War of the End of the World Review

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(More customer reviews)This is perhaps Vargas Llosa's best novel and a must for all those well-meaning readers in the developed world who eagerly idealize Latin American revolutions without knowing anything about these countries.
The book is based on the true story of Antonio Vicente Mendes Maciel ("O Conselheiro"), a mad prophet of sorts -kind of a weird Christian ayatollah of the late XIX Century- who ignited, in the most remote corner of Brazil, a bloody uprising among the lowly against Money, Property, Progress, Law, Army, Republic and State, and everything else he found oppressive, sinful and evil. In return, the Brazilian government reacted with indifference, disbelief, concern, anger, outrage and total annihilation.
Little by little, Vargas Llosa transforms this obscure anecdote into a monumental epic of Tolstoiesque proportions that not only hooks you on the plot but reveals the richly interwoven carpet of Brazilian -and therefore Latin American- society; its illusions and delusions, its races and classes, its loves and hates, its fear of the modern and its contempt for the past, and the fanaticism that pervades both attitudes (to date).
I read this mammoth masterpiece during Christmass '94 at the midst of the Zapatista revolt in Chiapas, and it was sad to realize how little have we changed our societies. Our development always seems to engender inequality and our social struggles to defend backwardness and ignorance. Vargas Llosa is acutely aware of this, and he conveys it in his story splendidly, without preaching, without agendas, without aloofness and without letting you put down the book. Should you decide to read it, ask for a few days off!

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Deep within the remote backlands of 19th-century Brazil sits Canudosa libertarian paradise. Home of prostitutes, bandits, beggars, Canudos embodies the revolutionary spirit in its purest and most apocalyptic form. In one of his most brilliant and tragic novels, Mario Vargas Llosa creates an unforgettable tale of passion, idealism, adventure, and man's struggle to be free.--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

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Daughters of Miriam: Women Prophets in Ancient Israel Review

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(More customer reviews)The author is certainly readable and follows accepted academic standards for citations, etc. Her thesis is that certain Hebrew plural pronouns and verbs POSSIBLY indicate both females and males in translation. She cites the accepted knowledge about prophetic ministries of both sexes in non-Hebraic cultures of the pre-Israelite ANE. Her introductory commentary on feminist interpetations is quite current and most clear. She promotes a "flexible interpretation" (p.18) of scripture, as well as interpretations about the practicioners of "non-sanctioned inquiry techniques" (p. 24). Much of her thesis rests upon her particular translation abilities and interpetations, and her identification of nuances not evident to Hebraists in the last several centuries. In NIV Ex 38:8 we read "8 They made the bronze basin and its bronze stand from the mirrors of the women who served at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting." The author translates "women" as "warriors" and is certainly not ambiguous in asserting: "In keeping with the martial range of tz-b-' and the desert-sanctuary context, I translate hatzov'ot asher tzaue'v as 'the women-warriors stationed'" (p.154). On the same page, the author claims: "I found it highly likely that their mirrors, mar'ot, were used a signaling devices in combat, making the women a Bronze Age Signal Corps.." If the author's conclusions from the tenuous premises arouse you, then you will undoubtedly like this book. If they don't, then....

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There are untold numbers of female prophets hiding in the masculine grammar and androcentric focus of the Hebrew scriptures. There are women-prophets in the communities around biblical Israel, existing for hundreds of years and even a thousand years before the Israelite and Judean prophets recorded their messages. The rabbinic and Christian fathers analyzed and found more women in the scriptures who function as prophets than the biblical authors identify. All of these female prophets have an intimate connection with the God of Israel; they express that connection by singing, dancing, drumming, speaking with and for God, waging war, performing miracles, exercising statecraft, and giving birth. Each of them is a daughter of Miriam, the mother of all women-prophets.Women prophets gave powerful voice to Yahwist faith at the formative moments in ancient Israel s development, and were expected in biblical visions of the future. Now they come to the foreground as Wilda Gafney explores prophetic practices in ancient Israel, its near eastern environment, and early and rabbinic Judaism as well.

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What Crucified Jesus?: Messianism, Pharisaism, and the Development of Christianity Review

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(More customer reviews)Ellis Rivkin has written a book that confronts head-on the erroneous perception that the Jews crucified Jesus. This would be a surprise to most Christians. It was to me. With a reasoned and enlightened style, Rivkin takes us back to the historical, religious and political context of the New Testament, with special analysis of what it was like to be an observant Jew living in Israel under total Roman domination at a time when Jews, as today, were doctrinally divided on key interpretations of Scripture, such as the resurrection from the dead, temple worship, and messiah. Essentially what Rivkin does for us is to provide the vital historial, religious, and political context to the New Testament (NT) narratives, a context that is missing or out of focus for most Christians, who, wanting to focus mainly on the Gospel message, also absorb the palpable anti-Jewish tone throughout the narratives. Rivkin points out repeatedly that the anti-Jewish tone must be understood in the right context and cannot be construed as being anti-semitic in intent or interpreted as some kind of justication for the Christ-killer libel that has been propagated against Jews for centuries. In other words, for Christians, there is no justification based on NT Scripture that the Jews crucified Jesus; and, for Jews, there is no justification for slandering the writers of the NT by saying that they hated the Jewish people and thereby have spread their presumed hatred to the world through the NT Gospels, Letters, and histories. There is much more to this book, and it is worth the inexpensive price. It should be read by itself for the analysis and style, although it is repetitive in places because it is apparently an edited compilation of speeches by the author on the topic of Christian anti-semitism. An if any Christian doubts the extent of Christian anti-semitism in Church history and today, let him or her also read another seminal title, "The Anguish of the Jews" by the eminent and scholarly priest-author Edward Flannery, who died in 10/98 in his 80's. These books deal with a topic that is as current as today's headlines, on an issue that is at the heart of peace and justice in the world today, and at the heart the prophetic stories in the Bible. Importantly, Rivkin's book can give Jews and Christians another reason to understand and even trust each other a little bit more because of their common heritage and their G-d, in spite of doctrinal differences.

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This landmark book by noted scholar Dr. Ellis Rivkin examines the legacy of the Gospels, which traditionally assigned the responsibility for the arrest, trial, and crucifixion of Jesus to the Jewish people.

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Palaces of Time: Jewish Calendar and Culture in Early Modern Europe Review

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(More customer reviews)We take for granted time as a natural and cultural regulator of the life of society and of each individual but the calendar is in large measure man-made. In the past, high cultures had their own. This is a wonderful book, erudite and yet entertaining in every way. The design and manufacture are a credit to Harvard University Press. Text and illustrations are glorious. Palaces of Time grips the reader as tightly as any thriller, a remarkable achievement for such a thoughtful book. It makes a delightful gift but don't start reading, be warned: you won't put it down. The only heaviness is the sadness of the cyclical persecutions by Christians and the reaction of Jewish communities to oppression and discrimination. In itself a regrettable episode of history which explains the tensions in today's world. Although outside the scope of the book, I would have liked to read an early chapter describing the ancient Jewish perception of sacred time which explains the solar-lunar calendar, the Sabbath, the festivals, the day divided by sunrise and sunset and thus the unequal length of hours in summer and winter. The Essenes were, I think, the last to hold to this based on the Book of Jubilees.

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