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When it was published this was the full, post-glasnost critical biography of Mikhail Bulgakov (1891-1940), a great comic writer whose works are regarded as modern classics. This account of Bulgakov's career as playwright and prose-writer examines all his works in the context of the changing demands put upon artists in the Soviet Union of the 1920s and 1930s, who were faced with the choice of integrity at the price of silence, or publication and production at the price of conformty with the totalitarian state. Lesley Milne traces through Bulgakov's career an ethical concept of the writer's role, his response to his time, and his search for an audience in and beyond that time. ... Read more

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Edited by Leslie Stephen. This Elibron Classics book is a facsimile reprint of a 1885 edition by Smith, Elder, & Co., London. ... Read more

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There is an immense dilemma, even a crisis, in Christian churches todayâ€"and it is shared by most other spiritual traditionsâ€"Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism and Islam. It is a dilemma of belief, and of trust. Lack of enthusiasm and dissatisfaction in congregations is pervasive, hyper-rigidity abounds, and many have completely closed their minds and hearts to any form of religion at all because they have been injured or angered by what they perceive as a lack of logic, or charityâ€"or both.

This book reveals a revolutionary biblical discovery that directly addresses this critical dilemma. During the first years of the Christian church, early followers not only elevated the traditional four gospels above all the other gospels and writings availableâ€"they placed them in a mysterious, non-chronological reading sequence and read them that way for over a thousand years. Why? Because the four Christian gospels tell a much greater story than the biography of Jesus!

Dr. Shaia unravels the divine inspiration of this mysterious sequence, and links it to universal, spiritual and anthropological as well as modern psychological understandings. He demonstrates the value of this perspective to create faith-filled lives that are relevant and useful in a time that is much more complex than village life millennia ago. He shows how we can trust in the gospels of Matthew, Mark, John and Luke, the core documents of the Christian faith, as revelations of divine truth, despite all of their discrepancies, mistranslations and centuries of abuse and misuse. In the sequence Dr. Shaia discloses, the gospels are the map of our never-ending spiritual journey. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Read this book!
I have read this book several times, and have listened to Dr. Shaia's interview on NPR, and each time, I have taken something new that have helped me understand the gospels. This is a very powerful book; Dr. Shaia is up there with Joseph Campbell and Carl Jung. I look forward to reading book two.

Excellently written and organized
The author has made the gospels very understandable and I would recommend this book for anyone.

Not Just for Old White Men
Before reading Dr. Shaia's work, I had come to believe that the four "traditional" gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, chosen to be included in the Bible, were chosen by a bunch of old white men who wanted to maintain power and keep the rest of us in our place.I regarded the gospels as interesting, though sometimes contradicting, stories of Jesus' life 2,000 years ago, and I didn't see how they related very much to the up's and down's of my life, day-to-day, here and now in the 21st century.I was convinced that the "real" Christian message would be revealed as soon as scholars unearthed and translated the Gospel of Thomas or Judas or Mary Magdalene or Philip or the myriad others that had been kept hidden from us.Dr. Shaia has shown how the four "traditional" gospels were not intended to be just a biography of Jesus but, rather, when these four gospels are read, in specific non-chronological order, they contain the wisdom needed 2,000 years ago to navigate through the challenges of life and they contain the wisdom still needed by us in the 21st century to live our complicated lives in a full and rich way without fear and with confidence.Dr. Shaia alternates between explaining how and why the four gospels were written -- who wrote them, the audience they were written for and what the people in that audience were experiencing that influenced what was included in the particular gospel -- and then showing how these same gospels apply to our 21st century lives and the dilemmas we face here and now.After reading Dr. Shaia's book I have an entirely new outlook on the four traditional gospels.I now see their richness and relevance to my life and have come to believe that it wasn't the old white men who chose them for inclusion in the Bible, but rather the Spirit who directed that they be preserved and presented to the people 2,000 years ago and to us, here and now.They contain the wisdom the world needs in order to know we are all okay and are all equally loved.We need to know this for ourselves and in order to bring the peace to the world which the Spirit has intended from the beginning of all time.The "new" gospels which are coming to our attention are indeed interesting and good to have, but we do not need them in order to discover truth.The truth has been with us all along in the four "traditional" gospels of Matthew, Mark, John and Luke.It just took Dr. Shaia to once again reveal that to us through his work.His book is not only filled with wisdom, it is a remarkable work of prose.It reads easily, comfortably and beautifully.

A New Way to Be with the Gospels
Shaia believes that the four gospels were chosen of the many available to the early church because their writers address and give significant guidance to the four universal stages of spiritual (and indeed, all human) growth, because the gospel writers were not simply writing a biography, but were instead giving the communities for which they were writing guidance, metaphors, and comfort for their situation. The four stages are,first, the beginnings necessitated by the collapse of crucial aspects of our life and characterized by feelings of loss and fear, (Matthew, written for the Christians after the destruction of the Temple), Second, a time of feeling around in the dark for a new path, a time which could be characterized as stormy and difficult (Mark, written for persecuted Christians of the Roman Empire),Times of illumination, spiritual highs, and new insightswhich fuel our resolution to continue (John), and Fourth, the time of building a new life (a new church) based on the foregoing. (Luke and Acts) This first of two books goes into fascinating and motivating detail about the first two legs of the journey; an upcoming (August 06) book will deal with the second two.It's all very readable and applicable to all kinds of life journeys. ... Read more

Product Description
This scarce antiquarian book is a selection from Kessinger Publishing's Legacy Reprint Series. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment to protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature. Kessinger Publishing is the place to find hundreds of thousands of rare and hard-to-find books with something of interest for everyone! ... Read more

Product Description
Edited by Sidney Lee. This Elibron Classics book is a facsimile reprint of a 1899 edition by Smith, Elder, & Co., London. ... Read more

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Edited by Leslie Stephen. This Elibron Classics book is a facsimile reprint of a 1887 edition by Smith, Elder, & Co., London. ... Read more

Product Description
Edited by Leslie Stephen. This Elibron Classics book is a facsimile reprint of a 1888 edition by Smith, Elder, & Co., London. ... Read more

Product Description
Edited by Sidney Lee. This Elibron Classics book is a facsimile reprint of a 1891 edition by Smith, Elder, & Co., London. ... Read more

Product Description
Edited by Sidney Lee. This Elibron Classics book is a facsimile reprint of a 1892 edition by Smith, Elder, & Co., London. ... Read more

Product Description
Edited by Leslie Stephen. This Elibron Classics book is a facsimile reprint of a 1885 edition by Smith, Elder, & Co., London. ... Read more

Product Description
Edited by Sidney Lee. This Elibron Classics book is a facsimile reprint of a 1898 edition by Smith, Elder, & Co., London. ... Read more

Product Description
Edited by Sidney Lee. This Elibron Classics book is a facsimile reprint of a 1893 edition by Smith, Elder, & Co., London. ... Read more

Product Description
Edited by Leslie Stephen. This Elibron Classics book is a facsimile reprint of a 1886 edition by Smith, Elder, & Co., London. ... Read more

Product Description
Edited by Leslie Stephen. This Elibron Classics book is a facsimile reprint of a 1888 edition by Smith, Elder, & Co., London. ... Read more