Used price: $2.40
Collectible price: $8.41
Buy one from zShops for: $9.99
List price: $14.00 (that's 20% off!)
Used price: $7.39
Buy one from zShops for: $9.50
The authors provide a picture of the culture for which Paul was writing, and show that it is suprisingly cosmopolitan like our own.
Where others try to twist controversial portions of the scriptures to fit modern ideas, these authors uncover the ancient wisdom of God and bring it to life in the 21st century.
The authors begin by defining the confusion over marital roles today, and the resulting chaos. They then outline the husband's role as servant-leader, and describe his core concerns. The wife's role is then outlined as helper-lover, and her concerns are also presented.
Two chapters are devoted to the idea of submission, dispeling many myths regarding it. Common problems are addressed, and practical applications are provided. The book closes with two helpful appendices recounting the breakdown of gender roles in ancient Rome, and the impact that Paul's words had on that generation.
I recommend this book wholeheartedly for both husbands and wives desiring to gain a better understanding of a Biblical-oriented marriage.
List price: $12.95 (that's 20% off!)
Used price: $7.45
Buy one from zShops for: $8.36
I have two friends, who I'll call Candace and Mary. Candace is the kind of mom who jumps every time her daughter says boo, no matter how demanding or rude the request. Mary, on the other hand, was less 'conscientious.' Her husband was, at times, downright gruff with their kids when they got obnoxious. I always assumed that Candace, because she worked so much harder, was the better mother. Then one day it hit me like a bolt of lightning: Candace's daughter was a whiny, unhappy little girl, whereas Mary's were much happier.
For some reason, many parents of my generation feel we must give our children our constant, undivided attention, must protect them from all forms of disappointment, and never, ever be angry with them. Doherty shows why that's a recipe for disaster. He looks at these misconceptions and gives good, sensible guidance. Probably one of the best parenting books I've ever read.
The Consumer Culture of Childhood
Being a Confident Parent in an Insecure World
Activvating Necessary Skills for Effective Parenting
Strategies for Expecting and Getting Respect
Family Time and a Child's Own Life
What's So Important About Gamily Rituals
The Importance of Family Work
Why Anger-Free Parenting Does Not Work
How to Express Anger Constructively
Responsibilities to a Religious Congregation
How to Work as a Team Raising Responsible Children
Father as Consultant on Morals and Social Behavior
How to be an Influential Father
Guidelines and Strategies for Single Parents
Achieving Confident Parenting in Stepfamilies
Unplugging Your Kids: Media & Child Rearing
Resisting the Peer Cultures of Children and Parents
List price: $40.00 (that's 30% off!)
Used price: $18.00
Collectible price: $19.06
I was captivated by the author's lucid presentation of historical evidence, and his ability to show how Paul and later Christian theologians missed the mark of Jesus' real life and teachings. Prof. Nicholls explains how Jesus was a Rabbi who taught Judaism [e.g. the Kingdom of Heaven is within reach of the common man] to other Jews. Nicholls presents Jesus as a Jewish Rabbi who only taught to other Jews, and was not some kind of 'new Christian' who taught to Gentiles. Paul on the other hand conflicts with classical Judaism, teaching Gentiles can be 'grafted into Israel' [Romans 11] without requiring the Torah's obligations for converts (i.e. circumcision for men, dietary restrictions & acceptance of all Torah law as binding). This was presumably to gain more recruits who never would have agreed to adult surgery or making major dietary and lifestyle changes. The consequences would be fixed upon Jesus' imminent return.
This book is a must for anybody who wants to truly understand the historical reasons why Christianity conflicts with its parent religion, and subsequently, vilifies Judaism in order to defend its agenda.
The author investigates every major era of the last 2000 years of Judeo-Christian history to prove his thesis that the Holocaust could not have happened had it not been for 2000 years of Christianity teaching that Jews are bad.
William Nicholls begins his examination with an overview of current New Testament research, arguing that it is now clearer than ever before that Jesus himself was a faithful Jew who could not have intended to found the religion which Christianity later became. He then passes to later New Testament history and tries to get clear just what was involved in Paul's mission to non-Jews. (In all of the foregoing, I could pick nits about any number of comparatively minor points. But his overall approach is, in essence, that the historical Christian practice of evaluating the "Old Testament" according to the "New" must be reversed: the gospels and apostolic writings must be evaluated by the standards of the Torah and the other Jewish scriptures. Here I heartily concur, and this is not the place to elaborate my agreements or otherwise on specific issues.)
From there, Nicholls works forward through Christian history up to the present day, including medieval Europe, the Enlightenment, and of course the Holocaust. Again, he covers his topics with remarkable thoroughness and clarity.
Two notable features of Nicholls's presentation should be especially praised. First, he quite properly singles out Calvinism as a glowing exception to certain anti-Jewish trends within Christendom, and correctly attributes this fact in large measure to Calvinism's theology -- in particular to John Calvin's "third use" of biblical law, which is not terribly far from Judaism's first and only use of it. Second, he correctly assigns a great deal of antisemitism to the political Left and occasionally implies that this antisemitism is an outgrowth of "Enlightenment" anti-religious secularism generally. (And along the same lines, he expressly states his suspicions that "liberal" religion is driven more by its political agenda than by religious concerns.)
I would have liked to see this theme explored a bit more thoroughly. The fact is that the (classical) liberal commonwealth as we know it was, historically and theologically, an outgrowth of the Protestant Reformation and specifically of Calvinism, owing precisely to the latter's return to biblical principles that had been present in Judaism all along. This is precisely the reason why more or less Calvinistic societies have refrained from the persecution of Jews in particular and established religious liberty in general. It is also why more "modern" liberalism is opposed to classical liberalism just as surely as it is to Judeo-Christian religion. (Nicholls could have scored a few more points here as well by discussing Roman Catholicism's official opposition -- at the Magisterium level, not the Lord Acton level -- to capitalism, classical liberalism, and both religious and economic liberty.)
Which brings me to another point on which I wish Nicholls had been clearer. He has a great deal to say about Christian silence during the Holocaust and about the way Christian "myth" prepared secular society for antisemitism. But he does not have anything to say about Nazism itself as a deadly enemy not only of Judaism but of Christianity as well.
And one final quibble: Nicholls has written nearly five hundred pages on the topic of rapprochement between Judaism and a properly repentant Christianity _without one single mention of the Noahide laws_. He concludes his ruminations on the future of Christianity by musing about whether "the synagogue" can accept "the church," as though he is imagining a massive influx of converts to Judaism itself as every Christian in the world becomes a Jew. But Judaism requires no such conversion; Nicholls could profitably have inquired what Judaism _does_ require.
Generally, I think Nicholls overstates the need for theological agreement between Judaism and Christianity. Had he focused a bit more on Calvinism and therefore on why Calvinist societies are as friendly to Jews as such societies have historically been, he might have been less concerned with theology and more concerned with broad-level practical politics. We might then also have seen a bit more discussion of why the Left is _politically_ unable to accommodate Judaism -- and Christianity too, for that matter.
But I do not mean these points to take anything away from my praise for Nicholls's presentation. What he _does_ discuss is handled thoroughly and with tremendous intellectual honesty. This volume is very highly recommended to anyone interested in Jewish-Christian relations in particular and the foundations of the free and prosperous commonwealth in general.
Used price: $49.95
Collectible price: $55.00
There are two drawbacks. The first is price. This is an expensive volume, but perhaps that is to be expected. The second is that I noticed several examples of errata. No doubt these will be removed with each new printing.
List price: $11.99 (that's 20% off!)
Used price: $7.50
Buy one from zShops for: $8.28
In my case, I have been struggling with recovering from a divorce. Having failed in marriage, I had conditioned my thinking about relationships and marriage with the feelings of failure and a fear that any relationship was doom to failure. I was afraid to try again and afraid to even be vulnerable. Teaching myself to tell myself the truth and not buy into the fear and doubt and lies of my self talk is a journey that I've begun with the help of this book.
Used price: $7.45
Collectible price: $6.87
"May your sythan-ar ever flourish!"
..... and may you never run into a "yeg" upon your travels in the forest.
List price: $14.95 (that's 30% off!)
Used price: $1.35
Collectible price: $6.29
Buy one from zShops for: $9.65
Used price: $1.00
Collectible price: $8.00
Buy one from zShops for: $1.00
Thomas Williams is right up there with C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien. It's a MUST to read and I look forward to reading the sequels!
Used price: $7.18
Collectible price: $8.39
Buy one from zShops for: $6.80
The author says that this approach is very successful, but it seems to me more than a little formulaic. But if it works, that's great!
I think the idea of having the seeker read the Scripture passages himself is a good one. Although I certainly wouldn't even think of putting a limit on what God can do through the reading of His Word, I wonder what a person would think about the Bible passages if they put no stock in the Bible as the Word of God. There are people who won't be convinced by what the Bible says about itself, and those people might possibly be persuaded by outside sources such as the writings of Josephus and the Dead Sea Scrolls.
Mr. Fay does a good job of telling you what people's objections to the Christian faith might be and how to answer them. He clearly outlines the Scriptures that you should share with those you're sharing your faith with. The appendices are very helpful and William Fay's testimony is fascinating, to say the least....