Reviews for Learning in Context: The Search for Innovative Patterns in Theological Education

The average rating for Learning in Context: The Search for Innovative Patterns in Theological Education based on 2 reviews is 2.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2020-08-14 00:00:00 Xxx Xxx This review is also posted at Amazon: It took a hundred pages for me to get even a little interested in this story. If I hadn't meant to review it, I would have put it away. I was uninterested in the protagonist and found the world-building to be nebulous for the most part. Very easy book to put down. I rearranged a junk drawer and an over-flowing cupboard while reading this book. Not a good sign. I'd never read PC Cast, but I was interested in picking something of hers up because of how ubiquitous she is in the YA sections in my favorite book stores. Now I see why. Sex sells. A lot. Now, I love a good sexy romance. My first adult romance was 'borrowed' from my mom when I was sixteen. I definitely get the draw. But there has to be a story that needs it. There has to be chemistry between the characters. And there has to be a reason for the sex scenes in the first place, otherwise they're either just padding or prurience. The lead romance had the foundation of having the hero see the heroine in dreams for her entire life. Without ever having met her, he was in love. The heroine first sees him in her own dreams shortly before she meets him and she's just as smitten. I've read plenty of romances where couples mate immediately based on being fated, but I found their interaction so bland that their passion seemed out of place. It seemed like adding a sex scene was the purpose rather than furthering the story, which, sorry to say, seems disturbing and smarmy in a book written specifically for teenagers. But let's get away from sex, if we can. Although it's difficult with all the 'throbbing' the hero was doing for the first two thirds of the book. We start the story in an inaccessible world, with an unlikely couple and a vague goddess (one goddess, a number of 'goddess incarnates', a 'chosen one' and another 'goddess'). We know there's love and beauty, but there's no real context for any of it. It just sort of floats out there for a prologue and a chapter before we really get to know anyone. It wasn't until the action moved to a totally different place that the world started to take shape. We learn next to nothing about the hero's world, though. Wastelands, apparently, where his people thrive but suffer. They suffer because the darkness in their blood is making them go insane. Good enough, I suppose, but we have no visual on the place itself. Maybe in a later book it will be explored a bit, but it was needed here and in this story. The fix for the madness is a vague prophecy that our hero realizes has been misinterpreted and is worse than even he thought it was. His reinterpretation frankly does not fit with the words of the prophecy, so that whole sequence of plot is contrived. And, in the end, the execution of the prophecy doesn't make much sense even with his reinterpretation. Add to this four interesting characters (I won't say who), three of which make it to the end of the tale. The character death here does impact the story but isn't necessary in the actual world the author has given us. Except, of course, that Cast seems to be setting up a book for another character. Again, contrived. And finally we get an actual, true to it's name deus ex machina. What else would you expect with a goddess in the lead? Sadly, I really wanted to like this book. But I didn't and I won't be continuing the series.

Review # 2 was written on 2009-12-30 00:00:00 Rebecca Brookes I think I'm just not meant to read P.C. Cast. Maybe I'm just anal-retentive; maybe I just have too much trouble shutting off the "mythology geek" section of my brain. I crack open a Cast novel, and instead of sinking into the story, I find myself thinking, "Celtic mythology doesn't have centaurs," or "Apollo would make a lousy Prince Charming," or in this case, "Elphame's a place name, darn it, not a character name! It means fairyland." Elphame's Choice is so called because its heroine is named Elphame, and this never quite stopped being distracting. Elphame is a descendant of the heroine of Divine by Mistake. She lives a cushy but lonely existence as the daughter of Epona's Chosen, and wants to strike out on her own and find her destiny. She finds it in the form of MacCallan Castle, which once belonged to her ancestors but was destroyed by the Fomorians generations ago. Elphame assembles a team of people to rebuild the castle, and soon the team becomes a family of sorts. I liked the scenes in which Elphame discovers leadership skills within herself, and those in which the ruined castle begins to shine again. But when Elphame sustains an injury in the woods, the plot switches gears. Her friends finish the bulk of the renovations during the five days she's laid up, and the true heart of Elphame's Choice--the romance--comes to the forefront. I should say, the romances. There are two. One is between Elphame and the half-Fomorian, Lochlan, who believes she holds the key to the redemption of his people. They quickly fall in love, but Lochlan fears that the vampiric influence of his Fomorian ancestry will cause him to hurt her. I remember Divine by Mistake as being pretty raunchy and I'd been wondering why its sequel had been repackaged for the young adult market. Now I think I know. Elphame's Choice predates Twilight, and is much steamier, but I think the "boy meets girl, boy is afraid he'll drink girl's blood" aspect may appeal to some of the same readers. The other romantic plotline focuses on Elphame's brother, Cuchulainn. Cuchulainn is something of a Casanova, but finds himself out of his depth when he falls deeply in love with Brenna, a young healer and artist who bears physical and emotional scars. I actually liked this secondary romance better than Elphame's story, at least until the very end. This is one of Cast's earlier books, and it's rough in places. Most noticeably, there's a ton of head-hopping and a long sagging middle in which nothing much happens except lust and bickering. Then there's the Mary Sue-ness; I felt like the book would be half as long if the narrative didn't stop so often to mention how beautiful Elphame is. The copy-editing is spotty as well. Lots of typos. But none of this would have been so bad if it hadn't been for two plot developments that occur toward the end. SPOILER ALERT: 1) The prophecy. It makes no sense. Now, I love stories that hinge on an ambiguous or misinterpreted prophecy, the "no man of woman born" kind of thing. But this one quite simply left me scratching my head. The "real" meaning of the prophecy doesn't match the actual words of the prophecy. The Goddess Epona would have had to be brainless to word it the way she did. There's no logical way that the "real" meaning follows from what she said. And the consequences would have been disastrous if the characters had interpreted the prophecy in the only way that actually makes sense. Elphame would have been dead, and the half-Fomorians left with no hope of regaining their sanity. 2) Brenna. Way to ruin a perfectly good "reformed rake" plot. Cuchulainn learns to love and to appreciate inner beauty, and Brenna overcomes her fears, and for what? Cast kills her off a few days after they get engaged, and then partners him with a strikingly beautiful woman in the next book, Brighid's Quest. So, if you're pretty, you get a happy ending, but if you're not, you get to be the vehicle for some guy's character development? Ugh. Also, and this isn't the author's fault, but what is with the new cover art? Elphame is described as having brown skin...