Heaven on Earth: The Lives and Legacies of the World's Greatest Cathedrals

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It is such a great chapter, and would make a remarkable little booklet unto itself that I really can't complain too much that it's such a departure from the rest of the book (though it did take me a little bit to get used to the notion). But these are small criticisms of an otherwise first-rate book; and they are not so damning: for even in these travel sections Kadri's research is prodigious and his descriptions of the abuses of Islamic law, such as in the area of blasphemy in Pakistan, very affecting. At its best, Heaven on Earth is a meditation on how decline – and the attendant loss of self-confidence – can reduce the once grand ideas of a civilisation to petty rigidities. This is a huge question, and we can only accomplish the task piece by piece, with love as our guide, our strength and our respite.” It’s a continuous process of refining our inner and outer selves. Better to be consistent than perfect. But beyond that, the book is sound, it is orthodox, it is Biblical -- throughout Brooks points the reader to The Book and The One Who inspired it. His aim is to show "that believers may in this life attain unto a well-grounded assurance of their everlasting happiness and blessedness." He then goes on to examine the nature of that assurance, hindrances that keep believers from it, reasons to encourage believers to seek it, and how they can go about it, the difference between true and counterfeit assurance, as well as answering questions about assurance. Examining the doctrine from so many angles, you really feel (and probably do) that you come away from this book having an exhaustive look at the doctrine.

A vivid narrative that connects the lives of four great astronomers as they discovered, refined, and popularized the first major scientific discovery of the modern era: that the Earth moves around the Sun.The suffering siant may be assaulted, but not vanquished; he may be troubled, but can never be conquered; he may lose his head, but he cannot lose his crown, which the righteous Lord hath prepared and laid up for him.....The Lord causes His goodness to pass before His people, and His face to shine upon His people in times of suffering.....for the praise of His own grace, and for the glory of His own name." (69)

Mr. Muravchik explains in the epilogue the only case of a successful socialist community, the kibbutzim in Israel. Successful yes, but only for a generation or two. What happened? You can safely read this book, no matter what your prejudices may be. This is not a politically biased book, it is history, factual, with names, locations, dudes, and their doings. No refuting the facts. It covers the whole wide-world, in their main scenarios, the main characters of the farce, their stories, their origin and their outcome. It is history from the street level. There's more action here than in all Tom Cruise's movies, and nothing is fake.To him, a plumber was a plumber, not a proletarian. A worker was a guy trying to squeeze the most he could out of his job and hoping to get a better one. And if he was something more than flesh and blood, as he assuredly was, it was not because he was an embodiment of historical processes, but rather a husband, father, worshiper, patriot, pianist, artist, baseball player.” Gotta love common-sense like that. One way of finding balance and harmony in one’s household is to simplify areas in our lives from material possessions to more abstract ones including commitments and daily activities. Chapter 6—which takes more than its fair share of space, almost half of the book—is an extended detour from the point of the book, but it still serves to support the theme. He begins by saying, "In the previous chapter, you saw the seven choice things which accompany salvation. But for your further and fuller edification, satisfaction, confirmation, and consolation, it will be very necessary that I show you," these seven choice things. Which are:

Before reading this book I was convinced that socialism presented a naïve and alluringly simplistic reading of history without presenting any useful or workable solutions to its diagnosed injustices. Social democratic systems have proven far superior, allowing the 'invisible hand' of capitalism to direct an economy, that human minds are incapable of, whilst occasionally intervening to prevent unfair business practices and to garantee key rights (healthcare for example). After reading this book my convictions have largely remained the same, if not reinforced.You are the foundation of your child's entire life. The way you handle yourself when his emotions run high can be a bridge for him whereby he discovers the fundamentals: problems exist, they are challenging, and they can be resolved to the benefit of everyone involved.” All of the socialist societies had to adapt capitalist tendencies in their economies to survive, which were completely against the original tenets of the socialism set forth by its original creators,such as Hess and Marx. Even the kibbutz that scholars and socialists have held up as examples that socialism can work (I remember reading about those in school)are starting to break down. The only small social communes that have been able to be relatively successful are those that revolve around religion, which ironically is something that most socialist leaders oppose.