JäsenFWI

I rate volumes in my Library based on the following rating scale (partially plagiarized):

* one star books are not to be taken seriously and perhaps should be removed, but they are sometimes useful. For example, any book advancing a fundamentalist commitment to biblical scholarship will have * one star even though it may have a meritorious idea or fact here or there.

** two star books have disappointed me for one reason or another. Usually books that in my opinion may have interesting or novel ideas but do not advance their subject matter helpfully and perhaps even move things in the wrong direction. Or maybe the book is just very poorly written.

*** Three stars is my default rating. This is the most common rating in my library. A book that pushes forward it's story or thesis convincingly and helpfully but not memorably. (This rating does not mean that I am actually convinced by the author's ideas.)

**** Four star books are more convincing or interesting to me. If I find the author's ideas stimulating or directly useful to the development of my own ideas, it's a four star work.

***** Five star books have fundamentally shaped or reshaped my thinking in some important way. They have proven to be formative and important to my own thinking, and I am interested in hearing from others about how they respond to these works.

While a student at Duke University Divinity School (M.Div., 1968), I was interested in biblical scholarship and studied both Greek and Hebrew to help me more easily read scholarly works. Now retired (nonprofit work, but not church related), I have renewed my interest in biblical scholarship, and a large number of books in my library reflect my current interest.

It should not have surprised me that the whole field had dramatically changed since the 1960's, and I am now virtually reading only works published after 1980 and most often after 2000.

In addition, I have become increasingly interested in inter-faith dialogue and work and am now thinking through the implications of my serious inter-faith commitment for my own Christian beliefs. A growing portion of my library reflects this interest.