review of Protestants in an age of science. by T.D. Bozeman. review on amazon. book is outofprint and i had to borrow it from the UofA library.
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4 out of 5 stars = Old Princeton's doxology for 19thC science, built by Bacon
Reviewer: rmwilliamsjr from tucson, arizona USA
This is a scholarly work, by a competent historian and excellent writer, the book will get nowhere near the attention and reading it deserves, perhaps explaining why it is out-of-print.

The people who need to read it the most, are perhaps the least likely to read it, the young earth creationists. The author has at least two high level motivations to write this book. The first is to demonstrate specifically how in a particular time and place, early 19thC America, a particular religious group, Old Princeton as heir of Reformation Calvinism, works to tie religion and culture together to solve societal intellectual problems. pg 174 "It may be questioned whether religious leaders at any previous point in the nation's past ahd achievd a more unabashed union of gospel and culture than this."(this referring to the Presbyterian Old School baconist interpretation of both science and religion) Secondly, he desires as a historian to cast light on the thoughts of today by tracing their roots historically and philosophically. "It is therefore feasible to suggest that the most important contemporary echo of Baconian biblicism in not to be heard within Presbyterianism as such, but within the huge party of conservative evangelicalism which has adherents within every denomination and which today perpetuates in varying degrees the essential theological tents of Fundamentalism, including biblical inerrancy." pg 173

We are used to the analogy of religion and science at war, we are less accustomed to the 19thC thinking of the two books of God; special revelation in the words of the Bible, and general revelation in the book of nature, as read by science. The two books, not warfare is the analogy that dominated American religious thought, especially the particular school represented by Princeton, until the rise of Darwinianism in 1870's. The contention that the two books, as written by the same reasonable God could not contradict each other is crucial to the theology as explained in the book. The book develops the theme that a particular way of reading both books, Baconism developed as a reaction to the French Enlightment with its accent on the unfettered by religion rise of man's Reason to explain the world.

The best part of the book is what he calls the doxological relationship of theology to science. pg 78 "More often, religious values were stated explicitly. Edward Everett, as usual, captured the full essence of current conceptions: 'the great end of all knowledge is to enlarge and purify the soul, to fill the mind with noble contemplations, to furnish a refined pleasure, and to lead our feeble reason from the works of nature up to its great Author,' Everett considered this 'as the ultimate aim of science.'" Having grown up in a world dominated by materialist science the chapter on doxological science was reason enough to have spent the time reading this book. That our forefather's in the faith, at a crucial time in the development of the relationship of modern science and theology; saw science as anawe-inspiring, devotional subject is a breath of fresh cool air on a world presently seen by science as aloof, uninterested in humankind, random, and downright unfriendly, dominated by forces of impersonality certainly not a loving God.

book recomendation
i believe it was on this forum that i found reference to _where do we come from?_ by kein and takahata. i owe that person a big thank you for pointing out simply the best book i have seen yet on human evolution. surprisingly he will and does take the time to introduce ideas in such a way that an educated intelligent layman will get the tools to understand the discussions. this is very unusual and very well done.

it is good enough, and complete enough to recommend it as the basis for any real discussion of the issues. for it brings everyone who reads it uptodate with the crucial points of evolution. that is really the reason so much of the creation evolution debate is a question of "he said, she said" because the common base of knowledge on the subject is often shallow. people seem to prefer not to do their homework and talk without trying to grasp the facts of the discussion via intensive study of the fields involved.

if anyone has similiar recommendations please share them with me.

from _protestants in an age of science_ chapter 4 "doxological science and its enemies" pg 87.

quote:
But it was not enough merely to affirm science as a handmaiden of devotion. If science had a sublime potential as an ally of belief, it also possessed possibilities of a more menacing sort. Improperly guided, it could spring out of its doxological traces, trample faith, and demoralize the inquiring spirit of man with a vision of an amoral, aimless cosmos. Presbyterians were keenly aware of the prospect that science, falsely conceived, could become a snaring noose of unbelief. To begin with, bloated with a growing sense of its own procedural and institutional autonomy, science easily could be transformed into a merely secular enterprise. Further, the Newtonian view of nature rested upon a frankly materialistic atomism which seemed ever capable of dissolving the teleological and therefore meaningful perspectives proffered by religion. And these pressures, secularism and materialism, when not governed by a taut framework of religious perception, were constantly finding release in "heretical" formulations manifestly incompatible with important biblical principles. At no time did orthodoxy manage to expunge the fear that science was tensely ready to break clear of the snug alliance with religion cherished by defenders of a theological world-view.

end of quote

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library books to be read
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post darwininan controversies moore bt 712 m66
design of evolution erich jantsch b 818 j33
evangelicalism mark noll ed br 1642 n7 e83 1994
tragedy and hope a history of the world in our time quigley d 421 q5

pile of xeroxed books
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protestants in an age of science bozeman bl 245 b7
creator and creation
presbyterian controversy longfield bx8937 l65 1991
pca creation study committee report
easy essay peter maurin hn37 c3 m53 1977
decline of eastern christianity under the dhimmitude
putting it all together, 7 patterns in the relationship of science and theology. richard bube

review for _science and its limits_ del ratzsch
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I came across the book as a deliberate study of the problems involved in the debate over creation evolution in the conservative christian community. It lived up to its expectations as an introductory study of the philosophy of science from a christian prespective. Del Ratzsch is a very competent philosopher, book is well written and strives for a balance not often seen it this field, i am sad to discover. He ends the books with the idea of "speak the truth in love", remarkably there are several reviews here on amazon concerning this book that apparently don't think this a principle to follow. again sadly.

as an example of a balanced passage: page 124
"the second reservation is that different parts of science operate in different ways, on different levels and must answer to different demands. consider the principle of the uniformity of nature. historically the underpinning of that principle is philosophical. it is not empirically testable-indeed, what test results might mean it itself determined in part in a context already defined by that very principle"

it certainly deserves a place in any thinking christian's bookshelf. it is not very doctrinaire and would be an asset to anyone interested in the topic of the philo of science, especially anyone who wants view conditioned by a particular perspective deeply involved in western culture.

review of _battle for god_ by karen armstrong
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This book literally pushed its way from the bottom of my to-be-read list, and forced me to regret every minute i didn't read it. From the tone of concern, through the extraordinary well researched data, to the high level threads it is a must read book.

Two interrelated but distinct pairs of complementary ideas are at the center of the book. Everything else revolves around these most interesting ideas. First is the pair: conservative and liberal. She gives conservative the meaning of a person, rooted in the past when religion was part of an agrarian culture. The key element is the binding of people's consciousness to a traditional way that would not out run the resources available to an agriculturally based pre industrial society. The thesis looks mildly Marxist with its superstructure of intellectual things build on the means of production. But i think it is just a recognization that how we make a living will greatly effect how we think. The liberal is defined as modern, future orientated, post industrial, built on the limitless abundancy of modern industrial-scientific materialist output.

The second pair is: logos and mythos. This is where her organization really shines. I dont think a page goes by where you are not aware of how she is intertwining and relating the story back to these ideas. Logos is reason, personified in science, mythos is the pre rational, deeply felt side of humanbeings that gives rise to stories, myths, scriptures which try to capture in words the passage of people into this supernatural world.

The organization is chronological, where the 3 monothesistic Abrahamic faiths are posed side by side in time, to show how their respective fundamentalist movements orginated and grew.

The insights are important, apropos to a world where polarization and the failure to communicate is a problem increasing almost daily. One particularly appropriate idea is that mythos translated into logos is a disaster, it yields bad religion and even worse science......

So. drop whatever you're reading and get ahold of this 5 star book and have at it. I used up an entire yellowing pen on it...*grin*

at amazon.com, review of _meaning of creation_ by Conrad Hyers
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it is one of those drop everything and read now type of books. very much appropriate to a discussion of gen 1 and 2, and the extended discussion of creation evolution, with attention to the relationship of religion and science.

his thesis is that the first two chapters of genesis are polemic against the neighboring cultures of the hebrews. simply put genesis has nothing to do with modern science at all. we impose our catagories of thought, but more importantly we impose what we want to hear onto these chapters.

just a few quotes will help:
it is quite doubtful that these texts have waited in obscurity through the millennia for their hidden meanings to be revealed by modern science. it is at least a good possibility that the "real meaning" was understood by the authors themselves. pg 3

and in response to henry morris who wrote "the creation account is clear, definite, sequential and matter-of-fact, giving evey appearance of straightforward historical narrative"

---hyers writes on pg 23 "this may indeed be the way things appear to certain modern interpreters at considerable remove from the context in which the texts were written, living in an age so dominated by scientific and historical modes of thought. It may also be the way things appear to those for whom modern science and historiography offer the criteria by which religious statements are to be understood and judged to be true or false. Yet it is by no means obvious that this represents the literary form or religious concern of the Genesis writers"

the problem of the debate over origins from genesis is like pogo said in the widely quoted cartoon "we have met the enemy and he is US".
the reason we have so much smoke over genesis is that we forgot the first rule of hermenutics. approach the text as the first readers did, with their assumptions, their world and life view. with the issues they were interested in understanding in the forefront. NOT OURS. the extension of scripture to all times and ages is done after this culture and historic criticism. not before.

therefore genesis is a religious not a scientific document addressed to the questions of that time. polytheism, and sacralization of the physical world. this is in alignment with _battle for god_ by karen armstrong and her analysis of logos and mythos. our problem is that we so depreciate mythos as being NOT TRUE that we very much miss the point of the first two chapters of Genesis....

pixel

review at amazon.com _understanding fundamentalism and evangelicalism- by george marsden

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How i got to this book is important about how i read it.
Started with a directed study of creation and evolution from a Christian viewpoint, see my webpage at fastucson.net/~rmwillia for more detail. After a few months of watching and participating in online debates i became interesting in what i saw to be a common element in the young earth creationist people. That was an elevation of the CED issue to one of a salvation issue. Frankly i was surprised and a little dismayed at this theological development. So i asked for help on trying to get a handle on fundamentalist theology. This was one of perhaps 5 books recommended by lots of people.

The book is unusual in the mix of tone and levels of sophistication between the chapters. It stems from the fact that this small volume is primarily a collection of essays from the author's much larger multiple volume work on the same topic. As a collection of essays, not particularly held together by design they are certainly representative of his thought, and probably the best of his work on the topic. But the chapters are not sequential or connected in a discernible way. In this case however this is not a criticism, the book flows ok anyhow.

What is the history of fundamentalism in america and why should i care? It's a big movement 25-45% of the population by most measurements. But more importantly it represents a criticism of modernism that is hard to miss. With abortion, evolution in the public schools, gay rights etc being just tip of a huge iceberg where the movement hits the political sphere, inescapable for any one with current issues interest.

The book is well written, the chapters are concise and gently lead you to see what the author sees in the movement. You know from the beginning that the author is sympathetic with the fundamentalist's but at the same time you don't feel that his religion is interfering with his studies. You can see places he is saddened by events, disappointed at roads not taken but at the same time he comes across as a feeling competent historian.

The real strength to me is the 5th chapter on the "evangelical love affair with enlightment science". He presents two men, bb. warfield and abraham kuyer as evangelicals with very different ideas of the relationship of science to religion. Warfield is classic science yields truth in its studies and ought to be seen as the study of the general revelation in nature. Kuyer is far more sophisticated and sees Kuhian themes 75 years before, in his analysis that different types of people have very different presuppositions and these necessarily led to a different science.

This insight as well as an extended discussion about the origin of the science and religion at war metaphor is worth the time to read this book. If you have any interest in the field this is a good introduction plus a reference to point further down the road of study.

Like a lot of well written history it can be judged by the standard of if he interests you enough in the material that you look up the references in the footnotes and even order more books in the field. This was the case with me, i will continue to follow up on a few of his big ideas, but i am not going to tackle his multiple volume work *grin*.

thanks for listening.
richard williams

review for amazon.com on _scandal of the evangelical mind_ by mark noll
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The author is a good historian, the book reflects not only talent in research and comprehension of the big picture of historical theology, but a heart felt grasp of evangelicalism since 1800.

Two quotes must rise to the surface of any readers mind:
The first line of the preface "this book is an epistle from a wounded lover." and the first line of chapter one "The scandal of the evangelical mind is that there is not much of an evangelical mind". The first reflects an attitude evident throughout the book, he is himself evangelical, furthermore he is sympathetic with the goals and aspirations of the movement. The second quote is his reason for the book, to try to heighten the awareness of this community to its fundamental themes which mitigate against the scholarly world of the mind.

The book takes on the sacred cow of the young earth creationist in chapter 7 "thinking about science". He doesnt spare anyone's feelings in the process of analyzing the movement. from pg 196 "creation science has damaged evangelicalism by making it much more difficult to think clearly about human origins, the age of the earth, and mechanisms of geological or biological change. But it has done more profound damage by undermining the ability to look at the world God has made and to understand what we see when we do look."

This argument alone will continue to polarize the evangelical community into YEC and non-YEC, a position to which organizations like CRI, AiG, etc would gladly push the church into a false dichomotomy where to be with their particularist interpretations is the only way to stand with God. It is certainly a chapter that the author thought long and hard over before committing himself to print. It is also a position that anyone with the understanding gained from reading this book will agree with. The book is not primarily a polemic against a particular way of treating science, it is a far wider and broader criticism than that. But under the current social and political pressure from these interest groups, this is what the book will be to many people. Sadly so, for the reaction of people demonstrates the strength of his arguments for following the quote above he labels the mindset as Manichaeanism. Those who see the whole world as a fight to the death between good and evil, no grays, no mixtures. Just God and the Devil.

The book is excellent, the topic timely and of crucial importance to anyone who would describe themselves as evangelical or conservative. but you only need to read the handful of reviews here on amazon, or search for book reviews on the net to realize that lots of people are reading this book with their minds completely madeup on the issue. True learning requires a "suspension of disbelief", a mallability towards new thoughts, sadly the very people the book is addressed to are the very same ones who will not read it in the spirit it was written.

Additional, if you are thinking of a book for a college aged sunday school class, or a discussion group at a college where they are looking at these issues, this would rate my highest recommendation for a book to use. It is well organized and will guide thinking while exposing you to a variety of alternative paths if you dont like the one the author describes.

thanks for listening
richard williams

scandal of the evangelical mind

at first things

issues from the atlantic

of course AiG's unique perspective *grin*

The Church in Crisis:
A Postmodern Reader

NOLL _the scandal of the evangelical mind_ from uofa library: BR1642U5N651994main.

pg.35. In 1912, the Presbyterian Bible scholar J. Gresham Machen stated carefully the way that thinking affects practical life. His words are as prescient today as they were for the less complicated world that he addressed: "We may preach with all the fervor of a reformer, and yet succeed only in winning a straggler here and there, if we permit the whole collective thought of the nation or of the world to be controlled by ideas which, by the resistless force of logic, prevent Christianity from being regarded as anything more than a harmless delusion...What is to-day a matter of academic speculation, begins to-morrow to move armies and pull down empires." J. Gresham Machen, "Christianity and Culture," Princeton Theological Review 11(1913):7;for discussion, see George Marsden, "Understanding J. Gresham Machen,"Princeton Seminary Bulletin, n.s., 11(1990):46-60

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if i don't respond to an online discussion and post my reply to the other writing blog, i intend to get a quote from my latest book and think about it outloud here. i like the way Stephen Jones has built up his library of quotable quotes and will strive to do something similar.

in my mind is a similar quote:
even the most hardboiled politican is victim of some long dead forgotten economist whose theory he has unconsciously adopted.

The quote really points to the importance of the world of the mind in human events. We depreciate intellectual activity because when we look at someone thinking he doesn't appear to be doing anything at all.

the joke about the efficency expert hired to shape up a small firm. He spends a few days talking to everyone and analyzing the flow of information and products in the organization, etc, etc. Finally he presents his report to the owners and management. Congratulations he announces, this is a well run company, i have only one problem, that is the guy in the back office who sits all day long with his feet up and the desk, doing nothing. I cant seem to figure out what he is doing there. Joe, that is exactly the same way he looked when he had the first idea that created our product line, was the reply. He's working on the next big idea now, just sitting there.

The implication being that you really can't see the mental activity by looking at the person doing it. Plus the added benefit of showing that underneath the entire operation there was a significant single idea that started it all. This is really the take home message i got from my studies of the Reagan revolution, 3 classic things go into economic enterprises: land, labour, capital. to that add creativity, human spirit, entrepenureal spirit.......

Back to Machen quote. He saw that ideas move armies, and it is the underlying collective thought that is important in a culture. We as Christians may not worship at the mall, cast our treasures before the feet of modern materialism, but we are part of the culture. If we do not consciously adopt beliefs consistent with our calling, we will act as if we believe those beliefs at the center of our society. We may deny that life is a game, where money is the way we keep score. We may assent to a life where the pursuit of holiness is primary. But we betray our true feelings with what we do with our time and our energies. If we spend our lives feeding our material body and its cravings, and neglect the greater needs of our souls, forget that we are two essences; body and soul/spirit. Just an hour or two Sunday mornings feeding our souls will not make up for 5 days pursuing wealth to feed our bodies.

I would hope that is why i have taken off these few years, consciously not involved in making money, to balance out those years where feeding the kids was primary importance.

i am afraid i am neglecting this blog. it has great potential. for i see how stephen jones over at CED has done great things with his quotation data base.....

finished _meaning of creation_ put short review up at amazon.
need to create better, longer, more complete reviews and post them to my home page. maybe that will encourage people to interact with me on the level of the books i am reading.

rereading kline's kingdom prologue, and looking at plantinga in faith and rationality....continuing to buy too too many books and xerox outofprint books from the uofa library. sure wish two things. remember everything i read forever and read much faster....

reading _battle for god_ by karen armstrong.

posted request for references at creationism-groups the results:


The Fundamentalist Phenomenon" edited by Norman J. Cohen
Campbell's "Myths to Live By"
"The Creationist Movement in Modern America"


"The Creationists: The Evolution of Creationism" by Ron Numbers
darwinism comes to america


The Creationists: The Evolution of Scientific Creationism (1993)
by Ronald L. Numbers
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0520083938

Darwinism Comes to America (1998)
by Ronald L. Numbers
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0674193121

God and Nature: Historical Essays on the Encounter Between
Christianity and Science (1986)
edited by David C. Lindberg & Ronald L. Numbers
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0520056922

Creationist Movement in Modern America (1990)
by Raymond A. Eve & Francis B. Harrold
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0805797416

Cult Archaeology & Creationism: Understanding Pseudoscientific
Beliefs About the Past (1995)
edited by Francis B. Harrold & Raymond A. Eve
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0877455139

Fundamentalism and American Culture (1982)
by George M. Marsden
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0195030834

Understanding Fundamentalism and Evangelicalism (1991)
by George M. Marsden
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0802805396

Where Darwin Meets the Bible: Creationists and Evolutionists in
America (2002)
by Larry A. Witham
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0195150457

Though this book is focused on education politics issues, it also
deals with sociological aspects of the creationist movement:

The Creation Controversy: Science or Scripture in Schools (2nd Ed.,
2000)
by Dorothy Nelkin
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0595001947

There's also this important, but dated, book on this general subject
that was published in the mid-1960s:

Anti-Intellectualism in American Life
by Richard Hofstadter
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0394703170

Three Views on Creation and Evolution
by James Porter Moreland (Editor), John Mark Reynolds (Editor), John J. Davis, Howard J. Van Till, Paul Nelson, Robert C. Newman


s
Customer Reviews

Avg. Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars
Number of Reviews: 13


4 out of 5 stars a place to start, January 17, 2003
Reviewer: rmwilliamsjr (see more about me) from tucson, arizona USA
i've read in the field of creation-evolution for nearly 30 years now, from the _genesis flood_ to _darwin's dangerous idea_. that certainly doesn't make me an expert, only a concerned layman. this book is addressed by christian's to christian's, not that anyone outside of that community won't get a great deal out of the discussion only that the emotional desire/impetus to seek answers pushes christian's with a high view of scripture to try to reconcile the two biggies in their lives: science looking at general revelation and theology looking at scriptures. if you're not part of this community it is much easier just to ask "so what?" and not to understand why this is such a personal topic.

this is a first book, that is suitable for educated people to delve into a topic where many of the other books in this field/topic presume a background in either science or theology, or where the books are so stridently biased as to be "preaching to the choir" and put off 'newbies' with their presentation.

the issues are presented well enough that i think if someone finishes the book they will have a reasonable idea of what the problems are and where the different parts are most concerned in the discussion. it is not a scientific or theologically based book but rather philosophic. it presents concerns from each viewpoint, thus showing relative priorities in what each person discusses first and critisies as lacking emphasis in the other viewpoints. this is one value in a debate type of format, it can leave you with a prioritized idea of what people find important in the issues.

one problem however with this debate framework is that each person reading the book who already have committments to issues or positions tend to cheer for their side and boo down the opposing sides. this is evident from the reviews posted here, the young earth creation team is not the big names in the field, so it looks like in suffers from lack of heroes. nay, the two philosophers defend the position well given the page constraints they faced.

there is one issue running through the book i wished everyone had addressed in a more explicit matter, that is the difference in accepting the functional materialism of science versus the uncritical acceptance of a materialist world and life view of scientism. there is much confusion between the two, you can see it in much YEC criticism, in this book as well, of both progressive creationism and theistic evolution. naturalism is the idea that what we see is what we get, no god's behind the curtain, no skyhooks to come down and rescue us. there must be a distinction between how science uses this idea as a working hypothesis, as a functional means to an end, versus how a philosophy uses it as an axiom. of the 3 viewpoints, only vantil talks to the separation of the two. the YEC's fault the other two positions as if they accepted the materialism/naturalism as a deep committment in their systems. which as christian's is simply unacceptable from the beginning.

i liked the book. i think if you need a place to start it supplies one. however if you are already committed to a position you would be better off served by jumping straight to one of the major works in each viewpoint. and interact with that author without the polemics that form the debate structure of the book.

review on amazon about _beautiful mind_
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I walked out of the movie and straight into the bookstore in the mall to get the book, read it that night. This is the reverse of my habit, which is to read the book before seeing the movie. The only thing in common between the movie and the book is the man, they are very different, but unlike most combinations these two are both good. The movie is written to get people into the theatres and to tell their friends what a good movie they saw. So it concentrates on the heroic parts of John Nash's life, the genius and the battle against it's flipside--the darkness of illusion brought on by mental illness. While it neglects the sordid(first son and girlfriend he never married), the weird(king of antartica) and replaces the object of the mindless data collection and analysis with government involvement.
I'd like to expand on the heroic, that part of both the book and the movie that we cheer for, tear up at, and generally find appealing. Most of us do not identify with either genius or with madness, we can see people here and there, mostly in books and movies, that pass over the lines. But we ourselves believe ourselves anchored in the plain, commonplace, ordinary so well that it is only at a distance that we can identify with characters like John Nash. We can feel sorry, and then joy with him but we can not feel like him, unless we have been through what he did. But we can identify with his heroic struggle, with his passion to have a unique and original thought, to be the very most creative in his chosen field. This is what builds the movie. But not the book, for she shows him as a rat towards those who care for him. He is not very sympathatic a character, too often you can blame him for the bad choices, not his approaching storm of schzophrenia. This is the genius of the book that the movie neglects, in order to fill the seats. For you cry with a man whose life is a shambles not because we can experience either genius or madness but because we can participate with him in the common lot of mankind through the ages in trying to conquer ourselves. That battle with passions misdirected towards our destruction more often then towards our heroic challenges. Thanks for the book Ms. Nasar, and to John Nash, thanks for sharing your story and i'm sorry for your pain, and to the mental health professionals- can't you move a little bit faster towards fixing what ills us up there.

review at amazon on _fatal shore_ read for history-bio book club at groups.yahoo.com
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When you think about fiction you naturally look at various levels of interpretation. From the plot downwards to author's subconscious and upwards towards historical-social-critical analysis. But this type of understanding doesn't fit non-fiction, at least until i read _fatal shore_. The author himself is conscious and deliberate in several levels---where the false ideal of the past is part of current Australian consciousness for example. Or where he praises a commandant for his humanity being 100 years ahead of his time. He is on one basic level retelling the story of the convict founding of OZ, and yet showing constantly the larger issues of it's place in English intellectual and cultural history to the big picture of man's inhumanity to man.
This placing of the pieces of the puzzle in several larger contexts is excellent and makes the book far more than just the recounting of a sad tale indeed. It redeems the book from the world of facts and figures so common to historical writing and raises it to analysis and good commentary.
The only critical thing i have towards the book is a somewhat disjointed structure, the chapters are not quite chronological, more organized around a single character, usually a commander of facilities. Thus often backtracking between chapters, which leaves the newcomer to this country's history without good memory pegs to hang the facts onto.
I'm glad i invested the several hours it took to get through the book with it's gore and extraordinary sadness permeating the story. It's a good book and desires the wide circulation it is getting on the online bookclubs, which is how i found it.

recommendations to the reading list

please send mail to thinkcreation2002@yahoo.com to interact with this list
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plantinga debate at asa this is where i am going to begin. these papers really form the beginnings of a solution to the creation-evolution debate for me. if you really want to help build the reading list you need to read these links.

my listmania list at amazon --->evolution for biblical conservatives

Bas van Fraassen's _The Empirical Stance_ (Yale, 2002)

Thomas Nagel's _The Last Word_

J.P. Moreland, _Christianity and the Nature of Science_

J.P. Moreland & John Mark Reynolds (eds.), _Three Views on Creation and
Evolution_ (Zondervan, 1999)

Richard F. Carlson (ed.), _Science and Christianity: Four Views_

polkinghorne

glenn morton's creation evo page

blood clotting section from _finding darwin's god_

Resistance To Truth, Even to Simple Scientific Truth.

evo creationist

this mobio is the evidence that finally flipped my thinking to evolution

posted to evolutionvsintelligentdesign@groups.yahoo.com

from my blog at: http://rmwilliamsjr.blogspot.com/-->

the new year is naturally a time for reflection and recommittment to
principles. to this end i will begin to structure my reading and hope
to write a paper on my conclusions.

so this will be the preliminary sketch.

start with the image of the two books of god. that of nature read by
science and that of scripture read by theology. what is the nature of
the relationship between the two? start with galileo, in the conflict
between the beginnings of physics and the received wisdom of the
church how does conflict arise and how is it settled. the second big
crisis is in biology and it begins with darwin and continues to today.
look for analogies back to galileo on how the two communities
interact. what makes the biological confrontation so important is that
it determines the nature of the subject, mankind, himself. the
astronomical revolution moved man from the center of the universe to
it's periphery, the biological moves man from a unique position as a
little lower than the angels back into a de-enchanted world as just a
little higher than the apes.


-=-=-

i am getting weary of never ending discussions that rehash the same
issues. to settle my own mind i'd like to ask for help on building a
reading list towards the goal of writing this paper.

so if you would send me books or online articles or journal article
citations that would help me on this path to
thinkcreation2002@y... i'd be thankful.

i will post the reading list and reviews of each book as i finish them
to http://rmwilliamsjr-books.blogspot.com/

please feel free to send this request to friends who might help.

thanks for your help

review of _the chinese have a word for it_

there can be no doubt that language is a major component of culture. but what is the relationship of language to thought? especially to subconscious thought? this is no academic introduction to the complexities of chinese thought.culture.language but rather a few pages dedicated to explanation of some meaningful and common chinese idioms, both single words and phrases. a must read for any student of china, even for a traveler there who might hear and remember the book on a few key words like quanxi. thought provoking, a little political and pointed at times. i wouldnt show it to just any english speaking chinese i talked to, it is not flattering to either the political culture or to the herd mentality that we westerners often see displayed in china. but it shows remarkable taste and scholarship from someone who genuinely likes the chinese and their 5000 year old complex culture as mirrored in a very interested language.

the board's list

1. THE EDUCATION OF HENRY ADAMS by Henry Adams*
2. THE VARIETIES OF RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE by William James*
3. UP FROM SLAVERY by Booker T. Washington*
4. A ROOM OF ONE'S OWN by Virginia Woolf
5. SILENT SPRING by Rachel Carson
6. SELECTED ESSAYS, 1917-1932 by T. S. Eliot
7. THE DOUBLE HELIX by James D. Watson
8. SPEAK, MEMORY by Vladimir Nabokov
9. THE AMERICAN LANGUAGE by H. L. Mencken
10. THE GENERAL THEORY OF EMPLOYMENT, INTEREST, AND MONEY by John Maynard Keynes
11. THE LIVES OF A CELL by Lewis Thomas
12. THE FRONTIER IN AMERICAN HISTORY by Frederick Jackson Turner
13. BLACK BOY by Richard Wright
14. ASPECTS OF THE NOVEL by E. M. Forster
15. THE CIVIL WAR by Shelby Foote*
16. THE GUNS OF AUGUST by Barbara Tuchman
17. THE PROPER STUDY OF MANKIND by Isaiah Berlin
18. THE NATURE AND DESTINY OF MAN by Reinhold Niebuhr
19. NOTES OF A NATIVE SON by James Baldwin
20. THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ALICE B. TOKLAS by Gertrude Stein*
21. THE ELEMENTS OF STYLE by William Strunk and E. B. White
22. AN AMERICAN DILEMMA by Gunnar Myrdal
23. PRINCIPIA MATHEMATICA by Alfred North Whitehead and Bertrand Russell
24. THE MISMEASURE OF MAN by Stephen Jay Gould
25. THE MIRROR AND THE LAMP by Meyer Howard Abrams
26. THE ART OF THE SOLUBLE by Peter B. Medawar
27. THE ANTS by Bert Hoelldobler and Edward O. Wilson
28. A THEORY OF JUSTICE by John Rawls
29. ART AND ILLUSION by Ernest H. Gombrich
30. THE MAKING OF THE ENGLISH WORKING CLASS by E. P. Thompson
31. THE SOULS OF BLACK FOLK by W.E.B. Du Bois*
32. PRINCIPIA ETHICA by G. E. Moore
33. PHILOSOPHY AND CIVILIZATION by John Dewey
34. ON GROWTH AND FORM by D'Arcy Thompson*
35. IDEAS AND OPINIONS by Albert Einstein*
36. THE AGE OF JACKSON, Arthur Schlesinger by Jr.
37. THE MAKING OF THE ATOMIC BOMB by Richard Rhodes
38. BLACK LAMB and Grey Falcon by Rebecca West
39. AUTOBIOGRAPHIES by W. B. Yeats
40. SCIENCE AND CIVILIZATION IN CHINA by Joseph Needham
41. GOODBYE TO ALL THAT by Robert Graves
42. HOMAGE TO CATALONIA by George Orwell
43. THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARK TWAIN by Mark Twain
44. CHILDREN OF CRISIS by Robert Coles
45. A STUDY OF HISTORY by Arnold J. Toynbee
46. THE AFFLUENT SOCIETY by John Kenneth Galbraith
47. PRESENT AT THE CREATION by Dean Acheson
48. THE GREAT BRIDGE by David McCullough
49. PATRIOTIC GORE by Edmund Wilson
50. SAMUEL JOHNSON by Walter Jackson Bate
51. THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MALCOLM X by Alex Haley and Malcolm X
52. THE RIGHT STUFF by Tom Wolfe
53. EMINENT VICTORIANS by Lytton Strachey*
54. WORKING by Studs Terkel
55. DARKNESS VISIBLE by William Styron
56. THE LIBERAL IMAGINATION by Lionel Trilling
57. THE SECOND WORLD WAR by Winston Churchill
58. OUT OF AFRICA by Isak Dinesen*
59. JEFFERSON AND HIS TIME by Dumas Malone
60. IN THE AMERICAN GRAIN by William Carlos Williams
61. CADILLAC DESERT by Marc Reisner
62. THE HOUSE OF MORGAN by Ron Chernow
63. THE SWEET SCIENCE by A. J. Liebling
64. THE OPEN SOCIETY AND ITS ENEMIES by Karl Popper
65. THE ART OF MEMORY by Frances A. Yates
66. RELIGION AND THE RISE OF CAPITALISM by R. H. Tawney
67. A PREFACE TO MORALS by Walter Lippmann
68. THE GATE OF HEAVENLY PEACE by Jonathan D. Spence
69. THE STRUCTURE OF SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTIONS by Thomas S. Kuhn
70. THE STRANGE CAREER OF JIM CROW by C. Vann Woodward
71. THE RISE OF THE WEST by William H. McNeill
72. THE GNOSTIC GOSPELS by Elaine Pagels
73. JAMES JOYCE by Richard Ellmann
74. FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE by Cecil Woodham-Smith
75. THE GREAT WAR AND MODERN MEMORY by Paul Fussell
76. THE CITY IN HISTORY by Lewis Mumford
77. BATTLE CRY OF FREEDOM by James M. McPherson
78. WHY WE CAN'T WAIT by Martin Luther King by Jr.
79. THE RISE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT by Edmund Morris
80. STUDIES IN ICONOLOGY by Erwin Panofsky
81. THE FACE OF BATTLE by John Keegan
82. THE STRANGE DEATH OF LIBERAL ENGLAND by George Dangerfield
83. VERMEER by Lawrence Gowing
84. A BRIGHT SHINING LIE by Neil Sheehan
85. WEST WITH THE NIGHT by Beryl Markham
86. THIS BOY'S LIFE by Tobias Wolff
87. A MATHEMATICIAN'S APOLOGY by G. H. Hardy
88. SIX EASY PIECES by Richard P. Feynman
89. PILGRIM AT TINKER CREEK by Annie Dillard
90. THE GOLDEN BOUGH by James George Frazer
91. SHADOW AND ACT by Ralph Ellison
92. THE POWER BROKER by Robert A. Caro
93. THE AMERICAN POLITICAL TRADITION by Richard Hofstadter
94. THE CONTOURS OF AMERICAN HISTORY by William Appleman Williams
95. THE PROMISE OF AMERICAN LIFE by Herbert Croly
96. IN COLD BLOOD by Truman Capote*
97. THE JOURNALIST AND THE MURDERER by Janet Malcolm
98. THE TAMING OF CHANCE by Ian Hacking
99. OPERATING INSTRUCTIONS by Anne Lamott
100. MELBOURNE by Lord David Cecil
the reader's list

1. THE VIRTUE OF SELFISHNESS by AYN RAND
2. DIANETICS:THE MODERN SCIENCE OF MENTAL HEALTH by L. RON HUBBARD
3. OBJECTIVISM: THE PHILOSOPHY OF AYN RAND by LEONARD PEIKOFF
4. 101 THINGS TO DO TIL THE REVOLUTION by CLAIRE WOLFE
5. THE GOD OF THE MACHINE by ISABEL PATERSON
6. AYN RAND: A SENSE OF LIFE by MICHAEL PAXTON
7. THE ULTIMATE RESOURCE by JULIAN SIMON
8. ECONOMICS IN ONE LESSON by HENRY HAZLITT
9. SEND IN THE WACO KILLERS by VIN SUPRYNOWICZ
10. MORE GUNS, LESS CRIME by JOHN R. LOTT
11. PSYCHIATRY: THE ULTIMATE BETRAYAL by BRUCE WISEMAN
12. FINGERPRINTS OF THE GODS by G. HANCOCK
13. CLASSICAL INDIVIDUALISM: THE SUPREME IMPORTANCE OF EACH HUMAN BEING by TIBOR MACHAN
14. FREE TO CHOOSE by MILTON AND ROSE FRIEDMAN
15. AIN'T NOBODY'S BUSINESS IF YOU DO by PETER MCWILLIAMS
16. THE ROAD TO SERFDOM by F. A. HAYEK
17. FREEDOM IN CHAINS by JAMES BOVARD
18. AMERICA'S GREAT DEPRESSION by MURRAY N. ROTHBARD
19. THE ROOSEVELT MYTH by JOHN T. FLYNN
20. THE TRUE BELIEVER by ERIC HOFFER
21. VINDICATING THE FOUNDERS by THOMAS WEST
22. THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE by CARL L. BECKER
23. COGNITIVE THERAPY AND THE EMOTIONAL DISORDERS by AARON T. BECK
24. DEATH BY GOVERNMENT by R. J. RUMMEL
25. A ROOM OF ONE'S OWN by VIRGINIA WOOLF
26. LONGITUDE by DAVA SOBEL
27. ORDINARILY SACRED by LYNDA SEXSON
28. SPEAK, MEMORY by VLADIMIR NABOKOV
29. THE ART OF MEMORY by FRANCES YATES
30. DUMBING US DOWN by JOHN TAYLOR GATTO
31. THE GOLDEN BOUGH by JAMES FRAZER
32. UNDAUNTED COURAGE: MERIWETHER LEWIS, THOMAS JEFFERSON, AND THE OPENING OF THE AMERICAN WEST by STEPHEN E. AMBROSE
33. A MODERN PROPHET by HAROLD KLEMP
34. THE FLUTE OF GOD by PAUL TWITCHELL
35. REAL PRESENCES by GEORGE STEINER
36. OUT OF AFRICA by ISAK DINESEN
37. WAYS OF SEEING by JOHN BERGER
38. THE SHADOW UNIVERSITY: THE BETRAYAL OF LIBERTY ON AMERICA'S CAMPUSES by ALAN CHARLES KORS
39. PROPERTY MATTERS: HOW PROPERTY RIGHTS ARE UNDER ASSAULT AND WHY YOU SHOULD CARE by JAMES V. DE LONG
40. STORMING HEAVEN by JAY STEVENS
41. THE TEXAN by C. S. BARRIOS
42. HOMAGE TO CATALONIA by GEORGE ORWELL
43. THE VARIETIES OF RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE by WILLIAM JAMES
44. HOW TO LIE WITH STATISTICS by DARRELL HUFF
45. BUT IS IT TRUE? by AARON WILDAVSKY
46. A MATHEMATICIAN READS THE NEWSPAPER by JOHN ALLEN PAULOS
47. ANATOMY OF CRITICISM by NORTHROP FRYE
48. THE MAINSPRING OF HUMAN PROGRESS by HENRY GRADY WEAVER
49. MODERN TIMES by PAUL JOHNSON
50. MEN TO MATCH MY MOUNTAINS by IRVING STONE
51. THE EDUCATION OF HENRY ADAMS by HENRY ADAMS
52. THE GREAT BRIDGE by DAVID MCCULLOUGH
53. AMERICAN GAY by STEPHEN O. MURRAY
54. THE DOUBLE HELIX by JAMES D. WATSON
55. THE SENSE OF AN ENDING by FRANK KERMODE
56. THE GNOSTIC GOSPELS by ELAINE PAGELS
57. EROS THE BITTERSWEET by ANNE CARSON
58. THE WESTERN CANON by HAROLD BLOOM
59. THE WHITE GODDESS by ROBERT GRAVES
60. HEALING OUR WORLD by MARY RUWART
61. SILENT SPRING by RACHEL CARSON
62. PILGRIM AT TINKER CREEK by ANNIE DILLARD
63. SEXUAL PERSONAE by CAMILLE PAGLIA
64. THINK AND GROW RICH by NAPOLEON HILL
65. A LIFE OF ONE'S OWN by DAVID KELLEY
66. DOORS OF PERCEPTION by ALDOUS HUXLEY
67. THE DISCOVERY OF FREEDOM by ROSE WILDER LANE
68. MORE LIBERTY MEANS LESS GOVERNMENT by WALTER WILLIAMS
69. LIBERTARIANISM: A PRIMER by DAVID BOAZ
70. BEYOND LIBERAL AND CONSERVATIVE by WILLIAM MADDOX AND STUART LILIE
71. A CONFLICT OF VISIONS: IDEOLOGICAL ORIGINS OF POLITICAL STRUGGLES by THOMAS SOWELL
72. PARLIAMENT OF WHORES by P. J. O'ROURKE
73. SEPARATING SCHOOL AND STATE: HOW TO LIBERATE AMERICA'S FAMILIES by SHELDON RICHMAN
74. THE FUTURE AND ITS ENEMIES by VIRGINIA POSTREL
75. THE ELEMENTS OF STYLE by WILLIAM STRUNK AND E. B. WHITE
76. ORIENTALISM by EDWARD SAID
77. ECOTERROR by RON ARNOLD
78. WHY GOVERNMENT DOESN'T WORK by HARRY BROWNE
79. OUT OF THE CRISIS by W. EDWARDS DEMING
80. NOT OUT OF AFRICA by MARY LEFKOWITZ
81. THE END OF RACISM by DINESH D'SOUZA
82. BEHIND THE MASK by IAN BURUMA
83. IN A DARK WOOD by ALSTON CHASE
84. PRIVATE PARTS by HOWARD STERN
85. THE TELEPHONE BOOK by AVITAL RONELL
86. THE MINUTEMAN: RESTORING AN ARMY OF THE PEOPLE by GARY HART
87. WAKING AND DREAMING by JOSEPH HART
88. THE GREATEST STORY NEVER TOLD by LANA CANTRELL
89. RADICAL SON by DAVID HOROWITZ
90. UNDER THE SIGN OF SATURN by SUSAN SONTAG
91. THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MALCOLM X by ALEX HALEY AND MALCOLM X
92. A FEELING FOR BOOKS by JANICE RADWAY
93. THE HERO OF A THOUSAND FACES by JOSEPH CAMPBELL
94. THE JOB by WILLIAM BURROUGHS
95. SILENT INTERVIEWS by SAMUEL R. DELANY
96. SLATS GROBNIK AND SOME OTHER FRIENDS by MIKE ROYKO
97. RISE OF THE UNMELTABLE ETHNICS by MICHAEL NOVACK
98. REVERSE ANGLE by JOHN SIMON
99. PLACING MOVIES by JONATHON ROSENBAUM
100. RIGHT FROM THE BEGINNING by PATRICK J BUCHANAN

* Published or soon to be published by the Modern Library.



Copyright © 1999 by Random House, Inc.