This book contains excellent choices from the writings of Jonathan Edwards, the first great philosopher in the American colonies, including some of his earliest writings, mostly just philosophical or biological musings. It reflects some interesting developments in the maturation of his thinking. It also has letters to friends, colleagues, and family members. Some of his most well-known sermons are alongside some representative samples of his sermons. Unfortunately, there is room for only excerpts from his longer works, such as The Religious Affections, but that can't be helped in an affordable popular anthology. If you want all of his works, but the complete works from the same publisher. If you just want a representative sample of some of the best works of this great theologian and philosopher, get this.

This book covers Joseph Smith's personal, political, and religious life. When you are finished reading it, you cannot deny that Joseph Smith was an honest man.

James "the Just", "the brother of the Lord", is remembered in Christian tradition as the first bishop of Jerusalem and the author of a canonical epistle. In the Orthodox Church, his feast day is marked by a special liturgy, celebrated on no other occasion. In short, he holds a place as a Great Man in the early Church. Nevertheless, his theoretical greatness is coupled with practical obscurity. Next to the towering figures of Peter and Paul, James is a shadowy presence. Even the one writing attributed to him, a high point of "Wisdom literature", has suffered neglect, burdened by Martin Luther's contemptuous dismissal of its contents as "straw".

John Painter seeks to restore the portrait of "Just James" to its original brilliance. He considers every ancient text that bears on James: the handful of references in the New Testament, the short but significant testimony of Josephus, the thin line of orthodox remembrance and the much more abundant Gnostic and heretical appropriation of James' image. The available information about James has never before been so carefully and thoroughly assembled. Sadly, though, the pigments on the canvas remain scattered and faded, so that the Painterly picture has in it, in the end, more of the artist than the subject.

On some elements of James' life, Professor Painter is fresh and convincing. He demonstrates the weakness of the evidence underlying the conventional opinions that James and the other "brothers of the Lord" converted to belief in Jesus only after His death and that James did not become the "leader" (whatever leadership may signify at that point in Christian history) of the Jerusalem church until Peter departed from the city. He also offers a clear treatment of the early controversy over mission strategies, though his symmetrical schema of six "positions" in the debate over preaching to non-Jews may be too abstract and tidy to reflect reality.

On the other hand, his discussion of other topics is less satisfactory. On the degree of kinship between Jesus and James, he presents the standard arguments against Jerome's hypothesis (that the two were cousins) but rejects the traditional view of the Eastern Church (that they were half-brothers) without grappling with it. His argument is half well-poisoning (guilt by association with the often-preposterous Protevangelium of James) and half literalism ("adelphos" means "brother", and that's that, as if there were any other natural Greek word to use for a brother by only one parent).

Even worse is his analysis of the motives that led the Jerusalem authorities to put James to death in 62 A.D., an action that the non-Christian Josephus characterizes as a judicial murder. The natural assumption, unanimously supported by Christian accounts, is that James was martyred for professing Christ. Professor Painter, on virtually no evidence, prefers to believe that James was closely associated with economically distressed Temple priests of pharisaic tendencies and was executed for his advocacy of their interests. Such a socioeconomic interpretation may resonate today, but one wonders how James and his small congregation could have genuinely threatened the political power of the High Priesthood and whether Professor Painter is right to presume that Pharisees would not have objected to injustice against someone who was not of their own faction.

Questionable points like these do not, however, undermine the value of this scholarly labor. The limitations of the surviving sources necessarily make the history of early Christianity largely a study of two apostles (or of one and a half, since Pauline material is so much more abundant than Petrine). An effort to fill in some of the rest of the picture is welcome.

I rather liked this book. The meditations on the Paschal mystery, on the Passion, are suitable Lenten reading.

Smith is a monk in the Anglican order of the Society of St John the Evangelist, but this book will appeal to most Christians, regardless of ecclesial affiliation.

Smith and Robbards is a players guide to Mad Scientists. The book, while not very big, is full of stuff for those cooky inventors. New gadgets, skills, and rules are presented to help flesh out the class even more.

This is a great book for beginning students. I am just starting out in this field and this is my first class in the filed. When I first saw this book I was attracted to the cover and the design. It is a beautiful book and very colorful. This pages are also well presented with color and graphic design. The cover ripped the frist time I opened the book so be carefull with this. Although I'm not a teacher I believe that this book is a good source for education. This book can be used as an everyday clssroom book or as a distance learning text as I'm using it. The publishers have a web site that is full of teacher guides and questions for the students to help them with test and quizes. I believe that this text will become pertanent for educating at the college level.

This book was very enlightening and insightful on the practice of law in the 40's, 50's and 60's. It brought to life an era of controversy and injustice within an evolving America. It helps to explain these disruptive years of anti-communism and racial injustice amid the political struggles of a partisan society.

In an age of innovation, William Smith's unique devotion to fossils and understanding of geological structures allowed him to break the scientific mould and produce the first ever map of the rock layers beneath our feet. Two centuries on, the scientific world still owes a debt to the 'Father of Geology'. Yet Smith himself saw little recognition in his lifetime, earning his keep through canal engineering work where he could get it and scraping together the finance to publish his precious magnum opus.
Charting his travels across England, his changing employment and his personal misfortunes, this book shows how the sometimes penniless son of a blacksmith became a pioneer in the science of geology. John Morton, in combining Smith's personal history with the genesis of a new science, has created a fascinating history of an extraordinary man who was devoted to mapping the geology of England.
John Morton was a pilot until his retirement in 1990. After retirement he read for a degree with the Open University, studying, among other subjects, geology and the history of science where his interest in 'Strata' Smith was first awakened. This is his first book.

Delightful and written with such clarity and honesty. You enter into the mind of a boy growing up in a time when life was simpler but the thoughts and feelings are universal to anyone's childhood. From learning to accept his newborn sister into the family, declaring war on the babysitter aptly named Witch Hazel, and describing the love of kick ball and the never-to-forget first crush, the anecdotes are hilarious observations into relationships he has with his parents, his siblings, his friends and neighbors. And he delves into each of the characters wholeheartedly. I thought I was the only one who criticizes my Mom's cooking! Written with imagination, the stories jump a little in time as he weaves his memories around his baby sister Susie, but the personal pictures help to define each anecdote and helps the reader to visualize and bring the story to life. And oh, I was worried the book would end sadly, no pun intended, but the author kept it so light throughout, that the ending was very very touching.

The text suggests many excellent patterns to organize technical writing: how to describe processes and mechanisms, how to organize a classification, an interpretation, a recommendation, a proposal, a research effort. My writing gets noticed for its quality and professionalism. The book makes me think more clearly and helps me organize my thoughts on paper - an unexpected result.