I have just finished reading John P. Jewell's most recent book "New Tools For A New Century" and I must say it is terrific. He is director of Instructional Technology and Distance Learning at The University of Dubuque Theological Seminary where he deals in the latest technology and seeks ways to make it helpful for pastors and churches.

I have been a pastor for 41 years and in the last 15 years we tried to make use of available technologies for ministry at Asylum Hill Congregational Church in Hartford, Ct. We had services on radio and television, had our own Web page many years ago, a media center and so forth.I didn't find it easy to get my church to buy into all this new technology. But Dr. Jewell has done four powerful and necessary things in this book: 1st, he makes a persuasive case that it is ESSENTIAL for ALL churches to make use of email, the internet, LCD projectors and laptops, etc. in their whole ministry: in worship, Christian Education, Youth ministry, evangelism and so forth. 2nd, he describes the basics of each technology in a simple, clear fashion so even I could understand it. 3rd, he describes with persuasive illustrations ways in which these technologies can be used to improve the effectiveness of each program of the church. 4th, and finally, he describes how to deal with the human, personal, and political blocks to getting your congregation to give it a fair shake.

I don't know of another book like it and wish I had read it 15 years ago. But I am glad I have read it now and will send it along to a few special pastors I love. I recommend you do the same.

John P. Jewell's book "New Tools For A New Century" is an exciting and very readable book, which should be on every "must" reading list for pastor's, church staff members, and lay leaders, who are looking for guidelines to move their church into the world of digital technology. Not only has John Jewell captured the step by step process of making that move, but he has done it in a most readable and understandable way. This book is a valuable resource for both the absolute beginner as well as those who are experienced in technology.

This is one of those not to be put down books until you have finished it. Interrupted I couldn't wait to get back and finish reading "New Tools...". Church leaders, "New Tools For A New Century", provides the help needed to bring you up to date with all the new technology with as little pain as possible. Absolutly a "must" have book for your library to read and study over and over again. As Dorothy says in "The Wizard of Oz" to her little dog Toto: "Toto, I've a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore."

This book is a user friendly guide as you seek to discover your way around the how too of today's new technology that is available to move ministry into "a New Century!"

The "New York Rangers-Seventy-Five Years", is a superb historical look back at 75 years of Ranger hockey. Author John Halligan, who is a former public relations director for the Rangers, gives the fan, a fantastic look back at the birth of this great franchise, and takes you on a journey from 1926 to the year 2000. All the legends of Ranger hockey are presented in all their glory. Names like the Bill and Bun Cook, Lester Patrick, Ching Johnson, Murray Murdoch, Chuck Rayner, Gump Worsley, Andy Bathgate, Harry Howell, Rod Gilbert, Jean Ratelle, Vic Hadfield, Eddie Giacomin, Brad Park, Adam Graves, Mark Messier, Brian Leetch and Mike Richter are just a few of the Ranger legends that are brought to life with rare photo's and text that help make this book the best book ever published on the New York Rangers. The all-time Ranger team fold out section by John Davidson is a very nice touch to this oversized coffee table book. Seeing the full page photo of Eddie Giacomin overcome by emotion playing for the Red Wings, as the crowd chanted his name for 2 hours surely brought back memories of an event that will live forever in Ranger history. All four stanley cup teams are covered here, 1927, 1933,1940 and of course 1994. The book has lots of statistical data at end section of the book to help settle any arguments over who had more goals and shutouts etc. I can't think of a better gift to give to a young Ranger fan who would like to explore the history and players who wore the uniform of the New York Rangers.

I own this when it was first realesed 2 years ago! NUFF said!

If you are a pastor of a big or small church you must read this book. Very sound biblicaly.

The authors of this book say that while in some ways seminary trained them for pastoring small-town churches, in other ways it did not. Why not? Because their seminaries assumed a suburban model of doing church. Those models, when transplanted to the small-town environment, just don't work.

The authors both gave into the temptation to treat the small-town church as a smaller version of the suburban church before figuring out that the small-town church isn't just a miniature version of the suburban church. It has its own characteristics and will thrive only when it focuses on being itself, on doing what it does best--intimacy and involvement.

I like the way the authors learned to approach pastoring in the small town as cross-cultural ministry, realizing they had to become students of the local culture, just as missionaries to other countries do. An eye-opener for me was the challenge of pastoring in the "rurban" community, a traditional farm community that is now becoming a bedroom community for commuting professionals. How can a church reach out to include these professionals while also remaining relevant to the farm community? It's a challenge, but a doable challenge. This book also has a good chapter on how to lead the decision-making process in the small-town church. (It's a lot different from in the larger church.) There's plenty of practical wisdom in this one to make it worth a read. As a church consultant, whenever I do a consultation with a small-town church, I almost always give the pastor a copy of this one.

Some of the people pictured are my relatives,one is my father.
I've found this book to be a good connection to my past

For anyone interested in African American History in St. Louis, and particularly in Webster Groves-this book is a must! Filled with interesting photographs and charting the development of a unique community, this book lovingly portrays North Webster as only a resident could. If you know the area, you are sure to see places you'll recognize!

Reviews of JOHN F. MOFFTTT and SANTIAGO SEBASTIAN: O Brave New People: The European Invention of the American Indian. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1996.

Published review, in Latin-American Indian Literatures Journal: "The book merits wide circulation. The impressive scholarship embraces both pictorial and written sources, and the lengthy quotations in English translation from the early explorers and chroniclers are helpful."

Another published review by DANIEL K. RICHTER (Dickinson College), in American Historical Review, December 1998.

This book by John F. Moffitt and Santiago Sebastián appears, at first glance, to be a blast from the historiographical past. Readers of such standard works as Robert Berkhofer, Jr.'s The White Man's Indian: Images of the American Indian from Columbus to the Present (1979) and Olive Patricia Dickason's The Myth of the Savage and the Beginnings of French Colonialism in the Americas (1984) will find much that is familiar. Early modern Europeans invented perniciously enduring stereotypes about Indians, images rooted almost entirely in their own fantasies and fears rather than in empirical data. Those familiar with such more recent, theoretically sophisticated studies as Stephen Greenblatt's Marvelous Possessions: The Wonder of the New World (1991), Anthony Pagden's European Encounters with the New World: From Renaissance to Romanticism (1992), or Gordon M. Sayre's Les Sauvages Américains: Representations of Native Americans in French and English Colonial Literature (1997) will be disappointed in a book that openly disavows "the imposition of the kind of theoretical constructs that so bedevil current, postmodernist academic writing" (p. 3). Nonetheless, this product of a long collaboration between Moffitt and the late Sebastián has at least three great strengths. First, as art historians, the authors bring to visual materials an attention to detail seldom available to more text-oriented scholars. Second, as specialists in Renaissance art, they take medieval and classical influences on those materials seriously as systems of belief rather than mere artistic conventions. These first two strengths especially come together in their analysis of the meaning of the term India to fifteenth-century Europeans. When Christopher Columbus reported that he had found "Paradise-on-Earth" on "the Indian Islands, Located Beyond the Ganges River, Which Have Just Been Newly Rediscovered," Moffitt and Sebastián argue, he was not merely compounding a geographic error with rhetorical exaggeration. Instead, "as employed by Columbus, the term precisely meant a specific place described in the Book of Genesis as having been initially inhabited by Adam and Eve," a place Columbus and contemporary artists and map-makers sincerely believed still existed at the extreme tip of the Indian subcontinent (p. 16). This framework of ideas about an Indian Eden provides a compelling context for the many descriptions of "Indians" as pre- or post-lapsarian inhabitants of an early paradise. It also helps to explain why explorers, map-makers, and illustrators peopled the Americas with every lurid humanoid type found in the pages of The Travels of Sir John Mandeville (13561357) and other Indian subcontinent travel fantasies. The third strength of Moffitt and Sebastián is their effort to reconstruct the ways in which early modern viewers actually experienced images of alleged Native Americans. They are particularly effective in contextualizing dozens of woodcut and copperplate illustrations that previous historians have considered in isolation from the books in which they first appeared. When placed against the texts-and in light of the fact that European illustrators nearly always worked solely from written descriptions rather than illustrations from life-it becomes clear that the visual images were entirely products of European imaginations rather than American experience. Illustrators appear to have made almost no attempt to render details about Native American appearance and behavior contained in explorers's written accounts with any accuracy. Instead, they reproduced stock images of "savages," "wild men," "Amazons," and "cannibals" familiar from books written well before 1492. Few publications went as far as a 1554 edition of Francisco López de Gómara's Historia General de las Indias y Nuevo Mundo mas la conquista del Peru y de Mexico that recycled a set of illustrations originally drawn for a 1520 edition of Livy's history of Rome. Yet most had little more relevance to the subjects they purported to illustrate. The same disconnection from American reality apparent in negative stereotypes also applied in more positive, and presumably accurate, contexts. The famous illustrations of Theodore de Bry-most of which took as their originals the watercolors that Englishman John White painted at Roanoke in 1585-were, Moffitt and Sebastián argue, part of a concerted effort by Philip lI's Dutch Protestant opponents to promulgate the "Black Legend" of Spanish cruelty to Native Americans. In this politicized context, de Bry's images, far from attempting to convey accurate information about Native Americans, added to "the Noble and Ignoble Indian tropes" a new, third stereotype: "the figure of the 'doomed Indian'" (p. 303).

Abstract: in Historian; a Journal of History, Winter 1998, Colin G. Calloway reviews "O Brave New People: The European Invention of the American Indian" by John F. Moffitt and Santiago Sebastian. Full Text: 0 Brave New People: The European Invention of the American Indian. By John F. Moffitt and Santiago (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1996. Pp. xiv, 399. $55.0.) The authors of this book, both art historians, take a rather well-worn subject but examine it from a different perspective and with more attention to detail than have other studies of the images of Indians that were generated by the Columbian encounter and subsequent contacts. That Columbus mistakenly called the native inhabitants of the Americas "Indians" will come as no surprise to anyone. That Europeans created stereotypes of Indian people out of their own preconceptions, on the basis of limited contacts, and for their own purposes, will come as no surprise to readers who are familiar with the work of Roy Harvey Pearce, Robert F. Berkhofer Jr., Olive Dickason, and others. John Moffitt and Santiago Sebastian go beyond previous studies and, in a close critical reading of pre-colonial art and literature, they search out the origins of the baggage of imagery, attitudes, and assumptions that Europeans brought to their encounters with Native Americans. Focusing primarily on Spanish contacts with native peoples in the Caribbean and, to a lesser extent, South America, Moffitt and Sebastian show how Renaissance-era Europeans not only evaluated Indians "according to certain culturally enshrined patterns that seemed most natural or logical to them," but actually reinvented them (p. 4). The authors explain how the scriptural precedent of the Edenic earthly paradise and the equally ancient concept of the noble savage influenced European perceptions and inventions of the "New World" and its people. Moffitt and Sebastian assess the influence of classical models, medieval literary conventions, and previous encounters with other non-European peoples, and they critically analyze depictions of imagined Indians in Renaissance graphic art. Examining how the Indian Eden, which was created by European imagination, was destroyed by European conquest, the authors dissect the "Black Legend" of Spanish atrocities that was established by Bartolomé de Las Casas and perpetuated by Protestant writers and printers. They show how this legend affected the evolving European image of Native Americans and how it continues to distort understanding of Spain's role in the colonization of America, but they perhaps dismiss it too easily as "largely without foundation" (290). Laden with literary and artistic allusions and block quotations, O Brave New People is written in a formal, scholarly--and, as the authors acknowledge, "often rhetorical"--style that will lose some of the readers for whom it is intended (336). Some others will be turned off as they quickly realize that the book has little to do with historical Indian people. It is a detailed examination of the origins and development of the mind-set of a particular group of Renaissance Europeans. Unfortunately, that mind-set has had an enduring legacy. Colin G. Calloway (Dartmouth)

This book has received an Award of Excellence from the 2001 Southern Books Competition. "You could not find a lovelier title page spread than that in Of Birds and Texas. The sensitive calligraphy and the well-designed two-column text pages support the stunning bird prints." Congratulations to the authors, designer Ellen McKie and the University of Texas Press.

When Of Birds and Texas was first published in 1986 it was quickly deemed the most magnificent book in the history of Texas publishing. Consisting of 40 exquisitely detailed bird portraits and ten Texas landscape scenes, the volume was enhanced with accompanying commentary by the Gentling brothers and a personal essay by John Graves.

Yet the 23" by 29 ½" outsize folio which weighed 46 pounds was beyond the reach and shelf space of many. Thus, it was printed as a limited edition. Now, for the first time, this unparalleled volume is available to a mass audience at an affordable price and manageable size while retaining the original 50 color plates as well as 28 remarques. Retaining the integrity of the original folio, this is truly a work of estimable quality and a collector's item.

In addition, the recent edition offers a new essay by Stuart Gentling, "Of Birds and Texas, Audubon and Us," in which he relates how the brothers' profound respect for the famed ornithologist/artist paved the way for them to create this book, which is inspired by Audubon's work.

The Gentlings are twin brothers, artists, authors, and lecturers based in Fort Worth. Having discovered at an early age the print edition of John James Audubon's Birds of America, they now share a passion for art, world culture and wildlife.

His keen interest in wildlife, particularly birds, led Stuart to learn taxidermy. Both brothers began a serious study of art when they were 14. Their awards are numerous; their paintings may be found in museums and libraries throughout Texas and the United States. This year Scott received a commission to paint a portrait of President George Bush for the Texas State Capitol dome.

Artwork in Of Birds and Texas is created collaboratively by the Gentlings. In the original folio are reproductions of watercolor paintings with the color, blend and atmosphere attributed to Stuart, while the line and small strokes were contributed by Scott.

Getting the first volume published proved to be a formidable task. Plans reached a standstill when it was discovered that the actual production of the folio would cost more than double the estimates. What rescued the project was a lucky find by Stuart in the Philadelphia Print Shop catalog: a listing of Audubon's "The Great Crow Blackbird." The brothers were able to purchase the Audubon for $18,000. After its authentication as an original Audubon, it was sold at Sotheby's for $253,000. Thus, the completion of the original Of Birds and Texas was made possible.

Our loss would be great had this not been so. More than just a work of incredible visual beauty Of Birds and Texas is a joy to read as each color plate is partnered with a bird tale by the Gentlings.

A treasure in itself, the essay by beloved Texas author John Graves is as gracefully written as the classic works for which he is known, From A Limestone Ledge: Some Essays and Other Ruminations About Country Life In Texas, and Goodbye To A River. Once again, Mr. Graves writes with trenchant luminosity.

This landmark volume is dedicated to John James Audubon. It is now recreated for all to enjoy.

- Gail Cooke

This is a good beginning book on employee ownership that is written in a down-to-earth style that makes it easy to understand the technical financial and legal jargon. I highly recommend it !

This book is a wonderful step by step how-to book on employee ownership. The best part of it is that it is written in down-to-earth english that makes it very easy to understand the sometimes complex financial and legal jargon.I highly recommend it!

I strongly recommend Pebble in the Shoe to those with a personal or professional interest in Speech Therapy, Orthodontics, or TMJ problems. I also commend it to anyone who enjoys reading about new discoveries and achievements.

For me Streicher's therapy was a break-through in my search for help with my own speech difficulty (following adult Orthodontic treatment). It offers understanding and practical help after months of professional consultations and browsing the Internet in search of understanding of my particular problem.

Streicher's therapy is a totally natural, non-invasive way to treat speech, dental and jaw problems. It describes how we can allow nature to heal us and has given me hope that I can be cured without further Orthodontic or Dental work.

John Streicher's search for and discovery of a cure originated from realising his Aunt's difficulty in communicating. He describes her problems and his own struggle to have his theories accepted.

I found the book interesting, exciting, informative and sympathetic and I dearly wish there were professionals in my own country who practise Streicher's therapy.

There has been a proliferation of books, tapes, seminars that address stress, anxiety, muscle tension, migrane headaches, TMJ and jaw problems, neck and back pains. If these area's are of interest or concern to you then John P. Streicher's book, The Pebble in the Shoe, should be at the top of your list. What is most meaningful for me is John's approach to "swallowing difficulties, speech and learning disorders and emotional dysfunction and how these are symtoms connected by a common cause". If you are a parent of a child with a speech or language disoder or an adult with a speech or language disorder this book is priceless. I have read Roberta Pierce's book concerning "Tongue Thurst" and Richard Barrett's "Oral Myofunctional Disoders" and John Streicher accurately states that "their therapy does not cure;it does not recondition the reflex system. It is another way of teaching individuals to control or override their habit conditioned speech and swallowing patterns". This book reminds me of the world renowned "Alexander Technique" developed by Frederick Matthias Alexander. John takes it a step further than Alexander by providing a "Vaccination", a therapy, he discovered. Like Alexander, John saw the need of finding the cause of a problem not just looking at the symtoms of the problem. Alexander stressed a process he called "inhibition- the ability to stop, to stop at the source, those harmful habits of thinking and doing from which most of us suffer". John discovered "that an oral habit causes problems by forcing the body to operate around it". But, "simply eliminating a habit would not bring the body back into balance. Someting was needed to recondition the system", according to John. This "reconditioning the system" is what the Alexander Technique lacks. John's Vaccination and subsequent Therapy is going to benefit so many people especially for those who have lost hope. Indivduals who have taken the inititive to seek professional speech therapy, for speech difficulty, are highly motivated. These individuals recognize that they have a problem and want to correct the problem by seeking the knowledge and expertise of a competent, qualified and experienced speech therapist. Unfortunately speech therapy has been and is still today "a sympton-chasing practice". "Speech pathologists describe an articulation pattern by listing what sounds are omitted, distorted, or substituted with other sounds. They are not trained to address causes". For those who have sought professional help for speech difficulties and have felt frustration, humiliation and failure even after years of "professional therapy", John Streicher's, The Pebble in the Shoe is a miraculous gift! The most profound affect for me was in the speech field but the therapy is applicable in the fields of education, dentistry, psychology, and medicine.

This is almost certainly the best book of its kind. It is biblical, logical, and comprehensive. Since the previous reviewer has done a good job in explaining the merits of this book, I will only clarify why this book may be difficult to read for some people.

The previous reviewer points out that this book is not necessarily difficult due to its contents -- I agree. What he fails to mention, although Packer's foreword includes the explanation, is that Murray is difficult to read because his prose is VERY poor. He is a great thinker, and is biblical and logical in his presentation, but he is a VERY bad writer. That is, the Prof. Strunk of "Strunk & White" would have given him an "F" in writing and rebuked him severely.

This is not an unimportant point. As Packer correctly points out, if Murray had the ability to write as clearly as, say, C.S. Lewis, he would be much more widely-read. And really, his materials deserve to be more widely-read than Lewis. So, it is frustrating to see that his bad prose has limited his influence. Hopefully, more and more students will read his works and translate his thoughts into more understandable English for this generation.

Again, my criticism here does not touch in the slightest degree Murray's thoughts, but only his prose. If you want to learn about biblcial ethics, and you should, then do not hesitate to buy this book. Read it slowly if you have problems with the prose, but read it all. It will give you a comprehensive and coherent view of what the Bible has to teach us on the subject.

The biggest problem with books like Principles of Conduct is that they are so good, so full, and so rich, that the each principle written about is so easily forgotten when the next principle is elucidated. I realized that this had happened to me as, when I was almost finished with the book, I skimmed over the pages I had read just days previously and discovered that I wished I had time to read it again. The book is completely biblical. One look at the scripture index will quickly show that Murray's use of scripture is pervasive. This is not a book where Murray expresses his opinion about various topics, but is a book where the issues of biblical ethics are soundly dealt with from the primary source - the Bible itself. In this light I found that (of all the strong aspects of this book) the strongest characteristic to be the sound exegesis of often-mistranslated passages of scripture such as Matthew 5, 1 Corinthians 7 and 9, and Romans 6.

The description on the back of the book mentions, "Though the Ten Commandments furnish the core of the biblical ethic, Murray points the reader again and again to all of Scripture as the basic authority in matters of Christian conduct." The Ten Commandments are not explicitly dealt with in this book, but the ethical considerations that begin in creation and continue through the time of Christ and His church are explained. The methodology of discovering God's continuing revelation to mankind is known as biblical theology and Murray is a model for Christian theologians in this method. Murray is showing that the Ten Commandments were not a new thing God decided to mention at Sinai, but are rooted in the nature of God's creation. The Ten Commandments were neither new at creation, nor did they cease to be valid after the coming of Jesus Christ. Through this understanding of the biblical ethic, we come into a deeper understanding of how we may obey God and how we can love His law (Psalm 119:97) as the ethic that God has given man to live by.

I have always heard that Murray is a difficult read. Even Packer says in his Forward that Murray is considered by many to be "tough sledding." Personally, I did not think this book was that difficult to read. Though the implications are deep, Murray writes in a way that is so logical that it is very easy to understand. More than just logical, Murray is thoroughly biblical. I have found that his exegesis and use of biblical theology is rock solid. He thoroughly explains difficult passages in a way that is in solid agreement with the text itself.

I also found this book to be encouraging and helpful in my walk with God. My mind was just not filled with general facts, but was genuinely spurred on to greater devotion to Christ. It is a motivating book for the Christian who needs to be reminded time and again that he or she has been set free from the bondage of sin and has been resurrected to obedience to Christ. It is helpful for the Christian who is struggling to formulate a biblical ethic on the issues of marriage, capital punishment, and labor. It is helpful for any Christian who wants to know how they can serve God better in their day-to-day life.

Ran Knishinsky has created a very thorough reference books here! Each subtopic is carefully explained and the alternative therapies are explored and explained in a way that makes so much sense. I recommend this book to people I know who are wrestling with the ravages of our stressfull lives. The site, PapaNature, corroborates Knishinsky's documentation and offers enough high-quality choices for all of the products mentioned in Knishinsky's book. PapaNature has links to textual documentation as well as good service and diverse products.

This author presents a very well balanced, objective view on natural supplements as an alternative to drug treatment. Phenomenal book! Covers a whole range of subjects from depression, herbs and the health food industry, prescription drugs, St.John's wort, homeopathy, kava, Fish Oils, B vitamins, DHA, and more. The research is great. Everything here is carefully footnoted and the author makes certain that the reader gets a good understanding of herbs and their biological effects. Over 200 Endnotes. Great resource section.