni's mostly larger format portraits bring you face to face with folk in costumes far beyond fabulous, exuding the potency of their homemade personas. The Videodrome quote above is one of many at the bottom of every page. These provide a quick, painless introduction to the TG philosophy. A few favorites:

"...sadomasochism enjoys all the forms of religious piety - kneeling, praying, worshipping, sacrificing, invoking and punishing." -- Terence Sellers, The Correct Sadist

"The first duty of man is to become artificial." -- Oscar Wilde

"The body is both a pleasure palace and a torture chamber." -- Charles Levin, Body Invaders

"It's your body, play with it." -- Fakir Musafar, Modern Primitives

"Your body is a battleground." -- Barbara Kruger

At Torture Garden, the concept of costume is raised to extremes of creative imagination, transcendent otherness and disgusting repulsion. By the time you get through this volume, your own definitions of these categories will have been severely mangled. On one night a performer named Franko paraded through the crowd on crutches, accompanied by a nurse. He was nude except for syringes, catheters, rubber tubes and various medical receptacles containing various bodily fluids. On the same night, completely independently, a female partygoer appeared wearing a brassiere consisting of two plasma bags filling with her own blood.

One man's features are covered by a remarkably lifelike effect of the flesh of his face pulled back and nailed to his skull. Hellraiser-style pinheads abound. Crazed male ballerinas, harem girls, rubber boys, sirens, harpies, transvestites, androgynes, hermaphrodites, naughty nurses, naughty nuns, naughty Nazis, welder's goggles, gas masks, catcher's masks, nine-inch nails, helmets, horns, spikes, wounds, rings through everything and to top it off, a spitting-image Laurel and Hardy. Happy Halloween in Hell!

David Stern is amazingly good at conveying how to shape your tongue/month to produce certain sounds. I have been trying for years to imitate a northern british accent, but within minutes of listening to his intructions, the accent was 100% improved (this, of course, will take some practice however). I highly recommend any of his courses.

If you look at all of Debbe Kennedy's writing, there is at least one thread connecting all her thoughts: talk is nice, but action -- making something really happen -- is the only path to achievement.

What's great, then, about this "Strategic Action Series" is that, page after page, Kennedy suggests, profiles, highlights, or lists things you can do to move diversity from the discussion table to the office suite or plant floor.

The series is a perfect blend of philosophy, reporting, and move-on-it-now lists. Thus, when completed, the series not only helps you see diversity in a new light; these books also help you think about your own potential for converting diversity into actions with both a personal and organizational payoff.

I have about 10 atlases about the Bible, and this is by far the best. Also all the maps about the history of Christianity are excellent, I only wish that there would have been more for Europe (Dechristianization) in the modern times.

There is a neat little series of books published by Eerdmans in the US and Gracewing in the UK, that I have appreciated a number of their titles over the last couple of years. It is the "Christian Mission and Modern Culture" series edited by three of the leading English-speaking missiologists of our time. I would commend these books to you. They are all around 60 pages long and are extended essays pertaining to a particularly relevant missiological theme. The other day, flying cross-country, I was able to both read and digest "Believing in the Future" by David J. Bosch.

Bosch was one of the leading missiological thinkers of our time. A South African, he was tragically killed in a car accident in 1992 soon after writing this essay - which was then published several years later. It is an attempt to formulate the parameters of missiological theology for the West. It is both bold and very accessible. I would commend it to all who are eager that tomorrow's church speak the Gospel boldly and effectively into tomorrow's world. It also can serve as an introduction to Bosch's major missiological work, published a year before his death, "Transforming Mission: Paradigm Shifts in the Theology of Mission" (Orbis, Maryknoll, NY, 1991). In that major work David Bosch makes demands upon his readers, but it is well worth the effort.

When I read a book I debate with it. The richer the conversation we have, the more scribblings, jottings, and underlinings a book will gather. My copy of "Believing in the Future" is now heavily annotated. Bosch's thesis is that we live in the "post" everything era. He writes, "We truly have entered into an epoch fundamentally at variance with anything we have experienced to date" (page 1). He points out that the Western church and its theology is deeply embedded in theological and ecclesiological paradigms that mute its ability to be what it should be, a missionary people taking the message of the Kingdom to ! a waiting world.

In an interesting observation he suggests that "it (is) impossible to distinguish between African THEOLOGY and African MISSIOLOGY... African theology (is), to a significant extent, missiological through and through" (page 27). This is true of most Two-Thirds World theologies. Meanwhile, Western churches have, for good reasons and bad, "operated on a basis of symbiosis between church and society and in which there were, officially, no nonbelievers" (page 28). The implications of this have been further reaching than most of us are prepared to imagine. While the time when this was the norm is passing, we still tend to function from this theological and ideological base.

This little book provides a missiologist's overview of postmodernity and its influence upon our culture, and he illustrates how the church is going to have to reshape itself if it is to be missionary as far as the West is concerned. He is critical of much of our church growth oriented thinking. "Mission," he tells us very firmly, "Is more and different from recruitment to our brand of religion; it is alerting people to the universal reign of God" (page 33). The implications of this are mind stretching, and will stretch us all as we seek to live this out in the years ahead.

Bosch's words should not make most of us Westerners feel very comfortable, but he does not leave us without hope and clues as to how we might proceed. He does not promise his readers success, indeed, on the last couple of pages he tells us that the charter for missiological praxis and reflection is not merely the Great Commission in St. Matthew 28. He suggests that we also take note of St. Matthew 10: "Be on your guard... they will hand you over to the local councils and flog you... On my account you will be brought before governors and kings as witnesses... It will not be you speaking, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you" (Matthew 10.17-20). This is the most forceful way that I can i! magine of telling us that the age of Christendom is over and a new and very different kind of world is being born.

There is no way that faithful Christians in the West can be satisfied with our present modus vivendi. As we move away from it Bosch is telling us that we cannot expect to be encumbered by so much of the baggage that in the past has given us respectability, but which has muted the power of the Gospel message. Perhaps it is significant that in that same Chapter 10 of Matthew, Jesus also tells his disciples, as they go out into the towns and villages of Israel, that they should heal and cleanse as well as preach - and that they should not allow themselves the luxury of extra money, excessive clothing, and other excess baggage. "Whatever the future might be, our missionary task will remain. Let us prepare ourselves for it" (Page 61).

This book is very helpful in finding books on the Samaritans. It gives you the list of books by author in alpha. It also gives you key to subject index of topics and also includes short title index. This book is a must for anyone wishing to learn more of the Samaritans who do live in the land of Israel today. This book entails as much information from books to manuscripts to magazine articles and referances to library stock. This book includes not only English but many various languages. enjoy!

Funny, funny, funny. What surprised me most was finding out it was based on actual events (meaning that they did go on a camping trip). I enjoy everytime I listen to it.

If i had to describe this book in just one word, I would, of course, say it's simply amazing. Cecil Beaton was a truly genius British photograher.

Great CVE book with the latest ideas of how to improve CVEs. I used this for my MA thesis.