Church, Alonzo

The Lost Language of Symbolism: An Essential Guide for Recognizing and Interpreting Symbols of the Gospel

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Serious problems
Absolutely wonderful..............

The Lost Language of Symbolism: An Essential Guide for Recognizing and Interpreting Symbols of the Gospel
Alonzo L. Gaskill
Manufacturer: Deseret Book Company
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Binding: Hardcover

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Customer Reviews:

Serious problems.......2006-10-01

This book is intended for an L.D.S. (Mormon) audience and is organized as something of a dictionary of symbols (loosely defined to include the meaning of names) where readers can look up a symbol and see its meaning. The basic premise is that readers need to be able to understand what items in the Bible and Book of Mormon may have meant to the authors or those texts and to their period readers. Gaskill argues that modern readers do not appreciate the symbolism of these texts and therefore miss out on the deeper meaning of scriptural texts. This is a fine premise, as far as it goes, but Gaskill's book has some serious flaws, both in its concept and its implementation.

The first, and most irritating, flaw is that the book is largely NOT about the symbolism of the texts: instead it is about Gaskill's readings of the text inspired by symbolic meanings. As such, the book is full of countless extended sermonettes on modern doctrinal issues that make only tenuous reference to the symbols in question, such as a passage that addresses the symbolism of aprons but spins out into a diatribe against birth control, surely an issue not high on the list of topics thought about in anitquity). Whatever one may think about the theology espoused, such digressions are not about understanding the texts on their own terms, but rather about trying to score doctrinal points and make the texts "mean" things that in many cases are highly unlikely.

The second problem with the book is the underlying assumption that one can identify *the* meaning of symbols and say what they mean in a dictionary format. Most of the listings specify one meaning, treating symbols as essentially a kind of code to hide a single recoverable meaning from the text. I would argue, however, that this approach encourages a kind of covert literalism and absolutism in reading that does not do the texts justice since symbols provide an interpretive tool that allows them to be fundamentally polyvalent and resistent to superficial equivalences of any sort. By stating this, I am not arguing that one should *not* know about the meanings that Biblical authors may have intended, but rather that one needs to be open to the *range* of meaning available and to the inherently open nature of the texts. Symbols are used not to hide a single recoverable meaning, but instead to open the text up to generate meanings. (This stance, I should note, does run contrary to the essentially fundamentalist interpretive strategies employed by many L.D.S. readers, so many potential readers would disagree with me on this point.)

Next, the book is full of basic errors and speculative readings. As an example of the former, Gaskill states that the name Felix means "deceptive" or "deceitful." With a PhD in Biblical Studies, Gaskill should know better: certainly any first year Latin student would know that Felix simply means "happy" (whence English "felicitious" and "felicitations"). The speculative readings Gaskill employs are odder, for in some cases he simply asserts things that are simple unknowable (e.g., the name Sherem in the Book of Mormon means "pugnosed" and refers to the appearance of the individual in question - which raises the question of where Gaskill got his early Nephite dictionary), or that are based on rather dubious sources (e.g., his analysis of "weasel" as immoral people seems to be based on the Epistle of Barnabus, which specify that weasels are a symbol for women who engage in oral sex). There was scarcely a page I looked at that did not have something that was obviously an error or which stated a speculative conclusion as though it were fact.

In sum, the level of analysis in this book is such that it would get drummed out of an introductory religious studies course. I wonder what sort of review DB engaged in before deciding to publish the book since basic errors slipped through. I realize that this is no worse than some of the books put forth by Zondervan (which plays a role similar to that of DB, but for an evangelical audience), but the book is endorsed and produced in a way that makes it look like it is a popular scholarly account (including a glowing endorsement by J.F. McConkie). As such I think it is fundamentally misleading since the book does not meet even basic scholarly standards.

Absolutely wonderful.....................2004-05-18

After reading/studying this book you will understand the Bible more fully than before. Colors, numbers, names, events, etc. take on a meaning and understanding that highten, enlighten, and underscore the meaning and interpretation of the people, events, miracles, parables, metaphors, similies, and allegories contained in the Bible.

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cloth-wipe the bum behind the back
a classic, but mostly useful as a historical reference
One of the classics

Introduction to Mathematical Logic
Alonzo Church
Manufacturer: Princeton University Press
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Binding: Paperback

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The Calculi of Lambda Conversion. (AM-6) (Annals of Mathematics Studies)
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ASIN: 0691029067

Book Description

Logic is sometimes called the foundation of mathematics: the logician studies the kinds of reasoning used in the individual steps of a proof. Alonzo Church was a pioneer in the field of mathematical logic, whose contributions to number theory and the theories of algorithms and computability laid the theoretical foundations of computer science. His first Princeton book, The Calculi of Lambda-Conversion (1941), established an invaluable tool that computer scientists still use today.</p>

Even beyond the accomplishment of that book, however, his second Princeton book, Introduction to Mathematical Logic, defined its subject for a generation. Originally published in Princeton's Annals of Mathematics Studies series, this book was revised in 1956 and reprinted a third time, in 1996, in the Princeton Landmarks in Mathematics series. Although new results in mathematical logic have been developed and other textbooks have been published, it remains, sixty years later, a basic source for understanding formal logic.</p>

Church was one of the principal founders of the Association for Symbolic Logic; he founded the Journal of Symbolic Logic in 1936 and remained an editor until 1979 At his death in 1995, Church was still regarded as the greatest mathematical logician in the world.</p>

Customer Reviews:

cloth-wipe the bum behind the back.......2005-10-24

This text is still legendary and more rigorous than a lot of current introductory logic texts on the market. Who cares if the earlier editions got the notion of proof wrong (at least with respect to strong completeness). Nobody even noticed except some lowly duo named Henkin and Montague, but what do they know? They know a lot. But anyway, Church covers all sorts of philosophical ground in the introduction then breaks out with subtle but immensely important distinctions in the onset. Several axiomatizations are given and minimal and intuitionist logic are covered (e.g. Heyting's) in "good enough" detail.

He gives a complete system (briefly) using an unusual ternary connective with Boolean constants, goes over interesting implicational fragments of propositional systems and much more, while all the time providing interesting historical remarks. This stuff is worth reading for more than mere "historical interest". All the standard metalogical results are proved constructively as well. (Well, I can't exactly remember, but at least most of them are constructive. The trend nowadays is toward non-constructive proofs--e.g., just look at the Boolos, Burgess, Jeffrey book. I think the non-constructive ones do less in terms of providing insight.)

If you were to read much of the material on logic that mattered in the mid 20th century, it would probably cite this very text. There is simply too much to say in praise of Church (and this text) that it leaves me ending this review with "just read it!".

a classic, but mostly useful as a historical reference.......2002-02-16

I give this book 5 stars out of respect for its enormous contribution to mathematical logic; for no doubt many of the authors of the more modern math-logic texts were greatly influenced by this book. But with that said, all of the material here is a proper subset of other current books which present the material much more clearly and using better notation. Examples include Burris' "Logic for Mathematics and Computer Science", Ebbinhaus' "Intro. To Math Logic", and Gallier's "Logic for Computer Scientists".

One of the classics.......2001-07-04

This book, which first appeared in print as an issue in Annals of Mathematics in 1944, is now a classic in mathematical logic, and is still worth perusing in spite of the out-dated notation. The author outlines comprehensively the propositional calculus and predicate calculus. Although the book is mostly formal in its style, the author does introduce the reader to some elementary notions in logic, and some brief commentary on what would now be classified as philosophical logic. He defines logic as the analysis of propositions and their proof according to their form and not their content. He notes also that inductive logic and the theory of partial confirmation should also be included as part of mathematical logic. There are exercises throughout the book, and so it could conceivably be used as a textbook, in spite of its publication date. The book could better be used as a historical supplement to a course in mathematical logic or one in the philosophy of logic.

In the introduction to the book the author defines the terms and concepts he will use in the book, with a discussion of proper names, constants and variables, functions, and sentences. He adopts the Fregian point of view that sentences are names of a particular kind. His discussion of this is rather vague however, for he does not give enough clarification of the difference between an "assertive" use of a sentence and its "non-assertive" use. Readers will have to do further reading on Frege in order to understand this distinction more clearly, but essentially what Church is saying here is that sentences are names with truth values. The existential and universal quantifiers are introduced as well. And here the author also introduces the concepts of object language and metalanguage, along with a discussion of the axiomatic method. The author distinguishes between informal and formal axiomatic methods. The modern notions of syntax and semantics are given a nice treatment here, and the di

scussion is more in-depth than one might get in more modern texts on mathematical logic.

Chapter 1 is a detailed overview of propositional logic, being the usual formal system with three symbols, one constant, an infinite number of variables, rules on how to form well-formed formulas, and the rules of inference. The deduction theorem is proved in detail along with a discussion of the decision problem for propositional logic, with the famous truth tables due to W. Quine introduced here. The notions of consistency and completeness are briefly discussed.

The discussion of the propositional calculus is continued in the next chapter where a new system of propositional calculus is obtained by dropping the constants from the first one and adding another symbol (negation). The two systems are shown to be equivalent to each other using a particular well-formed formula in the second one to replace the constant in the first. Other systems of propositional calculus are also introduced here, using the idea of primitive connectives such as disjunction, along with various rules of inference. Church also outlines an interesting propositional calculus due to J.G.P.Nicod, which assumes only one primitive connective, one axiom, and only one rule of inference (besides substitution). The author also introduces partial systems of propositional calculus, with the goal of showing just what must be added to these systems to obtain the full propositional calculus. He discusses the highly interesting and thought-provoking intuitionistic propositional calculus, due to A. Heyting, which is a formalization of the famous mathematical intuitionism of L.E.J. Brouwer. The system he discusses is a variant of Heyting's and he gives references to the positive solution of the decision problem for this system. The author ends the chapter with a brief discussion of how to construct a propositional calculus by employing axiom schemata.

The author then moves on to what he has termed functional calculi of first order beginning in the next chapter. Called predicate calculi in today's parlance, the author first defines the pure functional calculus of first order, and shows that the theorems of the propositional calculus also follow when considered as part of this system. Free and bound variables are defined, and Church proves explicitly the consistency of this system, and the deduction theorem. The important construction of a prenex normal form of a well-formed formula is discussed, and the author shows that every well-formed formula of the functional calculus is equivalent to some well-formed formula in prenex normal form.

In chapter 4, the author gives an alternative formulation of pure functional calculus of first order, wherein rules of substitution are used and axiom schemata are replaced by instances, making the number of axioms finite. The Skolem normal form of a well-formed formula is defined, which sets up a discussion of satisfiability and validity. The author then proves the Godel completeness theorem, which states that every valid well-formed formula is a theorem. This is followed by a very well written discussion of the Skolem-Lowenheim theorem, and an overview of the decision problem in functional (predicate) calculus.

In the last chapter of the book the author considers functional (predicate) calculi of second order, which is distinguished from the first order case by allowing the variables to range over what its predicates and subjects represent. In second-order functional calculus, propositional and predicate variables can have bound occurrences. The author discusses the elimination problem and consistency for second-order predicate calculus, and gives a proof of the (Henkin) completeness theorem. A fairly detailed discussion of a logical system for elementary number theory is given, but the treatment involves notation that is somewhat clumsy and the discussion is difficult to follow.

The Calculi of Lambda Conversion. (AM-6) (Annals of Mathematics Studies)
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The Calculi of Lambda Conversion. (AM-6) (Annals of Mathematics Studies)
Alonzo Church
Manufacturer: Princeton University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Savior & the Serpent: Unlocking the Doctrine of the Fall
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The Fall for all.

Savior & the Serpent: Unlocking the Doctrine of the Fall
Alonzo L. Gaskill
Manufacturer: Deseret Book Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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The Lost Language of Symbolism: An Essential Guide for Recognizing and Interpreting Symbols of the Gospel

ASIN: 1590385217

Book Description

Perhaps no doctrine has been more misunderstood, and no historical event more misinterpreted, than the Fall of Adam and Eve. Many Christians assume it was an evil, unnecessary act. Even among Latter-day Saints, there are competing views and questions about what happened in Eden: Why did God give Adam and Eve conflicting commandments in the Garden? How much of the story is literal and how much is symbolic? Relying on scriptures and statements from the prophets, Alonzo Gaskill carefully distinguishes between settled LDS doctrine on this subject and popular interpretations. He teaches that the Fall was foreordained to be part of the Plan of Salvation and shows how insights we have gained about the Fall help us find our bearings in dealing with the challenges of everyday life.

Customer Reviews:

The Fall for all........2006-04-19

This is the second book I've read by Alonzo Gaskill. I find his writing style easy to read and rich in information. The Savior & the Serpent is about the fall of Adam and Eve and attempts to decipher the difference between the literal and symbolic happenings. He covers the whole story pulling from all known accounts and expertly cross referencing whilst highlighting the important parts and mentioning things I'd never thought of before. It is very well researched and Mr. Gaskill is quick to point out the differences between LDS doctrine and opinion (although the opinions are all backed up by impressive sources). Why only 4 stars? There are a few topics that could have been laid out a little more clearly but having said that, I truly learned so much about myself; about how the fall is really a metaphor about our own lives. Well done.

"Ain't Gonna Lay My 'Ligion Down": African American Religion in the South

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Solid But Uneven

"Ain't Gonna Lay My 'Ligion Down": African American Religion in the South

Manufacturer: University of South Carolina Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Solid But Uneven.......2005-08-08

"Ain't Gonna Lay My 'Ligion Down: African American Religion in the South" is an edited volume primarily studying South Carolina and the surrounding region. However, the authors do a fine job discussing the possible application of their research to the rest of the South.

As with most edited compilations, the chapters are somewhat uneven. Some seem more agenda driven than research driven. Still, the solid chapters make the book very valuable and even the others make a worthwhile contribution to the topic.

"Pray's House Spirit," "Motherwit in Southern Religion," "Black Methodist Preachers," and "A Case Study of AMEZ Bishop James Walker Hood" each approached their subject with freshness and thoroughness. These four chapters alone offer more new insights into African American spiritual care than most complete books.

Reviewer: Dr. Robert W. Kellemen is the author of "Beyond the Suffering: Embracing the Legacy of African American Soul Care and Spiritual Direction." He has also authored "Soul Physicians" and "Spiritual Friends."

Journal of Symbolic Logic Volume 65 1965

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Journal of Symbolic Logic Volume 65 1965
Alonzo Church
Manufacturer: ASSOCIATION FOR SYMBOLIC LOGIC
ProductGroup: Book
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Introduction to Mathematical Logic Volume I.

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Introduction to Mathematical Logic Volume I.
Church Alonzo
ProductGroup: Book
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Good News for the Disinherited
Alonzo Johnson
Manufacturer: University Press of America
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Book Description

This book examines the meaning of Jesus' humanity, his divinity, and the special significance of his teachings to the poor and the oppressed. The discussion of these issues is shaped around the theology of Howard Thurman (1900-1981), one of the greatest religious thinkers of his generation. It is the only such work which thoroughly defines Thurman's significance as an African American folk theologian who both adopts and transcends his religious heritage. Thurman is depicted as a "folk theologian" who both perpetuates and transforms African American folk religion. The core of Thurman's theology revolves around his reinterpretation of the meaning of the concept of "humanity" and "divinity". The search for a "Black Christ", black messiah, has been a prominent feature of African American religious thought in the past two centuries. This book addresses Thurman's treatment of Jesus within the ebb-and-flow of the debates in this area. This is the first work devoted exclusively to the subject of Christology as the center of Thurman's theology.

The two republics;: Or, Rome and the United States of America,

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Christians take note!

The two republics;: Or, Rome and the United States of America,
Alonzo TreÌvier Jones
Manufacturer: Pacific Press Pub. Co
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

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Christians take note!.......2005-09-21

America is a distinctly non-religious nation - contrary to popular belief. The success or failure of our nation depends on our own self government and not that of the administration or congress. We are completely responsible for the destruction of Gaza and New Orleans because of our complacency. Sin abounds in this nation because we chose to ignore the important points of our Christianity and rather chase vanities. Read this book so you understand that our forefathers ON PURPOSE removed faith from the government so we could walk free from governmental restraint in our faith. Because we chose to depend on the government rather than God, we have our current mess. Don't blame sinners, don't blame the president, don't blame congress or the courts; blame yourselves.
Every Christian needs to read this book.

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Just Another Bump: Memoirs of
James Alonzo Jones , and Peggy L. Jenkins
Manufacturer: Word Aflame Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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