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- A first-rate introduction to the true nature of memory
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Witness for the Defense: The Accused, the Eyewitnesses, and the Expert Who Puts Memory on Trial
Elizabeth Loftus , and
Katherine Ketcham
Manufacturer: St. Martin's Press
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Wrightsman's Psychology and the Legal System
ASIN: 0312055374 |
Customer Reviews:
A first-rate introduction to the true nature of memory.......2000-06-26
Anyone who must deal with eyewitness testimony should read this book! It is both fascinating and disturbing.
Product Description
George Silver was oneof the most significant writers on the history of Western swordsmanship. Best known for his distrust of Italian rapier fencing, this suspicion led him to document the system of swordsmanship practiced by the English gentry and nobility before the advent of the rapier. Looking back to earlier times, Silver described a system that in many fundmentals was still medieval, but he did so with an early Modern precision. Fearful that his countrymen were forgetting the basics of swordsmanship, Silver described the system in great detail. What emerges is a simple and powerful, yet deep and subtle style, heavily based on natural body movements and designed to work under the stress of real combat. In this book, Stephen Hand presents Silver's system with outstanding text and in more than four hundred clear photographs. This book is a must for anyone interested in swordsmanship, it stands to become a classic!
Customer Reviews:
A Great Work.......2007-07-29
I have a number of Western Martial Arts books and manuals manuals and this is really one of the best. You can tell the author is very knowlegable in what he teaches and he is also good teacher. The pictures and descriptions are very well written. I have over 20 years in the asian martial arts and have been studying western martial arts for about 8 years now and I would like to see more books written like this one. I would recomend this book to anyone who is serious about swordsmanship.
in progress.......2007-06-10
I have not read the entire book as yet, but I am impressed with what I have. The book appears to be very compleet and a good reference as well.
Excellent book for study of English Swordplay.......2006-11-10
Although I have not yet finished studying through this book,(and it may be quite some time before I am), I have found the way that Stephen Hand had lain out his own interpretation and explanation of George Silvers material on swordplay to be both insightful and clearly explained. Having read other books on renaissance rapier that were translations from Italian, I have found the additional explanations of why Mr. Hand interprets certain actions a particular way to be extremely helpful. I would suggest this book for anyone who is interested in the works of the Sword Masters of old but who are also looking for something decidedly different from the Italian school of rapier that seems to dominate most of the current study groups these days.
A Must-Have for Any Student of the Sword.......2006-10-12
The one word that came to mind when I first saw this book was "finally!"
George Silver, an English gentleman contemporary of Shakespeare and Queen Elizabeth, left two written records to posterity. One, Paradoxes of Defence, was a refutation of foreign swordsmanship systems that he disliked--primarily the Italian and the Spanish--in what is now regarded as one of the most tasty martial diatribes in European history. The second was a manuscript he never got around to publishing--the Brief Instructions Upon My Paradoxes of Defense--where Silver gives us a detailed account of what he considered the best way for an Englishman to fight with a sword. Although unpublished, the Brief Instructions was discovered in the 19th Century and remains a precious testimony of how stalwart Englishmen fought, sword in hand, in the last quarter of the 16th Century.
One of the problems associated with the works of George Silver is their apparent simplicity. This, coupled with the popularity that these works in English have enjoyed in a mostly Italian/German/French-dominated field--has lead to several different interpretations that are often at odds with one-another or even downright wrong. A powerful and authoritative tiebreaker was badly needed. Enter Mr. Stephen Hand.
Stephen Hand brings an extensive and rather unique tool-kit to the writing of this book--including his skills as a trained academic, as an educator, as a writer and, most of all, as a martial artist. But most importantly, Mr. Hand has dedicated most of his adult life in studying the works of Silver, with a passion and determination that make him arguably the world's foremost authority on this important Renaissance English fencing author.
All this shows plainly in this book. English Swordsmanship is a carefully written and extensively illustrated analysis of the swordsmanship style described by George Silver. Both the theory and the practice are explained step by step in a way that will be equally useful to the fencing novice and the experienced martial artist. Stephen Hand's style is adademically sound but refreshingly easy to follow as it weaves its way through theoretical notions such as the Four Governors of the True Fight and practical techniques such as attacks, defenses, footwork and even grapples.
Also, the book is written with spirit and energy, in a style that is beautifully in sintony with the original works of Silver. All in all, this is a fantastic resource that belongs on the shelves of anyone interested in Renaissance England--and in the fencing bag of anyone wanting to learn Historical European Martial Arts.
An "magnum opus" of historical swordfighting.......2006-07-12
First, a confession: I have known Stephen Hand for the better part of a decade, and have had the pleasure of trading notes, lessons and blows with him. I also saw this manuscript in its draft form and helped him refine it to its final form. So I cannot be called "unbiased".
OTOH, one doesn't have to question their bias when a book is just damn good. This is a full, introductory course into English swordplay prior to 1600; the result of more than a decade of hard work, and it shows. By "full course" I mean that it is more than just an interpretation or reconstruction of techniques listed by George Silver in his manuscript. The student is given a firm grounding in Silver's fencing theory and tactics, and then is taught in a series of progressive lessons how to work through the system of the sword alone, grappling with the off hand, using the sword and dagger, the sword and buckler and opposing one against the other.
The author is a trained educator, writing about a topic he knows inside and out, and it shows. Throughout the book, the student is given detailed drills, tips on what to look for and what to avoid, and a firm understanding of how and why techiques work *tactically* and by the same token, how they can be defeated or mistakes can be exploited. Later chapters address specific tactical ideas that should alone provide years worth of exploration for new students who have successfully reconstructed the technical material that precedes them. Throughout, Stephen is always very careful to use Silver's own words to clarify these ideas, and then show how his experience and research has clarified those ideas, not replaced them. I myself have been reconstructing the method of swordfighting detailed in 1599 by George Silver since the early 90s, and while Stephen's interpretations and ideas and my own do not perfectly mesh on every point, it is abundantly clear where w depart why he has made the conclusions that he has - and in a few places I now have to go back and reanalyze and amend my own work. That is one of the best compliments this sort of work can receive.
Over the yeares I have seen a great deal of misunderstanding and downright distortion appear amonst many fellow practitioners. Stephen's book should serve to bring that to an end. If you have any interest in the fighting arts of the English fighting man, my recommendation is aquire a copy of this book post-haste and read it conjunction with Terry Brown's excellent "English Martial Arts".
Gregory Mele
Chicago Swordplay Guild
www.chicagoswordplayguild.com
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The Regrets: With the Antiquities of Rome, Three Latin Elegies, and the Defense and Enrichment of the French Language
Joachim Du Bellay
Manufacturer: University of Pennsylvania Press
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Book Description
To the Reader: This little book, reader, that we give you now has at once the taste of gall and honey mixed with salt. If it pleases your palate, come as a guest. This feast has been prepared for you. If not, please go away. I did not mean to invite you to the feast.
Joachim du Bellay (1522-60) was one of the most important poets of the Renaissance and remains a cornerstone of the French literary tradition. In this monumental bilingual edition Richard Helgerson collects The Regrets and The Antiquities of Rome, two sonnet sequences du Bellay wrote during the more than four years he spent in Rome and that he published immediately on his return to France in 1558, along with three Latin elegies he also wrote in Rome and The Defense and Enrichment of the French Language, his earlier manifesto for the new poetry he and his friend Pierre de Ronsard were then about to launch. The Regrets is a vibrant, often moving, and by turns nostalgic and satiric account of du Bellay's stay at the papal court. The Antiquities is also concerned with Rome, but in a very different way: not as a quotidian record of the poet's experience of the modern city but as a profound meditation on the ruin of an ancient empire.
In imitation of Petrarch, sonnet sequences were a prime marker of the new poetry all over Europe. But there are no other sequences like du Bellay's, none that leave love aside and express such a varied range of emotions and ideas. And du Bellay's Defense is in its own way no less remarkable and no less preoccupied with the classical heritage and its Rome: a bold call for a new French poetry that would rival and even surpass that of antiquity.
Book Description
'But I must stop now. I can no longer speak for tears - and my client has ordered that tears are not to be used in his defence.' Cicero (106-43 BC) was the greatest orator of the ancient world: he dominated the Roman courts, usually appearing for the defence. His speeches are masterpieces of persuasion: compellingly written, emotionally powerful, and somtimes hilariously funny. This book presents five of his most famous defences: of Roscius, falsely accused of murdering his father; of the consul-elect Murena, accused of electoral bribery; of the poet Archias, on a citizenshiup charge; of Caelius, ex-lover of Clodia Metelli, on charges of violence; and of Milo, for mudering Cicero's hated enemy Clodius. Cicero's clients were rarely whiter-than-white; but so seductive is his oratory that the reader cannot help taking his side. In these speeches we are plunged into some of the most exciting courtroom dramas of all time. These new translations preserve Cicero's literary artistry and emotional force, and achieve new standards of accuracy. Each speech has its own introduction, and a general introduction discusses Cicero's public career and the criminal courts. The substantial explanatory notes guide the reader through the speeches, and offer new scholarship presented in a clear way.
Book Description
Six talented writers and Tolkien scholars describe the role that J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings has in the literary, political, and religious traditions of Western civilization.
Customer Reviews:
kindred spirits.......2004-07-20
Some may "grit their teeth" (as one disgruntled reviewer said below) through these essays, but readers more in tune with Tolkien's own philosophy will be pleased to find these kindred spirits.
Virtually every political and cultural movement of the past forty years, from free-spirited hippies in the '60s, to strident environmentalists in the '70s, to Christian fundamentalists in the new millennium. has tried to co-opt Tolkien's books as emblematic of their particular concerns. It is a testament to the richness of his work that people from such disparate viewpoints see therein a reflection of their beliefs.
Those from the left side of the political spectrum sometimes seem to want to wish away the truth, but the fact is, Tolkien was a Catholic conservative, in virtually every sense of the word. He attended Mass almost daily; he was a staunch member of the Conservative Party and an anti-Communist; and he abhorred Big Government almost more than anything else.
Of course, this doesn't mean that these works cannot be enjoyed by those who disagree with these views. But surely there is room in this world for books written about Tolkien and his work by those who sympathize with his views -- which describes this particular slim volume -- just as there is room for those who don't.
If you're looking for something critical of Tolkien's core beliefs, this isn't the book for you. But if you're simpatico, or just curious and open-minded (quel surprise!) about what truly made him tick, give this collection a try. Peter Kreeft's essay alone is worth the modest price.
Tolkien may have been conservative to the core, but he was by no means a racist (he famously said in his valedictory speech at Oxford, "I have the hatred of apartheid in my bones" -- many years before that view became fashionable). He surely didn't see the defense of Western civilization as synonymous with racism, as, sadly, too many fashionably relativistic "multi-culturalists" now claim. He didn't love war, but he understood well the folly of burying one's head in the sand. (See the encounter between Gandalf and the Saruman-enchanted Theoden in "The Two Towers" for a startling parallel to contemporary debate.)
If you're an unbending pacifistic atheist, you may not like what you read here. But then, Tolkien probably wouldn't cotton to your point of view either. I'm not saying this to be critical of my friends on the left. But learn more about the man himself, and you will have to agree. This book is a good place to start.
Using Tolkien to buttress their own views.......2003-12-21
This is a short collection of essays given as papers at a conference at Seattle Pacific University. The conference was sponsored by a C.S. Lewis Institute, and some contributions are reminiscent of the aggressive polemical style of that author's apologetics. The opening two essays, by the editor and Peter Kreeft, are not concerned with discerning Tolkien's views of western civilization, but with using Tolkien to buttress their own views, a distinctly different approach. And their definition of western civilization, for the purpose of their essays, is strictly confined to Biblical morality, with dire references to September 11 as proof of the reality of evil, and plenty of random bashings of anti-Tolkien critics, moral relativists, and other harbingers of the bad. Kreeft claims that Theoden's virtue lay in avoiding Denethor's sin of acquiring too much knowledge, and that Gollum speaks in the plural because the singular, as in "I Am That I Am," is associated with God. Some may find such claims seriously off-base: I certainly do, and had to grit my teeth through both his and West's essays.
[Contrary to the anonymous reviewer above, examples like these are totally out of keeping with Tolkien's own way of thinking. There are many better books, by scholars such as Joseph Pearce and Matthew Dickerson, which demonstrate Tolkien's Catholic and conservative thinking in terms of Tolkien's own thought, rather than using Tolkien as a cudgel to randomly bash whatever the writer may not like about modern life. Tolkien was never crude, and unlike C.S. Lewis he was not a polemicist in his public writings. These authors are both.]
The third and longest essay, by Janet Leslie Blumberg, is a quiet discussion of the literary influence on Tolkien of Anglo-Saxon and Middle English literature. Three very brief essays conclude by taking a more specifically theological and sacramental approach to Tolkien's morality. Of these, Phillip Goggans follows Kreeft and West, but Joseph Pearce and Kerry L. Dearborn are more interested in exploring Tolkien's views than in using Tolkien to defend their own.
[Again, note the difference. They explore Tolkien's views, rather than selectively and misleadingly quoting from Tolkien to defend their own views, which on specific matters Tolkien might or might not have shared.]
They and Blumberg provide workmanlike essays which, though they only skim the surface of their topics, can be useful as introductions.
This book is a thin softcover with large print, narrow margins, and numerous typographical errors.
Good but needs expansion.......2003-11-01
This is a vey good book but perhaps too focussed on Christian values for the title to be fully correct. Hal Colebatch's "Return of the Heroes: The Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, Harry Potter and Social Conflict," which I have reviewed on its own page, does a much more comprehensive job in looking at the relationship between TLOTR and the whole of Western as well as specifically Christian values. Both, however, are full of interest and recommended.
A decent little book--but be aware..........2003-09-19
To keep this review short and sweet, I'll get right to the point: the sub-title of this book should, in my opinion, read "The Lord of the Rings as a Defense of Christianity." Not that defending Christianity is necessarily a bad thing; but I, for one, was led to believe (both by title and by the [non-user] reviews given on this site) that this was an explication of the pro-Western views (whether of culture, or religion, or morals, or war, etc., etc.) embedded within Tolkein's texts. Instead, a substantial portion of the book was dedicated to a rather pedantic style of critique wherein lines of quoted material were trotted out and then favorably compared to Christian idea(l)s, preceded or followed closely by the particular author's hearty agreement with said material, and possibly supported by their own personal brand of apologetics.
However, I should hasten to add: all of this is not to say that "Celebrating Middle-Earth" is not informative or otherwise valuable to the Christian philosopher or apologist, or even to the non-theist Tolkien fan...because it is. Though not a Christian in the traditional sense, I have nevertheless learned a good deal here about the motifs behind the story and the mind-set behind the man, and have enjoyed doing so. But, again, as I've implied: if your preference is for a purer form of literary critique, or for a slightly more "neutral" analysis of Tolkien's themes, then look elsewhere.
New Insights.......2003-05-27
While all six essays in this slender volume will prove of interest to the reader seeking more background on J.R.R. Tolkien's epic story, I found the essay by Janet Blumberg, "The Literary Background of The Lord of the Rings" especially valuable. Prof. Blumberg not only explains the influences of Anglo-Saxon literature such as "Beowulf" and High Medieval literature such as "Sir Gawain and the Green knight" on elements in LOTR, but also offers a credible explanation for one of the most remarked about elements in the books: the absence of any overt religious practice or worship. This essay alone makes this slender volume a valuable addition to the library of any Tolkien fan.
Book Description
In Essential Self-Defense, disgruntled misfit Yul Carroll takes a job as an attack dummy in a women’s self-defense class and finds himself mysteriously drawn to Sadie, the repressed bookworm mercilessly honing her skills on him. Meanwhile, all’s not well on the unassuming Midwestern streets of Bloggs: with local children vanishing at an alarming rate, our hero, his lady friend, and a motley assortment of poets, butchers, and punk librarians prepare to battle the darkness on the edge of town.
Book Description
This book investigates the weapons, history and development of the English fighting system and some of the beliefs and social pressures that helped mold it. The second half examines various English fighting techniques drawn from historical texts and manuscripts including bare-fist fighting, broadsword, quarterstaff, bill, sword and buckler and sword and dagger.
Customer Reviews:
A Classic.......2006-05-24
This book gives an introduction and brief history of English Schooles of Defense. The history was a fun read. The practical sections, which contain reconstructions of various CQC techniques as the records indicate they were taught, are presented in a clear pictorial format which makes them easy to learn and analyze. If you are interested in historical combat, this is a book you will reference again and again.
At first I thought it another poncey fighting book.......2006-02-17
How wrong could I be. Having practised re-enactment martial arts for 24 years I thought I'd seen it all... you live and learn.
The techniques described in the book are brutal to say the least. The knee stamp when the opponent is down is my favorite.
There are chapters divided into historical references for each weapon(including fists). Adding to this there are clear photographs of the strikes and blocks.
If you are re-enacting later european medieval history this is the book for you.
For any Scholler of the Arts of Defense, English Martial Arts is a `must have' resource........2005-12-11
"No man travelleth by the waie without his sword or somesuch weapon except the minister who commonly weareth none at all unless it is a dagger or a hanger at his side." - Aylward [English Master of Arms]
Terry Brown's `English Martial Arts' is an outstanding book about a little known topic. Beginning with an excellent overview of the background of English Martial Arts, we are then introduced to the weapons of the English man at arms:
>>Broadsword
>>Quarterstaff
>>Sword & Dagger
>>Sword & Dagger vs. Sword & Buckler
>>The Bill
>>Bear-Fist Fighting
>>Stances
Terry Brown then introduces us to the `Principles of True Fighting' and demonstrates the techniques of the weapons listed herein. A series of clear photographs demonstrates the effective application of techniques, allowing the student to develop sufficient basic skill to seek entry to `The Company of Maieters' [http://www.maisters.demon.co.uk/] as a Free Scholler.
Finally, English Martial Arts closes with "Words of Wisdom" from the English Masters of Defense such as Silver, Godfrey and Lonnergan.
For any Scholler of the Arts of Defense, English Martial Arts is a `must have' resource.
good book.......2005-02-26
I read through the book and I must say that it is pretty good. I've read the original manuscripts from which this book drew its techniques and the stuff for the long and short weapons (like the broadsword, dagger, pole-arms, ect.) are very precise and accurate.
His first few chapters are an overveiw of some of the historical roots of English Martial Arts. Not bad.
*edit* I had to edit this reveiw because previously I mentioned that there was no evidence for the blocks in the pugilism described in this book. Mr. Terry Brown sent me solid evidence that contested my statements, therefore I must change them. It seems that the boxing of the older world is indeed a bit different from the boxing of the modern world. I would change the review to five stars but it wouldn't let me do so.
My advise is this, if you want to train in an all european martial art I suggest training in western boxing, catch wrestling, and take the general concepts of what is demonstrated with the long and short weapons and apply them to a machette, bayonette, and military knife. Don't dress up in anachronistic clothing either....the key is to train for battle not play dress up. Rather, one should wear either BDU's, street cloths, or a loose-fitting "uniform" which consists of sweatpants and a t-shirt which has the name/symbol of your school on it.
The best kind of school that you can find will be rooted in Tradition but open to Innovation. This way you won't "re-invent the wheel" but at the same time you won't be stuck on the outmoded and anachronistic. I call this Renovation.
Overall the book isn't bad and its a good way to connect with your English roots. Learn from the past, be willing to innovate, and act in the now. This is the best advise that I can give.
Also, check out www.amerross.com . ROSS Concepts have some good stuff (like clubbells and biomechanical exercises) that can transfer into ANY martial art and are invaluable to the western martial artist.
Very Clear and Sharp ---.......2003-10-12
I find 'English Martial Arts' to be very clear and sharp in its accuracy, presentation & applications. Also it is very well balanced in strategy and tactics. The photography and explanations are superb. With some imagination and practice, much of the book can be applied via cane or fist, as well as the great traditional usage. Yet this excellent book is quite streamlined. 'Simplicity is efficiency's best friend' ---
Average customer rating:
- A lot of info, but really unorganized
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Arm in Arm: The Political Economy of the Global Arms Trade
William W. Keller
Manufacturer: Basic Books
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A lot of info, but really unorganized.......1999-08-29
Great info. Bad structure. Hard to read cover to cover..... and it's only 187 pages long!!! That says something about it.
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Cleopatra's Nose, the Twinkie Defense, and 1500 Other Verbal Shortcuts in Popular Parlance
Jerome Agel , and
Walter D. Glanze
Manufacturer: Prentice Hall
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ASIN: 0132167972 |
Book Description
The thought of Meister Eckhart (c. 1260-1327), Dominican philosopher and spiritual master, is among the most daring and difficult in the history of Western mysticism.
Thoroughly grounded in the Scholastic method of his day and steadfastly loyal to the Church, Eckhart's love of speculation, paradox, and the apophatic way, nevertheless, resulted in the controversial condemnation of certain of his teachings by papal bull in 1329. His doctrines of detachment, the return of the soul to God, and the birth of the Son in the soul have continued to perplex his critics and nourish his disciples through the ages.
This volume, based on the critical Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft edition of Eckhart's works, represents the first time that his technical Latin writings and more popular German sermons and treatises have appeared together in English.
Customer Reviews:
A key mystic of Christianity.......2006-06-12
Meister Eckhart comes to us with an somewhat shadowy legacy. He was charged with heresy, and while this was not unique (many Christian mystics were accused of heretical thought at some point and some even burned, like Margarite Porete), what is surprising was that Eckhart was what would now be a Professor of Theology.
Eckhart was in some ways like a religious Galileo. His mystical ideas are very often shocking, from his notion of the birth of Jesus in the soul to the Godhead beyond the Trinity itself. His ideas were in many ways (with their paralells to Sufi Islam and Buddhism) very far ahead of their time and like other great Christian speculative mystics such as Origen or Evagrius Ponticus, the charge of heresy is never too far away in the shadows. It is then not surprising the ecclesiastic authorities charged this man with erring from established truth.
However Eckhart saw himself as an genuine mystic afire with the love of God and sharing in the deepest possible relationship with him. Eckhart certainly was a mystical genius, and one of the most brilliant and profound spiritual teachers Christianity has ever seen. He certainly belongs in the same rank as Augustine, Gregory of Nyssa, John of Cross and Denys the Aeropagite.
Eckhart's approach to God uses both the way of denial and the way of affirmation. God is both an incomprehensible darkness, a beingless One above all distinctions, an ineffable reality, and at the same time the highest good, light and reality. God is to be reached mainly through the innermost ground of the soul which Eckhart calls the 'ground', and sometimes as a little 'castle.' In an obscure way by encountering the divine there by shunning all thoughts, concepts and images we don't so much encounter 'God' (the being with attributes as we see in the Bible), rather the Godhead, or the Absolute as it truely is, as a One above all distinctions, divisions, concepts, and being. When we meet the Absolute here God is no longer the Trinitarian God of Catholic Christianity but the simple, silent Godhead, ineffable and quiet in itself, yet also the highest reality there is, and the source of all else, even 'God' himself. In this sense Eckhart seems to share a great deal in common with Plotinus or Buddhism and 'shunyata', the mysterious emptiness which is the changeless source of being. Indeed he sometimes says God is 'nothing', and at other times creatures are nothing, pure emptiness (when compared to the super-essential richness of God in terms of his giving being). While having much in common with previous Christian mystics, these ideas sat rather ill with the Church authorities who seemed to think he was denying some key Christian dogmas as well as affirming heretical ideas, such as Pantheism or reincarnation. Indeed, the same charges often occur today.
Eckhart was not helped by his students, who often took his mysticism to very unhealthy extremes. Suso and Tauler were his best 'disciples', but overall the irrationalism and antinominalism of German mysticism which followed Eckhart tended to show the decadence even the best mysticism can fall into, if not checked with reason and common sense.
Nevertheless Eckhart speaks immediately and profoundly to the soul, and whether you are Christian or not, he is certainly a great Christian mystic who deserves in my view better recognition for his insights and achievements than he has.
The Accused Heretic Was Innocent.......2003-10-22
I came to read Meister Eckhart because he influenced Nicholas de Cusa and Jacob Boehme, two great mystics that I've read indepthly. I knew Eckhart was accused of being an heretic, yet I came into his thought with an open mind. I have since become a disciple, and I'll explain why. The main text of the book begins with "Documents Relating to Eckhart's Condemnation." In it are "A. Selections from Eckhart's Defense" and "B. The Bull 'In agro dominico'" (March 27, 1329), which is the Catholic Church's condemnation document that was finished two years after Eckhart's death. In "In agro dominico" the church basically twisted inside out many of the conclusions of the propositions that Eckhart syllogized, misrepresenting the perspective of them. Eckhart was writing from the perspective of God, not his own perspective. His inquisitors were basically ignoramuses whose prejudices were dogmatically driven. I believe you will, like I did, find him totally innocent of the heresies he was accused of. You may find, however, some of his thoughts boardering on heresy, but he never really crossed the line. For instance, he believed that we must "give birth to Christ" in our souls. It has a ring of Boehme's mysticism or vice versus. Boehme believed the way to Christ is through the core of the soul, so the similarities are obvious. "Selections from the Commentaries on Genesis" is a very revealing glimpse into the allegorical meanings of parables in the Book of Genesis. If you want to truly understand what "In [the] beginning God created the heavens and the earth" means, there may not be a better explanation ever written than you'll find here. His elucidation is superlative. "Selections on the Commentary of John," "Selected Sermons," "Treatises: A. The Book of 'Benedictus': The Book of Divine Consolation. B. The Book of 'Benedictus': Of the Nobleman. C. Counsels on Discernment. D. On Detachment" are also included. Eckhart's theory of detachment is taken directly from the parables in the Bible, such as "the poor in spirit are blessed" (Mt. 5:13). We must abandon all images in the soul, to become totally free of self-will as well as God's will, and truly become poor in spirit. Only then is true poverty of the soul realized. That is the Eckhartian path to personal salvation. It is very deep and meaningful. That is what transformed me into a disciple. In the front of the book there's a Preface, Foreward, Introduction with Key to Abbreviations, Historical Data, Theological Summary, A note on Eckhart's Works and the Present Selections. In the back Notes, Bibliography, and Indexes. I highly recommend this superb volume as well as the others in the series.
The Mystical Eckhart.......2003-10-22
This is what is included in this volume: Introduction: Historical Data, Theological Summary, A Note on Eckhart's Works and the Present Selections. Part One: Latin Works: 1. Documents Related to Eckhart's Condemnation. A. Selections from Eckhart's Defense. B. The Bull "In agro dominico" (March 27, 1329). 2. Selections from the Commentaries on Genesis. 3. Selections from the Commentary on John. Part Two: German Works: 1. Selected Sermons. 2. Treatises: A. The Book of "Benedictus": The Book of Divine Consolation. B. The Book of "Benedictus": Of the Nobleman. C. Counsels on Disernment. D. On Detachment. NOTES, BIBLIOGRAPHY, INDEXES.
A great introduction to Eckhart.......2000-04-23
This is an excellent translation of some of Meister Eckhart's finest works and is highly recommended as is McGinn's in this series. Eckhart is one of the greatest apothatic Christian mystics and both Eckhart titles in 'Classics of Western Spirituality Series' are a great place to start to read His works. If you want all of His sermons then buy O'C Walshe's 'Sermons and treaties'. For a study of Eckhart's mysticism buy 'Mystical Thought' by Bernard McGinn.
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