I have read everything there is to read about Ricky and I found this book the most interesting, inspiring, fun and cool. Get this one!

Please help me in obtaining a copy of Ricky's book coz i just LOOOOVE his music and him too. But I would like to know more about him. My name is Surie and I am from Lusaka, Zambia. in the Central part of Africa.

Ricky,

Why do you have only young women in you shows dancing with you. There are differnt type of women that buy your CD for their children. I think, personally that if you held a contest for a mother, as to why they allow or buy your CD for their child, you would have a larger audience. Why you ask because people would want to know! Anything that promotes you people will will listen to! I for example, am a 36 year old mother of three. Why would a person think that I would not like your music? You are a young person and if you would want your popularity to follow you then I personally think it would be wise to think not only of the young "teens" out there. I like your music, your voice, if I did not I would not let my CHILDREN buy your music. I know that this will not ever get to you personally befor your "agents" read it first, but you have to think of where the money is coming from for your success. WHAT CAN YOU DO TO PLEASE A FAN? HAVE YOUR AGENTS WRITE BACK AND SAY WHAT? THANK YOU FOR INPUT. WHICH I HAVE CC TO MY OWN EMAIL. GOOD LUCK. KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK. A BUYER AND A FAN FROM MY DAUGHTER.

Reading this book from cover to cover would be educational journey, but probably most readers will skip from place to place, as I did. Honestly, I found the 17th Century sermons, which make up a large part of the book, quite hard to follow, though I don't doubt there is much in them that will make the effort worthwhile, if I have need to look more closely.

There is doubtless something to delight and offend everyone in this volume. The editors have been fairly conscientious in taking selections from a variety of viewpoints. Liberals may get a bit more space in the 20th Century selection, but on the other hand, J. Gresham Machen's ringing defense of the historicity of the Gospels, History and Faith, is also included. (A work that could have been written as a reply to the Jesus Seminar of eight decades later. A very devastating reply.) I also found Henry Ward Beecher's pre-Civil War jeremiad against slavery stirring and of more than historical interest. (That, too, of course. He was the brother of Harriet Beecher Stowe, of Uncle Tom's Cabin fame.) Joseph Smith's rambling funeral oration was useful in a different way, giving positive evidence for my prior feeling that the man was a bit, shall we say, close to the edge.

Agree or disagree, readers of every viewpoint will find something of interest in this volume. It would be a most valuable reference tool for any class on American history, and, I think, belongs in every school library.

Author, Jesus and the Religions of Man d.marshall@sun.ac.jp

I bought this book with an interest in the literary form of the sermon and I was also interested in religion, although I may not call myself particularly religious. I was impressed with the degree of thought that the writers of these sermons gave to their subjects. If you are even slightly interested in exploring religion, this is a nice introduction in American religious thought. The Library of America does a superb job at producing a volume that will last many generations. A nice addition to any thinking man's library.

St. Augustine is one of the greatest thinkers the West ever produced. Born in North Africa in the waning years of the Roman Empire, his Confessions detail his ultimate conversion to Nicene Christianity after a ten year journey through the various trendy sects of the 4th century C.E. Augustine was a member of the Manichean heresy, a follower of Astrology, and an all around sinner. He enjoyed the barbaric games of the coliseum, was overly proud of his education and teaching positions, and just couldn't bring himself to give up the ladies. He even had a son, Adeodatus, who was born out of wedlock. In short, Augustine loved the things that most people love, and he loved the same things that we love in our decadent age. This is what makes this book so relevant today; it shows how little the human race has come in 1500 years. Augustine's struggles are our struggles.

Two points of interest are worth mentioning here. The first is Augustine's mother, St. Monica. Throughout the book, Monica is an omnipresent figure in Augustine's life. She is a tireless Christian, and she does many things to try and bring Augustine into the faith. She prays incessantly, has visions and dreams from God that promise Augustine's conversion, and she follows her son everywhere he goes. Augustine gives much praise to his mother, but it's important to remember that he was writing this account after his conversion. At the time, Augustine must have been sick to death of some of her antics. He actually lied to her so he could sneak off to Rome without her, although she was soon on a boat so she could catch up with him. I also felt sorry for his father, Patricius. Dad wasn't really into the Christian thing, so Monica put on the pants in the family. Augustine even says that Monica made God the 'true' father in their house.

A second point of interest is Augustine's actual conversion. He seems to go through two of them in quick succession. The first is an intellectual conversion, as Augustine uses the texts of Neo-Platonic authors to prove to himself the fallacy of the Manichean theology. It seems the Manicheans believed in a Christ figure that was not fully divine, as well as the idea that God was a substance. Augustine shows how substance can be corrupted, making this idea totally incompatible with the idea of a perfect God. After all, if a substance can be corrupted, how can it be perfect? After the intellectual conversion, Augustine still can't totally believe because he can't give up the fleshly sin of lust with women. This second conversion finally comes about in the famous 'pick it up and read' incident in the garden. Augustine, wracked by his sins and on the verge of some type of mental collapse over his anguish, hears a child's voice singing, 'Pick it up and read.' Seeing this as a sign from God, he picks up Paul's Epistles and reads the first thing he sees in the book. He reads a passage about the evils of fleshly vice and his conversion is complete.

After this conversion, the rest of the book veers off on a tangent. Augustine examines the concept of time, in great detail, and writes an incredibly dense exegesis on the first parts of the book of Genesis. This section, with the exception of his discourse on time, isn't nearly as interesting as the account of his life and the fundamental changes he goes through as he tries to find the true way to live life. I do suspect that thousands have converted after reading this book because it speaks to every human on a fundamental level. The above description I've given doesn't even begin to cover the amount of information in this book. The Confessions is both beautiful and thought provoking and I would recommend it to anyone.

I do have a word of warning for those who are considering giving this one a shot. Avoid, like the plague, the John Ryan translation. It is wordy, dense, and not at all clear. Read this Penguin version, written by Mr. Pine-Coffin (great name, huh?). It is a clear and concise translation. It's one thing to struggle with ideas in a book, but why should we have to struggle with the syntax? Go forth and read, young man!

I decided to read this book to find out for myself what everybody was talking about, especially from being Catholic. I wanted to read the book that so long ago won over all of the philosophers of the time who considered Christianity to be a simpleton's system of life.
Right from the beginning of this book/autobiography I knew that I had in my hands something special. It is written with such brutal honesty and insight into St. Augustine's soul and mind. He pours himself out and into this work. It was completely refreshing to know that He/they so very long ago were dealing with the same searching the same longings and fascination that we /I do today. It is wondeful to feel the thoughts of St. Augustine who lived most of his life right in the heart of the dieng Roman civilization. This book is deeply spiritual, personal, and filled with a strong message of faith. But it goes beyond being religious or spiritual or preachy all of which it is as wll but it is a masterpiece. It is very thoughtful, personal, and well crafted. It is a great read for anyone whether Catholic, Christian, athiest or any other. It is the story of a man's life told by the very man who lived and experienced it. It tells the story of this time and this place told through the eyes of one who lived in it. I found some of the passages deeply moving. ANd yet other passages I found to be utterly hillarious. So read and enjoy the Spiritual, personal autobiography of one who lived a long time ago. For Christians one who lived closer to the actual life of Christ than to us today. It is clear to see after reading this work how it helped the Catholic Church and Christianity itself take-off with such passion and intellectual backings.

St. Augustine's Confessions is a treasure of Western literature, and, much like the book of Job and the Psalms, really belongs to the heritage of the entire culture and has transcended sectarian importance. That is not to say that these books are not religiously important--of course they are, and the Confessions perhaps even more so to a confessing Christian. Much of what the entire Western church still believes comes straight from the mind and pen of St. Augustine, and to understand his mind one really needs to read the Confessions. Nearly the entire orthodox Catholic tradition of fall-redemption theology sprung full-formed from Augustine's mind, which can be seen in his allegorical interpretaiton of Genesis 1, the section that ends the Confessions and gives them an "unfinished" quality. Augustine was a well-known and revered man when he wrote this book, and rather goes out of his way to depict himself as a youthful deviant to his followers. This is both a heuristic device and what Ausgustine really believes about himself; he is interested in his flock realizing his own fallenness and finitude, and seeing it in themselves as well. A brilliantly modern book for fourth-century fare, it is amenable (at the risk of anachronism)to a multitude of interpretations. Here one can find existential angst, control-dramas, the quest for and the overturning of the ego-self, and an almost pathological study of human guilt (it has been quipped that if the Saint from Hippo had had a good psychotherapist, the Church might have been spared nearly two millennia of sexual dysfunction). Augustine's conversion in the garden reads almost like a kensho experience in Zen. Read the book and draw your own conclusions, but never forget that, as you read, you are sitting at the feet of (and in judgement of) one of the sharpest minds ever produced in Latin Christianity. He writes, "For although I cannot prove to mankind that these my confessions are true, at least I shall be believed by those whose ears are opened to me by love" Book 10.3, and whether or not your ears are open to him in love, they should at least be open. Augustine always has something to say to the careful reader, and no less a careful reader than Derrida lui-même is an inveterate reader and student of Augustine's. Quite a compliment from a reader who certainly does not share Augustine's faith concerns....

Summary Bowden characterizes Christian missionary activities among native Americans as "in any case a general failure" with "obviously disastrous results." (pages xv-xvi). Bowden emphasizes the strong connection between the beliefs and the behaviors within any culture. Because the two tend to reinforce each other, he sees it as inevitable that the European missionaries would help to destroy the cultures of the people they wished to help. However, Bowden further emphasizes that "change" does not have to be interpreted as "destruction." All cultures have a dynamic existence that allows them to grow and adapt as they interact with one another. With this perspective, the effect of Christianity on Native American cultures is cast in a less negative light. Bowden makes no attempt to exhaustively catalog every example of Native American culture or of European missionary effort. He primarily treats three major representative populations. His study is limited to the northern continent and, initially, to three local geographic regions. The Native American tribes addressed are the Tanoan-speaking Tewa tribe contacted by Spanish missionaries, the Iroquoian-Speaking Huron tribe contacted by French missionaries, and the Algonkian-speaking Massachuset tribe contacted by English missionaries. Bowden attempts to "provide a detached analysis of volatile issues and a chronological survey of their prolonged conflict." (p. xv). He promises to neither defend "the Christian agents nor the natives opposed to conversion." (p. xv). However, Bowden does not convince the reader that he is presenting a neutral account. With few exceptions, he seems to blame the Europeans for the demise of Native American cultures. Regarding Spanish Franciscan missionaries he writes, "The intruders had no misgivings about their right to dominate local affairs or to enforce a new life-style on the natives." (p. 42). By referring to the Europeans as the invaders or intruders Bowden reveals a degree of negativism toward the Europeans. He uses emotionally-charged language such as "destroyed", "overwhelmed", "devastated", and "ravaged" to describe, throughout the book, the effects on native culture inflicted by Europeans. Each time Bowden disparages the Europeans for destroying yet another native culture, he defends them with another restatement of the same argument. Bowden defends the Europeans with his assertion that "all human cultures are dynamic." (p. 22). Flexible cultures survive by changing to meet new challenges. Inflexible cultures that do not change must disappear. Throughout the text, Bowden returns to the proposition that Native American cultures had never been "unspoiled." Constantly from the time of their first arrival each group's culture was affected and changed by contact with surrounding cultures. When Europeans joined the mix of cultures on the continent, they did not meet and contaminate an unspoiled native culture. The rate of change increased quantitatively, but the inevitability of change did not increase qualitatively (p. 24). Because this was the only justification offered in answer to the annihilation of many aspects on native culture, the argument weakens with repetition. It gives the impression that Bowden needs to keep reminding himself that the Europeans are excusable for their actions. The argument that the cultures would have changed in some ways even without the European intervention is not strong enough to stand up against the strong language used to describe the injustices perpetrated upon the natives by the Europeans. Therefore, Bowden appears to be making a great effort to remain neutral while in reality he has greater sympathy for the natives and serious accusations to make against the Europeans. Style Bowden's prose style is enjoyable to read. This book contains many potentially dry facts and figures but all are presented as part of the story of real human beings. The book can be enjoyed on two levels. First, on a scholarly level it does indeed provide a concise, fact-filled account. But this book contains enough narrative elements to please the casual reader who likes to read historic novels. Thus Bowden succeeds in producing a volume with a broad audience. The organization of the book is very logical in the early chapters when Bowden sticks with a single region and discusses first the native inhabitants and then the effects of European interaction. The later chapters lack the clear focus of the earlier ones because Bowden switches to a chronological approach rather than a geographical one. These chapters jump around geographically and are not as easy to follow, but they are sufficiently organized to grasp with a little more effort applied. The one aspect of the book that I was quite unimpressed by was the organization of the material in the Suggestions for Further Reading section. For some reason, Bowden decided to list all of these suggestions in prose rather than in bibliographic form. The result is a dozen pages of appendix in which it is very hard to find the important information. Much more useful would have been either a straight bibliography, an annotated bibliography, or a topical bibliography. The current format is similar to a literature review or annotated bibliography in prose format. I won't be making frequent use of this appendix as a reference tool. Worthwhileness It will be worth your while to read this book if you are looking for a general account of the mission endeavor among the American Indians and it's results. Because of Bowden's imaginative combination of aspects of neighboring tribes, this book is not for a person who is seeking an absolutely factual account of Native American cultures prior to evangelization. I recommend this book to any person preparing for missions because of it contains concrete examples of H. Richard Niebuhr's three ways of approaching foreign cultures in his book Christ and Culture: Christ found in or through the culture, Christ against the culture, or Christ transforming the culture. The case studies in this book are samples. So I do not recommend this book to anyone who is seeking a comprehensive survey of the entire mission effort to Native Americans. Also, the book is not easily useful as a reference book for the same reason. This is a book to read cover to cover rather than to attempt to look up information on particular subjects, although it does have a useful index. Finally, this book can be disturbing because of the injustices and failures to show love recorded. This is a serious book, and will probably not put the reader into a pleasant state of mind. According to Martin E. Marty, "Naught is here for the comfort of the majority peoples of North America. There is, on the other hand, much here that will lead to new awareness and may help produce a new spirit of responsiveness and empathy." (p. xiii).