Every Christian ought to read Gary North's "Unholy Spirits." Within our context we probably do not encounter too many psychic healings, spontaneous combustions, witch hexings and the like. North assembles an impressive amount of research (his chapter on the sorcerer's world was particularly intriguing) in a convincing fashion. By the end of the book, one should be convinced in the existence and power of evil spirits. North does an excellent job of critiquing the rationalism of modern scientists, who refuse to take seriously the reality of the paranormal. Rationalism, as Cornelius Van Til argued, has a secret treaty with irrationalism, and North proves the existence of this treaty. Both sides (rationalism/irrationalism), although they often have internal squabbles, are against God and His Anointed. History often manifests the oscillation between these two systems of thought, and this is due to man's propensity to refuse to embrace biblical religion. The 1960s and its infatuation with the occult mark a transitory stage into the irrational, Van Til's "integration into the void." Being a man who refuses to fight something with nothing, North offers his readers the only good alternative to the coming (seemingly) world of irrational, chaotic humanism--covenantal obedience to every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. "Unholy Spirits" is a fine read. Be sure to follow North's warnings, however, in your study of this often macabre subject.

This is intellectual detective work at its best. The forward alone (The Crisis of Western Rationalism) is just about worth the price of the book. North follows the rationalistic viewpoint to lits logical conclusion, showing why it helps foment occultism. He also shows how orthodox Christianity has the only answer to problems unanswerable by devotees of science or the occult. But it's hardly a sermon. None the likes of which you've heard before. It's a full course meal for the mind on every page. It was through the reading of this book that I was introduced to the writings of Jacques Vallee, because North dedicates some analysis to Vallee's work. He believes that Vallee is on target about UFO's being a control mechanism of deception, but wrong about what they really are. At any rate there is one thing you will not be when reading this book....bored.

Paul and Jesus: The True Story by the Reverend David Wenham (an Anglican parish priest and a researcher/teacher at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford, England) is an informed and commendable attempt to address common negative views of the apostle Paul, who is often credited with changing or modifying Jesus' original ideas, messages and teachings, especially with regard to the role and status of women and sex. Presenting the true story of Paul and Jesus, and what the scriptures themselves tell a modern readership, Paul and Jesus is a straightforward, highly recommended, scholarly interpretation offering a wealth of documented and supported insights into the "Apostle to the Gentiles" and the true story of the two most influential figures in the establishment of Christianity into what would become one of the major religious movements the world would ever know.

This book offers a straight forward discussion of the major parables of Christ. It never strays off from the main theme and launches into irrelevant and long-winded 'sermons'. If it's precise, on-the-dot infomation you are seeking, look no further - this book fits the bill!
All the parables are discussed individually, so there's no need to read the book in sequential order. Just dip straight into the parable that interest you!
A great reference book for those who has a basic acquaintance with the Gospels. Beginners can benefit from it also.

An earlier reviewer made the following comment:

"Wenham argues clearly, cogently, and concisely that, according to Jesus, _something_ was supposed to happen very soon. The fact that it _didn't_ happen shows that Christianity is founded upon a tremendous mistake."

How does that reviewer know nothing happened? He just assumes nothing happened. What is more, he states his opinion as if it were a self-evident fact. He has actually stated his anti-Christian opinion (rejecting what Wenham established to be the teaching of Jesus) as dogma. His faith in anti-Christianity, his mere belief that Jesus is wrong, is stated as if it were fact.

The truth is that something did happen, just as Jesus said. The Kingdom of God came, sins were propitiated, atonement was made possible. The Kingdom of God, because of Jesus' ministry (as Wenham shows) has invaded. It's just sad that the earlier reviewer decided to resist and deny the reality of that Kingdom and call Jesus a liar.

David Wenham provides an excellent summary of the overall meaning and structure of Jesus's parables: that is, as announcing the imminent coming of the Kingdom of God.

In order to accomplish this feat, he has to dispense with one of the silliest claims of modern interpreters of Jesus, namely, that a parable can make just one single overall point. This claim is due to Jeremias -- and, as Wenham rightly notes, it has no support whatsoever. Jesus was a master of the "parable" format and it's ludicrous to tie him down to such a restrictive standard.

Delightfully, Wenham's work has an unintended side effect: it clearly demonstrates that Jesus was dead wrong. Jesus expected a major divine intervention in history, as indicated for example by Mark 9:1; Wenham argues clearly, cogently, and concisely that, according to Jesus, _something_ was supposed to happen very soon. The fact that it _didn't_ happen shows that Christianity is founded upon a tremendous mistake.

But of course Wenham doesn't deal with that issue. Nevertheless his scholarly work on the parables of Jesus should be of great interest to non-Christians.

I found Wenham's argument more compelling than I had expected. The data he surveys on the connectin between Paul and the gospels is far more exaustive than the dozen+ other books I looked at on the general topic of Paul's Chritology combined and is generally well structured. Though his strategy of lumping evidence with a range of likelyhood and backing resulted in very thin allusions coinciding with strong cases. It is worth the pages and is a well put together volume.

This book is a comprehensive presentation of the teachings of Paul and Jesus from the New Testament. I liked the way the various concepts were presented and analyzed. For a scholarly book, it is written in an easy to read fashion that contains enough detailed information for the theological scholar and is easily followed by the layperson. The book basically blows the doors off the theological theory that Paul was unaware of Jesus and created his own version of Christianity.

The book is outlined in such a way that many concepts which are presented by both Jesus and Paul such as the Kingdom of God, the Christian Community, and the essentials elements of who Jesus was and claimed to be, are compared, contrasted and dissected against each other. The result is that the author demonstrates that the absurd theories about Paul being unaware of Jesus life and teachings are unfounded.

It is clear after examining the evidence that Paul was presenting the message of the Gospel, and was in fact a follower of Jesus Christ and not the founder of a new Gnostic religion. If you have heard these theories and are curious, please read this book.

David Wenham answers the question posed in the title of his book by affirming that Paul was a follower of Jesus and not some sort of founder of a new religion. The opening chapter, entitled "Introducing the Question", was helpful in that the author was forthcoming about his methodologies and biases. No scholar is "completely un-biased", and Wenham deserves credit for sharing the path his argument will follow before blindly leading his reader down it.

A convincing argument is made that Paul was aware of far more details of Jesus' life than for which he is often credited. Wenham tries to avoid what he calls "parallelomania" which is the overzealousness of some scholars to find connections between Paul and Jesus in places where they don't actually exist. Some skeptics may find Wenham guilty of what he claims to avoid, but I believe the vast majority of his arguments are highly probable.

Wenham groups the connections between Paul and Jesus in degrees of probability. For example, the "highly probable" category includes Paul's knowledge of the Last Supper, resurrection appearances, Jesus' teaching on divorce and others. His next category is simply labelled "probable" and contains such things as Paul's awareness of the baptism of Jesus, the commissioning of Peter, and many more things. He then moves to connections which he considers to be merely "plausible", and believes Paul's awareness of the Sermon on the Mount, parables of the prodigal son and vineyard tenants, among several other items, fall into this category.

By using degrees of probability, I think Wenham safely avoids the charge of "parallelomania". He doesn't use statements such as "Paul must have known X". Instead, he uses terminology like "Paul probably knew X" or "It is very likely that Paul was aware of X". Taken as a cumulative argument, Wenham's case is highly persuasive. The one shortcoming I found with this book was that Wenham fails to adequately interact with those who would say that Paul was the founder of Christianity. Its apparent that Wenham is more than able to meet the task, so my assumption is that he wanted to focus on developing his case without constantly being sidetracked by the need to refute his opponents. If the book is ever revised, it would be great to see him address this issue. Doing so would make this an absolutely perfect book.