"This Blue Hollow" is a tremendous gift for residents and visitors of Estes Park. Pickering's account of the area's early history is told with the warmth and intimacy of a campfire tale and a myriad of details that substantiate his story. As a casual student of history, a former part-time resident and frequent visitor of Estes Park, and an avid hiker, "This Blue Hollow" has given me a fresh and exhilarating perspective on the crown jewel of the Rockies.

"This Blue Hollow" is an important historical resource and a wonderful story about adventure, Rocky Mountain pioneers, and the celebration of human spirit.

Volume 228 in the Medieval Renaissance Texts and Studies series, Three Medieval Rhetorical Arts is the reprinted discourse of three medieval authors on the topics of three different communication art forms. The essays are "The Principles of Letter-Writing" by Anonymous of Bologna (1135 A.D.), "The New Poetics" by Geoffrey of Vinsauf (1210 A.D.), and "The Form of Preaching" by Robert of Basevorn (1322 A.D.). All three readings are expertly translated into English and present insightful, erudite testimony of artistic values and virtues that have truly weathered the test of centuries and provide modern readers with a kind of "window in time" through which to glimpse a feeling for the culture of that time lost era. Three Medieval Rhetorical Arts is very highly recommended for Medieval Studies supplemental reading lists and academic reference collections.

Do you want to see your children converted? Are you tired of books for children that ignore the seriousness of life and the importance of receiving Christ as Lord and Savior? If so, this book is for you. It presents the Gospel to children in a compelling yet interesting way. Get it and give it or read it to your children!

Grab a cup of tea and curl up in your coziest chair and get ready for an absolutely delightful experience. I can't say enough about the paintings presented in this book. I felt like I spent the afternoon at the art museum! The poems and prose are guaranteed to lift your spirits.

Hitherto, the language of the Methodist revival has received only moderate, and mainly descriptive, attention. Van Noppen's study moves beyond description to approach the phenomenon from a «critical» angle, thus allowing the reader to assess the indictments which have branded Methodist discourse as manipulative.
Critics have stereotyped Methodism as an oppressive, reactionary discourse forced upon illiterate audiences by insidious rhetorical devices. The guiding hypothesis which underlies such analyses seems to be that the success of Methodism, if any, was not a natural and voluntary response to a religious appeal, but the effect of a deliberate, manipulative process which cynically sought to trick people into a belief system which conditioned their world-view and behaviour patterns, allegedly on behalf of industrial interests which required an obedient and submissive work force.
The investigation of the workings of Methodist discourse in its many textualised and non-textualised aspects allows one to understand the widespread popular impact of the movement in both linguistic and extralinguistic terms. The discourse analysis which constitutes the bulk of this study shows that Methodism in its early Wesleyan stage was remarkably efficient in providing a multi-modal discourse which managed to reach the working classes and to answer their needs and aspirations. The widespread popular response to the message in certain areas may be explained in terms of natural audience motivation, and there is little if any ground, notwithstanding Wesley's particular use of language and his explicitly conservative attitude, to hypothesize a deliberate manipulative socio-political intent on the part of the Wesleyans.
Van Noppen's critical analysis shows that Wesley's discourse did, however, contain the seeds of a work ethic which lay the message open to misunderstanding and misuse in post-Wesleyan Methodism. Under the influence of increasing embourgeoisement and denominational self-interest, some branches of later Methodism progressively abandoned the Wesleyan perspective, and may be suspected of sustaining capitalist interests in some parts of their discourse; but the Methodist revival as a whole cannot be indicted with intentional manipulation of the working masses.

The Decretum or Harmony of Discordant Canons is a compilation of extracts from Church councils, Church fathers, and other ecclesiastical authorities. Compiled in the first half of the twelfth century by Gratian, probably a monk and teacher of canon law at the famous law school of Bologna, it remains one of the most important collections in the history of law. The first 20 sections, translated in this work, comprise a treatise on law in general and contain a discussion of the nature of law, voluntary action, and the power of popes, bishops, and secular authorities. Accompanying the text of Gratian is a translation of the so-called "Ordinary Gloss," a commentary on the text that took its final form in the 13th century and was usually found around the margins of the text, just as it is presented here. An introduction places the Treatise in its historical context, notes critical difficulties, and explains the methods of those who commented on it. This is the first English translation of a sizable part of the Decretum and will be of great interest not only to scholars and students of Church law, but also to students of secular law, theology, philosophy, history, and political theory.

I am not a caller, and have never danced these dances, so I can't judge this collection from that perspective, however as a musician I am delighted. There are some great tunes in here, everyone is transcribed beautifully and is very easy to read. The book contains abundant historical information about the dances, as well as quotations from the period which do a great job of setting the atmosphere for these dances. I highly recommend this book.

the Early Days is an excellent history of the band from their formation in 1976 up to their record deal with Island in 1979. The pictures are extremely rare and the text provided by the guy who's been there since the beginning. A must have for die-hards.

Greek Orthodox priest James Thornton has written a magnificent study of the social teachings of the Church fathers in his *Wealth and Poverty*. One of the wonderful things about the book is the generosity with which Thornton quotes the fathers, many of whose writings are still untranslated. In the process, he makes a compelling case for the book's central claim that "concern for the moral and social health of society is by no means a recent discovery of secular ideologues and theorists, but is, rather, one of the very fundamentals of the Church's heritage" (pp. 9-10). In fleshing out the specifics of this heritage, Thornton puts the lie to two prevailing misconceptions: first, the worldly insistence that Christianity has a "pie-in-the-sky" indifference toward injustice; second, the fundamentalist religious right viewpoint that "real" Christian politics is somewhere to the right of Attila the Hun. On the contrary, the most ancient teachings of the Church, from Christ himself to the early apostolic fathers, to the later fathers, center squarely on a preference for the poor and socially rejected. The message is unequivocal: you can't love God if you don't first love your fellow humans.

Perhaps the best way to convey how exciting this book is would be to quote some of the Church fathers Thornton discusses. Here's St. Basil preaching to the rich: "'I am wronging no one,' you say, 'I hold fast to my own, that is all.' Your own! Who gave it to you to bring into life with you? You are like the man who takes a seat in a theater and then keeps out newcomers, claiming as his own what is there for the use of everyone. Such are the rich; they seize what belongs to all and then claim the right of possession to monopolize it; if everyone took for himself enough to meet his own wants and gave up the rest to those who needed it, there would be no rich and no poor." Or St. Gregory of Nazianzus on our obligation to the poor: "Since we are human beings, we must pay our debt of goodness to our fellow human beings, whatever the cause of their plight: orphanhood, exile, cruelty of the master, rashness of those who govern, inhumanity of tax-collectors, brutality of bloodthirsty bandits... All are equally miserable and look up to our hands in the same way we look up to those of God." Or how about a fourteenth century Orthodox theologian, Gregory Palamas: "The delusion and luxury of the rich even reach to the grave. In order to become even wealthier, rich people behave in an authoritarian and forceful way toward the poor; they increase the taxes of those who work for a living and rejoice in getting ahead. Like wild pigs and bloodthirsty dogs they seize the life of the unprotected poor."

Powerful stuff, and each and every word a paraphrase of Christ's own words. Read this book, let it touch your heart, and enter into a deeper Christian discipleship.

Moorhead provides a well-written, thorough review of the decline of post-millenialism and the rise of premillenialism in America in the 1880-1925 timeframe.

He works from the thesis that historical criticism undercutting the Biblical foundation for post-mill and thus the removal of all coping mechanisms when crisis hits (such as depression and world war and societal declline) led to this eschatological shift.

Moorhead is a fine writer and documents his research with both primary and secondary sources. I enjoyed this read immensely and will find it a worthwhile resource to turn to. Well worth the read and purchase for all interested in end times in America.