G. R. Beasely-Murray (B-M) set out to write a book on his full understadning of baptism, and the results are amazing. I would warn you that this book is not easy reading, but is necissary reading for those who are truely interested in God's word. It seems like B-M did not leave any stones unturned in his quest to understand baptism. He brings anthropology, history, literature, theology and many years of knowledge out in this book.

B-M starts with a pre-christian history of baptism and cerimonial washing, including the Baptisms of the essenes, John, and the baptism of Jesus. He then looks at the formation of Christians baptism in the bible (broken down into each book starting with acts). Then he does a topical look at what Christian baptism means and theology about baptism: icluding grace, repentence, and faith which are almost always overlooked in modern discussion of baptism. The book ends with a look at infant baptism.

B-M is thorough in his quest to figure out baptism. He rest his arguments on facts and logical conclussions instead of assumptions (normally a problem with modern theologins). Instead of writing a book to support his denominations theology, he has the courage to challenge it (and other denominations as well).

Although this in not meant to be an "easy reading" book on the vast subject of baptism, "Baptism in the New Testament" is well worth a careful read by the serious Bible student. This scholarly book is written by a Baptist, but as the back cover says (and I agree), "his discussion transcends denominational lines." Baptism is a vital part of the Christian experience, yet it is so often misunderstood, especially when it comes to any possible role baptism has with salvation (specifically, justification). Beasley-Murray concentrates much attention on the historical aspect of the doctrine and shows how baptism has been practiced and believed in the last 20 centuries. I would heartily recommend this book to the person who is serious about his/her study.

This is the most thorough and scholarly study of the subject of baptism I've ever seen. It is particularly noteworthy that the author, a Baptist, challenges the doctrines of his church at several points. Unfortunately, at the end of the book, he fails to maintain his earlier conclusions when discussing the question "Is baptism necessary for salvation?" In spite of this inconsistency, this is an outstanding work.

Raymond Aron was unique among intellectuals: at once a journalist and scholar, he was a prolific writer on, and noted expert in, a huge aray of subjects from philosophy to military strategy to economics. As it turns out, his life was also fascinating: he was a classmate and best friends with Sartre before becoming his great adversary during the post war debates on Marxism, was in London for the French resistance during the war, and became a television personality late in life.

In French, Aron writes with a grace and clarity that are astonishing. Now I have finally read his memoires, one of the last things he wrote. When you compare any contemporary intellectual to him, they simply can't measure up.

Simply put, Rayomd Aron's memoir is proufound and interesting. Those who want to affect society in terms of knowledge should read this book. Aron just before his death tells us what intellectual ethics is, how unconscious intellectuals can be far from mass, and why we need philosohpy to understand society. Through the entire of the book, there is a specter of Sartre who used to be Aron's "little comarade" but turned out to be his ideological enemy. In contrast to a Sartre's monstrous genius who declined a Nobel prize, Aron commits himself as a humble humanutarian. This book is a critical review of the French intellectual history.

Raymond Aron is one of the most interesting intellectuals of this century. His writing is deeply appealing. He is not just telling the political history of the century he lived. The pages are like a wave that drifts from the right to the left inside the parties, from his childhood to poetry, passing through comunism, nazism, the wars, the fall of the ideologies, till reach the decade where the giant (USA) starts its fall - the seventies. He throws you into the political sense, into the racionality of the inteligentsias throughout Europe. It's not just about past, present and future. It's a different history. It's a guest for reason, it's a guest for the most challinging steps of man.

When the authors read The Discipline of Market Leaders, they must have immediately realized the potential of bringing the ideas of being an innovator, effective producer, and relationship manager together. This book fulfills that synthesis in a zero-time concept, of immediately providing value for stakeholders. In a December 1999 poll in Fast Company Magazine, 38 percent of respondents indicated that some aspect of their company already operated in a zero execution time mode.

The book is built around five basic concepts for a targeted group of high profit margin customers:

(1) Instant Value Alignment with customers (FedEx's commitment to on-time delivery and instant access to tracking information)

(2) Instant Learning by employees and customers (Dell Computer's computer-based education at work cell assembly sites)

(3) Instant Adaptation of the organization (G.E.'s focus on building a direction for the company around vision and trust)

(4) Instant Execution of value for the customer (Progressive Insurance's accelerated claims processing methods)

(5) Instant Involvement of all stakeholders (Cisco Systems' involvement with its suppliers and outsourcers from development through implementation for customers)

A company can progress towards having all five elements in a three step process. First, you become a market leader by emphasizing either product/service innovation (employing instant learning and adaptation), operating excellence (using instant execution and involvement), or customer closeness (relationship building based on instant alignment and involvement). Second, you turn that into locking customers in by adding one more key element from the five part model. Third, you complete the transition into providing all five elements.

A t-strategy is described for making this transition. You find an opportunity that is unfilled (such as the desire to be alone in the middle of other people that is partly served by the Sony Walkman), develop a key core competency for that conceptual space, and expand into some zero-time operations. You first apply that vision, core comptence, and distinctiveness for one market, then expand it into different, but similar (and usually related) markets. These market extensions form the vertical part of the 't' shape. For example, Dell Computer wants to employ direct selling with a competency of build-to-order to dominate the market for PCs by operational effectiveness. It expands from desk-top PCs to portable ones, then to servers, and now into storage.

Now that you understand the model a bit, let me share a few quibbles. First, I disagree with the idea of focusing on a subset of customers who can provide the highest profit margin. I think a better concept is to identify the customers where they will give you the greatest combination of competitive insulation, profitability, and improvement in your economics of providing goods and services in order to be able to take on more customers profitably.

Second, several stakeholders are missing from the discussion here such as shareholders, bondholders, the communities in which you operate, and those who regulate what you do. More thinking needs to be done about how to apply the model there stakeholders.

Third, the authors argue that providing all three dimensions gives you a guaranteed customer for life. I disagree. You could still be upended by someone with a proprietary technology with the same zero-time elements that gives an edge in bringing more benefits to the customer. Another way of thinking about this is that technology can still be disruptive to this strategy (see The Innovator's Dilemma).

Fourth, the authors do not address how to make the cost-benefit trade-off decisions. Getting closer to zero time gets more and more expensive. How much is it worth? How fast should you transition to this level of performance? The book will tend to encourage a too-fast transition, in my judgment.

Fifth, when is a non-zero time response better? If someone asks me my opinion on an important subject, they may not want a response in 1 second. They may prefer that I pull together all of the resources of my organization for the next 3 days instead and provide a better answer. The book doesn't address that class of circumstances.

Sixth, how do you correct for errors? I frequently stay in hotel chains that pride themselves on writing down my preferences. Then they smile broadly as they anticipate my needs and provide those preferences. The only problem is, that those aren't really my preferences. For example, staying at a luxury hotel with a sore throat, I ordered mid-afternoon tea with lemon. I don't usually drink it that way, but that's the way it always comes when I am at that hotel. In another luxury hotel, someone asked me casually if I liked the room I was staying in. I was feeling friendly and happy, and said, 'Oh, yes!' Well, for the next six years, I had the same room -- even though I actually preferred a different room. I respect what these hotels are trying to do so much that I don't have the heart to tell them they are unintentionally giving me the wrong service.

Basically, like all models, it is a lot easier to understand than to do it well.

After you have completed this fine book, put yourself in your stakeholders' shoes. What would you really want from your company? How would you like to go about making that happen? How would you like to adjust your needs and the responses you receive? Then use those insights to talk directly with your stakeholders about how well you are doing. If you are like most of the companies I study, you aren't ever delivering the right value. You'll need to get that straightened out before you start working on getting great value provided in zero time.

Be effective!

The authors really take today's norm of 'operating companies' and challenges them to entirely re-think the fundamentals of their current operations for today and tomorrow. Zero Time is well thought out and raises the bar helping direct companies shift their paradigms in both thought and action to truly develop into tomorrow's champions - for the long term. It really is a must read for the new generation of e-business leaders and tomorrow's visionaries.

Linda and Raymond (her husband?) explore the beauty and history of the historic Carnegie library in Rural, Central Illinois. This book is the definitive source of its kind. Linda is to be commended! Bravo! A must read for the library enthusiast.

In the line of the great scholars like Joaquin Jeremias an Charles Dodd, Beasley and Murray have developed a profound biblical approach for the usually misunderstood theme of the Kingdom of God. Their systematical approach to the issue gives a clear insight as soon you as you read the table of contents. Somebody who has never been in contact with this kind of approach to the theme of the kingdom may feel himself unconfortable with the reading at first, but the clarity of the biblical exegesis will challenge the reader to go ahead to discover a new paradigm about the central message of Jesus: The Kingdom of God. The material is so good that I learned even from the abundant "notes to the pages" at the end of the book, a lot of them are even highlighted by my hand. I recomend this book to anyone who seriously wants to understand Jesus and His relation to the Kingdom.

All 3397 Medal of Honor recipients are listed, from the Civil War to Somalia, with all essential information given: name, both true and assumed, rank, service and unit, dates of birth and death, place of death and cemetary, date and place of action, and more.
Attractively presented in large format, in two volumes, with appendices, bibliography, and index, this is the essential reference for anyone interested in the Medal of Honor or American military history. Illustrations of the medals themselves are not provided, the only fault noted.
(The numerical rating above is a default setting within Amazon's format. This reviewer does not employ numerical ratings.)

In the Preface Beasley-Murray (B-M) asks why yet another commentary on John's Gospel and answers, "It seemed that there was room for an attempt to pass on some of the treasures of modern study of this Gospel and with them to combine one's own findings and convictions." To this end he remains faithful throughout the Introduction and commentary proper. We are treated to some of the best insights into John's Gospel, both B-M's and many an eminent scholar's. His enthusiasm for the project shows up again when in the Introduction he describes some of the commentaries on the Gospel in the past fifty years as "among the greatest expositions of the Word of God that have ever appeared" (liii).

The 61-page Introduction is important. It covers the literary sources, development of the traditions, religious relations, authorship, date and place, selected aspects of theology, purpose, and structure of the Gospel. It is rich in theological ideas. It was "as if scales falling from the eyes" as B-M listened to his mentor, C. H. Dodd, explain the structure of the episodes of the Book of Signs (chapters 2-12), each episode consisting of sign plus discourse, and each encapsulating the whole Gospel. He realized that that was probably due to the Evangelist's preaching, as the Evangelist expounded the significance of the traditions in the light of Christ's death and resurrection. Now a familiar observation in Johannine studies, the concept that much of the Fourth Gospel was the product of preaching must have been a creative thought then. New insights have continued to flow unabated as scholars delved into the depths of this Gospel. Nowhere is it more apparent than in the discussion of the Gospel's dual nature, simultaneously depicting the historical ministry of Jesus and the situation and faith of the Johannine community some 50(?) years later. "The Evangelist sets the historical ministry of Jesus in Palestine in indissoluble relation to the ministry of the risen Lord in the world" (xlvii). If Luke traces the origins of the Church in two volumes, one [his Gospel] of Jesus and the other [Acts] of the risen Christ acting through his disciples, John presents the historical Jesus and Jesus the risen Lord together in one book and a single perspective. B-M masterfully sketches in succession how each of several scholars has treated this theme, in the process displaying a fascinating interplay of ideas.

Several other important themes that recur in the commentary proper make their first appearance in the Introduction. While the Kingdom of God is scarcely mentioned [only in vv. 3:3,5], "every line of the Fourth Gospel is informed by it" (xxxiv). The Paraclete actualizes the words and deeds of Jesus in the life of the Church -- the Fourth Gospel itself "is a supreme example of the truth and application of the Paraclete doctrine which it contains" (liii). The concept of Son of God (closely associated with Son of Man) is the prevailing characteristic of Johannine Christology. The glorification of Jesus coincides with his crucifixion (unlike Isaiah's Servant who is exalted because and after he had suffered). The realized eschatology of John is not to be divested of its future aspect (contrary to Bultmann). All these, and more, are elements that B-M uses in the commentary discussions of John's theology, which turns out to be largely Christology. In the end you have to agree with him, "The theme of the Fourth Gospel is Christ" (lxxxi).

In common with other scholars, B-M accepts a four-part structure of the Gospel: (A) The Prologue; (B) The Public Ministry of Jesus, otherwise referred to as the Book of Signs (Dodd, Brown); (C) The Passion and Resurrection of Jesus, also known as as the Book of the Passion (Dodd) or the Book of Glory (Brown); and (D) Epilogue. He expresses a reservation, though, concerning the nomenclatures "Book of Signs" and "Book of Passion/Glory", since he considers that the WHOLE Gospel may be viewed as a book of signs and as a book of the passion and glory of Jesus. As he interacts with the established figures of Johannine scholarship, B-M does not hesitate to disagree as well as to cite approvingly, for he is a Johannine expert in his own right. He argues his case very well indeed, but to get the benefit of it you have to read thoughtfully. B-M is never shallow and merits careful study. Knowledge of some Greek will help, but you can still gain a great deal without. Running to about 600 pages, as compared for example with Brown's two-volume, 1200-page work (Anchor 29, 29A), this commentary is necessarily less detailed. But as a presentation of modern Johannine study coupled with the author's independent understanding, it is certainly a noteworthy effort.

The second edition (1999) is identical with the first (1987), with the addition of supplementary bibliographies and reviews of a number of significant books on John that had appeared since the first edition (for example, John Ashton's important "Understanding the Fourth Gospel"). The commentary follows WBC's usual format. Some find the format "unfriendly", but it is not so. The usual gripe that references are given in line with the text (not in footnotes) hardly deserves notice. If you are ready to go beyond introductory expositions of the Fourth Gospel, give this book serious consideration.

I have both the original 1987 edition and the "revised" 1999 edition. To the publishers credit, the 1999 edition does state flat out that the only thing new is 50 pages of updated bibliography and reviews of major book on the Gospel since the original publication. This is all located in one new section in the introductory material. Otherwise, the two editions are identical page for page (even the numbering). If you have the 1987 edition, don't get the 1999 edition unless you need/want an updated bibliography.

If you are looking for a secondary commentary on John's gospel, then Beasley-Murray's is the one for you. Not as detailed as the others like Morris, Schnackenburg and Brown; but detailed enough for Bible study and message preparation. The Do not purchase it as your main commentary for you will soon need to go out and buy one of the others mentioned above. I have not seen the second edition as yet.

This is a reprint of the classic commentary by G.R. Beasley-Murray. An excellent exegetical work from a historical premillenial view-point [premillenial, but non-dispensational].

The Great Philosopher's book on Hegel is interesting because it approaches him from a religious context. Normally one would expect a fifty page survey of Hegel to focus on the dialectic, his views on history or materialism or government. Instead, the book places its emphasis on his metaphysical philosophy. Different and intriguing, this book is well worth a read.

This is a collection of 17 short essays about J.R.R. Tolkien penned by contemporary fantasy & sci-fi authors. (Actually, 15 essays are by authors-- one is by bibliographer/editor Douglas Andersson and another is an interview with the Hildebrant Brothers, who are reknowned fantasy artists).

As others have noted, the essays are something of a mixed bag. Of them, only three try to take a critical, scholarly, analytical look at Tolkien. This is probably for the best, as authors usually make terrible critics. Of these three, the strongest is Ursula LeGuin's discussion of the poetic rhythms in Tolkien's prose. While thoughtful, it is nonetheless a bit dull-- and frankly, a much better essay on this same subject can be found in _J.R.R. Tolkien and his Literary Resonances_. The weakest of these three, Orson Scott Card's essay on "How Tolkien Means", is also the worst in the whole book. Although his basic contention-- that the essence of Tolkien's fiction lies in "Story" rather than "Meaning"-- is reasonable enough, his point is overwhelmed by an arrogant tone and intermittent rantings against feminists, multiculturalists, literary critics, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, Sigmund Freud, James Joyce, people who like James Joyce, modernists, postmodernists, and pretty much anyone and everyone who doesn't share (or whom he suspects might not share) the exact same approach to literature as he does.

Most authors here, however, have (wisely) avoided criticism, analysis, and polemic-- and have instead penned more autobiographical essays, reflecting upon how/when/why they first read Tolkien, how it impacted them both immediately and later on, how it changed their reading habits, how it influenced their own writing, and the like. Although these essays all have their own unique character and specific content depending on each author's own experiences and style (unsurprisingly, the essays by Terry Pratchett and Esther Freisner are quite funny), one can't help but note a common pattern of experience. With one or two exceptions, most of the writers here encountered Tolkien for the first time as an adolescent during the 1960s. Most describe reading the _Hobbit_ and the _Lord of the Rings_ as a life-changing event-- as a kind of epiphany or even as a magical experience. Many say that reading Tolkien inspired them to become writers themselves-- and several describe how many of their own early works were specifically modeled on Tolkien. Virtually all observe note that they probably could never have made a living writing the kind of fantasy fiction that they do if Tolkien hadn't proven to publishers that there was a huge market for this sort of thing.

Of all the essays in the book, the hands-down best is Michael Swanwick's "A Changeling Returns", an introspective piece that contrasts his childhood memories of reading Tolkien (where he saw mostly magic, adventure, and freedom), with his adulthood re-readings of it (he now sees that the powerful sense of loss and mortality that permeates Tolkien's fiction), and with the experience of reading Tolkien aloud to his children (who are encountering it as he first did as a child... but who can still sense that there is something deeper, sadder, that lies beneath). Whereas most of the other essays in this book were merely 'interesting', I found this one to be profoundly moving. (Then again, maybe that's just because I found Swanwick's experiences to be closest to my own).

All in all, I can't say that this is a must-have book for either Tolkien fans or scholars, but it does give an intriguing and suggestive first-hand account of how many of today's great fantasy & sci-fi writers have been influenced by Tolkien... although many of the most suggestive elements come not from what individual writers themselves say, but from seeing the commonalities of experience among them. My only real criticism of the book as whole is that it would have been nice to include as a contrast some essays by authors who *aren't* fantasy writers, by authors whose primary language wasn't English, and/or by authors who were of a different generation that those featured here.

Imagine if you could gather some of the world's best Science Fiction and Fantasy authors into a room for an informal chat about Tolkein's influence on their personal and professional lives. Unfortunately, the authors are not all IN the same room, so each conversation is quite a bit different from the last. The authors were clearly given quite a bit of lattitude and therein lie the strengths and weaknesses of this collection.
The tone of the essays are personal, even familiar. For fans of Tolkein or of the contributing authors, the book is worth reading, if for no other reason than to spend some time with distant friends. Another perk is the reading list inadvertently provided by each author as they comment on their other influences. Apparently there are a few seminal works in the genre that I have completely missed.
The quality is admittedly a bit spotty, even within the same essay. Some of the best essays came from authors I knew nothing about. However, like any good conversation, there are snippets of great wisdom throughout. (It is the rare friend who offers up nothing but gems.) I can assure you that every essay will leave you smiling, or nodding and a few might even have you reaching for a pen. In short, you will find much to enjoy in this collection.
I should note that there is something here for everyone: hobbyist, devotee, english major, or bibliophile. Rarely does one get to listen in on the personal conversations of authors as they discuss their lives, their work and the influences that have made their careers possible.

MEDITATIONS ON MIDDLE EARTH is a collection of essays focusing on J.R.R. Tolkien's works, especially the Middle Earth saga. Some of the more renowned fantasy authors of today evaluate the series that made fantasy a household name. Surprisingly, though everyone agrees that Professor Tolkien opened up the genre to the middle class, not all of the contributors are fans of the actual novels. Insightful and entertaining, each essay is well written with the writer's particular spin. However, this anthology will be loved by those readers analyzing the various cultures in a way that cultural anthropologists would envy or by those fans who cherish Beowulf, which Tolkien felt is the forefather of the genre.

Harriet Klausner