As novice birdwatchers, this book was indispensable for planning our birdwatching trip to SE Arizona. It gave specific locations to visit for birds that you could expect to see there. Directions were clear and concise. With help from this book, we saw nearly every bird species we had hoped to see. This book is a must for this region!

"The Enduring Paradox" is a collection of scholary but clear essays addressing theological and practical questions of interest to Messianic Jews and students of Scripture in general.
The essayists include some big guns in the evangelical world, including Walter Kaiser and Louis Goldberg, as well as a number of Messianic Judaism's scholars. The editor, John Fisher (and his wife Patrice) contributes the greatest number of essays.

The book is divided into three sections, (1) Messianic Jewish Theology, (2) Messianic Jews and Israel, and (3) Practical Issues for Messianic Jews and Non-Jews.

There is much to be praised in this book. Patrice Fisher's chart on page 178, distinguishing between native-born Jews, Godfearers, Foreigners, and Pagans is simple but superb in its clarity. Lawrence Rich's chapter on "Jewish Practice and Identity in the Book of Acts" is worth the purchase price of the book.

On the negative side, John Fisher's chapter about, "Covenant, Fulfillment, and Judaism in Hebrews" seems a bit of a stretch.
It is important to interpret Scripture without a pre-existing agenda.

This book is not for everyone, but it is written clearly and it is not lenghty. Most dedicated laymen can grasp it. Good fodder for thought, especially for those who value the Jewish roots of Christianity, are serious about Bible interpretation, or participate in the Messianic Jewish movement.

In 1965 Nelson Pike published his paper "Divine Omniscience and Voluntary Action," in which he attempted to show that these two things were ultimately incompatible: if God has complete foreknowledge of everything we will do, our actions aren't really "voluntary" since we weren't free to do otherwise.

That set off some dialogue that took place in scattered journals over the next twenty-five years. John Martin Fischer has here collected the major rounds of this dialogue into a single volume and added a helpful introduction.

The contents include Fischer's introduction and Pike's 1965 paper, together with the following:

Marilyn McCord Adams, "Is the Existence of God a 'Hard' Fact?"

John Martin Fischer, "Freedom and Foreknowledge"

David Widerker, "Two Forms of Fatalism"

Eddy Zemach and David Widerker, "Facts, Freedom, and Foreknowledge"

Joshua Hoffman and Gary Rosenkrantz, "Hard and Soft Facts"

Alfred J. Freddoso, "Accidental Necessity and Logical Determinism"

William Hasker, "Hard Facts and Theological Fatalism"

Alvin Plantinga, "On Ockham's Way Out"

William Hasker, "Foreknowledge and Necessity"

William P. Alston, "Divine Foreknowledge and Alternative Conceptions of Human Freedom"

Martin Davies, "Boethius and Others on Divine Foreknowledge"

I shall not try to summarize the arguments of these various papers. The reader should be aware, however, that the papers collected in this volume address Pike's claim, and argument, that God's _foreknowledge_ is not compatible with human freedom. The scope of this work does not extend to the question whether God's _causation_ of all events is thus compatible.

If you buy this book, be prepared for a lot of technical argumentation and modal analysis and that sort of thing. These essays are highly readable -- their authors are all able writers -- but they will probably not be terribly accessible to a reader with no background in philosophy.

With On A Hill Too Far Away: Putting The Cross Back Into The Center Of Our Lives, John Fischer explores the centrality of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ to the Christian faith. Drawing upon the image of a 15-foot cross bolted front and center inside a Connecticut church, Fischer provides concrete Bible-based steps for Christian living. Other very highly recommended Fischer titles for a Christian readership include Ashes On The Wind; Saint Ben; The Saints' And Angels' Song; 12 Steps For The Recovering Pharisee; and True Believers Don't Ask Why.

This book is essential for general surgery board review, and helpful for the intern to study.

Fischer and Ravizza's (F&R) book, Responsibility and Control, provides the most recent defense of compatibilism (according to the timing of this review). They are not presenting any "knock-down arguments" for their view. Rather, they are offering philosophical explanation (in Nozick's sense) as to how to provide a working theory of moral responsibility with the truth of causal determinism. They do not contend the truth or falsity of causal determinism; they simply believe that whatever is the truth of the matter, it is irrelevant given their account of moral responsibility.

F&R provide a well defended account of what they call "guidance control." It is strongly built off of the earlier work of Harry Frankfurt's article, "Alternate Possibilities and Moral Responsibility." Using this, they attempt to build an account that solves clear cases about actions, consequences, and omissions in a clear symmetical way. In doing so, they believe the indirect and direct challenges to the compatibility thesis should be rejected.

After doing so, they attempt to look at "mesh theories" (e.g. Frankfurt and Watson) which look at the time-splice properties of an agent, and F&R argue for a contrasting (geniune) historical approach. In doing so, they use Galen Strawson's work to help answer particular problems. Following in their last chapter, they summarize all of their main points again, and look at Robert Adam's argument (in the appendix) concerning emotions and moral responsibility.

The extremely nice features of this book are that they argue for their position very clearly. One should have little trouble following their arguments, examples, and what they intend on doing. They tell you what they plan on doing, how they will do it, and then go right into it. Following, they summarize it again to make everything from that chapter and the preceeding chapters come together.

Another nice feature of this book is that it is exceptionally well argued. Though I found some disagreements along the way, naturally expected of anyone, I thought they provided a robust account that at least does what they intended: the provide an account of freedom that gives us a working theory which can be reworked, but meets the incompatibilist challenges, though honestly not enough perhaps to move everyone toward compatibilism (i.e. this is a philosophical explanation, not knock-down argument).

Because of these nice features and the good content, I highly recommend this book.

Mr. Fischer has a very visual style. He is easy to read and describes events in a manner that almost makes the reader conjure up pictures

This book isn`t only about Fischer. It contains many stories about Fischer and other players. It contains many games of Fischer, but also games between other players. It contains pictures of Fischer and other players too. What i especially loved about this book was the stories, about Fischer and other players. It contains many games from Fischer`s 64 simul tour of the US, and quite a few stories from these simuls. It contains articles and other things. " A Bookstore in Argentina " was quite intriguing, but as was other stories and stuff. It also contains letters from Fischer to Larry Evans in the 70s. It is all in all a great book about chess. It isn`t a teaching book, but many stories about players in the 50s,60s and 70s. Combined with interwievs, pictures and other stuff. Many games are included, and in a sense i do believe we can all learn something from these games...you know what i mean when i say it isn`t a teaching book. This book is a true treasure, and while i admit i regret buying mnay of the books i own this one is great.
It`s ashame it`s currently out of print, especially since it is a newer book ( 1999 ). If new copies arrive, or you see it in a used book-store grab it and never let go!!

Imagine you are living in 1958 to the early 60's and your family is getting ready to leave for church; you're eating your breakfast and your mom tells you that there's a new pastor at the church, and they invited him and his family over for dinner that night. You arrive at church and you get to meet the family. The youngest son is the same age as you, the middle son is two years older than you and the oldest son is four years older than you. Your friend later asks you to play tricks on the church according to scripture reading. You are un-sure about it because you and your friend might get caught, but you do it anyway.
That's what Jonathan Liebermann and Ben Beamering have been doing for almost 2 months in St. Ben by John Fischer. That's how these two boys met.
These boys met at their church called Colorado Standard Christian Church in California and became best friends. Ben's father Pastor Jeffrey Beamering is the new pastor of the church. The Liebermann family invites the Beamering family over dinner after church. Ben and Jonathan start talking about a car that's really popular during that time.
As time goes on Ben wants to play tricks on the church, but Jonathan is a little hesitant about doing this because he's afraid that they are going to get caught but they do it anyway. One of the pranks is, the pastor is talking about being awake and not sleeping. When pastor Beamering reads the scripture the boys pull the prank when the pastor gets to a certain point. Every time Jonathan get together something exciting happens. For instance, the boys go to a parade and they get to meet the mayor.
Jonathan gets asked to deliver papers in the neighborhood. One morning Ben and Jonathan team up and deliver papers together. Ben was riding an old bike when he crashed into a Pontiac in front of a lady's house. It was four in the morning when this happened. This is when a retired nurse, Molly Fitzpatrick comes into action. She helps Ben get to the hospital on time and tells a nurse what doctor for Ben to see. As time goes on, Molly tells Jonathan something about Ben that he never knew; Ben's known about this. Before Jonathan didn't know why Ben's treatment was taking so long until now. Ben and Jonathan have known each other for about two years. Something later on greatly affects every one who knows Ben.
If you enjoy books that seem real, or make you feel you're in the story, read St. Ben. This book is written so that there is suspense, and you can almost predict exactly what is going to happen next. You'll have mixed emotions about this book when you read this book.

I was not prepared for the impact this book had on my life. Not only could I not put it down but it changed my life. John Fischer is a master story teller. This book is about far more than two young boys who's fathers are ministers. Read this book and rediscover what it is like to look at God through the eyes of a child. Through these two young boys, John touches the child in each of us and gives us a glimpse of the magnitude of God's love for us as individuals.

Once again, Joe Nickel, with John F. Fischer, shows that he is a researcher and investigator with few peers. He has tackled several "unexplained" mysteries, and explained them.

Using available-- if not common-- historical records, as well as first-hand investigations where possible, Nickel has managed to explain such mysteries as the Crystal Skull, the "moving" coffins of the Barbados Vault, and specific cases of Spontaneous Human Combustion. These are just three examples of some of the cases investigated and fully explained within the pages of this book.

This book is a must for those who are truly interested in learning about the world's mysteries, rather than blindly believing the claims of credulous writers who simply wish to sell books to... well, credulous readers.

Joe Nickell shows that he is neither a fanatical skeptic nor a quack paranormal investigator in this sometimes humorous look at the occult mysteries. What instantly got my attention was his debunking of so called ghost hunters with "a psychic in tow", which is exactly how I feel about them. If people state the supernatural is visible physically, then science and forensics should be able to prove these claims. If not then these claims are a hoax. Mr. Nickell does an excellent job of pointing out these hoaxes. All in all this book is a must for true paranormal investigators who prefer to apply science and common sense to claims, instead of unproven flim flam like psychic abilities in their research. Mr. Nickell is a true "ghost hunter" and this is a great book to take along any "chase".