Rejecting Mammon

Rejecting Mammon

Author: Chris Cree

Publisher: SuccessCREEations, LLC

Published: 2020-01-26

Total Pages: 181

ISBN-13:

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If you are a follower of Jesus who knows the Bible says you are supposed to be prosperous but feel stuck at just enough, just in time, survival provision (or less) which is causing stress, worry, and strained relationships in your life... Then this book is for you. Many believers don't know how to prosper financially in the Kingdom of God. They give, but rarely, if ever, see increase. They see where Jesus said give and it will be given back to you. But it isn't working for them in the area of their finances. They sow financial seed, but don't know how to harvest. God's ways are higher than the world's ways. And His ways are almost exactly backwards from the world's ways too. In the world’s way of doing things, the strong dominate the weak, and the rich oppress the poor. But the Kingdom of God is different. In the Kingdom of God, the strong defend the weak, and the wealthy bless the poor. God's Kingdom is designed so that everyone can prosper. God truly does have answers to all our questions, even the tough ones about money. God's grace has made perfect provision for our every need. His Kingdom provides ways for us to prosper in every area of our lives, including financially. It is God’s desire that you become a financial resource for His Kingdom. But you cannot give away what you don’t yet have. Therefore we must leave the world’s ways of prospering financially behind and start walking in God’s ways instead.


Book Synopsis Rejecting Mammon by : Chris Cree

Download or read book Rejecting Mammon written by Chris Cree and published by SuccessCREEations, LLC. This book was released on 2020-01-26 with total page 181 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: If you are a follower of Jesus who knows the Bible says you are supposed to be prosperous but feel stuck at just enough, just in time, survival provision (or less) which is causing stress, worry, and strained relationships in your life... Then this book is for you. Many believers don't know how to prosper financially in the Kingdom of God. They give, but rarely, if ever, see increase. They see where Jesus said give and it will be given back to you. But it isn't working for them in the area of their finances. They sow financial seed, but don't know how to harvest. God's ways are higher than the world's ways. And His ways are almost exactly backwards from the world's ways too. In the world’s way of doing things, the strong dominate the weak, and the rich oppress the poor. But the Kingdom of God is different. In the Kingdom of God, the strong defend the weak, and the wealthy bless the poor. God's Kingdom is designed so that everyone can prosper. God truly does have answers to all our questions, even the tough ones about money. God's grace has made perfect provision for our every need. His Kingdom provides ways for us to prosper in every area of our lives, including financially. It is God’s desire that you become a financial resource for His Kingdom. But you cannot give away what you don’t yet have. Therefore we must leave the world’s ways of prospering financially behind and start walking in God’s ways instead.

The Book of Mammon

The Book of Mammon

Author: Robert Harding Morris

Publisher: Author House

Published: 2005-03-28

Total Pages: 220

ISBN-13: 1463473354

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Everyone yearns for “the good life” ... where children are reared in a loving, stimulating environment ... where youth are prepared for their future ... where adults achieve satisfaction through personal relationships and meaningfully rewarding work ... and where seniors find peace in their “golden” years. Typically, it entails economic sufficiency. Yet, when this universal hope becomes reality, many Christians confront a disturbing faith challenge. Jesus taught his followers to postpone earthly satisfactions until the next life. In the present world, their blessings will be found in poverty, hunger, sorrow, and persecution. Woe to those with wealth, full stomachs, laughter, and popularity! Christ practiced and demands self-denial, not self-satisfaction. Entry into Jesus’ severe life-style is difficult and the path is arduous. Multitudes are called but only a select few actually follow the way to eternal life that requires crucifixion of one’s self. This book is a thought-provoking biblical analysis of the gospel’s opposition to wealth. One cannot serve both God and money. The Christian dilemma is that practical faith absolutely requires compromise. Money is necessary for daily life and future needs. How is it possible to follow Christ in this money-driven society? The Book of Mammon searches the Bible for the surprising resolution.


Book Synopsis The Book of Mammon by : Robert Harding Morris

Download or read book The Book of Mammon written by Robert Harding Morris and published by Author House. This book was released on 2005-03-28 with total page 220 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Everyone yearns for “the good life” ... where children are reared in a loving, stimulating environment ... where youth are prepared for their future ... where adults achieve satisfaction through personal relationships and meaningfully rewarding work ... and where seniors find peace in their “golden” years. Typically, it entails economic sufficiency. Yet, when this universal hope becomes reality, many Christians confront a disturbing faith challenge. Jesus taught his followers to postpone earthly satisfactions until the next life. In the present world, their blessings will be found in poverty, hunger, sorrow, and persecution. Woe to those with wealth, full stomachs, laughter, and popularity! Christ practiced and demands self-denial, not self-satisfaction. Entry into Jesus’ severe life-style is difficult and the path is arduous. Multitudes are called but only a select few actually follow the way to eternal life that requires crucifixion of one’s self. This book is a thought-provoking biblical analysis of the gospel’s opposition to wealth. One cannot serve both God and money. The Christian dilemma is that practical faith absolutely requires compromise. Money is necessary for daily life and future needs. How is it possible to follow Christ in this money-driven society? The Book of Mammon searches the Bible for the surprising resolution.

The Enchantments of Mammon

The Enchantments of Mammon

Author: Eugene McCarraher

Publisher: Harvard University Press

Published: 2019-11-12

Total Pages: 817

ISBN-13: 0674242777

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“An extraordinary work of intellectual history as well as a scholarly tour de force, a bracing polemic, and a work of Christian prophecy...McCarraher challenges more than 200 years of post-Enlightenment assumptions about the way we live and work.” —The Observer At least since Max Weber, capitalism has been understood as part of the “disenchantment” of the world, stripping material objects and social relations of their mystery and magic. In this magisterial work, Eugene McCarraher challenges this conventional view. Capitalism, he argues, is full of sacrament, whether one is prepared to acknowledge it or not. First flowering in the fields and factories of England and brought to America by Puritans and evangelicals, whose doctrine made ample room for industry and profit, capitalism has become so thoroughly enmeshed in the fabric of our society that our faith in “the market” has become sacrosanct. Informed by cultural history and theology as well as management theory, The Enchantments of Mammon looks to nineteenth-century Romantics, whose vision of labor combined reason, creativity, and mutual aid, for salvation. In this impassioned challenge to some of our most firmly held assumptions, McCarraher argues that capitalism has hijacked our intrinsic longing for divinity—and urges us to break its hold on our souls. “A majestic achievement...It is a work of great moral and spiritual intelligence, and one that invites contemplation about things we can’t afford not to care about deeply.” —Commonweal “More brilliant, more capacious, and more entertaining, page by page, than his most ardent fans dared hope. The magnitude of his accomplishment—an account of American capitalism as a religion...will stun even skeptical readers.” —Christian Century


Book Synopsis The Enchantments of Mammon by : Eugene McCarraher

Download or read book The Enchantments of Mammon written by Eugene McCarraher and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2019-11-12 with total page 817 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “An extraordinary work of intellectual history as well as a scholarly tour de force, a bracing polemic, and a work of Christian prophecy...McCarraher challenges more than 200 years of post-Enlightenment assumptions about the way we live and work.” —The Observer At least since Max Weber, capitalism has been understood as part of the “disenchantment” of the world, stripping material objects and social relations of their mystery and magic. In this magisterial work, Eugene McCarraher challenges this conventional view. Capitalism, he argues, is full of sacrament, whether one is prepared to acknowledge it or not. First flowering in the fields and factories of England and brought to America by Puritans and evangelicals, whose doctrine made ample room for industry and profit, capitalism has become so thoroughly enmeshed in the fabric of our society that our faith in “the market” has become sacrosanct. Informed by cultural history and theology as well as management theory, The Enchantments of Mammon looks to nineteenth-century Romantics, whose vision of labor combined reason, creativity, and mutual aid, for salvation. In this impassioned challenge to some of our most firmly held assumptions, McCarraher argues that capitalism has hijacked our intrinsic longing for divinity—and urges us to break its hold on our souls. “A majestic achievement...It is a work of great moral and spiritual intelligence, and one that invites contemplation about things we can’t afford not to care about deeply.” —Commonweal “More brilliant, more capacious, and more entertaining, page by page, than his most ardent fans dared hope. The magnitude of his accomplishment—an account of American capitalism as a religion...will stun even skeptical readers.” —Christian Century

The Face of Mammon

The Face of Mammon

Author: David Landreth

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2012-04-19

Total Pages: 368

ISBN-13: 0190208325

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Money talked in sixteenth-century England, as money still does today. But what the sixteenth century's gold and silver had to say for itself is strikingly different from the modern discourse of money. As David Landreth demonstrates in The Face of Mammon, the material and historical differences between the coins of the English Renaissance and today's paper and electronic money propel a distinctive and complex assessment of the relation between material substance and human value. Although the sixteenth century was marked by the traumatic emergence of conditions that would prove to be characteristic of the modern economy, the discipline of economics had not been invented to assess those conditions. The Face of Mammon considers how literary texts investigated these unexplained material transformations through attention to the materiality of gold and silver money. In new readings of Spenser's Faerie Queene, Marlowe's Jew of Malta, three plays by Shakespeare-King John, The Merchant of Venice, and Measure for Measure-the poetry of John Donne, and the prose of Thomas Nashe, Landreth argues that these texts situate the act of exchange at the center of a system of "common wealth" that sought to integrate political, ethical, and religious values with material ones, and probe the ways in which market value corrodes that system even as it depends upon it. Joining the methods of material-culture studies to those of economic criticism, The Face of Mammon offers a new account of the historical transformations of the concept of value to scholars of early modern literature, culture, and art, as well as to those interested in economic history.


Book Synopsis The Face of Mammon by : David Landreth

Download or read book The Face of Mammon written by David Landreth and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2012-04-19 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Money talked in sixteenth-century England, as money still does today. But what the sixteenth century's gold and silver had to say for itself is strikingly different from the modern discourse of money. As David Landreth demonstrates in The Face of Mammon, the material and historical differences between the coins of the English Renaissance and today's paper and electronic money propel a distinctive and complex assessment of the relation between material substance and human value. Although the sixteenth century was marked by the traumatic emergence of conditions that would prove to be characteristic of the modern economy, the discipline of economics had not been invented to assess those conditions. The Face of Mammon considers how literary texts investigated these unexplained material transformations through attention to the materiality of gold and silver money. In new readings of Spenser's Faerie Queene, Marlowe's Jew of Malta, three plays by Shakespeare-King John, The Merchant of Venice, and Measure for Measure-the poetry of John Donne, and the prose of Thomas Nashe, Landreth argues that these texts situate the act of exchange at the center of a system of "common wealth" that sought to integrate political, ethical, and religious values with material ones, and probe the ways in which market value corrodes that system even as it depends upon it. Joining the methods of material-culture studies to those of economic criticism, The Face of Mammon offers a new account of the historical transformations of the concept of value to scholars of early modern literature, culture, and art, as well as to those interested in economic history.

China Fictions, English Language

China Fictions, English Language

Author: A. Robert Lee

Publisher: Rodopi

Published: 2008

Total Pages: 350

ISBN-13: 9042023511

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The world is anything but unfamiliar with diaspora: Jewish, African, Armenian, Roma-Gipsy, Filipino/a, Tamil, Irish or Italian, even Japanese. But few have carried so global a resonance as that of China. What, then, of literary-cultural expression, the huge body of fiction which has addressed itself to that plurality of lives and geographies and which has come to be known as “After China”? This collection of essays offers bearings on those written in English, and in which both memory and story are central, spanning the USA to Australia, Canada to the UK, Hong Kong to Singapore, with yet others of more transnational nature.This collection opens with a reprise of woman-authored Chinese American fiction using Maxine Hong Kingston and Amy Tan as departure points. In turn follow readings of the oeuvres of Tan and Frank Chin. A comparative essay takes up novels by Canadian, American and Australian authors from the perspective of migrancy as fracture. Chinese Canada comes into view in accounts of SKY Lee, Wayson Choy, Evelyn Lau and Larissa Lai. Australia under Chinese literary auspices is given a comparative mapping through the fiction of Brian Castro and Ouyang Yu. The English language “China fiction” of Singapore and Hong Kong is located in essays centred, respectively, on Martin Booth and Po Wah Lam, and Hwee Hwee Tan and Colin Cheong. The collection rounds out with portraits of Timothy Mo as British transnational author, a selection of contextual Chinese British stories and art, and the phenomenon of “Chinese Chick Lit” novels. China Fictions/English Language will be of interest to readers drawn both to “After China” as diasporic literary heritage and comparative literature in general.


Book Synopsis China Fictions, English Language by : A. Robert Lee

Download or read book China Fictions, English Language written by A. Robert Lee and published by Rodopi. This book was released on 2008 with total page 350 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The world is anything but unfamiliar with diaspora: Jewish, African, Armenian, Roma-Gipsy, Filipino/a, Tamil, Irish or Italian, even Japanese. But few have carried so global a resonance as that of China. What, then, of literary-cultural expression, the huge body of fiction which has addressed itself to that plurality of lives and geographies and which has come to be known as “After China”? This collection of essays offers bearings on those written in English, and in which both memory and story are central, spanning the USA to Australia, Canada to the UK, Hong Kong to Singapore, with yet others of more transnational nature.This collection opens with a reprise of woman-authored Chinese American fiction using Maxine Hong Kingston and Amy Tan as departure points. In turn follow readings of the oeuvres of Tan and Frank Chin. A comparative essay takes up novels by Canadian, American and Australian authors from the perspective of migrancy as fracture. Chinese Canada comes into view in accounts of SKY Lee, Wayson Choy, Evelyn Lau and Larissa Lai. Australia under Chinese literary auspices is given a comparative mapping through the fiction of Brian Castro and Ouyang Yu. The English language “China fiction” of Singapore and Hong Kong is located in essays centred, respectively, on Martin Booth and Po Wah Lam, and Hwee Hwee Tan and Colin Cheong. The collection rounds out with portraits of Timothy Mo as British transnational author, a selection of contextual Chinese British stories and art, and the phenomenon of “Chinese Chick Lit” novels. China Fictions/English Language will be of interest to readers drawn both to “After China” as diasporic literary heritage and comparative literature in general.

China Fictions / English Language

China Fictions / English Language

Author:

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2008-01-01

Total Pages: 350

ISBN-13: 9401205485

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The world is anything but unfamiliar with diaspora: Jewish, African, Armenian, Roma-Gipsy, Filipino/a, Tamil, Irish or Italian, even Japanese. But few have carried so global a resonance as that of China. What, then, of literary-cultural expression, the huge body of fiction which has addressed itself to that plurality of lives and geographies and which has come to be known as “After China”? This collection of essays offers bearings on those written in English, and in which both memory and story are central, spanning the USA to Australia, Canada to the UK, Hong Kong to Singapore, with yet others of more transnational nature. This collection opens with a reprise of woman-authored Chinese American fiction using Maxine Hong Kingston and Amy Tan as departure points. In turn follow readings of the oeuvres of Tan and Frank Chin. A comparative essay takes up novels by Canadian, American and Australian authors from the perspective of migrancy as fracture. Chinese Canada comes into view in accounts of SKY Lee, Wayson Choy, Evelyn Lau and Larissa Lai. Australia under Chinese literary auspices is given a comparative mapping through the fiction of Brian Castro and Ouyang Yu. The English language “China fiction” of Singapore and Hong Kong is located in essays centred, respectively, on Martin Booth and Po Wah Lam, and Hwee Hwee Tan and Colin Cheong. The collection rounds out with portraits of Timothy Mo as British transnational author, a selection of contextual Chinese British stories and art, and the phenomenon of “Chinese Chick Lit” novels. China Fictions/English Language will be of interest to readers drawn both to “After China” as diasporic literary heritage and comparative literature in general.


Book Synopsis China Fictions / English Language by :

Download or read book China Fictions / English Language written by and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2008-01-01 with total page 350 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The world is anything but unfamiliar with diaspora: Jewish, African, Armenian, Roma-Gipsy, Filipino/a, Tamil, Irish or Italian, even Japanese. But few have carried so global a resonance as that of China. What, then, of literary-cultural expression, the huge body of fiction which has addressed itself to that plurality of lives and geographies and which has come to be known as “After China”? This collection of essays offers bearings on those written in English, and in which both memory and story are central, spanning the USA to Australia, Canada to the UK, Hong Kong to Singapore, with yet others of more transnational nature. This collection opens with a reprise of woman-authored Chinese American fiction using Maxine Hong Kingston and Amy Tan as departure points. In turn follow readings of the oeuvres of Tan and Frank Chin. A comparative essay takes up novels by Canadian, American and Australian authors from the perspective of migrancy as fracture. Chinese Canada comes into view in accounts of SKY Lee, Wayson Choy, Evelyn Lau and Larissa Lai. Australia under Chinese literary auspices is given a comparative mapping through the fiction of Brian Castro and Ouyang Yu. The English language “China fiction” of Singapore and Hong Kong is located in essays centred, respectively, on Martin Booth and Po Wah Lam, and Hwee Hwee Tan and Colin Cheong. The collection rounds out with portraits of Timothy Mo as British transnational author, a selection of contextual Chinese British stories and art, and the phenomenon of “Chinese Chick Lit” novels. China Fictions/English Language will be of interest to readers drawn both to “After China” as diasporic literary heritage and comparative literature in general.

Dethroning Mammon: Making Money Serve Grace

Dethroning Mammon: Making Money Serve Grace

Author: Justin Welby

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2016-12-01

Total Pages: 192

ISBN-13: 1472929799

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In his first full-length book Justin Welby looks at the subject of money and materialism. Designed for study in the weeks of Lent leading up to Easter, Dethroning Mammon reflects on the impact of our own attitudes, and of the pressures that surround us, on how we handle the power of money, called Mammon in this book. Who will be on the throne of our lives? Who will direct our actions and attitudes? Is it Jesus Christ, who brings truth, hope and freedom? Or is it Mammon, so attractive, so clear, but leading us into paths that tangle, trip and deceive? Archbishop Justin explores the tensions that arise in a society dominated by Mammon's modern aliases, economics and finance, and by the pressures of our culture to conform to Mammon's expectations. Following the Gospels towards Easter, this book asks the reader what it means to dethrone Mammon in the values and priorities of our civilisation and in our own existence. In Dethroning Mammon, Archbishop Justin challenges us to use Lent as a time of learning to trust in the abundance and grace of God.


Book Synopsis Dethroning Mammon: Making Money Serve Grace by : Justin Welby

Download or read book Dethroning Mammon: Making Money Serve Grace written by Justin Welby and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2016-12-01 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In his first full-length book Justin Welby looks at the subject of money and materialism. Designed for study in the weeks of Lent leading up to Easter, Dethroning Mammon reflects on the impact of our own attitudes, and of the pressures that surround us, on how we handle the power of money, called Mammon in this book. Who will be on the throne of our lives? Who will direct our actions and attitudes? Is it Jesus Christ, who brings truth, hope and freedom? Or is it Mammon, so attractive, so clear, but leading us into paths that tangle, trip and deceive? Archbishop Justin explores the tensions that arise in a society dominated by Mammon's modern aliases, economics and finance, and by the pressures of our culture to conform to Mammon's expectations. Following the Gospels towards Easter, this book asks the reader what it means to dethrone Mammon in the values and priorities of our civilisation and in our own existence. In Dethroning Mammon, Archbishop Justin challenges us to use Lent as a time of learning to trust in the abundance and grace of God.

Mammon's Music

Mammon's Music

Author: Blair Hoxby

Publisher: Yale University Press

Published: 2008-10-01

Total Pages: 332

ISBN-13: 0300129637

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The commercial revolution of the seventeenth century deeply changed English culture. In this ambitious book, Blair Hoxby explores what that economic transformation meant to the century’s greatest poet, John Milton, and to the broader literary tradition in which he worked. Hoxby places Milton’s work—as well as the writings of contemporary reformers like the Levellers, poets like John Dryden, and political economists like Sir William Petty—within the framework of England’s economic history between 1601 and 1724. Literary history swerved in this period, Hoxby demonstrates, as a burgeoning economic discourse pressed authors to reimagine ideas about self, community, and empire. Hoxby shows that, contrary to commonly held views, Milton was a sophisticated economic thinker. Close readings of Milton’s prose and verse reveal the importance of economic ideas in a wide range of his most famous writings, from Areopagitica to Samson Agonistes to Paradise Lost.


Book Synopsis Mammon's Music by : Blair Hoxby

Download or read book Mammon's Music written by Blair Hoxby and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2008-10-01 with total page 332 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The commercial revolution of the seventeenth century deeply changed English culture. In this ambitious book, Blair Hoxby explores what that economic transformation meant to the century’s greatest poet, John Milton, and to the broader literary tradition in which he worked. Hoxby places Milton’s work—as well as the writings of contemporary reformers like the Levellers, poets like John Dryden, and political economists like Sir William Petty—within the framework of England’s economic history between 1601 and 1724. Literary history swerved in this period, Hoxby demonstrates, as a burgeoning economic discourse pressed authors to reimagine ideas about self, community, and empire. Hoxby shows that, contrary to commonly held views, Milton was a sophisticated economic thinker. Close readings of Milton’s prose and verse reveal the importance of economic ideas in a wide range of his most famous writings, from Areopagitica to Samson Agonistes to Paradise Lost.

The Myth of Sisyphus

The Myth of Sisyphus

Author: Elliott M. Simon

Publisher: Fairleigh Dickinson Univ Press

Published: 2007

Total Pages: 622

ISBN-13: 9780838641163

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"The myth of Sisyphus symbolizes the archetypal process of becoming without the consolation of absolute achievement. It is both a poignant reflection of the human condition and a prominent framing text for classical, medieval, and renaissance theories of human perfectibility. In this unique reading of the myth through classical philosophies, pagan and Christian religious doctrines, and medieval and renaissance literature, we see Sisyphus, "the most cunning of human beings," attempting to transcend his imperfections empowered by his imagination to renew his faith in the infinite potentialities of human excellence."--BOOK JACKET


Book Synopsis The Myth of Sisyphus by : Elliott M. Simon

Download or read book The Myth of Sisyphus written by Elliott M. Simon and published by Fairleigh Dickinson Univ Press. This book was released on 2007 with total page 622 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The myth of Sisyphus symbolizes the archetypal process of becoming without the consolation of absolute achievement. It is both a poignant reflection of the human condition and a prominent framing text for classical, medieval, and renaissance theories of human perfectibility. In this unique reading of the myth through classical philosophies, pagan and Christian religious doctrines, and medieval and renaissance literature, we see Sisyphus, "the most cunning of human beings," attempting to transcend his imperfections empowered by his imagination to renew his faith in the infinite potentialities of human excellence."--BOOK JACKET

Christendumb

Christendumb

Author: Eric W. Gritsch

Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers

Published: 2013-02-05

Total Pages: 184

ISBN-13: 1621895335

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This book offers a swift trek through two millennia of Christendom, with all the information provided by boring textbooks. The author presents the Christian story within the framework of a warning of Jesus in his famous Sermon on the Mount: "You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt becomes dumb, with what shall one salt?" (Matt 5:13). The story is told with wit, spiked by satire and a gallows humor. There are three chapters (symbolizing the Trinity), each encompassing seven centuries (symbolizing the seven days of creation), with four parts in each chapter (symbolizing the four Gospels). Chapter headings and subtitles are eye-catchers, such as "Edifice Complex" for the Middle Ages with its zeal for architectural and sacramental edification. Idiosyncratic features are highlighted, like the "pillar saints," monks who spent their lives on pillars in the desert; "castrated believers," who experienced the procedure as a refinement of penance; and competing popes, who succumbed to secular pleasures. Word plays, the wisdom of proverbs, and "dumb" Christian ways prevent readers from getting bored. A witty preface and a serious epilogue provide food for new insights.


Book Synopsis Christendumb by : Eric W. Gritsch

Download or read book Christendumb written by Eric W. Gritsch and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2013-02-05 with total page 184 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book offers a swift trek through two millennia of Christendom, with all the information provided by boring textbooks. The author presents the Christian story within the framework of a warning of Jesus in his famous Sermon on the Mount: "You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt becomes dumb, with what shall one salt?" (Matt 5:13). The story is told with wit, spiked by satire and a gallows humor. There are three chapters (symbolizing the Trinity), each encompassing seven centuries (symbolizing the seven days of creation), with four parts in each chapter (symbolizing the four Gospels). Chapter headings and subtitles are eye-catchers, such as "Edifice Complex" for the Middle Ages with its zeal for architectural and sacramental edification. Idiosyncratic features are highlighted, like the "pillar saints," monks who spent their lives on pillars in the desert; "castrated believers," who experienced the procedure as a refinement of penance; and competing popes, who succumbed to secular pleasures. Word plays, the wisdom of proverbs, and "dumb" Christian ways prevent readers from getting bored. A witty preface and a serious epilogue provide food for new insights.