Thursday, July 31, 2008

The Partisan Leader

by Beverley Tucker

This one's an interesting, but ultimately dissatisfying read. It's the tale of the Southern Secession--first published in 1836. In it, the Southern States secede from the United States of America, not in protest of the election of Abraham Lincoln, but rather over that of Martin Van Buren to a (snicker) third term. That wily rascal has been amassing power to the federal government and many states of the south, led by South Carolina, have left the Union and formed their own confederation. There's no overt war, as the Confederate States have managed to score a diplomatic coup by gaining diplomatic recognition by Great Britain. (Hmmm, I wonder if that's where Harry Turtledove got the idea?) There is a conflict brewing, however, in the State of Virginia, which has been slow to leave the Union. Virginia's loyal sons are preparing for war, recognizing that their loyalty to the Union has been misplaced and that their fortunes lie along the road to independence. Like I said, it's an interesting book--a peek into the ideals of a distant place and time. It's fun to compare the book to the actual Secession, to see what details Mr. Tucker accurately predicted and what things he got wrong. But in the end, it's just a curiosity. The writing itself is pretty much just jingoistic melodrama with noble heroes and either stupid or dastardly villains--all in stunning 2-D. No wonder I had to get it through Inter Library Loan.

Waiting room material,it's only waiting room material.
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Making Thirteen Colonies

by Joy Hakim

Volume Two of A History of US covers the years 1600 through 1740. It's entertaining reading, with plenty of chiding for our forebears over their practice of slavery and religious intolerance.

'Tis wonderful waiting room material.
LibraryThing link

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Monday, July 28, 2008

Show Them No Mercy

by C. S. Cowles, Eugene Merrill, Daniel Gard and Tremper Longman III

Jesus loves me,
This I know
For the Bible
Tells me so...


Ah, if only theology were so easy. The problem is, if you actually read the Bible, you might get confused. You read of a God who loved humanity so much that He would let His Son be killed to pay for their sins. But you also read of a God who rains down fire and brimstone on a defenseless city; who apparently sanctions the genocide of certain peoples. What's up with that? Are we talking about two different gods here? Was God just off his meds that day? Is there some part of the story we're not getting? Well, this issue has puzzled folks for centuries, and back in 2001, the terrorist attacks on September 11th made the issue of "holy war" a bit more interesting to Americans. Show Them No Mercy takes a look at the issue of how a loving God could allow His people to kill, especially as told in the Biblical book of Joshua. The book contains essays (and rebuttals) from four theologians trying to reconcile the issue. Simply put, Professor Cowles takes the stand that ol' Moses and Joshua had things wrong; that the conquest of the land of Canaan was quite against God's will. Professor Merrill takes the dispensationalist view, that the ancient Israelites were following the rules in effect at that time, but nowadays we have a different standard to follow. Professor Gard sees that past violence as events which point to the final Day of Judgement. Finally, Professor Longman sees the death and destruction of the Canaanites as part of the ongoing battle against evil--a battle that has currently progressed from the physical to the spiritual realm. (I should point out that none of these gentlemen advocate or excuse the concept of "holy war" in this day and age. So for those of you who were thinking about it, put away your sword and keep turning the other cheek.) All in all I enjoyed this book and it's style of presenting differing viewpoints on this particular issue. It was good to read some well thought out, biblical arguments from each writer and to challenge my own beliefs on the topic.

'Tis well worth checking out.
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Saturday, July 19, 2008

Blessing and Honor, Honor and Blessing

by Captain John H. Kaelberer

This book is a little introduction to the history of the historical critical method of hermeneutics. Or in layman's terms, it looks at how some folks started the practice of interpreting the Bible according to reason and the historical record rather than using the Bible's own teachings as guide. Captain Kaelberer is dead set against the HC method and wrote the book to help us guys in the pew understand from where some of the guys in the pulpit got their ideas. I had mixed feelings about the book. I get a bit skeptical reading an overly partisan bit of prose and Capt. Kaelberer is quite proud to take a stand. The fact that he talks down a bit to us layfolk also put me off a bit. But despite my misgivings, I am pretty much on his side and I had been wondering myself where some of the more liberal theologians were coming from. The book does a good job of outlining the "family tree" of the HC method from the Enlightenment to the late 20th Century. It's a handy book to have if you don't want to do a lot of deep reading and blaze your own path through the last few centuries of philosophical and theological thought.

Check it out.
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Saturday, July 12, 2008

Crisis on Multiple Earths: Volume 3

by Mike Friedrich, Len Wein and Dick Dillin

Volume Three reprints the JLA/JSA team-ups from 1971 through 1974, including the three team, three part team up that began in the 100th issue of Justice League of America. When reading these stories, I get a feeling that the writers and editors were saying to themselves, "How can we retell the basic story this year?" In 1971, Mr. Friedrich played with limiting the line up to characters who had counterparts on the other Earth. That particular team up seemed to focus on the theme of relationships. 1972's team up was the aforementioned three-parter sending the JLA and JSA on a quest to find the time lost Seven Soldiers of Victory. A year later, our heroes stumbled upon Earth-X where the Nazis won World War II. They help Earth-X's resident heroes, the Freedom Fighters, in a rematch. (These were comics I had actually owned back in the day. It was a pleasant surprise to turn a page and discover that Dick Dillin's image of Batman climbing the Eiffel Tower had been burned into my brain. Great stuff.) By 1974, the creative teams wisely tried a different tack and told a smaller tale focusing on the Sandman and his erstwhile partner, Sandy.

It's on my shelf.
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The Ethics of Martin Luther

by Paul Althaus

After my wife read this one, she exclaimed that Martin Luther would make a good Democrat. As I envisioned the reaction some of the more conservative members of our Lutheran congregation would have to this statement, I knew that I had to read the book for myself. The Ethics of Martin Luther is basically a distillation of Luther's thoughts on ethics, culled from his various writings. If you want to read what Luther actually said, then you need to follow the footnotes and look up the various references yourself. Otherwise, you just have to take Rev. Althaus' word for it. It starts out, appropriately enough, with what Rev. Althaus sees as the foundation of Luther's ethics--the doctrine that sinners are saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. 'Tis such a beautiful thought that my heart sang as I read the first chapter, and I was naturally won over to whatever Rev. Althaus had to say from then on. He then went on to Luther's views on the two types of law--natural law, which is evident through reason and is common to all humanity; and divine law, which is revealed through the Bible and is binding only on the follower of Jesus. From there we're shown how this twofold legal system plays out in areas of government, family, work and economics. It was interesting reading, one that put into words many of my own ethics. As for Luther's political leanings--he was, of course, a man of his own time and culture. I'm sure that, were he to be transported to 21st Century America, he would fit in with neither of the dominant political parties. And probably each party could point to his teaching to support parts of their own platforms.

It's on my shelf. (Well, actually my wife's shelf. But we share.)
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Thursday, July 10, 2008

Crisis on Multiple Earths

by Gardner Fox and Mike Sekowsky

I didn't really become a big fan of the Justice Society of America until the 80s, but my first encounter with the group was way back in my childhood. For my generation, the JSA were annual guest stars in the old Justice League of America comics. I recall having read a number of stories where my stalwart super-heroes made a visit to Earth-2 to foil some dastardly plot. Unfortunately, I either never owned those particular comics, or my mom made me toss them when they got too ratty. So when I really got into the JSA, I was forced to prowl the comic shops, looking for those back issues that weren't too expensive. And wouldn't you know it, after I had bought a handful of issues, but before I had purchased them all, DC Comics put out a trade paperback containing all of the JLA/JSA team-ups of yore. I don't know if I saved money or wasted it, but I ended up buying this, the first volume of the reprints. The book reprints the annual team-ups from 1963 through 1966. The 1963 tale features the two teams working together to thwart a gathering of villains from both Earths. In 1964, Mr. Fox introduced Earth-3, the parallel world where all the good guys are bad. 1965's entry revisits the theme on a smaller scale, where only one of the venerable heroes has an evil twin. And then in 1966... well, that one was rather odd. As he proved back in the 40s, not everything Mr. Fox writes is golden. Still, it's a collection worth checking out, even if your not the fan-boy that I am.

LibraryThing link

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Wednesday, July 09, 2008

The Complete Peanuts: 1967 to 1968

by Charles M. Schulz

My wife borrowed this from the library to see if this was a book she wanted to buy. In her opinion, Peanuts jumped the shark in the late sixties and while she's been faithfully buying each volume of the series, the time is coming when she will stop. The verdict, by the way, is yes, she will be buying this volume. (Well, actually the second printing of it, since there's a error on page 53 in which the May 1st strip is printed twice and the May 3rd strip has been left out.)(Hmmm, I had that problem with my 11th grade yearbook.)(Fanatgraphics says they're going to fix the typo and reprint the missing strip in the next volume.)(The next volume of The Complete Peanuts, that is, not my high school yearbook.) Anyway, I have to question my wife's opinions here. I think this volume is great. I found a lot more laughs amongst the reprinted strips than I did in the previous volume. Snoopy and Lucy hog the spotlight a lot, but like John Waters (who wrote the forward), I think that's a good thing.

Check it out.
LibraryThing link

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Saturday, July 05, 2008

The First Americans

by Joy Hakim

This year my elder daughter's history textbook is an eleven volume series called A History of US. Like The Story of the World series, it adds some life and character to the dull old facts and figures of your old fashioned history texts. What's even better is that I get to read it along with the Sonlight curriculum, which offers its own rebuttals to various statements in the text. Not that one really needs the extra commentary. Ms. Hakim does a rather nice job of pointing out that there are two sides to every history. Take this volume, for example. As you might infer from the title, the book talks about the native American population that preceded and encountered Columbus and his followers. Now when I was growing up, Native Americans were pretty much just supporting characters in my history texts. Some twenty years later, the pendulum had swung the other way, and they were the sublime innocents who were invaded by the rapacious white fortune hunters. In The First Americans, Ms. Hakim briefly covers the American civilizations that the Europeans found, pointing out their glories and their warts. Likewise, Columbus and the boys are presented as brave, idealistic, cruel and greedy. In A History of US, nobody's perfect... but we are rather interesting.

'Tis nice to have on my shelf.
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