This is one of the earliest translations of the scriptures written in Hebrew & Greek. Approximately 539B.C. Jerome the author is creditated with the translation of the Latin Vulgate.I feel this edition of this writer's translaton has a wealth of knowlege and must be concidered for any in depth Bible Study.

This edition/translation of the bible is ancient but in everyday English language. Although I am not Roman Catholic I find this translation a much needed volume in doing in depth studies of the Bible. I can't imagine my bible studies without this edition/translation.I am presently a volunteer Church Secretary/Treasurer in the Christian Church (New Testament/Reformation).

Unique guide for archaeology minded traveler

The little known Oxford Archaeological Guides series provides information that you cannot find elsewhere This guide was written by Jerome Murphy-O'Connor in 1980 and was revised for the new Oxford Archaeological guides series in 1997 as the initial offering of the series. O'Connor provides a wealth of information here that you wont find in regular guidebooks. The topic of biblical archaeology is too large to be addressed by any one book. The author squeezes all he can into less than 500 pages. The section dealing with Jerusalem is most detailed. Outlying sites receive less attention. There is useful information about hours of operation and practical matters such as directions to remote sites. In addition to describing the various areas of interest, there are sections giving the history of the different peoples of the holy land, both historical and present day including sections on the Druze, the Philistines, the Samaritans, the Essenes and the Nabateans. There is a good attention here to changes over time with an emphasis on how the appearance of each site evolved over the years. Interesting comparisons are made with the condition of sites in the present day and their description in ancient texts including Josephus' "The Jewish War" and the Bible itself. This book would be inadequate as the only guidebook for a visit to Israel. I would recommend the Knopf Guide to the Holy Land and Baedeker Israel for routine tourist information. Some minor drawbacks: the drawings and maps are not as detailed as they could be and the few photographs that are provided are black and white and of poor quality. These complaints are not critical flaws; the book would still be invaluable even if it didn't contain a single illustration.

We recently returned from two weeks in Israel where we traveled around on our own with this book and the Lonely Planet Guide. Our trip would have been much poorer without The Holy Land. The strength of the book is its description of almost every ancient site of interest in Israel with line maps of the present structures and historical descriptions of the sites. The author includes quotes from ancient historians and medieval pilgrims as well as citations to the Bible. He approaches all the sites with respect but does not hesitate to call the authenticity of some sites into question when the historical or archaeological evidence does not support it. He points out that greater faith can be placed in the Christian sites where there was evidence of pre-Constantinian veneration, before the questions of pilgrims "excited the imaginations of local guides." For me this makes the more credible sites such as the Holy Sepulchre and the house of Peter even more moving.

For practical information on hotels, buses, etc. you should pick up the Lonely Planet Guide, but for infomation on the historical and religious sites this is the best book I have seen.

I've been preparing, over the last several months, to teach a class at my church on the New Testament in its historical/cultural setting. Out of the dozen plus books I read this was one of the most informative and best written of them. Certainly one needs many other sources to get a full picture of what is going on in the NT and in Matthew in particular, but this book gives a great amount of info you probably won't get from anywhere else. Also, since the author is writing about the context in which Matthew was written, he seems to have no interest in the traditional critical questions such as authorship, date, sources, etc. This makes it friendly to those interested in the Bible from either side of the conservative/liberal divide.

Prof. Neyrey brings fresh insight to the text of Matthew using resources from otherwise ignored classical sources. With the tools of classical literature and social science criticism, Neyrey writes clearly, arguing cogently for Matthew as encomium literature. A must for every bookshelf.

A quote from the book: "I am going to try and defend the thesis that there is one and the same human mind in all members of the species, not a primitive and a civilized mind, not a Western and an oriental mind, not an ancient and a modern mind."

I own 18 of Adler's books. This one means the most to me. One sign of that is that it has the most pages (and index cards)of notes stuffed in the back. I've returned to it more than to any other single book of his because it most clearly makes me face the question of ultimate concern: are you a brain with legs or a person with a brain? The book's subtitle ("Mind Over Matter") reveals Adler's answer to the question.

Adler trumpeted the Great Books as keys to lifelong learning. He seemed to have patiently digested them all. Fortunately for those less well-read (-meaning almost everyone), he wrote for "everybody" because he believed philosophy was "everybody's business."

I first read this book with a skeptical eye. I didn't want to agree with Adler. At first, I didn't. But as time passed, I found the book's main ideas coming to mind at odd moments. Although Adler was, by his own admission, a "pagan" when he wrote this book, my eventual acceptance of the argument carried a tinge (TINGE, I said!) of religious conversion. One need not be religious to believe in the intellect, but the question of intellect goes to the heart of the question, "What is a human person?" One's answer to this question--whatever it is--carries implications for one's religious beliefs (or lack thereof)--whatever they are.

Adler's main argument stems from language, and particularly the use of common nouns (e.g., dog, tree, daydream). Such concepts are universal, but nothing material is universal. So how do we all know what dogs and trees and daydreams are? We share a common idea, a common understanding. But it has no material existence. There must be an immaterial part of the mind to 'grasp' immaterial ideas. (The argument is more nuanced than this sketch.)

Students of Medieval philosophy will recognize here the argument between universalists (who are also realists) and nominalists. If you shudder at the thought of being bogged down in such an argument, fear not. (If you are puzzled from previous attempts to fathom what all the fuss over universals was really about, you may finally 'get it' here.) Adler's main quarrel is with idealistic modern philosophy. He is (-was, now) a realist steeped in Aristotle. His thought is not flashy, but it's solid as an oak dining table. Pull up a chair and feast on this intellectual delight!

Is the mind reducible to matter (i.e., mind = brain), or does the mind possess immaterial aspects. The brain (material make up) is necessary for the mind, but not a sufficient explanation of some mental operations. Adler does a very good job discussing the issues involved in this area (philosophial psychology or philosophy of mind), and does a superb job in arguing the immaterialist position (i.e., our minds are more than physico-chemical reactions).

This work, though brief, provides a good antidote to the poison of Neo-Darwinian mechanism (e.g., Steven Pinker's _How he Mind Works_).

Btw, this review comes from someone who holds the BA, Cum Laude, in philosophy from a top American university. My education was in the analytic/linguistic tradition, and I would trade all that for the education I have gotten from Mortimer Adler. It does seem unfair that I struggled through 4 years of abstruse philosophy, and someone could get a better philosophic! al education from reading Adler's: Intellect, Conditions of Philosophy, Ten Philosophical Mistakes, Aristotle for Everybody, Six Great Ideas, We Hold These Truths, Four Dimensions of Philosophy, How To Think About God, Truth in Religion, and Some Questions About Language (the only really difficult book by Adler)

Intimacy In Action: Relationships That Feed The Soul is a compelling psychological and spiritual look at the problems, external and internal, that complicate human relationships and how to bridge one's heart toward healing. Rev. Stefaniak combines the science of human psychology and spiritual faith in God to offer his guidance. Intimacy In Action has words of wisdom for those who fall for the same type of partner over and over despite their attempts to find someone different; those who frequently get in the repeated arguments that accomplish nothing; and those who find that relationships drive them crazy. Intimacy In Action is an extraordinarily insightful guide for anyone who wants to understand more about the wonders of being in a relationship, and what makes a successful relationship tick.

"Intimacy in Action: Relationships That Feed the Soul" gives new meaning to the familiar term "relationships". Although Jerry and his wife Stav are "real-life" counselors, he knows how to relate as an author as well as "in person". (For some authors, a very difficult thing.) Jerry is comfortable in his knowledge/experience and makes you feel that way. He shows a sense of joy in sharing what he has learned and does it in such a way that everyone understands, by example, open discussion, he never talks down to you.

Throughout Jerry's books, you learn to question yourself, your reasoning, your mental blocks, and look for a "change in perception" for any given situation. A positive change for you and your partner, win/win.

Jerry and his books are a special blessing in my life and are applicable to many things besides relationships.

Thanks Jerry - Carolyn Promisel

Jerome Schneewind has tackled a big job in this massively erudite volume and done it remarkably well.

This book is a thorough history of modern moral philosophy, from roughly Thomas Aquinas to Immanuel Kant. What it traces is the development of the ideal of self-governance (the "autonomy" of the title).

And wow, is it good. It's well-written, it's scholarly without being inaccessible, and it treats the thought of every major ethical theorist (and some minor ones) of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

It's divided into four blocks. The first treats the subject of natural law, which was in philosophical fashion at the time our story opens. The second covers the "perfectionist" ethics that followed the movement away from natural law. The third treats philosophers who began to sever ethics from theology altogether and develop a "naturalized" morality. The fourth covers the last steps up to the philosophy of Kant, including his immediate forebears and the development of Kant's own concept of "autonomy".

The five-hundred-odd-page text never bogs down, either. Schneewind is a crisp and clear writer who keeps things both interesting and moving. (I especially like his half-chapter on Spinoza.)

This is somewhere between history of philosophy and philosophy of history. On the one hand, Schneewind is just reporting the historical development of ethical philosophy; on the other hand, he's also describing the philosophical arc from natural law to Kant in a way that sheds Kant's light backward onto two centuries' worth of his predecessors.

If you're interested in ethics and its history, you'll want to read this. It's hard to understand where we are and where we're going without knowing where we've been.

I would encourage anyone who is interested in modern morality, and moral philosophy specifically, to read this judicious and profound history. Many contemporary moral problems simply aren't understandable without understanding the historical context from which they arise. A principal virtue of this book is that it is the first text - to my knowledge - which deals with the history of modern moral philosphy using the texts of moral philosophers themselves, and thereby staying away from unphilosophical forms of historicism. Also, the text makes understandable some of the problems to which "autonomy" as a current moral value is intended to address, and so helps one understand why that value has become so important in contemporary culture discourse. Deceptively readably, the proundness of this book is a tesitmony to the importance of an intellectual movement its author help to establish - that ideas themselves are important to explaining human progress, but that they need to be placed within the intellectual context from which they come. Simply put, it is that rare book - difficult to find in the current academic world - that represents the achievement of a life time of thought and teaching about modern moral philosophy, by someone who is himself a philosopher, and who those of us that know him admire.

Jerome Washington gives you a human outlook on societies "inhuman" population. It is a good read. If you have family in the penal system, on either side of the bars, you will have a different outlook on what they endure.

Jerome Washington tells the stories that other sources have left out, or undetailed. Prison is a society, not just a group of people from the 'real' society. His own story is remarkable, giving him the unique ability to relate his observations to the reader. Washington strays from his own story as much as possible by examining the life of others confined to the same cage. Perhaps the pain of the recollection is the driving force of the reluctance to spill his own guts. He avoids it untill the end when he just can't hold back any further. Like all real quality writing, the author uses the language of the characters. The eerie result he may have intended has been achieved. The situations are scary, and the hope is bleek. The inmates are wild, hungry, and dangerous, and the prison employees are just as trapped - just as viscous: "They were angry that I was walking out of their prison alive ... and took false comfort in the hope that if I didn't return to prison, I would surely send my young to grow old behind their walls." Just as in other stories of prisoners or patients who believe the 'system' is corrupt, the reader must exercise his/her duty to examine the reality and the haze - and question what is perception, what is real, what is made up, and if the point of view is tainted by paranoia... why? You, the reader, will be a floating eye through a prison, through another world - with foreign rules, sanctions, and truths. And being seperated from the setting, although right there in the thick of it, you are safe from the prison's disease which spreads from animal to animal, through cage to cage, all the way to the to zookeeper.

This is a very good, highly readable history of James J. Hill, his family and his numerous successful business adventures, and the Great Northern Railway in particular.

Of the four major biographies of James J. Hill, this one is the best and most detailed. If it has a fault, it is that it is too detailed for many readers. But for those interested in the financial history of the Great Northern Railway and the personal history of its builder, this is the classic.

Martin had full access to the James J. Hill papers, now open to the public. Pyle's 1917 biography was also based on those papers, but Pyle was an employee of Hill's and tried to whitewash the truth, which actually made Hill look worse than he was. Holbrook's brief bio was based mainly on Pyle and rumor. Malone's 1996 book on Hill is to Martin's what Holbrook's was to Pyle's--a good intro but not as detailed as Martin's.

While some students use review books or online resources for the medicine clerkship, I've found this text to be a great resource. Information is clearly presented in small easy to digest chapters. The CD-ROM is a great bonus for board review. This is the type of book that I'll keep as a reference regardless of the specialty I go into.

This paperback book covers the entire knowledge of Internal Medicine in just 1000 pages. It is up to date and extremely readable. It is full of illustrations and tables which make comprehension and retension easy. It is a great buy.

Language in Motion presents a great overview of American Sign Language history, structure and its role as the mode of communication between deaf people. This book is easy to read and presents concepts clearly, in an orderly fashion. I recommend this book for those who need an introduction to the unique world of sign or those that need an concise guide to ASL and its culture. The authors also address the role of ASL in society today.

I just recently became interested in sign language (ASL in particular) and linguistics in general and I found that this book was a great place to start. It is easy and informative and answers many of the question about ASL and the Deaf community that other books in this area don't address. It doesn't teach you Sign but it provides you with lots of background information about the language and the people who use it. I recommend it to anyone who is interested in Sign and wants to learn more!