My review of Golden Lads:  A Study of Anthony Bacon, Francis and Their Friends
921553
This book is an excellent study of Francis Bacon, his brother Anthony and dear friend Robert Devereux.  I have read it several times and recommend it to anyone interested in Francis Bacon and the times he lived in.
2628540
This books reminds me of a sweatshirt that I have that rougly says in Latin "if you can read this you are overeducated". This is a witty, erudite lampoon of Roman and Greek life, literature, politics etc.  The book is in the same vein as "1066 and All of That" a famous  treatment of British history.  However, like most satires , it helps to  know the original.  This is not a book for those ignorant of the Classical  worlds.  It is a great book for those who suffered through dead languages  in high school & would like to pretend like they remember any of it.  I  also recomend Ross Leckie's other books: Hannibal and Scipio, which are  fictional treatments (novels) of these military leader's lives. But, Leckie  wraps a lot of wonderful detail around the tale so, the stories come to  life.
4963625
It has been widely and vehemently put forth that the Inklings, a group comprised mainly of writers (including J. R. R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, and Charles Williams) who met regularly to read their works to each other over the course of more than fifteen years, was simply and solely a social club.  Biographers, scholars, and in some cases the Inklings themselves have denied that the members of the group either exerted influence over or were influenced by the others.  Glyer, however, presents a convincing argument that it is a gross error to take such statements at face value.

In The Company They Keep, Glyer defines and delineates a number of areas in which the various Inklings did indeed have an impact not only on each others personal lives as friends, but also on their professional lives and works as colleagues.  Exhaustive evidence is provided to support these claims, demonstrating how these men acted and reacted upon each other as resonators, encouragers, sometime opponents, editors, collaborators, and referents.

Additionally, in the course of proving the influence of the Inklings on one another, Glyer makes a strong case for the importance of community in the life of every writer.

P.S. Don't skip the footnotes - they contain excellent content in themselves!
2889976
It sounds like a smut list but actually is a very interesting study in the history of the English language - actually, better said, the history of the evolution of English culture.  I couldn't be more pleased.
2798504
The book covers seven famous men in history whose faith made a difference in the way they lived. Metaxas expressed it this way: "I was looking for seven men who had all evinced one particular quality: that of surrendering themselves to a higher purpose, of giving something away that they might have kept.

  George Washington
  William Wilberforce
  Eric Liddell
  Dietrich Bonhoeffer
  Jackie Robinson
  Pope John Paul II
  Charles Colson

Each chapter of 7 Men includes a brief introduction why Metaxas chose the man, the story of what made the man great, andby indirect suggestionhow we can live by their example.

Interestingly, four of the seven men have had feature films made about their lives which gave us pretty much the same information as this book did. In sweeping overview:

  Chariots of Fire revealed the greatness of Eric Liddell and his willingness to put his faith before his fame.
  Amazing Grace portrayed William Wilberforce's calling and passion to outlaw the slave trade in England.
  John Adams showed George Washington's reluctance to assume power as well as his refusal to keep it when he could have become a king.
  42 revealed Jackie Robinson's courage to become the first black player in major league baseball.

What these movies didn't portraywith the exception of Chariots of Firewas each person's commitment to Jesus Christ. True, "God" was part of the pictures, but the "J" word wasn't mentioned. This book does a nice job filling in that gapthough it isn't clear how Washington was motivated by Christ.

While much was familiar, there were some surprises. Like most Protestants, my knowledge of Pope John Paul II was limited to newsreels and sound bytes, a source by now I should have remembered is biasedespecially in relation to the "J" word. How refreshing to see a pope whose love for Jesus was lived it out in leadership.

Except for the chapter on Colson, there weren't manyif anyweaknesses described for these great men. Obviously we know the men weren't perfect. But I need a model of someone who imperfectly lives his life wholeheartedly devoted to Jesus Christ. (I don't see that as a contradiction.) I need someone who does all that and also who models how to fail and rise again. Even our great apostles in Scripture are portrayed with their warts. I needed to see more warts in this book.

Weaknesses aside, 7 Men provides a nice general introduction to seven great lives who were truly great for different reasons. The volume is easy to read and understand, and I enjoyed the review of the men I knew and the introduction to those I didn't.

In short, the examples of these lives in 7 Men provide us models of the fact that God is worth living for and the world is worth setting aside.

(I received this book from the publisher through a review program. The review is my honest opinion. The FTC requires I tell you. See 16 CFR, Part 255: Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.)
1744832
All I Needed to Know, I Learned from Columbo by Adam Graham
Excellent examination of the strength, foibles, and life lessons from some of our favorite fictional characters.  Graham captured the essence of each character, but from the point of view of what they have to teach us:  We'll learn time management from Nero Wolfe, clear thinking from Sherlock Holmes, devotion from Adrian Monk  And we do.  Graham takes us on a tour of the strengths and weaknesses of Sherlock Holmes, Nero Wolfe, Father Brown, Boston Blackie, Dan Holiday, Columbo, and Monk.  The analysis is an enjoyable read, not just for detective novel readers, but for anyone as we are able to relate to the humanity in each character.  Thoughtful, enjoyable read.  (free reader copy)
1590537
I enjoyed this book very much. Peter Kreeft is a brilliant creative writer that captures the essence of all three men in Between Heaven and Hell. Those three men being:

C.S. Lewis - A Professor of Mid Evil and Renaissance Literature at Oxford and Cambridge University. He wrote more than thirty books in his life, most of them having to do with (or symbolically related to) Divine philosophy and theology. Most popular among them are&nbsp;<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/The-Chronicles-of-Narnia-Movie-Tie-in-Box-Set-Prince-Caspian-rack/dp/0061231657/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">The Chronicles of Narnia Movie Tie-in Box Set Prince Caspian (rack)</a>,<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Mere-Christianity/dp/0060652888/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Mere Christianity</a>,<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/The-Screwtape-Letters-Letters-from-a-Senior-to-a-Junior-Devil/dp/0006280609/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">The Screwtape Letters: Letters from a Senior to a Junior Devil</a>,<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Surprised-by-Joy-The-Shape-of-My-Early-Life/dp/0151001855/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Surprised by Joy: The Shape of My Early Life</a>, and&nbsp;<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/The-Great-Divorce/dp/B001S37KYM/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">The Great Divorce</a>

John Fitzgerald Kennedy - American President and renowned war hero. Saved America from the Cuban Missile Crises, and set into motion what has become modern day NASA. He was a very smart man who graduated Cum Laude from Harvard University. However his degree was in international affairs, and at its heart his thesis/book&nbsp;<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Why-England-Slept/dp/0313228744/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Why England Slept</a>&nbsp;was a deep look into international affairs as well. Kennedy therefore was not a philosopher, and so doesn't get a lot to say in this book, which is mainly on divine philosophy.

Aldous Huxley- Was a renowned British Universal Writer/Philosopher. He spent most of his life writing novels, short stories, and film scripts. His book mostly having to do with the relations of "Between Heaven and Hell" is&nbsp;<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/The-Perennial-Philosophy-An-Interpretation-of-the-Great-Mystics-East-and-West-P-S/dp/0061724947/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">The Perennial Philosophy: An Interpretation of the Great Mystics, East and West (P.S.)</a>&nbsp;He is also very famous for his philosophy of taking psychedelic drugs to connect with the divine. Huxley was a sort of Hunter S. Thompson of his generation.

What do these three have in common? They all died on November the 22nd 1963. This book is a speculation of these three men meeting in the afterlife, and discussing various religious philosophies.

The towering argument in this book is on the Deity of Jesus Christ. Was He God, or man, or both, or not at all?

Overall a very enjoyable, thought provoking book that in my opinion really captures the characters of these men, and the things that they would have/might have said on the divine had this situation really come about. Reading this book I felt as though I was propelled back to C.S. Lewis's&nbsp;<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/The-Great-Divorce/dp/B001S37KYM/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">The Great Divorce</a>as these two books have enormous similarities on the subject of afterlife speculation.
176548
This is a really great book, entertaining and readable, yet also informative and educational.
It discusses both the personal history of King James (of the King James Bible fame) and public perception of homosexuality during 16th and 17th Century England.
For readers not already well acquainted with King James, such as myself, the opening chapter establishes his history. And it does a good job -- not only did it enable me to follow the rest of the book, but subsequent histories I've read of King James didn't add anything surprising, meaning it was sufficiently thorough.
The next chapters examine the evidence that James had sex with his male favorites, what the court and subjects thought about it, along with the various terms, codes and historical analogies that James' contemporaries could discourse about sex between males.
Subsequent chapters discuss the relationship between homosexuality, effeminacy and pacifism vs. heterosexuality, masculinity and war, how James's homosexuality affected the reign of his son, Charles, and what contemporary and later writers said about James's sexuality, concluding with comments on the general history of homosexuality.
Fascinating book. It has an element of the tabloid (with juicy excerpts from James' love letters) while also very thought-provoking. I have purely a layman's interest in the subject, and I had no trouble following the author's language or arguments. For more serious historians and researchers, everything is very thoroughly footnoted and annotated.
I *HIGHLY* recommend it.
3263845
There are so many wonderful things in this book.  Cahill does a terrific job of giving us the flavor of the Tain in one brief chapter, and he sketches the classical world and contrasts Roman Christianity with Celtic Christianity in a way I (not well-read on either of these topics) found very useful.  I also loved the portraits of the Irish monks, in love with books and hard at work in their scriptoria.

No, the book didn't convince me the Irish saved civilization, and I admit I found the gap between title and content to be a little jarring.  But there were so many great and useful things here that I can't say I mind very much.

This book is not a history text, but it's definitely worth your time.  (In my case, 5 hours.)
293599
People in my study group really enjoyed it.  I find Francis Chan a bit contradicting at times and hard to follow some of his logic.  Overall you can't go to wrong if you are trying to bring your marriage closer to God.
3965696
I heartily recommend this book, which is well-researched yet accessible to a large readership.

As I read some of the reviews of this fine book, however, I was surprised to note certain unnecessarily negative ones (e.g., bookman109, Richard Widen).  These struck me as being far too casual in their dismissal of a work that has the affirmations of an all-star cast of top-flight New Testament scholars and historians--I. Howard Marshall, Larry Hurtado, Martin Hengel, Craig Evans, Murray Harris, Richard Bauckham, Craig Blomberg.

I won't comment further, but just wanted to make this observation in passing.
3833695
Here is the merging of two categories of reading that, if you are like me, you enjoyChristian biography and Colonial America. You get in this volume two prominent characters in those categoriesGeorge Whitefield and Ben Franklin. It is a pleasing, somewhat stretched, and breezy read.

His premise that the friendship of these two men invented America failed, but the book did not. These two men made distinct contributions to what became America, and they even had some sort of friendship, but the friendship itself had nothing to with anything in forging of our nation. In fact, the friendship was much ado about nothing as he failed to uncover just how deep the friendship was. I suspect it was not that deep and we will never know for sure beyond that.

Why I will still recommend the book is that these two men with their different lives did have such an impact. The similarities and differences in the two men are fascinating and how people took to them is something Petersen did capture. He succeeded in bringing Franklin alive more than he did Whitefield in my opinion. Part of the reason, I imagine, is that he too followed the oft-discredited study of Harry Stout.

Still, with the above caveats in mind, it remains enjoyable reading.

I received this book free from the publisher. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commissions 16 CFR, Part 255.
1085366
This book is a massive piece of work edited by Anthony Kenney, Jan Pinborg and the late Norman Kretzmann. Moreover, Eleonore Stump is an associate editor of this text as well. The book itself is over 1000 pages. It is a history of late medieval philosophy from about 1100 to 1600. The book is essentially a series of essays that deal with the various philosophical trends, ideas, issues, etc. that were prevalent within the aforementioned dates. The book deals with Aristotelian logic, logic in the middle ages (semantic theory), logic in the high middle ages, metaphysics and epistemology, natural philosophy, philosophy of mind and action, ethics, politics, and scholasticism. Thus, the reader of this text will gain a greater understanding about Abelard and old logic to free will and free choice to God's knowledge of future contingents, and much more. The Islamic philosophers and their influences and ideas are covered as well as the Jesus society philosophers of the late reformation period (i.e. Molina, Suarez, etc.). The text itself is not for the beginning philosophy student, thus the contributors expect their readers to have some back ground knowledge in the issues at hand. This book is meant for the serious student of this period. Therefore, if you love to study the philosophers of the Medieval period, then you will love the detail that this book provides. I highly recommend it.
3807624
I  liked this book a lot.  Recommend it to some of my friends.
4345528
for someone researching in details Francis life for interpreting the real meaning of his life this book might help much
1122290
Nineteen-year-old Tom Clarady has been sent by his uncle, Francis Bacon, to Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, to gather intelligence on the secretive radical Puritans who are threatening upheaval in England. When an instructor allegedly hangs himself, Tom speculates that a murderer is among them, but who?

Set in 1587, Murder by Misrule is a methodical look at crime detection as it used to be. Toms brave, resourceful, and determined, but also inexperienced, so mistakes are made. I love that the author incorporates real-life characters like Francis Bacon and Christopher Marlowe into the plot. She also does a great job of weaving bits of information about different lifestyles and religious beliefs throughout the story.

While I understand the need for methodical detail, I found the book a little too slow-moving, although Im sure that avid readers of historical fiction will disagree. If you love mysteries about academic life in the Elizabethan period, then youll really enjoy this one.
2391721
I'm glad to be the first reviewer of this book.

First, the good news.  I think that this book gives us a clear concise and spiritually powerful view of George Fox.  Arthur O. Roberts did an exceptional job of telling us the story about how George Fox and the early Friends thought about and practiced a life of holiness and nearness to God.  In fact, I would go so far to say that this is the best description that I have ever read about George Fox's spiritual life and how he was motivated and empowered by the Light of Christ Within.

Since I write this from the viewpoint of a Conservative Friend, here in the second part of my review I'm going to discuss what I see as a very large problem with "Through Flaming Sword."  Arthur O. Roberts is a professor of pastoral ministries/college chaplain of Barclay College in Haviland, Kansas, and what does this say?  This says that Arthur O. Roberts is an Evangelical and Pastoral Friend who totally skipped over the fact that Conservative Friends still meet in expectant waiting worship for the Lord to speak and for us to hear His voice.  Professor Roberts knows that there are still Friends who worship in the way described above.  I know this, because he tells us that he used some of their work in his bibliography.

But then he leads us to believe that the only kind of "Quakers" that there are is pastoral, Evangelical Quakers.

I was really taken aback by this.  The one thing that I've always found from Christian Friends who meet in the original way of our ancestors is that they are always truthful.  Interestingly, I did not find that with Professor Roberts' views of Quakerism.  Why would he lead us to believe that Evangelical Friends are the only kind of Friends that still exist?  I was pretty much mind-blown by this.  The sadness that I find in this is that this is a tremendously well-written and researched book, up until about page 98 (there are 143 pages in this book).

This leads me to wonder are all Evangelical Quakers like Professor Roberts?  Do they deliberately mislead people into believing that they are the only Friends still left on the face of the earth as well?  If so, why is this?  I gave this book 3 stars because I think that the historical research that Professor Roberts did was very well done (although much of it came from George Fox's Journal).  So I'm left thinking that if you are an Evangelical Friend, you will probably really like this book.  If you're a Conservative Christian Friend, I think that you might have a taste in your mouth that is dry as dust, and be left wondering why did this man write this book in such a way.

Again, I want to say that I appreciate Professor Roberts' work on Fox's ideas about holiness and closeness to the Light Within, but he is light years away from being accurate about other kinds of Christian Friends and how they live and worship the Lord.

I don't want to be uncharitable in my review of this book, so I'll just say that there are many strengths to the first part of the book, and the second part of the book left me extremely puzzled and concerned about myself and others being completely dismissed as Conservative Christian Friends.