The Opera Journeys Mini Guide Series is just wonderful; it's like a "Cliff Note" of the opera, and extremely informative and educational. I particularly like the size; these guides are not cumbersome and fit right into my shirt pocket. The ladies will find sufficient room in their pocketbooks.

The story narrative with the music examples is excellent. I prefer it to a libretto; indeed, it's a much easier way to follow the essence of the story. The essay is magnificent; very well written, not pedantic, and extremely insightful and comprehensible. I congratulate Burton Fisher for a job very well done and Amazon for making these handy, information-laden booklets available. The Opera Journeys Mini Guide Series is a wonderful contribution to opera education and opera appreciation.

My tip: acquire the entire collection because you will be in easy reach of superbly presented opera guides consisting of story analysis, principal characters in the opera, story narrative with music highlights, background, analysis, and commentary.

Heinz Dinter, Ph.D.

Throughout the last 100 or so years, artists, collectors and curators have debated what a museum should be. Unfortunately, most museums are buildings that immediately focus on art as icon. Many contemporary artists want just the opposite. MASS MoCA represents a breakthrough in establishing a new sort of museum. Its purpose is to "mount in-depth quality work that would otherwise remain unseen for lack of properly scaled, appropriately tools facilities." That purpose has also been expanded to include being a location for the performing arts, both outdoors and in a theater.

Located 5 miles from the Williams College museum of art and 35 miles from Tanglewood in North Adams, Massachusetts, MASS MoCA adds an important new element to a major cultural center (especially in the summers).

The story of the museum is also very interesting, having been based in a rundown series of converted mill buildings that had housed manufacturing since 1768. Most recently abandoned by the Sprague Electric Company (who originally took it over from the Arnold Print Works -- makers of printed fabric), the facility covers 13 acres and over 780,000 square feet of building space. Originally, Massachusetts had planned to provide most of the funding. A recession and change in political leadership greatly slowed the progress, and much of the funding eventually came form private donors.

The book has many wonderful elements. The director, Joseph Thompson, has a fine essay explaining the museum's roots and concept. The architect, Simeon Bruner, also weighs in with his thoughts about the design along with drawings of his plans. The pieces de resistance, however, are the wonderful photographs of the site (both before and after) in black and white and color that capture the transformation. These were done by Nicholas Whitman, and started before the museum was planned. He and his father had both worked in the Sprague plant, and he wanted to preserve the memory of the space before it was torn down. There are some stunning side-by-side photographs of before in black and white, with after in color with beautiful art on the walls.

Most of the current photographs were taken during the 1999 grand opening of the museum, which I had the pleasure to attend. The classic piece that defines MASS MoCA during that opening was the display of Robert Rauschenberg's "The 1/4 Mile or 2 Furlong Piece" from 1981, which can only easily be displayed in full in MASS MoCA. There are also nice photographs of Natalie Jeremjenko's "Tree Logic" and James Rosenquist's "The Summer in the Econo-Mist." There are some fine John Chamberlain sculptures as well.

This book is a great resource to have for any contemporary art lover, or someone who is interested in new museum forms. I also recommend it as a working document for a museum still in progress, for most of the development of the MASS MoCA site is still ahead. If you are a museum trustee or are planning a new museum, you should read this book, as well.

I should admit that I collect contemporary art, and love to visit collections of contemporary art. If you share that love, you'll adore MASS MoCA!

Abolish your stalled thinking about what a museum is and should be! Also, be sure to give yourself a treat, and visit MASS MoCA soon. It's well worth a special trip from Boston, New York, or Philadelphia.

Donald Mitchell

Coauthor of The Irresistible Growth Enterprise (available in August 2000) and The 2,000 Percent Solution

(donmitch@fastforward400.com)

Fr. John Meyendorff is generally known as one of the greatest scholars on Orthodoxy of the twentieth century. A professor and dean of St. Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary, he was also author of many texts dealing with Orthodox history and spirituality. This book, 'The Orthodox Church: Its Past and Its Role in the World Today' is perhaps the foundation for understanding his writing.

Originally published in 1960, it was reissued in an American edition in 1981, and is currently available in the revised fourth edition, produced in 1996, four years after Meyendorff's death. This latest edition includes revisions and corrections by Professor Nicholas Lossky.

In our presentation, we will follow the historical development of the Orthodox Church from the apostolic time to our own. It is the interpretation we will give to the stages of this history which will permit the reader to understand the essential dogmatic positions of Orthodoxy. The basic dogmas about Scripture and Tradition, about the Church and about ecclesiastical authority will thus be defined in the opening chapters. At the conclusion of the book, we will return to certain other doctrinal aspects in the forms in which they are expressed today.

This book serves largely as introduction. The purpose is largely to introduce concepts and history of the Orthodox church to a western audience; while it is a common assumption that the first half of Christian history is a shared history between East and West, in fact that history is viewed very differently in the perspective of the continuing Orthodox from the 'traditional' history taught viewed by Roman Catholics or western Protestants.

The Orthodox view is held up in contrast to prevailing Western senses of meaning in Church and Scripture:

'The Orthodox Christian East has always succeeded in avoiding the tragic pitfall of considering any human institution, or even any human formulation of Christian dogma, as being absolute and infallible as such. Indeed, even Scripture is God's word, but spoken by human beings, so that the living Truth which it contains must be understood not only in its literal meaning but also through the power of the Spirit, which inspired the authors and continues to inspire the faithful in the body of the Church.''

Meyendorff is certainly not writing from an objective view. His view is thoroughly Orthodox. Despite the hoped-for unity of Church among the Orthodox, however, Meyendorff presents the reality of different and separate institutions and hierarchies in the past and in the present.

One key theme that is developed early in the book is that the schism between East and West was not due to one event or even one issue -- while the issue over the filoque clause might have been the last straw, in fact the dogmatic and hierarchical issues between Rome and Constantinople were growing in intensity and conflict for centuries before. Like many in the Western churches, Meyendorff speaking from an Orthodox perspective concedes that the final schism need not have happened and probably owed more to misunderstanding rather than deliberate attempts at disunion.

Meyendorff includes brief chapters on the structure of the Orthodox church, Orthodox monasticism, Orthodox relations with Islam, and Orthodox relations with Communist states, particularly in Russia, the largest remaining unified Orthodox church after the fall of the Eastern Empire. Chapters of general principles of faith and spirituality, as well as ecclesiology, round out the discussion of general Orthodox history.

The chapter which has undergone the greatest revision is chapter 8, 'The Orthodox Church Today.' Included in this chapter are subsections on each of the major branches of Orthodoxy, which gives a good sense for the breadth and complexity of the subject. Included are sections on each of the major geographic divisions, which are in communion but independent in administration.

'The Orthodox Church is at present a decentralised organisation, based partly on centuries-old traditions and partly on more modern conditions. It consists of a number of local or national churches, all enjoying an 'autocephalous' status, that is to say, possessing the right to choose their own heads, the bishops (Greek auto-, 'self', kephale, 'head'.)'

These groups cooperate with each other and hold to a common history and sense of liturgy and doctrine, and have participated in councils well past the medieval period. Meyendorff tends to see a new age of Orthodoxy occurring in the shift between nationalism, modernism, and a re-examination of those things which are fundamental and crucial for Orthodox faith.

Professor Lossky provides an extensive postscript beyond the 1981 edition updating the particulars of the autocephalous churches. Among many interesting facts presented is the idea of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople's consideration of relocating outside of Turkey -- an astonishing idea, still denied by the local Orthodox church despite its difficulty in dealing with the local, non-Christian government in Turkey that tries to keep the patriarchate from exercising an international role.

In 240 page, an amazing amount of history and general Orthodox principle is contained, distilled, interpreted, and presented in accessible and interesting fashion for general readers, religion students, and theologians.

'With the fall of Communism and the newfound freedom of Eastern Europe, the Orthodox Church is met with new challenges and opportunities. It has become apparent that its history and its current reality are either unknown, extremely unfamiliar, or laden with cliches.'

As it becomes important to understand the culture and history of those countries that are striving in their newly-won liberty to make a mark on the world stage, this book will provide unique insights into how to understand the 100 million + people in the world who hold the Orthodox faith, and how to relate to those people as people of history, faith, and integrity.

If you're a true Keats fan this is a must to add to your collection. Contains all of Keat's best work. Or enrich somone's life who is not familiar with Keats. A great gift idea.

This anthology is as exciting and interesting as McDowell's M and W; Stroud's Quest; Crary's The New Wittgenstein; and Brewer's Perception and Reason. This anthology contains new material from some top-flight folks in the field.

M and W is an important text; it engages, as very few contemporary philosophy of mind texts have, the serious and neglected dualisms of conceptual scheme and empirical content; spontaneity and receptivity, which are, needless to say, Kantian concerns. McDowell is a proponent of conceptual content (within the realm of a 'minimal empiricism') and appeals to Kant and Wittgenstein to buttress his descriptive approach to philosophical inquiry. M and W has some brillant and evocative insights (with more than a few expensive obscurities), and some of McDowell's metaphors are splendid indeed, such as the teetering 'seesaw' and the 'sideways on picture.' Of course, it attempts to negotiate Kantian insights concerning human cognition with certain contemporary discussions on the Myth of the Given (Sellars), The Third Dogma (Davidson)and the Tribunal of Experience (Quine), and Rorty's attack on epistemology.

This anthology could offer disenchanted graduate students a reason to complete doctoral studies in philosophy. It is that rich and exciting. I am seriously nervous with glee (nerd alert!).

The most important and interesting articles here are: M. Friedman, "Exorcising the Philosophical Tradition" (previously published); R. Pippin, "Leaving Nature Behind" (on subjectivism); B. Stroud, "Sense Experience and the Grounding of Thought" (always a pleasure to read Barry); R. Brandom, "Non-Inferential Knowledge, Perceptual Experience..."; G. McCulloch, "Phenomenological Externalism" (see A. Brueckner and/or K. Falvey on this topic); H. Putnam, "McD's Mind and McD's World" (also see his Three-Fold Cord on McD and his soon to be released UW lectures from Columbia UP); C. Larmore, "Attending to Reasons."

This is my highest recommendation.

Best translation of this work. Useful notes and essays. Highest recommendation.

I loved this book. It is truly a classic. Keats is long before my time, however his work that he left behind is still here and leaves a big mark on the world of poets. Wanting to be a journalist myself, and having a hunger for literature, Keats' book was quite inspiring. I recommend it for any poet. One of my favorites is, of course, "When I have fears that I may Cease To Be."

Written with an amazing story teller perspective, this book tells us about where Sherlock Holmes had been hiding for five years of his life : in the glamoured city of Vienna and in the hands of Dr. Sigmund Freud, in search for a cure to cocaine addiction. But ultimately, his treatment turns into a mad search to understand the meaning of Professor Moriarty, his archenemy and perhaps a product of his fantastic imagination and childhood memories. If anyone is looking for a great piece of reading entertainement which pairs golden pieces of Sherlockian investigation with Freudian psychonalysis - this is a treat !

Did you know that the Bank of England was formed originally by a bunch of businessmen wanting to use debt-collection methods on the English Government? That the Guinea was not always worth 21 shillings? And that the back of each London credit house had bundles of sticks representing debts?

Fascinating information and history of the start of the English economic rush that was so viciously stalled in 1720 when the country's biggest investment craze turned out to be an early Ponzi scheme. Learn how far King George I and his "nieces" were involved. Discover why stock is called "stock" (and it's nothing to do with cattle!)

The Opera Journeys Mini Guide Series is just wonderful; it's like a "Cliff Note" of the opera, and extremely informative and educational. I particularly like the size; these guides are not cumbersome and fit right into my shirt pocket. The ladies will find sufficient room in their pocketbooks.

The story narrative with the music examples is excellent. I prefer it to a libretto; indeed, it's a much easier way to follow the essence of the story. The essay is magnificent; very well written, not pedantic, and extremely insightful and comprehensible. I congratulate Burton Fisher for a job very well done and Amazon for making these handy, information-laden booklets available. The Opera Journeys Mini Guide Series is a wonderful contribution to opera education and opera appreciation.

My tip: acquire the entire collection because you will be in easy reach of superbly presented opera guides consisting of story analysis, principal characters in the opera, story narrative with music highlights, background, analysis, and commentary.

Heinz Dinter, Ph.D.