"Lawrence the Laughing Cookie Jar" has something for everyone, it is truly a wonderful book. My grandkids love every bit of the book and make me read it over and over to them---they are especially fond of Reggie the dog. I also found it interesting that a jar is actually a jar in Will Marks' world, not a Safeway sourball. As a grandpa and erstwhile disciplinarian, I admire Marks' style by having the cookie jar laugh hysterically when the kids attempt to take more cookies. While my Phys Ed measures were far more draconian, Marks shows that you don't need to be Colonel Jessup from "A Few Good Men" to properly discipline kids. They are far better off learning from their own mistakes...the cookie jar is a kind way of teaching an important lesson in life.

This was a great 2nd book for Marks. As a bachelor for years, Marks provided me with many simple recipes in his initial epic instructional, "No More Mac and Cheese". The gazpacho soup recipe was my favorite, so easy I could throw it together in the back of my Vanagon or in the comfort of my PE office---although the aroma never overcame the jocks in the locker room!! Every meal was always finished off with a nice couple of jars, usually the ones left over from the glandular kids who got only 0+ on the pullup bar (apologies to Otis). I look forward to more from Marks.

The kids aren't happy with the ration of one cookie each; but they face an impossible barrier to more: a laughing cookie jar which loudly chuckles when they try to get more. Josephine Taylor's whimsical drawings enhances William C. Marks' fun story of trying to get the most from a cookie jar - through creative theft.

It's one of those books your kid makes you read over and over again long after you get sick of it (after 45 reads for me, which is a record). I give it as a gift to every new parent. You'll dig it.

In Journeys To Selfhood: Hegel & Kierkegaard, Mark Taylor charted the historical background of philosophy through establishing a creative dialogue between two the 20th Century's most influential philosophers. Hegel and Kierkegaard defined the poles between all significant modern and post-modern theologies ranging from Kierkegaardian neo-orthodoxy to Hegelian "death-of-God" theology, from Hegelian phenomenology and structuralism to Kierkegaardian deconstruction and post-structuralism. This new edition of a classic study, enhanced with an extensive bibliography and index, will be a welcome addition to contemporary philosophy and theology reading lists for students and scholars.

In Journeys To Selfhood: Hegel & Kierkegaard, Mark Taylor charted the historical background of philosophy through establishing a creative dialogue between two the 20th Century's most influential philosophers. Hegel and Kierkegaard defined the poles between all significant modern and post-modern theologies ranging from Kierkegaardian neo-orthodoxy to Hegelian "death-of-God" theology, from Hegelian phenomenology and structuralism to Kierkegaardian deconstruction and post-structuralism. This new edition of a classic study, enhanced with an extensive bibliography and index, will be a welcome addition to contemporary philosophy and theology reading lists for students and scholars.

To read this book (for me) was like wading through mud. But the result was definitely worth it. This book explored the things that Taylor didn't (or was unable) to write in "Erring: a Postmodern A/Theology." Among other things, he traces the link between Christianity and Captitalism, the lack of distinction between "real" and "virtual," and concludes with how we can begin to live with the "nothing" that is always looming but never really present.

This book made me a Edmond Jabes fan - I doubt that any other of his books would have for this is by far the most accessible. Jabes is an Egyptian Jew in exile in France writing primarily after the Holocaust. His writing style is a series of snippets - fiction, poetry, aphorisms - that explore the limits of language and the role of the blank, the silence, the desert, the unwritten. In The Books of Shares each of these snippets stands on its own - that is not true, for example, of the multi-volume Book of Questions. The result is a truly post-modern reflection on theology and philosophy - and post-modern without pretention.

When I read this book on a silent retreat, I found passage after passage that I wanted to hear, to memorize, to enter into my journal.

An example: "Out of the words of his language, a writer forges new words, not neologisms, but words irrigated with his blood. He founds a second language which, to be sure, is rooted in the first with all its fibers, but which henceforth, being his own - O paradox - is nobody's. Because the writer's language wants to be only of the book, of the instant and duration of a liberated word."

If you enjoy the Books of Shares, there are many wonderful volumes of Jabes to follow. If you do not enjoy this, you may safely assume that Jabes is not your reading choice.

The right book for any strong brain who wants to find out more about deconstuction. This book describes so many opinions of philosophers and founders of phenomenology and their ways to the "new wave". It will sure keeps you on the right track while travelling the amazing world of deconstruction.

If you are reading Disfiguring to get a survey of art in the 20th century, you are, for a lack of a better word, misreading Taylor's meditation on the connections between art,architecture and religion. Taylor discusses the development of European artistic modernism and its relation to philosophical and theosophical issues to reveal their interlacing connection with one another. Modernism stems, Taylor argues, from German Idealism and its attempt to totalize the world in a promise of a better life. This, combined with theosophy--a mystical, universalizing type of religion--are from the outset at the heart of modernism and modern art. He consequently expands on this position and follows its development up to the present period. Taylor appears to view the creation of art and architecture as being fundamentally religious acts. If this is the case, what does modernism say about who we are in the West? Taylor claims commodification and an obssessive fascination with the rational seem to be a part of what modern art says the West worships. As a "post-modernist" thinker, Taylor examines how we can live religiously without the totalizing claims of modernism, the violence that often comes with a society bent on rationalizing the world, and the deepening relationship between money and identity...He lays out a few suggestions and dicusses how some artists and architects are struggling with the fractured--the torn--condition of the West. A rupturing of the state of affairs in a modernist culture, he appears to say, is not a bad thing--it's maybe even necessary in order for us to understand "spirit" apart from some of the objectives of modernism. This is a remarkable book.

After visiting the Pierced Hearts and True Love exibit at our local art gallery I bought and fell in love with this book. Very tasteful and well thought out. An inspiration for a person considering a tattoo. Very thought provoking.

Taylor's book seeks to establish a postmodernist philosophy by showing it to be the only viable option after the effects of deconstruction. It is in two parts.

The first part is a detailed exploration of the effects of deconstruction on the thinker's concept of God, self, history, and book. His argument is that deconstructive thought removes from the thinker the ability to endorse the being of an objective God, which in turn prevents a conception of self. This step occurrs because self is always defined in relation to an Archimedean point. Once both objective God and self are given up, there is nothing on which to base a concept of time or book (in the sense of a self-contained unified whole).

The first section effectively makes the reader unsatisfied with the consequenses of deconstructive thought. The argument that a person cannot live in this state in convincing.

In the second part, Taylor attempts to reconstruct these four concepts. He argues that the subjective action of the human imagination can re-lig (re-connect) the world and make an inhabitable conceptual universe.

The book is appropriate for a reader with some minimal background in the critical thought of the last two centuries. Taylor does not address the reader who rejects deconstruction on other grounds, and his attempt at reconstruction is unsatisfying. However, the first part of the book is entirely worth reading, and I highly recommend the book on the merits of the first part alone.

Mark Taylor's book, "Erring: A Postmodern A/theology," will challenge it's reader and entice them to enter his web of thought. Personally, I owe much of my own personal "erring" to this book. This read will help to examine as well as deal with the questions many of us can not seem to shake. Is their really a Judeo/Xian God? Understanding the dialectic between man and himself and his world is imperative if western culture is to proceed into a postmodern world of pluralism and omnicentrism. make no mistake, if you posess strong reading ability,this book will open your mind or return you to that experience few of us have attained. Err in this direction and Mark will surely send you erring or wandering in a world never before experienced or forgotten

This book provides a theologian with a nice summary and dialogue of 22 concepts related to religious inquiry. The various authors draw on Tillich, Hegel, Heidegger, Kant any many other scholars to provide a format or review of the term being discussed. This is not a book meant for a lay person or beginning college student. A graduate theological student may find it appealing as an aid for her/his own research. As a college religion instructor, I had hoped this book would be a helpful tool for my students. It is too advanced.

Critical Terms for Religious Studies is a wonderful introduction to religious studies. It uses interesting examples drawn from a wide range of religions to make its points clear. Topics are drawn from both obviously religious terminology, such as belief and God, to seemingly non-religious terms, such as culture and experience. The result is a deeply insightful book that gives the beginning student a lay of the religious studies landscape.

It's really difficult to describe Daniel Libeskind's works when he doesn't profess himself to be an architect & yet, claiming that he's not a non-architect either. So, what is he? Anyway, his work is very abstract & cerebral. Daniel is a very eclectic & talented individual, with degrees in music, mathematics, architecture & upon submitting his pieces for competitions, he actually used music sheet! Then, he questioned if the outcome of the competitions was decided by a panel of jury, & was that the rite thing to do. In many instances, readers might feel that we're getting somewhere in understanding his works & subsequently, a curveball would be thrown & we would end up just as confused as when we first started. Suffice to say that he's an urban planner, looking at the overall picture, believes in evolution of designs which would benefit future generations. He argued that his high profile work for the connection between the Berlin Museum & the Jewish Museum might be nicknamed "zigzag" but in actuality, in real life, its presence conveys something otherwise. If readers could look beyond his supposedly desconstructive work, he's in fact a traditionalist & a realist. Daniel is forever arguing with himself & there's nothing more enjoyable to him than engaging in discussions. I wish that there were more pictures of his works but most of them were taken in a hurry, or that they were pictures of models. There were also descriptions of some kinds of his modern art works & sculptures (or machines)? The writings at the end of the book is intensive reading, but there's undeniable of Daniel's depth & it's about time someone of his calibre racks up the architecture world with his avant-garde thinking. Other projects worth reading here are Alexanderplatz, Berlin; The Spiral: Extension to the Victoria & Albert Museum; Jewish Community Centre & Synagogue, Duisburg; & so forth. Not for the faint-hearted but highly recommended.

Fans, just for fans,ONLY for those who had a previous approach to libeskind's work. (results as to much for first-timers) advanced desconstruction followers will feel satisfied of owning this piece. The "plus" comes in the writings, the way they are writen is pure and simple "congruence" something worth to be digested.