"Belief and Faith" is a book about a polemic topic where the author uses opinion from religious people and some philosophers. Belief is first defined in the book as the regarding of something as true on the testimony of someone else. To believe is equivalent to taking a position on the truth of a statement and on the actuality of the matter stated. Before getting to this definition, the author addresses the "true" meaning of root words: how it's defined in advance based on other opinions versus the version that a person has in the back of his/her mind based on personal experience and how it's applied to the situational context.

Actually belief is one of the "classical" modes of possible attitudes: doubting, supposing, knowing and believing. These attitudes as the insight into a subject matter will make the distinction between knower and believer. The latter is able to regard a subject as true and real even without knowing the subject at all. It seems essential that two elements are presented when someone acts as a believer: unfamiliarity (lack of knowledge) with the subject matter and unconditional conviction of the truth. In other words, content cannot be verified but it's accepted. Also believing involving a person on whom the believer relies on.

The author discusses the importance of other two elements: to believe in something and to believe someone. The condition of believing in someone gives to belief a meaningful human act. Besides the fact of believing in something or someone, the author states that belief is driven by willing and love, it can't be demanded or be-stowed. The believer is placed in a condition of seeing something that would never be attainable by his/her own unaided sight, of seeing with the eyes of whom he/she believes.

Another idea shared by the author is seeing and knowing takes precedence over belief. Before someone accepts the testimony of another person, normally called witness, he/she must be sure that this person has authentic knowledge of those things, which are accepted in faith. In this sense, people's credibility and knowledge are judged as part of the believing process.

The author relates belief to freedom. No one who believes must believe, it's naturally a free act. The believer has an alternative of choice, believe or not believe, that is based on a set of processes that the author defines as "mental unrest". These processes are searching investigation, probing consideration, conferencing with oneself before deciding and being on the track of.

As a climax of the discussions presented, the author presents belief in two concepts: "acceptance of the principles of a religion" and Karl Jasper's concept of belief as a modern thought. In the former concept, the witness is God Himself. There is a revelation from God to man where He is conceived as a personal being capable of speech and the man is conceived as a being by nature receptive to God. In the latter concept, the author criticizes the arguments used by Karl Jaspers that leads to the questioning of the traditional religion belief. The author explores in more details how the belief assumes the actuality of revelation and how the modern experience of the "absence" of God leads to the "troubled atheism".

After discussing all the concepts above, the author digs into the principles of the Christianity believes: Trinity and Incarnation. He finishes the book with the question: Is it good to believe? The answer is based in the following: If God has really spoken, it is not only good to believe Him; rather the act of believing generates those things which in fact are goodness and perfection for man.

I think the book is well organized covering the topic from different angles and the author mentions opinions of people with different thoughts. At the end, the author biases the conclusion telling his believes in Christianity.

The book is easy to read because the author explains the ideas and "tries" to prove them in a logical way. Definitively this is not a scientific book. It deals with a controversial theme giving different thoughts based on religion and philosophical principles.

The Ibis Tarot suffers from flat, stiff images, albeit rich and beautifully coloured ones. The deck is heavy on esoteric symbolism, such as planetary and astrological symbols, and the "Alphabet of the Magi". Many of the trump cards are renamed; the High Priestess is "The Gate of the Sanctuary", the Hierophant is "The Master of the Arcanas" [sic], and so on. Some of the choices don't entirely work--Isis-Urania is the Empress, although Hathor or Isis as the mother of Horus would have made more sense as a symbol of feminine fertility. The images are stately Egyptian-style line drawings, with magnificent colouring, which gives the cards a nice air of otherworldly mystery and beauty. Minor Arcana are pips (i.e., not scenes), with attractive backgrounds and more esoteric symbols. Overall, though, the artwork has no movement or emotion, even within the restrictions of the Egyptian style. Good art deck, perhaps useful for fans of obscure alphabets and correspondence systems, but not great for personal readings and terrible for beginners.

If your a fan of the filmed adaptation of Max Allan Collins' "Road To Perdition" but haven't read the graphic novel upon which the movie is based, I suggest you pick up a copy today. The story is masterfully told by Collins and features gritty, brutally realistic artwork by the great Richard Piers Rayner that effectively captures the essence of the 1930's. "On The Road To Perdition: Oasis" is the first of three new graphic novellas written by Collins that are intended to serve as a continuation of his original story and also written presumably to cash in on the popularity of the movie adaptation. Rather than serve as sequels to the story presented in both the original graphic novel and the film, the new "On The Road To Perdition" series instead features three untold tales of adventures that Michael O'Sullivan and his son had as they made their treacherous journey to Perdition, Kansas. For fans of the original, "Oasis" is a somewhat interesting affair but pales in comparison to the original story. Collins seems to be on autopilot with this one, scripting a story that feels rushed. Fans of the original graphic novel will also be disappointed to learn that Richard Piers Rayner does not return to do the artwork for this story and his presence is sorely missed. On the upside, Collins introduces three new endearing characters not previously seen in the original story and the relationship between Michael and his son is explored further with results that are quite touching. The subplot involving the three bounty hunters feels a tad redundant if your familiar with Jude Law's character in the movie (who does not appear in the original graphic novel) but it does add an interesting element to the story. All in all, this is one is for diehard fans of the original graphic novel only. It's far from terrible, but Collins should have left well enough alone.

There is no reason. There are signs. But the notable connexion inbetwix these entities is of a questionable nature. It is to this nature, that msr. Simon poses his wellput questions, unveiling mother nature from her evening gown, caressing her soft bosom with gentle touches of fleshburning acids. The bones of truth unveiled. The unborn unthought of reality, kissing itself, liquid desire recovering of loss of self. Signs. Un-signs. Nothing remains unthought of.

Cryptography is a fascinating and important subject; so is computer security. But as all of us know who have suffered from breaches of computer security, cryptography, although a useful tool, is only one small aspect of computer security. This book is quite a nice book on cryptography, although not the best; I recommend Bruce Schneier's book and Alan Konheim's book as better texts on cryptography for anyone seriously interested in cryptography. However, the relationship of this book to the subject of computer security is sort of like that of a book on padlocks to the care and protection of racehorses.

Unfortunately, there is no book I know of that gives adequate treatment even to the role of cryptography in computer security, let alone to the entire subject of computer security, so we learn the hard way, from our mistakes. The only book I know that places this topic in proper perspective is "Cryptography's Role In Securing The Information Society" created in 1996 by the Computer Science and Technology Board of the National Research Council, and published by the National Academy Press. This latter book is kind of interminably boring, and it raises far more questions than it answers, but it's the best we've got; it's well balanced, and was prepared by a group of hard-bitten scientists and engineers with lots of practical experience (plenty of it bad.) So if you want to know how cryptography relates to computer security (maybe), read this latter book, not Seberry and Pieprzyck.

This book is not appropriate for anyone seeking knowledge of hotel development in the United States. The authors are British and the book is written for the European audience. The U.S. reader is not even extended the courtesy of dual imperial and metric measures; room dimensions are in meters and financial figures are presented in pounds. In addition, many of the cited references are dated, the graphics are hard to read, and the book is cheaply printed.

Unfortunately the author assumes the role of cheerleader rather than an objective observer of Josef von Sternberg's films and life. Although this is an information packed book, Mr. Weinberg unnecessarily attacks other critical assessments of von Sternberg's work. Another disappointing facet of this book is Weinberg's convoluted phrasings and writing style.

Certainly the subject matter (von Sternberg) is of importance to film and photography buffs but the reader of von Sternberg's life and works would be better served reading von Sternberg's "Fun In A Chinese Laundry." The information contained in Weinberg's book is sufficient for a 2 star rating, but not more.

Josef Barton's book Peasants and Strangers: Italians, Rumanians, and Slovaks in an American City, 1890-1950, did not impress this reviewer. Barton compares and contrasts the immigration and livelihood of Italians, Rumanians, and Slovaks in Cleveland. He examines not only the first generation of families, but also the second generations rise or fall in status. His use of Stephen Thernstrom's quantification in reviewing urban history in Cleveland lacks emotion and creativity. Barton states fact upon fact, which the reader finds difficult to follow and sort. One catches themself going back over paragraphs time and again in order to reach some understanding of what Barton is arguing. In conclusion, this book is not an ideal read for someone who seeks to learn more on the social history of immigrants in Cleveland. If one is of the type to enjoy urban histories from a Sam Bass Warner or Stephen Thernstrom ideology this book is a good example, but it must be noted that this type of ideology is taken to the extreme by Barton. It has left much to be desired.

All I can say that the reaction of the many of the readers will be to run away from Skvorecky's writing altogether - this is how to write a detective story. ew Czeck citizen may find it pretty nostalgic with names from the region but for me this is a delatante effort -sorry if I am overly critical.