1 comments about The Dark Interval: Towards a Theology of Story.

1. The Dark Interval: Towards a Theology of Story is one of the best introductions to narrative theology in print. Yes, this is the same Crossan associated with the search for the historical Jesus - but avoiding that strain of contemporary theology is no excuse to miss this gem.

   Crossan is widely educated and very comfortably draws from a number of literary, philosophical and theological sources. His argument on the relationship between limit, game, and narrative is especially thought provoking. His analysis of parables as cross-expectations is one of the more interesting and thought-provoking studies of parables.

   The net result of his line of thought is that the reader gains a pratical rather than strictly theorectical understanding of narrative theology ... and comes to see it as a natural tool of interpretation of life - one's own or Christ's/

2 comments about Drama, Skits, & Sketches 2.

1. Though I have not been through this book in depth, I had a hard time finding something that was not too preach-y, and with interpretive and doctrinal spins of the author. I will have to spend quite a bit of time adjusting material for a more open view. The scripts give start points to do this, though. Those with similar interpretations and doctrines will likely not have issues with this material. I notice the high schoolers I work with dislike being characterized as teens, in which adults develop material to speak to them on their ground, but frequently miss it. This book seems to do just that in many places.



2. This book has many wonderful skits and sketches for youth to use in youth group. Most of them are funny and will keep your youth intersted. The skits are a good length, most are between 5 to 7 minutes long and deal with a good number of youth issues. I particularly like the one entitled "Bible Broadway." This skit takes some Broadway tunes and gives them a spiritual message!

No comments about Mime Ministry: An illustrated, easy-to-follow guidebook for organizing, programming and training a troupe of Christian mimes.

2 comments about Son of Man: Jesus Christ, The Early Years.

1. Please note: this is a review for "The Art of Tom Lovell, an Invitation to History" - an erroneous link means it appears also for the book "Son of Man..." - please do not leave unhelpful votes as a result of this error. (Hopefully Amazon will correct this soon.)
   
   A large format, boldly illustrated book, providing an insight to the Tom Lovell, and artist who specialised in painting the American West - native Americans and the Civil War. Following the introduction the book is divided into five parts, the first four deal with a specific subject or area highlighted by Lovell's work, the final part concerns itself with the artist. The book concludes with a list of plates, but there is no bibliography and no index.
   
   Each of the first four parts has a few pages of text to be followed by many pages of Lovell's paintings, each of which is accompanied by a few lines of text. These sections and the companying notes to each picture do not discuss the paintings as such, but use them as starting points or illustrations to a history discussion or lesson of the West. While the Introduction does concern itself with being just that: an introduction to the artist, it is really only the final part which actually discusses the artist and his work, and here we have an outline of the man and his career and some brief mentions of his approach to his work. The paintings in this section are also discussed in their own right.
   
   The book is lavishly illustrated with well in excess of 100 full colour plates, along with a good number of black and white sketches and drawings. The work included while predominantly is not exclusively his Western art; the final part covers a wide range of subject matter including modern war paintings and historical illustration.
   
   The plates in this book are superb, many full page or larger, there are several double page bleed images and even some fold out pages. However the text and the overall presentation let the book down. Apart from the title there is little indication of the aim of the book; is it about American history or about Tom Lovell? Certainly the first four sections suggest the former; it is only the Introduction and the final section which concern themselves with the artist. As for the presentation, it is unnecessarily brash so that it detracts from the work; Lovell's paintings are so full of energy and vitality they do not need a colourful graphic presentation, they would be better appreciated presented simply. It is still a fine book, but purely for the wonderful large reproductions of the artist's work.



2. Swindle and Black are an unbeatable duo when it comes to inspirational art and words. This is a welcome gift for any Christian.

3 comments about Gospel Figures in Art.

1. In "Guide to Imagery Series" books I found the books on art
   that give an exceptionally clear presentation of the subject.
   I bought 6 books from this series ("Gospel figures in art" among them) and I really found what I was searching for. You can study Old and New Testament as well as ancient mythology reading these books, understand the role of different details, symbols drawn on each picture. Inside each book there is a short description of the specific topic followed by full-colour reproductions of the pictures on this topic from different museums all over the world with detailed explanations to each picture. It was amazing to find and understand the meaning of different pictures I saw in art galleries in St.Petersburg, Berlin, Munich, Dresden, Venice, Naples and other places. Really a great selection of art works is presented in each of these books. I strongly recommend all these books to everybody who wants to understand the meaning of the pictures and get a nice art collection at home.



2. This book is spectacular ... don't miss it! It offers a comprehensive look at old testament artwork from the masters that will inspire you over and over again. It follows a basic chronological order that works well with the study of ancient history. Much information is given, yet it is concise and to the point. Beautiful for all ages!



3. If you think you know the gospels (the first 4 books of the New Testament), this book will open your eyes. If you think you know Western art, this book will teach you things you never knew you didn't know. Every incident in the gospels, as well as every incident that has grown up as a traditional addition to the gospels, is touched on. Then a large number of paintings are beautifully reproduced and annotated in detail. You can think of this book either as illustrating the gospels in detail, or explicating every detail of Western painting based on the gospels. A sheer delight. A wonderful treasure.

No comments about Art in Service of the Sacred.

3 comments about Iznik: The Artistry of Ottoman Ceramics.

1. I have been a collector of pottery for years. I own several pieces of Iznik pottery because I find the artistry superb.
   
   My husband gave me this book for Christmas and I have been learning so much more about the pieces I own, the culture behind them, the motifs, etc. The photos in the book and the quality of the print process and binding are fabulous.
   
   I am now proud to display this book on the table beside my pottery collection.
   
   If you are a lover of beautiful art, a student of Ottoman culture or just a fan of gorgeous books... Do not think twice. This book s a wonderful publication!



2. The book tells a fascinaing story,accompnied by beautifully presented colour plates of work done by skilled 16th century craftsmen. Some of the pieces and tilework can still be seen in Istanbul today.



3. I'm not a fan of art or religion, I'm a practical sort of girl. I took a class on Islamic art though, and found myself fascinated by Ottoman ceramics. Finding this book in the library, I sat down and flipped through it, and to my surprise, found myself crying. Crying, because everything in this book was so beautiful. I've never done that before. I have to buy this book. I must own this. I've never felt so moved by anything my whole life, and I don't say that lightly. The photographs are exquisite, the details visible are finer than the unaided eye can see. The colors are beyond words. The historical context presented is well-written, interesting and exciting. I told my teacher after the class that she'd opened the door to a whole new world for me, and this book just blew that door off its hinges.
   
   Buy this book.

5 comments about The Mystic Spiral: Journey of the Soul (Art & Imagination).

1. This book is an in-depth contemplation of the significance of the spiral. It is demonstrated that the spiral in its several forms has been a universal cosmic symbol from earliest human history. Indeed, this book traces the history of its use from stone age cultures, Egypt, Mesopotamia, the Greco Roman world, Islam, India, China, the Jewish world, the Celts, Medieval Europe, the Americas, etc., etc, etc. The reoccurrence of spiral forms in nature, and hence science, is also examined.

   The spiral is shown in its various forms and interpretations. This includes the evolutionary spiral (constant upward advancement through repeating cycles- reaching the same point, but at a higher level of attainment every time.) It can also be seen as the inward spiral of the hero's journey to the center where the great secret or gift lies. It can as well be the double spiral of descent, rebirth, and upward climb. It can also be the spherical spiral of expansion and contraction, or the never-ending vortex ring which periodical passes through it's own center. All variations and their deeper metaphorical meanings are examined- for it is assumed that the cycles of the spiral in nature, or human life, are microcosmic resonances of the great cosmic cycles and rhythms.

   Yet, it is also shown that at the center of the spiral must lay a straight upward path, a "short cut." This is the Axis Mundi, the World Tree that leads directly to the highest planes, the ultimate Source. This is the path of illumination of the mystic, the shaman.

   The layout of this book is that approximately the first third is an in-depth essay on the significance of the spiral, while the remaining two thirds are excellent color and black and write illustrations (with detailed descriptions and explanations.)




2. This is the unknown guide I hoped to find, as I searched, looking high and low, in libraries and bookstores. The spiral is partly something visual, and I wanted a book that would understand that and teach both in words and in pictures. The numerous illustrations (100+ pages) in THE MYSTIC SPIRAL are presented on large glossy paper, almost all in color, and are fantastic. The writing in the introduction and long captions, is essentialized, what I believe the author distilled after years of research. Yet it is so provocative!-- it opens the mind's eye to leap into exceedingly refreshing ideas. Here is the opening 2-sentence paragraph...

   "In a second, the faintest perfume may send us plummeting to the roots of our being, our whole life verticalized by a fleeting sensation: we have been connected by a mere smell to another place and another time. The amount we have changed in the recognition of this moment -- this is the spiral: the path we have followed to reach the same point on another winding."

   If you never read the rest of the book, you can contemplate this one statement and open a window into the mystery of labyrinths, seashells, whirlpools, our own galaxy, or the whole "breathing cosmos." But the entire 24-page introduction is equally profound. The idea is to take each meditation and deepen into it with much contemplation on your own, especially with the help of the art historical illustrations. A thousand times thank you to Jill Purce for leaving this enchanting, delightful marker on the path for others to contemplate and to follow.




3. I had had the impression this book would have more text addressing the spiral and its spiritual symbolism, with illustrations throughout. Instead, the book had a brief 30 page introduction with page after page of various artworks that feature a spiral somewhere in their design. I found the pictures to be poorly notated and wished that each photo had a more in-depth discussion to accompany it.



4. THE MYSTIC SPIRAL packs a staggering amount of essential information in a handsome, reader-friendly, and hugely enjoyable book. The main text (page 7 - 31) embraces all strains of mysticism, Eastern, Western, and everything in between, with scholarly exactness but also lyrical charm. Its density prompts (welcome) re-readings. The illustrations are exceptionally well chosen, and transporting. The reader, certainly this reader, comes away wishing for more. I am happy to see that an integrative book is being planned. Possibly, no theme is more consequential to us bipeds on the earthly tariqa than the one of the Spiral.



5. "The "Mystic Spiral" is the clearest expression I have ever come across of the system I have glimpsed in the intuitive flashes my poems are composed of. The bones of the universe, one potent sunbird structure. Ms. Purce is the magic maiden with the skeleton key that opens a myriad of doors." George Andrews - Poet and author.

   "Jill Purce's book is extraordinary, it shows the spiral going through all the manifestations of life- art, music, literature, dance, religion, mythology, physics, biology, botany and astronomy. Everything is spiral. She points to the unity of the cosmos, and acts as a counterbalance to the atomization of the world. There are hundreds of wonderful illustrations. She gives you the key - like the thread of Ariadne which leads you out of the labyrinth." Karlheinz Stockhausen

   "A brilliant and beautiful book...superbly written, stunningly illustrated and extremely illuminating." Michael Sayers.

   "I deeply appreciate, this marvellous book, "The Mystic Spiral". It seems to me that this book- and indeed the whole series "Art and Imagination" of which Jill Purce is the General Editor - heralds the consolidation of a new philosophy of life in which art takes its place as an essential guide to, and expression of, our development -if the world is to continue to live." Peter Redgrove - Author of "Wise Wound".

   Mere words can not do justice to the beauty of this book. Elegant, graceful, profound, these spirals embody such concepts as eternity, evolution, birth and death, expansion and contraction, the Tao, and God." Stanley Krippner in "Association for Humanistic Psychology Newsletter".

   "The Mystic spiral, together with its spiritual message, has much to tell us architects of the laws of growth and its archetypal forms. This would help us design buildings which are within the flow of nature rather than in opposition to it." Professor of Architecture, Birmingham School of Architecture.

   "Jill Purce"s The Mystic Spiral is thoughts I have thought and is the most thought-furthering / interesting work I have read for a very long time." Dean Melles - Hacks, Singapore.   "I found the Mystic Spiral one of the most absorbingly fascinating books I have ever laid hands on." Lionel Miskin - Professor of Art, Falmouth School of Art.

   "Her book, The Mystic Spiral and the BBC film of the same have enlisted not so much my imagination as my heart. I count myself a genuine admirer of her work. Jill Purce is an alchemist, the first I have noticed in this age." Sebastian Barker - Author of "Guarding the Border".

   "Purce's prose has the ultimate effect of poetry." Chellis Glendinnng in "Codex Shambhala" Vol. 4 No.2.

   "It is bridging the gap, the irreconcilable chasm between Science and Religion- "reason" and "feeling" which Ms. Purce has dexterously pursued by way of "The Mystic Spiral"- The spiral is both a universal mythological symbol as well as an empirical picture of the most fundamental ordering of matter and energy. In "The Mystic Spiral" Jill Purce has excelled in the dovetailing together of rational and mythological language and ideas, and by so doing she illustrates how the spiral is an archetypal symbol which reverberates, unaltered, between the extremes of empirical science and spiritual growth. Her juxtaposition of images as well as her well-chosen words unite the disparate threads of our experience into a single, self-perpetuating, spiral expression." Dr Lawrence Blair. Author of "Rhythms of Vision".

3 comments about The Mother's Songs: Images of God the Mother.

1. At fifteen, when I found this book, it changed my life. I did not know then about women's spirituality movements. I have since become aquainted, thrilled, disenchanted, and reaquainted. Through it all this book has been a touchstone. Craighead tells stories and images of God which are too idiosyncratic to have been manufactured to cater to a faddish movement. They are images of a journey, honestley, skillfully, and beautifully wrought, and I would reccomend them to any seeker of God. Craighead wrote that her belief in God the Mother flows like a river beneath her (other? churched) Christianity, nourishing it. This is a powerful image of how one's personal experience of God, and the communal, ritualized expression of that experience need not be reconciled, but can both be cherished. Buy this book. Buy this book for your thirteen year old, who is searching. Buy it at your local independant bookstore. Ciao.



2. This book reproduces 41 paintings in full color, full page with white borders. It also includes a black and white photo of the artist on the back cover. The text is by the artist and provides insight in into the paintings' meanings, both personal and on a universal level. In the form of prose-poems, the ideas expressed are full of touching memories especially those of the artist's grandmother. The paintings are full of female imagery, multi-cultural Goddess symbols, and also Roman Catholic imagery. It is a wonderful book for lovers of the Goddess (or God the Mother) but it is not for the Christian weary. The paper cover is a little flimsy for a book of this size, but the wealth of color reproductions make this book a good value.



3. I found the paintings to be very inspirational. They are very earthy and feminine. I also liked the accompanying poems.

3 comments about The Illustrated Jesus Through the Centuries.

1. Jaroslav Pelikan, author of a great number of books, including Mary through the Centuries and a five-volume collection on the history of Christianity entitled The Christian Tradition: A History of the Development of Doctrine, has produced in this volume a lavishly illustrated version of his previous book, Jesus through the Centuries.

   In this volume, the original text has been condensed and hundreds of new illustrations have been added, to give a more visual representation of the way in which Jesus has been portrayed artistically through the two millennia of Christianity. Always one of the most popular figures in Eastern and Western art, Jesus has also been one of the most enigmatic and difficult to portray. `"Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and for ever. Do not be lead away by diverse and strange teachings" (Heb. 13:8-9). With these words the New Testament admonished its readers to remain loyal to the deposit of the authentic and authoritative tradition of Christ, as this had come down to them through the apostles of the first generation.... But for purposes of this book, it is the historical import of this phrase that must chiefly engage our attention. For, as will become evident in considerable detail before this history of images of Jesus through the centuries is finished, it is not sameness but kaleidoscopic variety that is its most conspicuous feature.'

   Art has, of course, had many different purposes and intentions throughout history -- education, enlightenment, idealistic or realistic representation, and veneration, in addition to simple decoration. The changing imagery of Jesus reflects the changing culture; when Christ is seen as a more divine figure, or when Jesus is shown as completely human, the artist is reflecting the theology and sociology of the time.

   One primary image of Jesus presented earliest was that of a rabbi, or teacher. In fact, even when Mary first sees the risen Christ, scripture reports that she called out to him, Rabbouni! Yet from the earliest representations, it was clear that this element was not sufficient for a full description, and that much more was needed. Prophet, priest, king, victim, divinity -- all had particular Jewish contexts which, when recast in the Hellenistic and pagan terms, took new meanings and directions.

   One intriguing aspect of the artistic imagery of Jesus is the continuing pendulum swing between contemporary representation (making Jesus and the imagery surrounding him contemporary with the artist) and the more 'historically accurate' representations which try to recreate the imagery of first-century Jerusalem. This shows the continuing conceptual struggle between viewing Jesus as a timeless character whose life events continue through time and the historical human being of Jesus who lived two thousand years ago. Long before scholars banded together in such groups as 'The Jesus Seminar', artists and theologians were playing out their own interpretations of the historicity-vs.-timeless version of Jesus Christ.

   This book is an opulent collection of photographs of paintings, drawings and other works of art that illustrate the meaning of the textual arguments Pelikan makes; it is also a wonderful source for contemplation, as one goes from early catacomb depictions to Michaelangelo to Marc Chagall, in reviewing in media without words the way Jesus has appeared to various people and cultures over time, and what insights these images can provide for seekers today.




2. Pelikan is an admirable scholar who has fine concepts behind his soundly reasoned books. Unfortunately, his writing style slows and disheartens the reader. He has a genius for taking fascinating subjects and reducing them to boredom.



3. Jaroslav Pellikan, as usual, brings great scholarship and interdisciplinary background to his theological statements. This illustrated version to his celebrated Jesus through the Centuries invites the reader to reflect on the ways humanity through the centuries had understood the person and message of Jesus of Nazareth. Pellikan's original text is condensed to give way to magnificent works of art that reflects faithfully the christological views of theologians, and artists through time. Pellikan tries his best to use models from the Roman Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant theologies. This is not a substitute to the original book, but it gives the reader an opportunity to reflect, through words and images, on how the person and message of Christ had been perceived throughout history.