Commentaries Books

The Prodigal God: Recovering the Heart of the Christian Faith

Timothy Keller

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Every Elder Brother Needs to Read this Book! 5 out of 5 stars.
4 of 4 people found this review helpful.

Newsweek called Tim Keller the "C.S. Lewis for the twenty-first century." That is a bold statement! After reading this book, I have to agree with Newsweek. A true understanding of the Parable of the Two Lost Sons is a good understanding of the Gospel. If you see yourself as the elder brother, you are in trouble! Churches are full of elder brothers (whitewashed tombs, unmarked graves, brood of vipers). In one word -- REPELLENT! I heard a Tim Keller lecture where he categorized people as either moralists (all truth and no grace) or relativists (all grace and no truth). He used the imagery of the three crosses. Both moralism and relativism are thieves! Jesus hangs on the cross in the center of the two thieves. Jesus is Grace and Truth. One more thing about the elder brother -- he should have gone looking for his lost brother...

Editorial Review:

Newsweek called renowned minister Timothy Keller “a C. S. Lewis for the twenty-first century” in a feature on his first book, The Reason for God. In that book, he offered a rational explanation of why we should believe in God. Now, in The Prodigal God, he uses one of the best-known Christian parables to reveal an unexpected message of hope and salvation.

Taking his trademark intellectual approach to understanding Christianity, Keller uncovers the essential message of Jesus, locked inside his most familiar parable. Within that parable Jesus reveals God's prodigal grace toward both the irreligious and the moralistic. This book will challenge both the devout and skeptics to see Christianity in a whole new way.

The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible

A. J. Jacobs

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Editorial Review:

Amazon Best of the Month, September 2007: Make no mistake: A.J. Jacobs is not a religious man. He describes himself as Jewish "in the same way the Olive Garden is an Italian restaurant." Yet his latest work, The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible, is an insightful and hilarious journey for readers of all faiths. Though no fatted calves were harmed in the making of this book, Jacobs chronicles 12 months living a remarkably strict Biblical life full of charity, chastity, and facial hair as impressive as anything found in The Lord of the Rings. Through it all, he manages to brilliantly keep things light, while avoiding the sinful eye of judgment. --Dave Callanan

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Subtitled: "One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible," Jacobs, or A.J., as his two-year-old son calls him, does just that. It is likely that no one but A.J. Jacobs could have accomplished such a feat. After all, his last book, The Know-It-All, chronicles his reading of the entire Encyclopedia Brittanica, from A to Z. No one but a smart, witty, self-deprecating, nitpicky kinda guy would undertake two such daunting tasks, and complete them with grace, no pun intended.

Jacobs, a New York Jewish agnostic, decides to follow the laws and rules of the Bible, beginning with the Old Testament, for one year. (He actually adds some bonus days and makes it a 381-day year.) He starts by growing a beard and we are with him through every itchy moment. Jacobs is borderline OCD, at least as he describes himself; obsessing over possible dangers to his son, germs, literal interpretation of Bible verses, etc. He enlists the aid of counselors along the way; Jewish rabbis, Christians of every stripe, friends and neighbors.

In an open-minded way he also visits with atheists, Evangelicals Concerned (a gay group), Jerry Falwell, snake handlers, Red Letter Christians--those who adhere to the red letters in the Bible, those words spoken by Jesus Himself, and even takes a trip to Israel and meets Samaritans. Through it all, he keeps a healthy skepticism, but continues to pray and is open to the flowering of real faith. Jacobs is a knowledge junky, to be sure. He enjoys the lore he picks up along the way as much as any other aspect of his experiment. One of the ongoing schticks is his meeting with the shatnez tester, Mr. Berkowitz. He is the one who determines whether or not your clothes are made of mixed fibers, in keeping with the Biblical injunction not to wear wool and linen together. The two become friends and prayer partners, in only one of the unexpected results of this year.

In the end, he says, "I'm now a reverent agnostic. Which isn't an oxymoron, I swear. I now believe that whether or not there's a God, there is such a thing as sacredness. Life is sacred." Not a bad outcome. --Valerie Ryan

Mother Angelica's Private and Pithy Lessons from the Scriptures

Raymond Arroyo

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The Word is made fresh by the irrepressible Mother Angelica as she personally escorts you through the Scriptures, unearthing lessons for daily living--the perfect companion to the New York Times bestselling Mother Angelica's Little Book of Life Lessons and Everyday Spirituality.

The founder of the world's largest religious media empire shares her beloved wit and down-to-earth spirituality in MOTHER ANGELICA'S PRIVATE AND PITHY LESSONS FROM THE SCRIPTURES. Editor Raymond Arroyo draws on hundreds of never-before-released private lessons to present the renowned nun's definitive take on the Good Book. Angelica provides readers with guided meditations, probing personal questions, and reveals an often-overlooked practical spirituality. She doesn't just explain the stories, she relates them to our daily lives, helping even those who've never opened the Bible experience its power and life-altering lessons. The apostles Paul ("the little shrimp"), Peter ("that great bungler") and all the characters of the Scriptures are suddenly human again, complete with their foibles and triumphs. Here is the Greatest Story, newly told as only Mother Angelica can. The Bible and you will never be the same.

A portion of the royalties from this book goes to support the work of Our Lady of the Angels Monastery

Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine

Wayne Grudem

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Outstanding and Unsurpassed 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

The title of my Review says it all, and since there are already over 130 Reviews, I will make this short. This is simply the best comprehensive modern systematic theology in one volume on the market I have seen in 40 years of ministry. Why? It covers charismatic, evangelical, historical, liturgical and every other angle theologically, is reader friendly, loaded with footnotes and references from every Christian persuasion, and yet not avoiding thorny and difficult topics usually only tackled by very independent writers. No wonder it has sold over a quarter of a million copies in such a short time.

Thank God 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

This a fantastic book!,Imagine a book on Theology for everyman to enjoy,From the scholar to the layperson,everyone can enjoy understanding who God is.And this gentleman seems to write from a perspective of really loving God and people too,without any desire to impress anyone with his knowledge as Mr Grudem could easily do,This is a masterpiece and I cannot overemphasize how enjoyable and solid this hefty volume is,We need more men like this to break down these wonderful truths for us and yet they are still as meaty and can be as deep as you need to go with them,I thank my God for using Mr Grudem to bring this to us,all Glory to Him!!

Editorial Review:

This introductory textbook has several distinctive features: a strong emphasis on the scriptural basis for each doctrine; clear writing, with technical terms kept to a minimum; and a contemporary approach.

The First Christmas: What the Gospels Really Teach About Jesus's Birth

Marcus J. Borg, John Dominic Crossan

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Peace and Justice in This World 1 out of 5 stars.
0 of 23 people found this review helpful.

Borg and Crossan give an esoteric and exhaustive exegesis of the birth of Jesus in the New Testament. The following quote summarizes their conclusion:

"It is not accurate to distinguish the imperial kingdom of Rome from the eschatological kingdom of God by claiming one is earthly the other heavenly, one is evil the other holy, or one is demonic the other sublime. That is simply name-calling. Both come to us with divine credentials for the good of humanity. They are two alternative transcendental visions. Empire promises peace through violent force. Eschaton promises peace through nonviolent justice.... That clash of visionary programs for our earth is the context and matrix for those Christmas stories, and they proclaim God's peace through justice over against Rome's peace through victory." (p.75)

They point out, for example, that Jesus' birth in Bethlehem symbolically says that he is the "son of David," the ideal king. According to Borg and Crossan, the divine conception of Jesus was a parable intended to counteract the claims that the Roman emperors were divine.

That Jesus chose twelve apostles symbolizes a reuniting of the tribes of Israel and shows Jesus was concerned about peace and justice on earth. But this is the beginning of a sign that the eschaton is a heavenly one promising hope for eternal life. This sign is not a single historical event, like the resurrection of Jesus, but a current event because it ends with the universal recognition that capitalism and democracy realizes for mankind "peace through justice."

Evidence of this new worldwide understanding is the demise of communism, the welfare reform movement, and the movement towards free trade between nations.

The end of communism in the Soviet Union and China proves there is no alternative to a market economy based on private ownership and control of businesses. Welfare reform in the United States reached its apex with the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act of 1996. This legislation came from the realization that well-intentioned government programs, such as War on Poverty in the United States, can have negative consequences. The fight against tariffs, quotas, and subsidies is based on the principle that a business should expand when it is profitable and contract when it is not.

The historical path from the birth of Jesus to peace and justice on earth has been long and circuitous, but it has arrived. We have peace because one Western nation will never again go to war against another Western nation. We have justice too, in the sense of just government, not because there is an ideal king, but because the lack of justice is due to the sinfulness, malice, ignorance, and apathy of individuals.

A sign is an event, such as a miracle, that is a reason to believe a prophet was sent by God. A sign the authors discuss concerns the messianic hopes of Israel. Referring to Matthew's quoting of the Old Testament, the authors say:

"It is the basis for what is sometimes called "the argument from prophecy"; namely, the fulfillment of prophecy proves that Jesus is the Messiah, the promised one of Israel." (p. 201)

Faith is a gift from God as well as a decision to believe. Christians give reasons for believing in Jesus of Nazareth and are summoning everyone to believe. But this summons should not cause anyone to think they will be criticized if they don't decide to believe.

All the signs considered together account for a positive response to revelation. That the Old Testament predicts the coming of an anointed one from God is one of the signs that Jesus was an authentic prophet.

Another sign is that the Hebrew Bible is mankind's first narrative history. Herodotus (484-425 BCE) is called the Father of History because he gave a narrative account of the Greco-Persian Wars, which started in 498 BCE. Since the Bible gives vivid accounts of historical events going back to 10,000 BCE, Jewish people were historiographically hundreds of years ahead of the Greeks.

Another sign is that the Hebrew authors, though not as philosophically advanced as the Greeks, gave God a philosophically profound name in Exodus 3.14. The name Yahweh ("I am he who is.") summarizes the existential proof of God's existence: God is a pure act of existence whereas a human being is a composition of principles called essence and existence. In other words, since there are finite beings whose essence limits their existence, there must be a supernatural being, analogous to human beings, whose essence is to exist.

It is clear something wonderful has happened in the West (United States and other former English colonies, the European Union, and Japan) by comparing the standard of living and health care available to everyone in these constitutional democracies with conditions in nineteenth century England, the richest country in the world by far at that time. Democracy in the West is not a sham, but means individuals participate in government decisions that affect their lives. The recent arrival of justice and peace on earth is a sign because of the connection between the West, the Roman Catholic Church, and Jesus. The Roman Catholic Church claims to be founded by Jesus and achieved with Pope Innocent III (1160-1216) the height of its political power. The Roman Catholic Church is a forerunner of Western governments and faith in Jesus is the reason mankind has peace and justice.

According to the doctrine of original sin, God gave Adam and Eve, or the first human beings, sanctifying grace. Accompanying this gift was the absence of death and concupiscence, as we know it. Their sin deprived them and all of their descendants of a paradisal existence and gave rise to the possibility of injustice and violence. Christians believed that sanctifying grace and salvation was only available to members of the church founded by the twelve apostles.

We can speculate about justice and peace when Adam and Eve found themselves on our island of scarcity and danger. Did they fight over the results of their hunting and gathering? Did they cooperate with each other to get the most out of nature? Was one the slave of the other?

If the utilities of goods can be measured on a cardinal scale, a master-slave economy might increase utilities. This would happen if the increase in utility of goods used by the master is greater than the decrease in utility of goods used by the slave(s). If utilities can only be measured on an ordinal scale, voluntary cooperation maximizes utilities.

However, utility theory, as well as moral laws and human rights, should not be followed blindly without considering the existing circumstances. Suppose Adam and Eve were unable to agree on where and how to get food and shelter, or who would do the most burdensome and dangerous tasks? Wouldn't one or the other be justified in using force to guarantee their survival? Might not the injured party at some point see the error of being uncooperative?

In 325 CE, Constantine the Great, possibly collaborating with the Bishop of Rome, invited all the bishops of Christendom to a legislative session, the First Council of Nicaea, to resolve a controversy between homoiousians (Arians) and homoousians about who Jesus was. The difference between the two is more subtle than the difference between Aristotelian and Newtonian inertia, however, the participants agreed that the homoousians were right. Fifty-five years later, Theodosius the Great made Roman Catholicism the only legal religion in the Roman Empire:

"It is Our will that all the peoples who are ruled by the administration of Our Clemency shall practice that religion which the divine Peter the Apostle transmitted to the Romans,... The rest, however, whom We adjudge demented and insane, shall sustain the infamy of heretical dogmas, their meeting places shall not receive the name of churches, and they shall be smitten first by divine vengeance and secondly by the retribution of Our own initiative,..."(The Theodosian Code, XVI.1.2)

The edict shows that Theodosius was zealous about his religious faith. The massacre at Thessalonica in 390 indicates he also took his imperial duties seriously. What happened after the massacre shows the political power the Roman Catholic Church wielded even in those early days.

Theodosius ordered the massacre in a fit of anger when a riot over a false arrest caused the death of an officer in the Roman army. Theodosius's Gothic troops surrounded an amphitheater, filled because of a circus, and killed a predetermined number of the hapless spectators. In addition to the hooligans rounded up and executed by the local authorities after the riot, seven thousand were said to have been killed in the amphitheater. The bishop of the capital of the Western Roman Empire at that time (Saint Ambrose of Milan) denounced Theodosius publicly and excommunicated him for what he did. After performing public penance for eight months, Theodosius humbly went to Ambrose for the sacrament of Holy Communion.
In his letter of excommunication, Ambrose quoted the prophet Nathan chastising King David for killing Bathsheba's husband. In the following verses David accepts responsibility for his actions and acknowledges that his freedom is before God. This is the foundation of the morality of Jews, Christians, and Muslims:

"David said to Nathan, `I have sinned against Yahweh.' Nathan then said to David, `Yahweh, for his part, forgives your sin; you are not to die. But, since you have outraged Yahweh by doing this, the child born to you will die.'" (2 Samuel 12.13-14)

Theodosius's entire life shows he believed in God, tried to serve God, and hoped for salvation in the world to come. The following quotes from two famous nonbelievers shows what a lack of faith can mean. Sigmund Freud could be someone trying to justify betraying a friend and Jean-Paul Sartre could be someone contemplating suicide. Since self-centered atheists have ruled many an empire, the conversion of the Roman Empire to Christianity is a sign that God communicated himself to mankind through Moses, Jesus, and Mohammad:

"When I ask myself why I have always behaved honorably, ready to spare others and to be kind whenever possible, and when I did not give up being so when I observed that in that way one harms oneself and becomes an anvil because other people are brutal and untrustworthy, then it is true, I have no answer." (Ernest Jones, The Life and Work of Sigmund Freud (Three Volume Set), New York: Basic Books, Inc., Vol. II, p. 418)

"Every human reality is a passion in that it projects losing itself so as to found being and by the same stroke to constitute the In-itself which escapes contingency by being its own foundation, the Ens causa sui, which religions call God. Thus the passion of man is the reverse of that of Christ, for man loses himself as man in order that God may be born. But the idea of God is contradictory and we lose ourselves in vain. Man is a useless passion." (Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness: An Essay on Phenomenological Ontology (Routledge Classics), New York: Washington Square Press, p. 784)

In 496, the founder of the Frankish kingdom (Clovis I) converted to Catholicism, under the influence of his wife, Saint Clotilda, and the bishops of Gaul. The Catholic bishops supported Clovis's territorial conquests and the resulting kingdom was non-Arian, unlike some of the other Germanic kingdoms.

In 649, a council called by Pope Saint Martin I excommunicated certain bishops of the Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantium) for Monothelitism, the doctrine that Christ had only one will. The Byzantine emperor supported the heresy and, after a failed plan to assassinate the pope, arrested Martin and transported him to Constantinople. There he was found guilty of failing to subscribe to the heresy and died in 655 after much suffering and public humiliation.

The subservience of bishops in Byzantium to secular rulers, in contrast to Martin's steadfastness, is shown in the controversy over religious images. In 726 Emperor Leo III, under the influence of several Eastern bishops and Caliph Umar II, published an edict saying religious images were idols forbidden by Exodus 20.4-5 and commanding that they be destroyed. The patriarch of Constantinople protested, but Leo replaced him with one Anastasius. Because of the unpopularity of iconoclasm, Leo's son-in-law was able to temporarily depose Leo's son and successor, Constantine V. Constantine regained power and continued the fight against images by blinding and publicly flogging Anastasius, who had changed his mind about iconoclasm when Constantine was out of power. In 754 Constantine convoked an ecumenical council to condemn the worship of images. Bishops from Rome, Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem refused to attend, but over 340 bishops from Byzantine sees condemned image-worshipers. Iconoclasm was abandoned for good in 842.

In 732 at Poitiers in west central France, Charles Martel defeated an army of Caliph Hisham. In 754 at the Abbey of St. Denis near Paris, Pope Stephen II personally anointed Martel's son (Pepin the Short) King of the Franks. In return, the Franks sent an army into Italy to force the King of the Lombards to donate land to the pope, beginning a thousand-year reign over the Papal States.

Charlemagne (Pepin's son) was protective of Pope Adrian I and Pope Saint Leo III. When the Roman clergy and people elected Leo to succeed Adrian in 795, the family of Adrian, out of spite and jealousy, plotted to have Leo removed from office and attacked him viciously in the street in broad daylight. Leo was rescued and reinstated to his office by Charlemagne in 799. In 800, Charlemagne was crowned Imperator Augustus by Leo.

In 1073, Pope Saint Gregory VII was elected by the cardinal-bishops of Rome and confirmed in the office by Henry IV, German King and Roman Emperor, in accordance with an election law voted on by 113 bishops at a synod in Rome in 1059. In 1075 Gregory called a synod that banned the appointment of bishops by layman, making bishops dependent on the papacy rather than kings and other lords. This was especially threatening to civil authorities in Germany because the bishops there were feudal lords over vast territories in addition to being ecclesiastical authorities. At one point in the so-called investiture conflict, Henry lost so much support from rivals and bishops loyal to Gregory that he humbly submitted to Gregory at the Castle of Canossa to remove an excommunication against him. Gregory also made plans to raise an army to oppose the Seljukian Turks, but it was Pope Urban II who sent four crusading armies into the Holy Land in 1097.

Pope Alexander III was a professor at the University of Bologna, one of the first degree granting institutions in the world. He was the author of a commentary on the Decretum Gratiani, which is a 1400 page treatise on ecclesiastical law (canon law) written in 1040 by a Bolognese monk. Canon law is the positive law of the Roman Catholic Church and stood along side imperial, tribal, feudal, urban, mercantile, and manorial law. It was a constitutional body of law because it recognized limitations on the Church's authority, sets forth processes for selecting officials, and allocates legislative, administrative, and judicial powers.

In a famous case, Alexander added to the general theory of self-defense by ruling that two monks committed criminal sins by tying up two robbers, who ended up dead. Alexander incurred the enmity of Frederick I (Barbarossa) when he was Papal Chancellor by asserting at the Diet of Besançon in 1157 that the imperial crown is bestowed upon the German King by the pope. This caused a long schism that ended when Frederick reconciled with Alexander after his defeat at the Battle of Legnano in 1177.

Pope Innocent III, through excommunications and force of arms, wrested control over most of Italy from German knights and Norman barons. Educated at the University of Paris and the University of Bologna, Innocent wrote a number of decretals that became part of canon law. One decretal denied a request from a feudal lord in France to legitimatize two sons from a second marriage while his first marriage was canonically valid. Another decretal claimed the pope's right to settle the war going on between France and England. This decretal admitted the pope had no competence in purely feudal disputes, but said in matters where sins were being committed the papacy had jurisdiction. A third decretal addressed a civil war in Germany caused by the election of two rival kings and said the pope has the authority to decide between the two kings and whether a king of Germany is fit to be emperor. In another case, Innocent excommunicated the entire country of France, with the exception of unbaptized infants, to pressure its king (Philip II Augustus) to reconcile with his lawful wife who he abandoned for another woman.

In 1212, Innocent deposed King John of England because of a disagreement about who should be the Archbishop of Canterbury, leaving it to Philip II Augustus to enforce the order. After being threatened by Philip, the English king followed the pope's advice. In a further attempt to placate the pope, King John entered into a feudal arrangement with Innocent in which the Roman Catholic Church would get 1000 marks per year and King John would get to rule England. This added to the grievances the English barons had against John and they forced him to sign the Magna Carta in 1215. Innocent opposed this important document in the development of constitutional law, not because of the rights it bestowed, but because it done without his consent.

The secular power of the papacy declined after Innocent, but England and France became modern nation-states by emulating the Roman Catholic Church. The first legislatures in Europe, after the fall of Rome, were the ecclesiastical councils, the first modern legal system was canon law, and the first administrators were church officials. Since the Middle Ages, the West has become one nation-state unified by the knowledge that democracy and capitalism is what people desire and what makes people happy.

The West's prosperity is due to mass production, technology, the division of labor, and the time-consuming and roundabout methods of production used. The West has been accumulating the means of production or capital for centuries.

According to Hernando de Soto, author of The Mystery of Capital: Why Capitalism Triumphs in the West and Fails Everywhere Else, a cause of poverty outside of the West is the absence of a system of property rights that is available to all citizens. Such systems have courts of law, title deeds, articles of incorporation, contracts, liens, easements, and public registries. Property rights create a large network or market for capital that has the effect of maximizing the usefulness of all assets, something that doesn't happen when ownership is informal and extralegal.

Another reason for the West's prosperity is the value Christians attach to honesty and other civic virtues. The following quote from St. Paul supports civic virtue because it implies that membership in families, clans, tribes, and ethnic groups is not as important as membership in the human race:

"So the Law was serving as a slave to look after us, to lead us to Christ, so that we could be justified by faith. But now that faith has come we are no longer under a slave looking after us; for all of you are the children of God, through faith, in Christ Jesus, since every one of you that has been baptized has been clothed in Christ. There can be neither Jew nor Greek, there can be neither slave nor freeman, there can be neither male nor female--for you are all one in Christ Jesus." (Galatians 3.24-28)

The importance of honesty in forming good governments is supported by the following quotes from Polybius (203-120 BCE) and Thomas Macaulay (1800-1859):

"But the quality in which the Roman commonwealth is most distinctly superior is in my opinion the nature of their religious convictions.... The consequence is that among the Greeks, apart from other things, members of the government, if they are entrusted with no more than a talent, though they have ten copyists and as many seals and twice as many witnesses, cannot keep their faith; whereas among the Romans those who as magistrates and legates are dealing with large sums of money maintain correct conduct just because they have pledged their faith by oath." (Polybius: The Histories, Book VI, paragraph 56)

"The mightiest princes of the East can scarcely, by the offer of enormous usury, draw forth any portion of the wealth which is concealed under the hearths of their subjects. The British government offers little more than four per cent.; and avarice hastens to bring forth tens of millions of rupees from its most secret repositories." (Miscellaneous works of Lord Macaulay in five volumes, Vol. III, New York: Harper and Brothers, Publishers, 1880, p. 51)

Modern science has progressed along with technology and productivity. Technology involves invention and innovation and the West's success can be explained by the freedom citizens have to take risks and accumulate wealth.

But what drove Nicolaus Copernicus and Johannes Kepler to spend hours, days, and years analyzing the earth-based observations of the sky? They made this effort because they believed the universe is intelligible, orderly, and lawful. This conviction was based on the belief that the universe was created by a supernatural God, who has knowledge, free will, and reason analogous to the knowledge, free will, and reason of human beings. China in the Middle Ages was more advanced technologically than the West, but modern science did not develop in that civilization. The following quotes from Albert Einstein and the Bible support this thesis:

"All science of a high order presupposes a kind of act of faith in the intelligibility of nature. And the wonder of all wonders is that in fact nature has shown itself to be intelligible." (quoted by N. Clarke, The One and the Many: A Contemporary Thomistic Metaphysics , University of Notre Dame Press, p. 17)

"The most incomprehensible thing about the universe is its comprehensibility." (quoted by D. Overbye, "Einstein Letter of God Sells for $404,000," New York Times, May 17, 2008)

"The heavens declare the glory of God,
the vault of heaven proclaims his handiwork,
day discourses of it to day,
night to night hands on the knowledge.
No utterance at all, no speech,
not a sound to be heard,
but from the entire earth the design stands out,
this message reaches the whole world." (Psalms 19.1-4)

Modern science began when the Bishop of Paris wrote a letter condemning 219 heresies based on the science of Aristotle. The source of these heresies was the Islamic philosopher Ibn Rushd (1126-1198), known in the West as Averroes. The letter is known as the Condemnation of 1277:

"We excommunicate all those who shall have taught the said errors or any one of them, or shall have dared in any way to defend or uphold them, or even to listen to them, unless they choose to reveal themselves to us or to the chancery of Paris within seven days; in addition to which we shall proceed against them by inflicting such other penalties as the law requires according to the nature of the offense....
25. That God has infinite power, not because He makes something out of nothing, but because He maintains infinite motion....
66. That God could not move the heaven in a straight line, the reason being that He would then leave a vacuum.... "

Heresy No. 25 is a single attack and Heresy No. 66 is a double attack on God's omnipotence. The Bishop of Paris and his advisers from the faculty of theology at the University of Paris knew that vacuums did not exist in nature. However, they could see no reason why vacuums could not exist. They assumed that God thought the same way they did, and concluded that vacuums were possible. They also reasoned that God could move heaven, just as He could move everyone to believe in Him, if He wanted.

Editorial Review:

In The First Christmas, two of today's top Jesus scholars, Marcus J. Borg and John Dominic Crossan, join forces to show how history has biased our reading of the nativity story as it appears in the gospels of Matthew and Luke. As they did for Easter in their previous book, The Last Week, here they explore the beginning of the life of Christ, peeling away the sentimentalism that has built up over the last two thousand years around this most well known of all stories to reveal the truth of what the gospels actually say. Borg and Crossan help us to see this well-known narrative afresh by answering the question, "What do these stories mean?" in the context of both the first century and the twenty-first century. They successfully show that the Christmas story, read in its original context, is far richer and more challenging than people imagine.

The Apostles

Pope Benedict XVI

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Through the Apostles, we come to Jesus himself." -- Pope Benedict XVI

In this fascinating and inspirational journey with the chosen disciples of Jesus, Pope Benedict XVI demonstrates a profound, unbreakable continuity -- built upon the foundation of the Apostles and alive in the succession of the Apostles -- by which Christ is present today in His Church.

"At the start of the third millennium, my beloved predecessor John Paul II invited the Church to contemplate the Face of Christ (cf. Novo Millennio Ineunte, n. 16 ff.). Continuing in the same direction, I would like to show in this book how it is precisely the light of that Face that is reflected on the face of the Church (cf. Lumen Gentium, n. 1), notwithstanding the limits and shadows of our fragile and sinful humanity. After Mary, a pure reflection of the light of Christ, it is from the Apostles, through their word and witness, that we receive the truth of Christ. Their mission is not isolated, however, but is situated wthin a mystery of communion that involves the entire People of God and is carried out in stages from the Old to the New Covenant." -- From The Apostles

The Sermon on the Mount: The Key to Success in Life

Emmet Fox

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Total reviews: 78 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

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The Sermon on the Mount--now passing its 65th birthday--remains a vital and provocative introduction to the ideas at the heart of Christian Science. At heart it means to be entirely practical, as the "Science" of the name would indicate. Denying any interest in theology (there is no theology in the Bible, Fox argues), the author instead suggests that what Jesus was after was results: "Jesus explains to us what the nature of God is, and what our own nature is; tells us the meaning of life and of death; shows us why we make mistakes; why we yield to temptation; why we become sick, and impoverished, and old; and, most important of all, he tells us how all these evils may be overcome, and how we may bring health, happiness, and true prosperity into our lives."

And the Spiritual Key? Fox puts it quite simply: "The Truth turns out to be nothing less than the amazing but undeniable fact that the whole outer world--whether it be the physical body, the common things of life, the winds and the rain, the clouds, the earth itself--is amenable to man's thought, and that he has dominion over it when he knows it." --Doug Thorpe

Tell It Slant: A Conversation on the Language of Jesus in His Stories and Prayers

Eugene H. Peterson

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Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Just as God used words both to create the world and to give us commandments, we too use words for many different purposes. In fact, we use the same language to talk to each other and to talk to God. Can our everyday speech, then, be just as important as the words and prayers we hear from the pulpit? Eugene Peterson unequivocally says Yes! Tell It Slant explores how Jesus used language he was earthy, not abstract; metaphorical, not dogmatic. His was not a direct language of information or instruction but an indirect, oblique language requiring a participating imagination slant language. In order to witness and teach accurately in Jesus name, then, it is important for us to use language the way he did. Part 1 focuses on Jesus words in everyday contexts his teachings to the crowds, the stories he told, his conversations with his disciples. Part 2 shifts the focus to Jesus prayers the words he spoke to God the Father.
Petersons Tell It Slant promises to deepen our understanding of Jesus words, strengthen our awareness of language as a gift of God, and nurture our efforts to make all of our speech convey a blessing to others.

War Psalms of the Prince of Peace: Lessons from the Imprecatory Psalms

James E. Adams

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Total reviews: 5 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

This book is a blessing 5 out of 5 stars.
7 of 7 people found this review helpful.

Thank you, James E. Adams, even though I had never heard of you before. I found your book by chance. By chance? No way! The Lord slipped War Psalms of the Prince of Peace into my hand, and then into my heart. Yes, of course I agree with Paul that all of Scripture is God-breathed and useful, but up until I read War Psalms I steered clear of those difficult Imprecatory Psalms. You know the kind: the ones that tend to say things like, "Let his days be few; and let another take his office. Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow" (Ps. 109:8-9). Or, "Happy shall he be, that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones" (Ps. 137:9). And then along comes War Psalms and, bingo-why-hadn't-I-thought-of it before, those Psalms became wonderful messages from my Lord.

This is one of those simply presented books which takes you easily into the deep things of God. Missionary, pastor, theology professor, and author, James Adams does not present some new and fancy thought. Just browse through the bibliography at the end of War Psalms and you will realize that the ideas Adams presents have been part of Christian thought from earliest church history.

The study starts with a look at the puzzles these particular Psalms present, searches for where they come from and who actually is praying them, sees our Lord as the instigator, looks at how they are quoted plentifully in the New Testament, and considers how we can use, pray, and preach these Psalms. Each chapter ends with questions for group study or individual thought. Several appendices add more information: our duty towards our enemies, sermon summaries, index to the Imprecatory Psalms, and New Testament references. Adams states about the Imprecatory Psalms, "All the enemies of the Lord need to hear these prayers of Christ proclaimed today. They are not the prayers of a careless and compassionless tyrant, but the effectual prayers of the Lamb of God who bore the curse of God for the sins of all who bow their knee to Him" (p. 34).

I invite you to a blessing. Open your Bible to the Psalms and read them cooperatively with James Adams' War Psalms of The Prince of Peace. - Donna Eggett, Christian Book Previews.com

Shocked by the Bible: The Most Astonishing Facts You've Never Been Told

Joe Kovacs

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Shocked by the Bible sets the record straight with well-researched, controversial, myth-breaking assertions about what the Bible really does-and doesn't-say.

Myths and misconceptions about the Bible's content abound, and churchgoing Christians are often as confused as everyone else. Fed up with this lack of public knowledge, author Joe Kovacs has compiled some of the most crucial information for correcting people's faulty education on what the Bible really says. If readers have ever wondered about God, the Bible, or the meaning of life, and are just not satisfied with the answers they've received-or if they want to learn what the Bible really says on troubling questions-Shocked by the Bible is an essential resource for helping both Christians and non-Christians alike.

Kovacs says, "If people actually knew what is in their Bible-the nonstop sex and violence, the hilarious comedy, and the astounding facts their pastors never told them-they'd rush to crack it open and get the surprise of their lives."

Among the little-known facts Kovacs explores are:

• Jesus said NO ONE has gone to heaven except Himself
• The Bible never says Jesus died on a Friday or rose from the grave Sunday morning
• "Christmas" is not mentioned in the Bible
• "Easter" has vanished from the Bible
• God wanted to kill Moses
• "God the Father" is never mentioned in the Old Testament
• There weren't just two of every kind of animal aboard Noah's Ark
• The worst case of hemorrhoids in history is recorded in the Bible
• Noah, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were not Jews
• Jesus made personal appearances on Earth in the Old Testament
• The Bible tells you not to eat your dog or cat for dinner
• God ordered many of His own people to get divorced
• Elijah did not cheat death by riding a chariot to heaven
• And many more