Mystery spiced with romance made this book a "must read." I have spent much time in the locale of the book and the characters were very believable. It was easy and pleasrable reading. I look forward to reading more of this author's work.

Lots of images, diagrams and to the point explanations. Can't beat the price! bargain

nanemi cheyyammantavu na prajectu ledaru nanau champutunnadu anduke me site openu chesinaunanau khaminchandi naa ku aadetails anni kacaaf ffeggds bgfggdgggb ggs g gsdggs gs gs

The late Franklin M. Segler set the momentum for the unique parameters of this excellent resource in his first publication of this book in 1967. Since 1974 when this became my first choice for a basic text for Seminary classes at the Interdenominational Theological Center (ITC), enthusiasm has increased among students and other faculty members who use it. This is no doubt caused by editorial changes - updates and additions by Randall Bradley. As a basic text for the first course in Christian worship, students are able to examine the meaning and means of expressing and experiencing worship in ways that enhance and support denominational and cultural differences in the ecumentical setting of ITC. Information is presented by the authors under three major headings with an excellent conclusion section and the kind of appendices that every clergy person requests during and following the basic course. The structure is a follows: Part 1: The Meaning of Worship; Part Two: The means of Expressing Worship; and Part Three: Conducting Worship. Appendices include examples of The Ordinary of the Mass (an excellent way to relate the Ordo to Protestant "Orders of Service"), Guidelines for Prayer leaders and Scripture Reader, the Wedding Ceremony and Wedding Policies, the Funeral Service and copyright guidelines, all of which are immediate and practical concerns of students who are most often serving as pastors in large and small congregations. For students of liturgy - practically and academically oriented - this unfolding of information connects one with the whole of liturgical history without bogging one down into ONE particular tradition. The broad usage of this resource is evidenced as the manager of the campus book is constantly re-ordering Segler/Bradley for the parishes of students and graduates in the USA and on the continent of Africa. A loud expression of thanks is extended to Professor Bradley who not only provides inclusive language throughout the text, but also contemporizes the worship settings and includes concerns from this technological age. These factors are noted especially in chapters on "worship and church renewal," "children in worship," "architecture, acoustics and worship," "drama" "applause in worship," numerous "rites of passage" and a biblical and historical endorsement of the Christian Church year. This is an excellent and much needed resource for congregations, especially as we continue to position ourselves in the twenty-first century, amidst labels and cries that attempt to separate "praise" from the worship of God with spiritual growth, dedication, and commitment to mission and ministry in the world!

I would highly recommend this book and CD-ROM package to anyone who is interested in social history of the South or Civil War history. The letters and newspapers sections are especially fascinating. They give incredible first-hand accounts of the daily lives of people of these two communities. The data seems endless. The team that compliled this information is to be commended.

"Vikings: Fear and Faith" is an often eloquent history book in the hard-to-put-down page-turner category.

The Viking invasions of England extended over more than 200 years, provoking generations of despair and fear among the English people. The fragility of their Christian civilization and culture was exposed as it repeatedly hung by a thread in the face of great brutality. This inspired agonized examinations of why God would allow such things to be done to his people.

Yet with a dogged and determined faith, the end result was the uniting of England and the conversion of the Viking conquerors to Christianity, along with all of Scandinavia. Barely remembered acts of courage and faith (and no few unremembered ones) made England (thus the world) what it is.

How a savage and materialistic people such as the Vikings came to be monks, missionaries and church builders when exposed to the Christians they conquered is the subject of this book.

The volume differs from others (or at least the 2 I have read) on the Viking period in that it focuses on how the two peoples understood the world. It is this understanding that shapes historical events. Thus, one learns more about those years in the first 30 pages of this book than in all of Gwyn Jones classic "A History of the Vikings".

For example, where Jones might describe Viking family histories with "... the superstructure is often shaped by arbitrary assumptions on the nature of history itself" (very illuminating, no?), Cavill instead focuses on the role of ideas: how people understood what was happening to them and their nation in a context defined by their Christian faith.

Perhaps the majority of modern historians, being secular, lack the inclinationto pursue this line of study, or more probably the discernment to see it as important, but faith appears in sermons of the time, the lives of saints, in seemingly secular accounts of battles, in the prose of chronicles and in other sources shaped by a Christianity deeply shocked by the Viking violation. Virtually every expression from that time revolves around fear of the Vikings and its intersection with Christian faith. To instead focus on descriptions of grave contents or speculate about variations in layout of Viking villages is to drain history of what's important.

Thus, I was excited to read this volume by about page 4 of the introduction, as I think others will be, in that it illuminates what happened to the Vikings. It seems to me such knowledge is relevant to the present.

Let the lament of monks evacuating to Ireland as the world crumbled around them, only to have their hand-made gospel book washed overboard in a raging storm, speak across the centuries:

'What shall we do?', they said. 'Where shall we go carrying the relics of the father? For seven years we have travelled across the entire province fleeing from the barbarians, and there is no place of refuge left in the entire country ... In addition to all this we are weighed down by a cruel hunger which forces us to seek relief for our lives, but the sword of the Danes ravaging everywhere will not allow us to travel with this treasure. But if we abandon it, and look after ourselves, what shall we answer Cuthbert's people when they afterward ask us where their pastor and patron is?'

"Vikings: Fear and Faith" looks at a large number of literary sources, recognizing even possible exagerrations (ship counts, etc.) can provide information as to what people were thinking. It considers King Alfred and King Canut as well as other people and institutions. The book has 100 pages of appendices containing original texts translated by the author:

1. The Treaty of Alfred and Guthrum
2. The Battle of Brunanburh
3. The Charter of St. Frideswide's Monastery, Oxford
4. The Loss and Recovery of the Lindisfarne Gospels
5. Archbishop Wulfstan's Address to the English
6. A Letter from Boniface and the Anglo-Saxin Mission in Germany to King Aethelbald of Mercia
7. Swedish Rune-Stones
8. King Alfred's Dedicatory Letter to his Translation of Gregory's Pastoral Care
9. Cynewuld and Cyneheard
10. The Voyage of Ohthere
11. The Voyage of Wulfstan
12. The Battle of Maldon
13. Wyrdwriteras
14. Aethelwold Ousts the Clerics from the Old Minster
15. The Blacksmith's
16. Bede's Concerns About False Monasteries
17. The Old English Beatitudes
18. A Prayer of Confession
19. The Martyrdom of Aelfheah
20. Aelfric's Life of St. Oswald
21. The Martrydom of King Edmund
22. Selections from Abbo's Account of St. Edmund
23. Roger of Wendover's Version of the St. Edmund Legend
24. Lines from the Dream of the Rood

This work by H. Bruce Franklin would be a good beginning
place for anyone interested in Melville's knowledge of
and use of mythology. That said, it should also be said
that it should be used with caution. Franklin is determined
to focus each of the major works within the framework
of a particular mythic structure...which he believes
he discerns by the various multiple allusions and images
to be found in the work. Perhaps he has the correct
grasp, perhaps he doesn't. But the questing thinker should
at least know where Franklin is going, and the maps he
plans to use to guide the traveler along the way.
The title of this review suggests a good alternative
text which one could have beside one, to counter-balance
Franklin's more "civilized" approach to mythology -- and
that is a work which alerts us to the fact that in
dealing with mythology (even the glorious mythology of
the Greeks) we should not forget its ancient, more
primitive roots and how they survive in the later
myths--that work is Jane Ellen Harrison's _Prolegomena
to the Study of Greek Religion_ -1903-, modern
reprinting by Princeton Univ. Press, 1991, Mythos Books.
Franklin, in his "Acknowledgments" (this book was
first published in 1963) says that previous scholars
and their works had already dealt with certain aspects
of mythology and it associations with their study of
Melville's works--Henry Murray's editorship of a
_Pierre_; Walter Bezanson's editorship of _Clarel_;

Howard Horsford's editorship of _Journal of a Visit
to Europe and the Levant_, and "most important,
Howard Vincent and Luther Mansfield's _Moby-Dick_"
(all of these particular editions--except Horsford--
had been published by Hendricks House, and are
excellent not only for their "Introductions" but
also for their copious "Explanatory Notes" in the back).
To give the potential reader and/or buyer of this
work an idea of Franklin's views, the titles of his
chapters are: Melville and the Gods; Mardi--A Study
of Myths and Mythmaking; Moby-Dick--An Egyptian Myth
Incarnate [what about the fact that Vishnu is cited
as the grand-master of all whalers in _Moby-Dick_,
oops!]; Pierre--The Petrification of Myth; Worldly
Safety and Other-Worldly Saviors---Bartleby, The
Ascetic's Advent,--Benito Cereno, The Ascetic's
Agony,--The Ascetics' Allegorical Masquerade;
The Confidence-Man--The Destroyer's Eastern
Masquerade; Billy Budd; or, Bili-Budd--The Last
Avatar; and The Wake of the Gods.
Franklin lays down an interesting purple carpet
for us to enter the palace upon (as long as we
keep looking all round us...and especially watch
our backs, and don't climb in any cauldrons or
tubs to bathe!): "Since all myth is by definition
fictional[hmm...is it? what about the historical
or ritual elements it may be covering up or
transmuting?], no one should be surprised to find
that literary fiction is mythic. Literary fiction
does essentially the same thing as primitive mythic
fiction: both tell made-up stories [you know he
is going to irritate me, if he keeps this up!]about
the human and natural worlds and both implicitly assign
a high order of truth to those made-up stories." ...
[He goes on to say that the myths we have, come to
us from "higly developed civilizations" (the very
Romantic idealist fallacy --not Classical idealist!--
that Jane Harrison so brilliantly and tellingly
disputes in her _Prolegomena_).]
Franklin goes on: "This study, rather than tracing
Melville's knowledge of mythology, tries to show how
Melville consciously used myths, mythology, comparative
mythology, and mythological theories in his major
works --Mardi, Moby-Dick, Piere, Bartleby, Benito
Cereno, The Confidence-Man, and Billy Budd. My
central thesis is that Melville's mythology determines
and defines large parts of the structure and meaning
of these works." (p. ix). Franklin also examines the
use of or Melville's deflection of "Christian myth," and
cites such previous examinations of this aspect as
William Braswell's _Melville's Religious Thought_;
Nathalia Wright's _Melville's Use of the Bible_.
The final EXCELLENT feature of this work is the fact
that Franklin has compiled "A Selected Index of
Non-Judaic-Christian Gods, Myths, and Religions in
Melville's Works" in which the gods, goddesses, spirits,
or terms ["Polynesian religion", for example] are
listed in alphabetical order, and the works [plus
page numbers or chapter numbers] where the term is
found in the work are also listed. This is in the
back of the volume.
* * * * * * * * *

My own religion is is in such a strange, sad state today...Why are so many Amercian evangelical, so-called "fundamentalist" Christians in America so supportive of the their country's violent and worldy war machine? Why is it that so many of the very people that claim to live by the highest moral standard are all to willing to set aside ALL moral and ethical boundaries for the sake of patriotism and "winning the battle"? Why is it that so many who claim to follow Jesus Christ hold his commands to "overcome evil with good" and "turn the other cheek" in utter contempt? Why is the flag-waving mainstream Christianity of today so different from that of the peaceful, forgiving, nonviolent first-century Church founded by Christ and his apostles? Well, the answers to these questions may not be easy to take for some, but "War, Peace, and Nonresistance" (a classic book from Mennonite writer/theologian Guy F. Hershberger, originally published in 1944 and revised several times over the years) goes a long, long way towards showing where modern Christianity has gone wrong...and how with a some work, it could get back to its roots! Through a very careful and EXREMELY THOROUGH study of Old and New Testament scriptures, early Church & cultural history, and sound theological ideals, Hershberger builds a most convicing case for for the validity (and even neccessity) of Biblical Christian pacifism/nonresistance. Hershberger gives the historical timeline of early Christianity's pacifist/nonresitant roots, and the eventual, progressive disintigration of those roots at the hands of Augustine, Constantine, and others who sought to "militarize" Christians and sever them from the heart of Christ's moral teachings (often for reasons that can best be described as "self-serving"). A particularly interesting section deals with writings from some early-Church fathers (Origen, Tertullian, Arnobius, etc.) which state the first century-Church's peaceful position quite clearly. Being that the author is a proud Mennonite, there is also much history given of the Mennonite Church and it's bold and valiant efforts to return Christianity to it's nonviolent roots (in fact, the subtitle of this book is "A classic statement of a Mennonite peace position in faith and practice"), but it is the Chapters dealing directly with Christ's teaching & the first-century Church that will likely set many modern "fundamentalists" to question the teachings of their own denomination. There is also plenty of History given on "concientious objection" in America, and the moral/legal ordeals of the nonviolent Christian in draft/wartime. The most disturbing section of the book comes when we learn of the American Government's treatment of Christian pacifists during World War One. Why is it that a supposedly "Christian nation" sentenced 503 men to prison sentences of up to 30 years (143 of them recieved LIFE-SENTENCES!) for simply following the Biblical teachings of nonviolence? Granted, our Goverment often gives these sort of sentences to those who kill...but by what logic should they be given to those who DON'T kill, who REFUSE to kill, those who (by their own beliefs, actions, and moral convictions) pose no physical harm to anyone or anything??? Perhaps the saddest story is that of four WW1-era Christian concientious objectors (Mennonite brothers Joseph, Michael, and David Hofer, and a draftie named Jacob Wipf) who were sentenced to 20 years in a Miltary prison for refusing to participate in military service on religious grounds. Instead of 20 years confinement these four men were cruely tortured, starved, abused, and violated by American soldiers over several months time - until the day that Joseph and Michael were rushed to the hospital...and were soon pronounced dead. Anyone who does not see the contradiction between service to Christ and service in the Military should really consider the moral, ethical (and even legal) implications of cases like that of the Hofer Brothers. In various chapters Hershberger answers almost every critisism, comment, and concern that could be raised by those who want their Christianity served with a side-dish of militarism - and he does an excellent job of debunking and deconstructing their arguments in light of the New Testament scriptures, and Jesus Christ's teaching in particular. Perhaps most interesting of all, Hershberger gives a detailed and solid explaination of the apparent disparity between what many Bible-students see as the harsh "wrathful God" of the Old Testament, and the forgiving "God of love" in the New Testament" - his thesis is deeply-considered,...and to complex to explain in this brief review! Any criticisms? Well, as the original version was written in 1944, this book may throw-off modern readers because it does not cover more recent devolopments in warfare (such as nuclear weapons, "smart bombs", etc.) Also, sometimes because of it's footnote-heavy historical/scriptural nature this book can have a bit of that "clinical" feel of a college textbook (and far too many pages are devoted to the subject of non-Military "Civilian Services" that the Mennonite's helped to found) - but as a sorce of study and contemplation for the nonvilolent disciple of Christ, this book is indespensible, and really does deserve to be called a "classic"! I especially found the extensive "Appendix" section at the end of the book helpful for study purposes. All in all, in just over 400 pages (but using suprisingly plain, easy-to-digest language) Hershberger gives us a history/theology lesson that once read...is hard to forget!

I bought the book and it is worth every dollar, including the additional 18% sales tax in Israel. It is a monumental work, very clear and well written. We needed this book. Having said that, I feel that the reuse aspects in general and the "unplanned indirect drinking reuse" in particular, have received only a marginal coverage in the book. That may be sufficient for the U.S.A., but innumerable European and Asian cities base their water supply on rivers that are mostly treated wastewater. In Israel, agriculture is based on reuse yet in the book, agriculture has the same weight as golf courses. Again, in the U.S.A. it may be so, but certainly not in the rest of the world. Industrial reuse mentions only evaporative cooling and that without the critical problem of blowdown disposal. Additional examples would be helpful. In reuse issues, "emerging patogens" (i.e., those feared but yet inexistent) are given more attention that critical problems such as salt content and subsequent aquifer and soil salination. Table 13-6 does not even mention salt. The inclusion of European and Israeli contributors would have produced an even better, a more balanced work.

The most moving, awesome book I've ever read about ecology. On the surface it simply follows all the life forms around a pond through 1 year. Things are born, hatched, germinated; and they die; 1/4 of the way through all the death really got me down, but I kept reading, and eventually realized that it's only in my own head that events are "bad" or "good." Russell succeeded at an extremely difficult task: presenting things as they are. The journey takes you deep into yourself, gives you a new perspective of the living systems that embody and support life on Earth. Dover Books should do a reprint of this book!

I have owned this book for over 30 years, and every time I reread it I am drawn into the the story of a 12 month life cycle at a pond. I have never read a book that is as interesting for the fifth reading as the first. This would be a great book for any young person (or older) who has the slightest interest in the natural world. The language is totally non-technical. I have never read its equal.