Chicago's Fourth Presbyterian Church bucks several trends: it is a successful church in an urban setting; its affluent members are involved in hands-on help with people in a nearby ghetto; it espouses a decidedly liberal theology. Wellman seeks to explain how Fourth Presbyterian has both accommodated to and transformed culture.

Wellman studies the ministries of Fourth Church's four 20th century pastors. Each pastor ministered to an affluent congregation and addressed the social issues that kept near neighbors of the church in poverty. Each pastor was able to rally the members of the congregation to take action on behalf of the less-privileged.

Wellman combines historical investigation and sociological analysis to explain Fourth Presbyterian's success. The book is a revised Ph.D. dissertation but doesn't read like one. Wellman writes in a fluid, engaging style and keeps the academic excursions into sociological theory to a minimum.

This book will be a welcome read for a) folks who love Chicago; b) people who worship in urban churches; c) liberal Christians who wonder if they are any others left on the planet; d) cultural historians; e) folks who wonder if the church still cares for others.

In this essay, the relationship of Heidegger's thought on Being to the theological issue of the existence of God is explored. In _Being and Time_, Heidegger lays the foundations for metaphysical thinking (which also concerns the existence of God). But, first he must show that metaphysics is indeed possible, following Kant. When asking "Why is there something rather than nothing?" (as he does in his _Introduction to Metaphysics_), Heidegger does not intend this to be answered with "God", as is done in medieval philosophy, i.e. he does not intend to search for the divine ground of Being. Rather, "His 'why' asks for the deepest and most fundamental ground of Being; for this reason the questioning does not begin with a given aggregate of beings and asks about a higher kind of being which accounts for their totality. (18, this book)" After concerning itself with the foundations for metaphysics, the book turns to Heidegger's "overcoming of metaphysics" in his thinking. The book deals with this overcoming, and with Heidegger's overcoming of theology. Finally, the book looks at Heidegger's thought after his "Kehre" (turning)and deals with the relationship between the poet (viz. Holderlin) and the thinker (viz. Heidegger). In conclusion, the author notes that Heidegger has made no decision on God. He writes, "Heidegger does not feel himself qualified; he experiences Beings as holy . . . but he has not been claimed by the god, i.e. he has not experienced god. (119, this book)"

This book was written in 1947 when Indiana was a very different place. Yet this book endures as a compelling and sometimes critical look at important people, times, and events in Indiana's history.

Martin tells about Indiana's beginnings: How people came to settle here, what those people were like. He shows how the Civil War played out in Indiana, where every fourth-grade student is now told that "brother fought against brother." He describes the poverty of Indiana farm life and how natural gas made many men wealthy, both in the late 1800s. He tells of the "golden years" in the early 1900s, as cities began to rise. And he explains the troubled years of the 1930s and 1940s, which were fresh in the memories of this book's first audience.

Martin's most compelling writing, however, is reserved for his portraits of colorful Indiana men: Hoosier poet James Whitcomb Riley, socialist leader Eugene V. Debs, infamous Klansman D. C. Stephenson, and others. The story of Debs is the best part of the book. Martin clearly sympathized with Debs, who championed the worker from his Terre Haute home and, later, from the Presidentail campaign trail and, finally, from prison. Debs's story is all the more interesting to me because I lived in Terre Haute for several years in the 1990s. My apartment was a mile or so north of Debs's home on Eighth Street, which still stands as a historical site. I can imagine the physical setting of Debs's Terre Haute activism as Martin relates it. But it is difficult for me to imagine the spirit of the city in those days, if nothing else because the city's current sleepiness stands in such stark contrast.

If you like the informality, ease and practicality of country style decorating but find you branch out a bit, adding new ideas to your old favorites, you'll love this book. Amazingly, diverse treatments from far flung areas as Britain and France prove that they can blend with traditional American country styles. The 400 full-color photos in the book offer inspiration for those who prefer to get their ideas from pictures or demonstrations and there is also detailed information on how to achieve each style - from wall treatments to furniture and accessories.

This is absolutely a wonderful book. It does an excellent job in depicting the life, culture, and history of rural Corfu. The food recipes are wonderful. However, I have to emphasize that this is not just another recipe book. It is more of an inside look into the life of rural Corfu.

This was an ambitious endeavor by the authors to view everything related to Last of the Mohicans...all the films, comic books, television shows and specials...and to analyze why it has lasted, why the myth is important to american culture, why the book keeps being produced. The wealth of detail was fascinating.

I had this book when I was a child, and although we lost our copy a few years back, I still remember both the words and the pictures in almost perfect detail- it's that amazing. "Listen to the Rain" is evocative and beautiful. Captivating paintings interweave with words which are utterly beautiful in their rhythms and their fanciful, yet dead-on descriptions of the rain. This is an absolutely wonderful book, for both children and adults. When I was young, it was one of my favourites; I would read it with my sister, over and over, and it was one of the books which our parents actually enjoyed reading to us. It's one of the best children's books out there; not silly, not serious, just real.

I am a student of Dr. McGoldrick and reading this book was a requirement of his class. It was a rather enlightening book which gave a brief overall picture of the history of the Bible. It starts with pre-Tyndale times and factors in Robert Barnes and Martin Luther and then follows through with Myles Coverdale acquiring permission from King Henry VIII to publish a version of Tyndale's Bible. It is a matter-of-fact book which helps to view the struggles of those early translators of the Bible.

The KJV of the Bible needs no endorsement from me. When selecting an audio book you need to evaluate the actor who does the reading, and Roscoe Lee Browne is one of the best actors alive. He also has one of the most beautiful voices in his profession, which makes all his books on tape treats worth seeking out. He isn't as widely known as he deserves to be, but you may recall some of his work. He narrated the film Babe and provided the voice of the Kingpin in the excellent animated Spiderman TV series which recently completed its run. Amazon also sells an audio Old Testament for which Browne recorded Exodus, Jeremiah, Lamentations and Jonah.

One of my New Testament profs at Sem raved about Niemoller. He was at that time unknown to me. So, I bought several books, one of them this by Bentley. It is the best I know of.

This dedicated man to the gospel, would not surrender to Nazi pressure, but continued to wield the sword of God's Word against him. His congregation was continually surrounded by Hitler's men, who eventually arrested him, tried him and kept him as his own personal prisoner. On his way to execution, freed by American squad. Went on to ecumenical fame.

Great read, well done!