Russell Re Manning

I am a big fan of this serious for its simple summaries to whet your appetite on topics. It is a great jumping board to give you a quick big picture and some vocabulary to start off, even help narrow your search for further study (after all, isn't tough sometimes when you don't even have the words for a search engine or library keyword search?). This book was no exception.

The real downside is the visuals. While technically good (polished, good technique, etc.), they offer no information or ability to picture any of the concepts discussed in the accompanying text. They are a waste of paper at first glance, except that they ensure you are not inundated with too much text on one page. They help with the pacing, nothing more.

Overall, if you found you didn't learn enough about other religions in the past, this is a good starter book to give you a quick idea. However, you will likely need another book to go more in depth.… (more)

I am a big fan of this serious for its simple summaries to whet your appetite on topics. It is a great jumping board to give you a quick big picture and some vocabulary to start off, even help narrow your search for further study (after all, isn't tough sometimes when you don't even have the words for a search engine or library keyword search?). This book was no exception.

The real downside is the visuals. While technically good (polished, good technique, etc.), they offer no information or ability to picture any of the concepts discussed in the accompanying text. They are a waste of paper at first glance, except that they ensure you are not inundated with too much text on one page. They help with the pacing, nothing more.

Overall, if you found you didn't learn enough about other religions in the past, this is a good starter book to give you a quick idea. However, you will likely need another book to go more in depth.… (more)

The authors present a pleasant accessible walk through the Old and New Testaments. Curiously, they note "allegorical" passages, and also claim that the Scripture is inerrant. Most folks who claim that the pleroma of the Word is without error, are either unfamiliar with the text or with the definition of the word "inerrant".

And the authors do not hesitate to ADD to the Word. For example, in suggesting that a passage about Noah and his curse of Ham (an admittedly and entirely innocent child of one of Noah's sons who saw Noah naked) is justification for subordination of the black race. The text suggests nothing of the sort.

In addition, the authors "mansplain" the subordination of women as taken from the rib of Adam. The un-named woman was to "help" Adam, and he names her. But even that text, which is disputed and contradicted by two other creation sequences, does not actually "say" women are to be submissive or 2d-class to males.

The authors also repeat the ironic anti-semitic slander against Jews for the murder of Jesus and Saint Steven. The scriptural text itself does not contain a single word of any of these ADDED insinuations. The words of the Bible, if taken literally, require fairness, justice and equality.… (more)