Book Description
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Table of Contents. Read the
Introduction.
Winner of the 2007 Society for Cinema and Media Studies Katherine Singer Kovacs Book Award
”The standard convergence narrative of recent years presents media concentration as a threat both to the diversity of communication channels and to individuals' opportunities to engage in public discourse. A respected and well-established media scholar, Jenkins (MIT) here counters such pessimistic perspectives on the brave new media world with theoretical and evidentiary attestations to the growing power of individuals and grassroots groups to affect the larger media landscape.”
—Choice
“Jenkins is an astute observer of media culture and his insights are spot-on. . . . He intends his book to be a powerful tool both now and in the future. . . . This is a book to be praised. It raises many issues.”
—Los Angeles Times
"Remarkable. . . . Jenkins' insights are gripping and his prose is surprisingly entertaining and lucid for a book that is, at its core, intellectually rigorous. . . . Jenkins' impressive ability to break down complex concepts into readable prose makes this study vital and engaging."
—Publishers Weekly
"Jenkins tries to bring clarity to cultural changes that are melting and morphing into new shapes on an hourly, daily, weekly, monthly basis.
Convergence Culture provides a view that looks at the restless ocean and tracks the currents rather than just looking at the individual rocks on the beach."
—The McClatchy Newspapers
“I thought I knew twenty-first century pop media until I read Henry Jenkins. The fresh research and radical insights in
Convergence Culture deserve a wide and thoughtful readership. Bring on the `monolithic block of eyeballs!'”
—Bruce Sterling, author, blogger, visionary
"Henry Jenkins offers crucial insight into an unexpected and unforeseen future. Unlike most predictions about how New Media will shape the world in which we live, the reality is turning out far stranger and more interesting than we might have imagined. The social implications of this change could be staggering."
—Will Wright, designer of SimCity and The Sims
“One of those rare works that is closer to an operating system than a traditional book: it's a platform that people will be building on for years to come. What's more, the book happens to be a briskly entertaining read—as startling, inventive, and witty as the culture it documents. It should be mandatory reading for anyone trying to make sense of today's popular culture—but thankfully, a book this fun to read doesn't need a mandate.”
—Steven Johnson, author of the national bestseller, Everything Bad Is Good For You
"Henry Jenkins is the 21st century McLuhan I've been waiting for. With all the fuzzy generalities, moral panics, and gloomy pronouncements from industry spokesmen and social critics, Jenkins' clearly communicated and nuanced analysis is sorely needed. The world McLuhan foretold back in the age of 'electric media' has become immensely more complicated in today's many-to-many, converged, remixed and mashed-up, digital, mobile, always-on media environment. If you are a parent, a student, an educator, a creator or consumer of popular culture, an entrepreneur, or a media industry executive, you need to understand convergence culture. And you will only after reading Henry Jenkins."
—Howard Rheingold, author of Smart Mobs: The Next Social Revolution
"For any Sony PS3 execs out there wondering why their technological masterpiece is being ridiculed by customers before its even released . . .
Convergence Culture is a must read...Jenkins offers numerous insights on how technology and media professionals can forge better relationships with their customers."
—Slashdot
"I simply could not put this book down! Henry Jenkins provides a fascinating account of how new media intersects old media and engages the imagination of fans in more and more powerful ways. Educators, media specialists, policy makers and parents will find
Convergence Culture both lively and enlightening."
—John Seely Brown, Former Chief Scientist, Xerox Corp & director of Xerox PARC
"Henry Jenkins is the Director of MIT's Comparative Media Studies Program. Or, in other words, he's a genius. He's one of those rare people you meet and are instantly jealous of, wishing you could somehow transplant their amazing wealth of knowledge into your own noggin. I was privileged to have made his acquaintance when he interviewed me for his fabulous new book,
Convergence Culture...Go read it, you just might learn something."
—The Heather Show
"The book is a short, smart, buttery read on a hot topic, and it is sure to draw both popular and academic interest."
—Water Cooler Games
”
Convergence Culture, is for anyone who is curious about future trends at the intersection of technology and humanity. Jenkins tries to bring clarity to cultural changes that are melting and morphing into new shapes on an hourly, daily, weekly, monthly basis.
Convergence Culture provides a view that looks at the restless ocean and tracks the currents rather than just looking at the individual rocks on the beach.”
—Ledger-Enquierer
Convergence Culture maps a new territory: where old and new media intersect, where grassroots and corporate media collide, where the power of the media producer and the power of the consumer interact in unpredictable ways.
Henry Jenkins, one of America's most respected media analysts, delves beneath the new media hype to uncover the important cultural transformations that are taking place as media converge. He takes us into the secret world of Survivor Spoilers, where avid internet users pool their knowledge to unearth the show's secrets before they are revealed on the air. He introduces us to young Harry Potter fans who are writing their own Hogwarts tales while executives at Warner Brothers struggle for control of their franchise. He shows us how The Matrix has pushed transmedia storytelling to new levels, creating a fictional world where consumers track down bits of the story across multiple media channels.Jenkins argues that struggles over convergence will redefine the face of American popular culture. Industry leaders see opportunities to direct content across many channels to increase revenue and broaden markets. At the same time, consumers envision a liberated public sphere, free of network controls, in a decentralized media environment. Sometimes corporate and grassroots efforts reinforce each other, creating closer, more rewarding relations between media producers and consumers. Sometimes these two forces are at war.
Jenkins provides a riveting introduction to the world where every story gets told and every brand gets sold across multiple media platforms. He explains the cultural shift that is occurring as consumers fight for control across disparate channels, changing the way we do business, elect our leaders, and educate our children.
Customer Reviews:
Surprisingly Good.......2007-10-08
I got this for university purposes, nothing more. Was actually surprisingly enjoyable, and considering that Jenkins professes his faults, surprisingly good. I was unaware of his expertise and prestige previously, so I had a nicely unbiased view. Weirdly, an enjoyable read.
Intersections: collisions and traffic flow.......2007-07-31
Jenkins is a genius. Not only does he provide a theoretically grounded book explaining cultural mass media...but he writes in a manner the masses can understand. Bravo! Convergence culture...the place of multiple media collisions and smooth traffic flow of participatory culture. This book is a must read for any scholar interested in understanding "new" literacies.
Good introduction to modern media culture.......2007-06-26
Henry Jenkins is one of the least dogmatic, most pragmatic voices on contemporary media culture. Unlike many other critics of electronic games and culture, he doesn't slavishly follow any particular school of thought; Jenkins consistently charts his own path, based primarily on research rather than preconceived notions. Like Lawrence Lessig, Henry Jenkins is always worth reading.
That said, this is not a book for specialists. It's most effective as an introduction to "convergence culture"; experienced participants in digital community will find much of the book to be familiar ground. I hoped to see Jenkins extend his arguments, with more detailed exploration of each case and more thorough contextualization of the academic theory he references (e.g. the work of Pierre Levy).
In presenting his perspectives, Jenkins also neglects significant details of some of his supporting examples - e.g. the execrable state of code for "Enter the Matrix", or LucasArts' infamously counterproductive community management for "Star Wars: Galaxies". Such omissions are particularly surprising because they would deepen his case rather than compromising it. His point, after all, isn't to draw a clear path to the future, but rather to map the multivalent dependencies and challenges which must be negotiated along the way.
Ultimately, "Convergence Culture" is only an introduction, a brief safari into lands still marked (on mass-cultural maps) as "frontiers undefined". Readers already exploring those frontiers will encounter few surprises. Newcomers (latecomers?) to "convergence culture", however, will find no better place to start.
What an amazing book.......2007-05-19
"Convergence Culture - where old and new media collide" by Henry Jenkins is one of the most exciting books I have read in the last months. It provides a new understanding of media, interaction and user collaboration. After the magificent volumes from Lawrence Lessig "Convergence Culture" helps to enlarge the media perspective.
A thought-provoking and thorough analysis of online participatory culture.......2007-01-16
Henry Jenkins is one of the foremost researchers in the field of online culture, and in "Convergence Culture" he presents many of his timely ideas. In brief, Jenkins' states that convergence is a deployment of content across mediums. A movie might have different incarnations in an online discussion groups, a movie created by a fan, a book, a game, and finally, the movie itself. (The alluring but dated idea of traditional convergence, a "black box" that serves to unite multiple delivery methods, has thankfully been set aside) Entire chapters are devoted to in-depth analyses of how certain advertising campaigns have incorporated transmedia storytelling. Chapter 3 looks at the Matrix, and how fans have followed it through multiple incarnations, resulting in a multi-medium campaign that not only had a certain mystique, but was deep enough for fans of all levels to follow.
At the best points in the book, Jenkins produces insights that rival the best qualitative research; "Convergence Culture" accurately and colorfully follows the emergence of new ways of consuming media and connecting with people. Unlike many books on new media, he has created a very fairly evaluated and expansive book on a "hot" topic. His one central idea has implications for many different aspects of the interaction of mass communication and society. This is one of the more thought-provoking books I've read in the last year.
Book Description
Galileo, Copernicus, Newton, Niels Bohr, Einstein. Their insights shook our perception of who we are and where we stand in the world, and in their wake have left an uneasy coexistence: science vs. religion, faith vs. empirical inquiry. Which is the keeper of truth? Which is the true path to understanding reality?
After forty years of study with some of the greatest scientific minds, as well as a lifetime of meditative, spiritual, and philosophic study, the Dalai Lama presents a brilliant analysis of why all avenues of inquiry—scientific as well as spiritual—must be pursued in order to arrive at a complete picture of the truth. Through an examination of Darwinism and karma, quantum mechanics and philosophical insight into the nature of reality, neurobiology and the study of consciousness, the Dalai Lama draws significant parallels between contemplative and scientific examinations of reality.
This breathtakingly personal examination is a tribute to the Dalai Lama’s teachers—both of science and spirituality. The legacy of this book is a vision of the world in which our different approaches to understanding ourselves, our universe, and one another can be brought together in the service of humanity.
Customer Reviews:
a wonderful prospect.......2007-09-16
This is an inexpressibly beautiful book, in which H. H. the Dalai Lama describes a kind of "middle way" between scientific materialism and spirituality without science. If only more people would embrace a combining of scientific endeavor with spiritual values as the Dalai Lama proposes here! We are extraordinarily fortunate that he has made his thoughts available to us at a time when both the wonders and dangers of science grow so rapidly and that he demonstrates the possibility of dialogue between a spiritual leader such as himself with members of the scientific community.
More to the Universe than Science.......2007-07-23
The Dalai Lama's genuine and insightful look at the parallels between the Buddhist faith and Science are quite refreshing. He does a good job demonstrating the limits of scientific observation, while also demonstrating a great appreciation for what Science has to offer Humankind. His comparison of the Buddhist concept of emptiness to the mysteries of quantum physics was fascinating. If you have not delved into the absurdly mysterious workings of quantum physics, I emphatically suggest you do so. I feel many scientists think that they can necessarily explain everything, while the Universe keeps suggesting otherwise.
This was my first exposure to Buddhism, and I found it much more reasonable and open-minded than mainstream Christianity. I am agnostic, but I have not felt that there was a God in the Judeo-Christian-Islamic sense (a tinkerer) since high school. While I am not planning on converting, I find Buddhism a much more palatable religious philosophy (but I digress). I sought this book as a different perspective from the all too often materialistic view point of Scientific Academia (I am a graduate student in biochemistry). In this sense the book was quite successful. I would have given 4 & 1/2 stars if that were an option.
Choppy but brilliant..........2007-07-06
This book lacks the fluidity one might be hoping for but, since it's translated from the words of the brilliant Dalai Lama, you will forgive the choppiness well before finishing the first chapter.
This book explains both the similarities and the differences between Buddhist thought and scientific exploration. The Dalai Lama speaks of the reasons why a religious or spiritual path should not ignore new discoveries in the scientific field but, instead, grow towards incorporating new findings in order to develop more soundly.
It's interesting to hear of the Dalai Lama's research on physics, quantum mechanics, evolution, the big bang hypothesis, the singularity, and more. He has met with some of the most prominent scientific researchers of our time and is truly working towards the unification of spirituality and science as well as the expansion of human understanding.
Though I have always had great respect for the Buddhist path, my admiration for Buddhist principles has increased since reading this wonderful book. Though it may not be an easy read for most, it is well worth the effort.
A Level-Headed Look at Science and Religion.......2007-04-19
As a Zen student with a Ph.D. in physics I often ponder the integration of scientific and religious world views. This is a bit easier for Buddhists because our religion places less emphasis on belief than other faiths do. I see science as a tool that uses measurement to understand nature, while religion deals with ethics and human experience. The Dalai Lama comes to similar conclusions, although more eloquently, in his book "The Universe in a Single Atom."
Both science and religion inspire a sense of wonder and help us understand our place in the cosmos, so comparing them, as the Dalai Lama does in this book, can be worthwhile. He writes well about science. I found his descriptions of physics accurate, although he missed some of the subtleties of the EPR experiment. As expected from a meditator, he points out that science has yet to explore subjective experience. The Dalai Lama draws parallels between the empirical exploration of mental states in the Tibetan tradition and the scientific method. This empiricism first drew me to Buddhism. In fact, my intimate thoughts and feelings have often seemed more immediate and real than some ghostly trace on an oscilloscope that represents "objective reality."
The Dalai Lama gently points out questionable assumptions made by scientific reductionists. For the most part I think his criticisms are valid. Although he's willing to abandon doctrines disproved by modern science, I wonder if the Dalai Lama would be willing to put the Buddhist bedrock teachings of karma and rebirth to the empirical test. If these are truly universal laws, they should be demonstrable by more than personal anecdote. I would have been interested if he'd discussed this more.
This is a fascinating, well-written book. I recommend it to fellow Buddhists and anyone interested in the interaction between science and religion.
Interesting, but somewhat abstruse........2007-01-22
Albert Einstein believed that Buddhism reflected modern science quite well. This book supports that contention. The Dalai Lama is clearly a great thinker with a deep interest in science. The early sections of the book deal with the relationship of Buddhism with relativity theory and quantum physics. The commonality of the Buddhist and modern physics ideas of reality and emptiness is striking, but I found the latter section on consciousness a bit harder to follow.
Reading this book gave me a feeling - but just a feeling - for Buddhism and the depth of Buddhist philosophy. In many ways, it appears to be as complicated and abstruse as modern physics. I would recommend this book to those interested in the more philosophical aspects of modern physics and to those who know about Buddhism and are interested in how it relates to modern scientific thought. However, if you are not interested in either of these subjects, this may not be the book for you.
Customer Reviews:
Terrific Resource.......2007-05-31
I love teaching with this book. I've used it for five semesters, and have never repeated a course. Each one of the selections can inspire six weeks of discussion, the issues are so complex and provocative. Nevertheless, there is a handful of work I would drop in the next edition, for example, the Reality T.V. essay is not well organized; even though the subject remains relevant, this is not the essay with which to open the exploration. There are also some photos which haven't awoken any interesting conversations. (Whereas the Sally Mann group has been a source of eternal delight and debate.) I'm ready for a new edition, but Mr.Atwan is the author-editor I'll stick with. (Check out his America Now, also from Bedford St. Martins. This is the editor's eye you want trained on your classroom.)
Great Text!.......2004-07-24
I used this book for an English 101 class during my freshman year of college. This book inspired a composition class that I enjoyed thoroughly. Never had I had so much fun writing and analyzing before in a class. I would strongly recommend this text for any teachers/professors searching. Students love the non-traditional topics, diverse contributors, and unique voice this book provides to the class.
Highly Recommended for Composition Courses.......2003-08-25
I truly regret not ordering this text for my composition courses this semester but I definitely will teach it next semester. I have been reading through it and I find that it is carefully structured. The themes focused on are fascinating. I can well see how students would become drawn to this text. There are a wealth of essays, short stories, commentaries, and images here: the images are just a wonder, ranging many different subjects. The images are followed by questions designed to provoke deep thought. What a way to encourage class discussion and encourage students to stop and carefully examine what they see! I congratulate the author for a superb job.
Book Description
Popular quilting expert Ricky Tims presents an imaginative new piecing technique that quilters will adore! Convergence quilts feature two or more fabrics cut into strips, sewn together, then cut and pieced again. They may look complex but are fun and easy to make. Four projects walk you through the process, and Tims shows how to add appliqué, beadwork, and other decorative touches to achieve an infinite number of looks from one ingenious technique!
Customer Reviews:
Ricky Tim's Convergence Quilts.......2007-09-11
One look inside and I just couldn't wait to make won of these. Easier than they look. They can be so very pretty.
An easy technique that makes everyone say WOW!.......2007-08-25
Some quilting books show gorgeous quilts that you know you'll never make. The techniques are complex and time consuming, or the writing fails to give you confidence that you understand the steps involved. Perhaps it'd make sense if someone showed you just once... but the instructions are confusing.
Ricky Tims avoids these pitfalls, with a book that is *incredibly* well written -- and yields brilliant results.
Just how easy is this? I made my first convergence quilt top in two or three hours, while I was also watching a baseball game, using 4 fat quarters that I already had on hand. And I'm no quilting wiz.
Since then, I've made two additional convergence quilts, and I'm sure to make several more (the holidays are coming, after all). As a quilting instructor pointed out, these are like potato chips, in that you can't stop at one. I've loved every quilt I've made, and so has everyone who has seen these quilts.
Do note that the basic quilt is very small -- perfect for a wall quilt but not much more. I think you could create several of these as blocks to turn into a bed quilt, but you'd be on your own to do so. The quilt is so easy to make and I like the results so much that I am tempted to give it a try.
This would be a great book for someone who is fairly new to quilting. I wouldn't suggest it as your very first book (you should do at least a few small traditional projects first), but the forgiving nature of the techique is sure to give you a quilt to be proud of. It's all straight lines, and despite the appearance of the quilt it has no complex piecing. What fun! Highly recommended.
Convergence Quilting.......2007-06-07
This book is a fantastic starting point to creating your own convergence quilt. The step-by-step instructions are very clear and the examples so varied and intriguing that you are inspired to step outside your comfort zone and create something totally unique and different. If you're ready to try a new and exciting technique, this book is for you!
Simple but spectacular.......2007-04-05
What a fun concept this technique is for both beginning and experienced quilters. It is basic strip piecing and takes advantage of some of the fabulous batiks and hand-dyed fabrics available today. Most of my quilting friends who've used this book took their basic Convergence pieced quilt top and embellished/appliqued them to the nth degree. It is a contemporary look to say the least.
This Book is FUN!!.......2007-03-06
Once again I will sing the praises of Ricky Tims and his "think outside of the box" tips & techniques. He understands we are not all degreed artists, and some us are a bit more creatively challenged than others. He, once again, shows some simple, yet at times a bit daring, techniques that will yield results to impress even the best artists. (I know because I was able to WOW a couple of pros with Masters Degrees in Graphic Art.) Anyone can do this, even children. You just need to be able to bring yourself to sew it together then cut it apart, a phobia you will quickly get over. Ricky actually shows you how to "break the rules" and live with yourself for doing so, because the results are amazing & totally unique every time! These techniques work with any fabric or color choice. (I intentionally put together 3 fabrics that normally would not work with each other- purple, orange, and green- just to see, and had fantastic results!) You can't go wrong, no matter what choices you make, and best of all, you don't waste fabric! It takes only a little to "test" your idea, and even that becomes a work of art all on its own. I HIGHLY recommend this book... It is FUN!!!!!
Book Description
This book provides an account of weak convergence theory and empirical processes and their applications to a wide variety of applications in statistics. The first part of the book presents a thorough account of stocastic convergence in its various forms. Part 2 brings together the theory of empirical processes in a form accessible to statisticians and probabilists. In Part 3, the authors cover a range of topics which demonstrate the applicability of the theory to important questions such as: limit theorems in asymptotic statistics; measures of goodness of fit; the bootstrap; and semiparametric estimation. Most of the sections conclude with "problems and complements". Some of these are exercises to help the reader's understanding of the material whereas others are intended to supplement the text.
Customer Reviews:
The best book on empirical processes........2000-03-27
It's a beautifully written book. Many useful techniques with examples of application. Great reference book. Must have in your library.
Customer Reviews:
Missing References.......2007-06-27
I love the book in and of itself. It is very clear and concise as to both theory and process for pursuing the Accountable Leadership process.
My one bug with the book is that there is little in the way of any Biblical study and underpinning to this. I find that too bad because it is a good organizational model that can be demonstrated from Biblical principles. It would have been immensely helpful to have more on that end.
That does not diminish my rating since what the book proposes to do it does very well. I highly recommend this book to church leadership both staff and lay leaders.
Change the title.......2006-11-10
The title and cover are horrible. Had a friend not recommended the book, I would have never read it.
The content of the book, however, is amazing. Well done and very, very helpful. Every church leader should read this book.
Customer Reviews:
A Must Read.......2007-09-27
I have never written a review on Amazon before, but the negative feedback this book is getting needs to be overcome. This book is a must read for any denominational worker. Paul Borden's leadership has resulted in the only denominational entity in this century that has "turned around" a majority of plateaued and declining churches. The uniqueness of this accomplishment makes this a must read. As a Ph.D. and church consultant for over twenty years, this book makes a significant contribution to the field of church growth. To get a better insight into how the denomination helped these churches, read the trilogy--this book, "Direct Hit" by Paul Borden and "Winning on Purpose" by John Kaiser.
Not helpful.......2006-11-16
This book is repetitive and poorly edited. I had a hard time getting past the lack of agreement of verb and subject, lack of parallel structure, sentence fragments and incorrectly spelled words. If there were two editors, as indicated on the cover, I can only wonder what they were editing for, certainly not ease in reading which is fostered by flowing sentences and good punctuation.
The author is very limited in his idea of what the church is and what it is for. By throwing out old metaphors, he thinks the church can turn from dysfunctional behaviors and be renewed. Where is Scripture in the solutions he promotes? What about the Scriptural description of the body where ALL parts are needed and we cannot say to one part, "I have no need of you."? He says that his solutions focus on the congregations and then describes a very hierarchical, corporate, quantitatively driven structure.
There are some good descriptions of places where the church has failed and needs to reform, especially the area of accountability. But in the wordy, wandering text, it's hard to isolate a lot more about this book that I find helpful in my context as part of the Reformed tradition.
Narrow Audience.......2006-09-22
This book has a very narrowly defined audience - those who are in church governance. For that audience it is a very challenging book and worth reading. It is not perfect but it could be a critical tool for those who are seeking to renew the old mainline denominations that have long been on the sidelines.
Almost Misses the Target.......2005-10-15
It will be hard for anyone to suggest whether or not another person should read this book. At some points I thought it was great and offered fresh, valuable ideas. At other points I wanted to toss it in the trash and suggest no one read it. The best I can do in this review is offer you a few of my "perceived" pros and cons and let you decide for yourselves. I am not an expert in this subject, but in my 29 years of ministry experience I have served 5 churches, 4 of which showed growth. I have also served in what Borden might call judicatory leadership in another denomination.
PROS:
At last someone offers a paradigm in which denominational leadership leaves the boring offices of bureaucracy and enters the field of consultation to come along side pastors in local churches! Everyone always says it's all about the local church, but leadership seldom seems to act like it. Three cheers for this proposed paradigm.
Thankfully Borden raises the bar on pastoral expectations, at least in the area of productivity. Too many pastors are hired who should never be behind the pulpit and once the mistake is discovered, too few are out counseled into other areas of service. I think Borden's style is a little strong and in reality there are reasons other than leadership incompetence that can cause churches not to grow. Some reasons are beyond control. Still, raising the bar doesn't hurt, if done thoughtfully, and is sorely needed.
I applaud the effort to help churches become missional. Too many churches routinely go too many years with no conversions. This is a mark of ill health.
Borden writes from personal experience. Who can help but be emotionally moved to see the churches of a large geographical area revitalized and brought back to life? May this story happen again and again across the country and in many denominations.
I also am impressed with Borden's ability to create a large intricate movement. His ability to cover all details, his passion, his strong personality, and his recruitment techniques would make it hard to fail.
CONS:
First, Borden routinely writes about community and church "family" as if the communal nature of church detracts from mission. To be Christian is to be in community. This is not just organizational community (i.e. an employee at Wal Mart), but spiritual community. If I must place community on the back burner to build the church, I sacrifice too much. The church is the assembly of those who have been called out of the world (ecclesia) and the fellowship of those who have been called together (koinonia) in the name of Christ. The mission of the church is to lead souls to Christ, but this is not the only reason for the church's existence. The church, the Bride of Christ, will still be in existence long after heaven and earth pass away and there are no more souls to lead to Christ.
Second, Borden speaks as if leading people to Christ is everything, or at least the most important thing. I once believed like that. We lead people to Christ, so we can train them to lead others to Christ, so they in turn can lead others to Christ, and we will build up the church and someday those who were saved can be with Him in heaven. One day I thought, "What are we doing here?" We are peddling our product like a pyramid marketing scheme! Christ is more than that. We are so concerned with bringing people to Christ that few are taking the time to be with Christ right now! The kingdom of heaven isn't just someday. It's at hand here and now. There is more to salvation than many evangelicals stop to dwell on. When a bride and groom consummate their relationship children are born. When the Church (Bride of Christ) comes together with the groom (Christ) spiritual babies are the natural result. There is nothing about community or spiritual formation that should detract from evangelism.
Finally, how about a little fair play here? Borden repeatedly gives his employees and pastors timetables for performance or their jobs are at risk. But he also asks them to promise that they'll stick with the program a certain amount of time to work through the hard times. In the early portions of the book he equates the church to an athletic team. If a player doesn't produce, the player is traded. No hard feelings, that's just the way it works. True, but this also creates a system of free agency and a mentality of players who go to the highest bidder. He wrestles with this by using 2 million from the judicatory's funds to recruit and train leadership. He also negotiates with local churches for pastors' salaries. Leadership recruitment is a big hurdle. This worked well for the five years it was studied. What will happen over the next decade?
MY RECOMMENDATION:
Get the book. Read it. Discuss how it can be beneficial to you. Don't throw away the baby with the bath water. There's some good stuff here. On the other hand don't swallow everything that's thrown your way. There are some gaps that need to be addressed, perhaps in a sequel?
The Church's mission.......2005-08-19
If you understand a Church to be a mission outpost and that most of the work of being a follower of Christ is outside of the Church walls -- this book is an excellent account how the American Baptist have turned around many of their Churches in the Western USA.
Book Description
From a cuneiform tablet to a Chicago prison, from the depths of the cosmos to the text on our T-shirts, Lawrence Weschler finds strange connections wherever he looks. The farther one travels (through geography, through art, through science, through time), the more everything seems to converge — at least, it does if you're looking through Weschler's giddy, brilliant eyes. Weschler combines his keen insights into art, his years of experience as a chronicler of the fall of Communism, and his triumphs and failures as the father of a teenage girl into a series of essays sure to illuminate, educate, and astound.
Customer Reviews:
everything that rises--------->.......2007-10-02
This is what art criticism at its best should do - converge themes from present and our rich history in a clear language.... not obfuscating academic deconstruction but brilliant exposition with beautiful language and so many rich references - it's a joy to read and it actually affirms the fact that you already have very rich knowledge base inside (instead of trying to teach and preach). It weaves our factoids into a beautiful tapestry of human experience, synthesizing and unraveling our time here.
Wonderful Book for Writer's Block.......2006-11-21
Lawrence Weschler has a powerful mind. The essays in this collection cover such divergent topics as art to politics. The author, however, finds was to connect seemingly unrelated works. The essays are a camera into a very thoughtful mind who looks at the world and tries to connect it to himself and tries to connect the edges to each other.
I personally had purchased this book and was reading it during a time of poetic writer's block and I found the essays so thought provoking that I produced at least 3 new pages of writing.
The only drawback is that a few of the essays are a bit dated. I am referring here to primarily those on Solidarity. I feel to really understand those in better detail I would have to do some more research on that time in our history.
This is a great intellectual read and is a pleasure for the eye as well with great photography and artwork within its' hardcover pages.
Emergence through convergence.......2006-08-30
For its strange and compelling originality, I gave this book five stars. Author Lawrence Weschler's visual connections are unlike anything I have ever been exposed to. And it was because of this work, that when I was compiling photos for my parents' 50th wedding anniversary, that I began to notice family photographic "echoes."
A picture of my 1-year old brother in his stroller, mouth wide open in toothless glee, reaching toward the camera, echoed a photo taken at family gathering 45 years later in which the only things different are the chair in which he sits and his gleaming teeth. His body language, his expression, even his adult-sized outstretched arm are the same as the boy from the stroller.
These sorts of echoes are commonly seen in your standard `grip-and-grin" shots at traditional events such as birthdays and weddings. But in one-off photos like the baby/adult ones of my brother, there's something more at work. Did a buried memory surface when a similar photographic situation arose that caused him to echo his own pose from 45 years before?
That might explain the same person subconsciously reacting to a similarly presented situation, but it fails to explain completely separate scenes, at different times, featuring a random set of people or circumstances that nonetheless are captured in an eerily identical composition to each another by artists not known to one another.
Not all the connections in this book are photographic. Weschler includes geographical, artistic, scientific, and architectural connections, too, in which human behavior could not have influenced the outcome. This is a provocative look at an unusual and inexplicable phenomenon of things that converge between time and place.
Everything and everything else.......2006-06-12
Weschler says, in his introduction, that his publisher heard about one of Weschler's notebooks, one full of ideas that had not yet been put into print. The result is this lovely volume, a loose collection of gentle and wide-ranging speculations, most often driven by some kind of visual analogy.
In some, the parallel elements are clear. For example, p.9 shows, a cavernous ruin excavated during cleanup after the World Trade Center attacks. On the same page, it also shows a work by Piranesi, in his Carceri d' Invenzione (forgive my Italian: that may be "Dungeon of Invention"), with the same harsh but ambiguous lighting. There are certainly similarities in the two structures and compositions, but deeper similarities lie in reading each as a technological hellhole. Other sets of pictures, including the portraits on p.62, elude my sense of analogy. That's OK. This is a personal and unpolished set of musings coaxed into publication, possibly before its ideas had ripened fully, and I'm happy to have it be what it is.
I keep trying to liken this book to James Burke's "Connections," but the connection keeps not working. Burke's work is generally taut, sustained, fast-paced, and more or less rigorous in tracing the lineage between successive ideas. This book is unapologetically scattered and subjective. Ideas link to each other along circuitous routes, and with wider concerns than Burke's focus on technology. Weschler's softer topics include "Women's Bodies", in which he addresses his subject lovingly, but as a marvel and a mystery - well, don't we all? At least, all of us who aren't women?
His best writing, however is in the chapter on "Political Occasions." It describes the freeing of Eastern Europe and especially Poland during the 1980s and 1990s. He creates a dichotomy between the Polish regime and the Polish people, whom he idealizes in wonderful ways. If I take Weschler at face value, the Poles are a people who have uniquely integrated their arts, politics, and lives, based on examples in graphics, poetry, theater, and literature. (I also respect their rich mathematics, but Weschler is an artist.) As citizen-artists, they subvert their oppressors with the words of the oppressors, in subtle displays of thaumaturgic judo.
This is a book that I've wanted to see for a long time. Other books give beautiful examples of scientists reaching out from science into the subjective studies, and execrable examples of artists trying to do the same. This, instead, shows an artist reaching out towards science and politics within his cast of mind, and succeeding brilliantly.
//wiredweird
That Invisible Thread That Connects Us All.......2006-03-14
It is difficult to read Lawrence Wechsler's latest book without spinning off into realms of thought that defy description. The well known art historian and writer has gathered a series of essays that while not confined to art commentary still manage to reference 'art' on every level in which it influences our lives, our observations, and our deja vu!
EVERYTHING THAT RISES: A BOOK OF CONVERGENCES begins with the postulate that recognized or not, images rise and fall with some sense of continuity no matter how disparate or how separated in time - or even how ironically dissociative! To even summarize the contents of this book would seem a disservice to the potential reader: the joy in reading Wechsler's erudite yet lighthearted writing must be experienced in the manner in which he lays out his plethora of ideas.
But for teasers, Wechsler's 'conversations' and musings find similarities in such seemingly unassociated images as comparing a Myerowitz color photograph of the 9/11 firefighters resting with an anonymous black and white photograph of Union Army engineers in a nearly identical pose from the Civil War! Rembrandt's painting of the Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Tulp from 1632 is paced side by side with an uncanny photograph from the 1967 black and white photograph of Bolivian soldiers gathered around the slain Che Guevara and the similarity looks as though the latter image was posed with Rembrandt's painting as model!
But these are only two examples of the art related convergences Wechsler addresses. Other forms are from observed cloud formations, political posters, old and new landscapes, etc - or in Wechsler's words 'uncanny moments of convergence, bizarre associations, eerie rhymes, whispered recollections'. The beautifully illustrated book is well designed, richly interesting, and quite unlike any other volume that challenges our senses. Highly Recommended. Grady Harp, March 06
Average customer rating:
- comprehensive multicultural text
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Convergence of Race, Ethnicity, and Gender: Multiple Identities in Counseling, The (2nd Edition)
Tracey L. Robinson
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Counseling Diverse Populations
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Readings for Diversity and Social Justice: An Anthology on Racism, Sexism, Anti-Semitism, Heterosexism, Classism, and Ableism
ASIN: 0131186108 |
Customer Reviews:
comprehensive multicultural text.......2006-12-29
The book is organized well and easy to reference. Out of four required texts for my multicultural counseling class, this is the only book I kept in the end. The authors include interesting case studies at the end of each chapter that draw the material together.
Average customer rating:
- Obscure and too expensive
- Much more than eCommerce
- The Bible of E-Commerce Strategy
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E-Commerce
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Book Description
Once every decade a book comes along that becomes the standard in a field of study, the indispensable reference that every thoughtful practitioner must have on the shelf. Like Samuelson in Economics, Drucker in Management, and Porter in Strategy, Rayport and Jaworski have written what leaders in the New Economy are calling the standard in e-commerce strategy formulation.
e-Commerce presents managers and strategists with road-tested frameworks for competing in the New Economy. This presentation is organized to facilitate the decision-making process for formulating e-commerce enterprise strategy. The text progresses from framing market opportunities to a discussion of New Economy business models, customer interfaces, and communication and branding issues through to implementation, evaluation, and valuation of the online enterprise.
The textbook and companion casebook, E-Commerce and Cases in E-Commerce, are the first volumes produced for the McGraw-Hill/MarketspaceU learning series on e-commerce. McGraw-Hill/MarketspaceU have formed an alliance to develop and deliver exceptional higher education teaching materials on the latest business practices and theories by leading thinkers in the field of e-commerce. McGraw-Hill/MarketspaceU aim to equip present and future executives, managers, and strategists in becoming successful creators of value in the new economy. To accomplish this goal the alliance offers a multi-media suite of cutting-edge tools to help navigate the world of e-commerce. These tools include E-Commerce and Cases in E-Commerce, MarketspaceU.com, the McGraw-Hill Online Learning Center (OLC), and the McGraw-Hill E-Business Power Web.
MarketspaceU is part of Marketspace, a Monitor Group company. Monitor Group is a family of professional services firms linked by shared ownership, management philosophy and assets. Monitor’s roots can be traced back to the Harvard Business School – where a number of its founders studied and taught in the 1980s. Marketspace was founded in 1998. Jeffrey Rayport and Bernie Jaworski (two of its founders) are the principal authors of the first books produced by the McGraw-Hill/MarketspaceU alliance.
e-Commerce has already received early critical acclaim from academic and Internet business leaders:
“Rayport and Jaworski have defined the ‘space’. e-Commerce is a primary weapon in the e-business frontier. Do not let your competitors read this book--buy every copy…” Jeff Taylor, Founder and CEO, Monster.com
“Finally someone has put it all together! These leading thinkers have put in one place a brilliant and comprehensive framework for thinking through, planning, teaching and managing e-Business. And – beyond that – this book is a portal to a stream of the most complete set of online, video, and other resources for e-Business learning to date. Great insights. Powerful tools.” Ralph Oliva, Executive Director of the Institute for the Study of Business Markets and Professor of Marketing, Pennsylvania State University
“e-Commerce is the first textbook to show how firms gain competitive advantage in the New Economy. The authors introduce a number of new and innovative concepts, frameworks, and tools that benefit both students and managers. This book is destined to become the standard New Economy text in leading MBA programs.” John Quelch, Dean, London Business School
“This is a wonderfully designed pedagogical device. The chapters build foundationally, so as to empower the student to deal with unique New Economy concepts, like the DCF approach to valuation etc., towards the end. The chapters are filled with case vignettes, viewpoints, and thought bytes that draws the self-selected reader in, and engages them in a sophisticated debate regarding the Internet economy. The highlight of the book, for me, was the way linkages were provided to existing management concepts. Thus the reader is not left wondering what the connection to the old paradigm is, in fact the reader gets a working dose of those ideas in the book chapters. This makes the book a stand-alone, comprehensive text with a cutting-edge tone and content.” Kastori Rangan, Eliot I. Snider and Family Professor of Business Administration Harvard Business School
Customer Reviews:
Obscure and too expensive.......2002-12-27
As a professor of ecommerce I think that the authors have unnecesarily obscured a subject that deserves a better prose and a more logical thread of reasoning.Theirs is a text written for other academicians and contributors to the HBR, not for students, unless they are candidates to a very high academic degree. ...
Much more than eCommerce.......2001-08-16
This book is about much more than eCommerce. It is the handbook for doing business in the "New Economy". I have taught ecommerce courses in several universities and am familair with most of the titles avialable on this subject: none of them even come close. Read and study this book now before the competiton does.
The Bible of E-Commerce Strategy.......2000-12-22
Comprehensive and clear. A must read for anyone serious about winning in the E-Commerce space.
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