John Eidsmoe

Interesting book, and a bit surprising. Half of the book is dedicated to Columbus and the other half to Cortez.

The Columbus history was excellent, full of details, with most of the information reported by first or second person accounts. I feel that the book put the proper emphasis on why Columbus was so driven and placed him within the proper historical context.

The Cortez book was good, but difficult at times as the author described in quite a bit of detail the human sacrifice practices the Aztec used. It was quite a trudge to motivate myself to continue to read. I'm unsure why the author felt it necessary to use such vivid details.… (mehr)

I've had this book for so long that I no longer remember where I got it or why. I suspect it is one that I got from a congregation member's library that he bequeathed to the pastor. The pastor offered duplicates and some other books to the rest of the congregation.

It's very dry reading. For the most part, I can follow the author's reasoning even if I don't agree with his interpretations. I did take issue with the fact that he felt "life begins at implantation" made no common sense. Without implantation in the uterus, the embryo ceases to develop and dies (at least in nature--not sure about laboratories). How does that not make sense? As to whether that unimplanted embyro has a soul, I will need to leave that to more theological minds than mine.

To be fair to the author, he does say in his last chapter that his interpretations are not infallible and does encourage readers to study on their own and to take action according to what they believe the scripture says after careful study. For that reason I will give it three stars, despite the dry subject matter.… (mehr)