Celestial Messenger

Reprint of the original, first published in 1876.

The book is a Russian immigrant's life story, written for himself, though with the hope that others may also find it interesting (after Dr. N. I. Pirogov). Chapter 1 begins with the family's chronicle in the Russian Empire, and how the author's parents ended up in Latvia following the Bolshevik revolution. It continues through the World War II years in Latvia, Germany and its post-war D. P. camps. In Chapter 2, the author recollects his educational experiences in America, the usual struggles of his immigrant parents to make a new life in their adopted country, and their passage into the next world in 1975 and 1988. The next two chapters are concerned with the author's work history as a scientist and professor of biochemistry at Rush Medical College in Chicago and elsewhere. Chapters 5 and 6 are concerned with the spiritual persona of the author: his Russian ethnicity and his Orthodox faith, including history of Russian immigration and the Orthodox Church in the U. S. The author's interactions with these communities are reviewed, as are his attempts to defend Orthodoxy and Russia's historical past in America's news media via letters to the editor and publication of the Chicago Russian-American. Chapter 7 is devoted to the author's family, i.e., life with his wife Marilyn and his sons Gregory and Alexander, plus his commentary on contemporary American society. His conservative world view, generated by his spiritual persona and behaviors of the "progressive" Soviet Union and its American followers, are illustrated by his letters to the news media during the 1950-2000 decades. The book carries a foreword by Dr. Gerasim Tikoff, a friend and retired cardiologist, and is illustrated by photographs from 19th century Russia and the author's life in Latvia, Germany and the U. S.

The object of a translator should ever be to hold the mirror upto his author. That being so, his chief duty is to represent so far as practicable the manner in which his author's ideas have been expressed, retaining if possible at the sacrifice of idiom and taste all the peculiarities of his author's imagery and of language as well. In regard to translations from the Sanskrit, nothing is easier than to dish up Hindu ideas, so as to make them agreeable to English taste. But the endeavour of the present translator has been to give in the following pages as literal a rendering as possible of the great work of Vyasa. To the purely English reader there is much in the following pages that will strike as ridiculous. Those unacquainted with any language but their own are generally very exclusive in matters of taste. Having no knowledge of models other than what they meet with in their own tongue, the standard they have formed of purity and taste in composition must necessarily be a narrow one. The translator, however, would ill-discharge his duty, if for the sake of avoiding ridicule, he sacrificed fidelity to the original. He must represent his author as he is, not as he should be to please the narrow taste of those entirely unacquainted with him. Mr. Pickford, in the preface to his English translation of the Mahavira Charita, ably defends a close adherence to the original even at the sacrifice of idiom and taste against the claims of what has been called 'Free Translation,' which means dressing the author in an outlandish garb to please those to whom he is introduced. In the preface to his classical translation of Bhartrihari's Niti Satakam and Vairagya Satakam, Mr. C.H. Tawney says, "I am sensible that in the present attempt I have retained much local colouring.

Kisari Mohan Ganguli was a translator from South-Asia or possibly from British-India, known for being the first to provide a complete translation of the Sanskrit epic Mahabharata in English. His translation was published as The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa Translated into English Prose between 1883 and 1896, by Pratap Chandra Roy (1842–1895), a Calcutta bookseller.

Does accepting the doctrine of biblical inspiration necessitate belief in biblical inerrancy? The Bible has always functioned authoritatively in the life of the church, but what exactly should that mean? Must it mean the Bible is without error in all historical details and ethical teachings? What should thoughtful Christians do with texts that propose God is pleased by human sacrifice or that God commanded Israel to commit acts of genocide? What about texts that contain historical errors or predictions that have gone unfulfilled long beyond their expiration dates? In The Human Faces of God, Thom Stark moves beyond notions of inerrancy in order to confront such problematic texts and open up a conversation about new ways they can be used in service of the church and its moral witness today. Readers looking for an academically informed yet accessible discussion of the Bible's thorniest texts will find a thought-provoking and indispensible resource in The Human Faces of God.