Cunningham Reviews

I was disappointed in this small book, written exclusively for young girls. This is not a book for parents hoping to find the right camp for their child or prepare their children for sleepaway camp. Instead, it reads like a teen magazine, full of horoscopes, hairstyles, and dating advice. "So what if the boy you've had your eye on hasn't given you the time of day? Don't dispair (unless, of course, it's the last day of camp--then you've missed the boat, girlfriend)."

There's even more unhelpful advice, such as, "Some of you may get homesick, and what better way to combat that sickness than with a little sugar-cookie scented candle?" I don't think I want my daughter at a camp that lets kids burn candles in their tents, or where getting a boyfriend is the goal. I cringed when I read advice on all the different types of cabin raids to conduct, and the emphasis on clothing and fashion is overdone.

Disappointing book. This work was originally written as a doctoral dissertation, and as such, does not translate well in a book form. Poor editorial advice, one assumes, led the author to cite several passages of the Bible indicating only the book, chapter and verse - as in Colossians 1:15, for example - assuming that they are either known by memory or making the reader to look them up. Citations in both Greek and Latin are, hard to believe, not accompanied by English translations, either. The "target" readers seem to be the members of the doctoral examining panel - nothing less.

This is unfortunate, as the subject of the book is an interesting one: the methodology that Karl Barth uses for the interpretation of predestinarian biblical texts. The author contends that Barth uses a novel approach, based on his reading of Ephesians 1:4 "For he choses us 'by him' before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight". Barth uses "b! y him" instead of "in him", affirming that Christ was in human form, as Jesus, with God even before the creation of the world, and is "both the electing God and the elected human" (pg.21).

Furthermore, juxtaposing a series of widely separated passages, and analysing them in tandem, Barth confines himself by design to the Bible, and only to the Bible, as the souce of his "predestination of one", universalist doctrine.

In summary, interesting subject, poorly presented - not a recommended purchase.