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Description
The Ming Voyages Card Game"The Ming Voyages" are the seven journeys made by the Chinese treasure fleet of oceanic junks between 1405 and 1433. The Yongle Emperor constructed the fleet during a period of outward looking expansion of Chinese influence overseas, and its commander was Admiral Zheng He. The maritime power of the Ming Empire was used for political purposes, not just for trade. The immense fleet was technologically far in advance of European counterparts until at
"The Ming Voyages" are the seven journeys made by the Chinese treasure fleet of oceanic junks between 1405 and 1433. The Yongle Emperor constructed the fleet during a period of outward-looking expansion of Chinese influence overseas, and its commander was Admiral Zheng He. The maritime power of the Ming Empire was used for political purposes, not just for trade. The immense fleet was technologically far in advance of European counterparts until at least the 18th century. While it is purported by some that the fleet circumnavigated the world and discovered all its continents save Europe, the voyages certainly reached Calicut in India and Hormuz in the Persian Gulf, while making landfalls in the Arabian Peninsula and East Africa - but on the landward side of the Empire, border troubles were always brewing.
In The Ming Voyages, one player will be the Ming Emperor who is trying to complete all seven treasure voyages, in addition to protecting the Chinese borderlands from invading barbarians. The other player controls the three disparate barbarian factions who are trying to settle on the borderlands with China. Battles can occur in these borderlands, with players use their three dice to roll for triples, doubles, and singles that are better than their opponent's rolls. Reserved cards can be used for re-rolls.
The game uses multi-function cards (as in The Cousins' War) to provide actions for players to reinforce their armies and attack the enemy and for the Emperor to complete voyages. Play of a card may provide an out-of-turn action for the opponent, so players must be careful of timing. Only the Emperor draws new cards. Players swap hands at the end of each turn, so the Emperor always knows what the Barbarian Overlord holds, and each player tries to exploit the out-of-turn actions.
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4.2 ★★★★★
Based on 991 reviews
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Product Reviews
★★★★★ 5
Who is Jesus: A Case for Jesus’ Divinity
Format: Hardcover
I thoroughly enjoyed reading Brant Pitre’s “The Case for Jesus.” The New Testament scholar’s contribution to Catholic popular literature on the identity of Jesus stands well above much of the plethora of material available to Christian readers today. Pitre (mostly) convincingly builds his case through careful, fact-based argumentation--even if one could draw different conclusions from the same evidence.
What case is Pitre trying to make? In effect, he makes several cases leading up to his central point of who Jesus was and is.
In the first part of this slim volume, he treats the authorship of the Gospels. In this matter, as in most of the book, his principle foil seems to be Bart Ehrman, a former Fundamentalist Christian-turned-apostate scholar whose popular works attempt to undermine the validity of the Gospels as meaningful historical documents and specifically the claim that Jesus is the Son of God. Contrary to Ehrman, Pitre argues for the traditional authorship of the Gospels. As two significant pieces of evidence, Pitre points out that even the earliest Gospel manuscripts and secondary references to the Gospels include the writers’ names by which we know them. The Gospels, then, were never really “anonymous.” This leads Pitre to challenge the scholarly consensus on the dating of the Gospels, and the more controversial hypothesis that Matthew and Luke were based in part on a hypothetical, now lost (and, as Pitre points out, never referenced) book of Jesus sayings denoted by scholars as the “Q” source.
As for the so-called lost or apocryphal gospels, Pitre shows that they were never really lost, that most of them were known by early Christian writers, who regarded them as forgeries. In the case of the apocryphal gospels, then, even though the internal evidence suggests that they were written by the apostles to whom they were ascribed, the attributions were never accepted. Ehrman has argued that the apocryphal gospels were not accepted by mainstream or orthodox Christianity, but were embraced by the communities, such as the Gnostics, for whom they were written. In a way, Pitre and Ehrman aren’t in contradiction here, but they just interpret the data differently. In other words, if you accept that the Church Fathers are espousing the correct version of Christianity, then Pitre’s point stands; if you hold on to the view that the Church Fathers represented one view of Christianity among many, all to be regarded equally, then the criticism of the (orthodox) Church Fathers matters less.
Pitre, while not dismissing the validity of literary criticism, argues for the historical value of the Gospels. He wants to treat the Gospels as biographies of Jesus. Their inconsistencies and apparent contradictions stem not, as Ehrman would have it, from a “telephone game”-like process of accretions and alterations over time, or even so much from the requirements of the communities for which they were written, as from the different perspectives and life experiences of their writers. Pitre notes the similarities between the Gospels and ancient Greco-Roman biographies in countering the ideas of Ehrman and before him, Rudolf Bultmann, in thinking of the Gospels as akin to folktales, fairy stories, and myths. Pitre stands for the literal truth of the Gospels as far as they will allow in part because two of the four Gospels tell us that they are true (Lk 1:1-4; Jn 19:35, 21:24-25). There’s a bit of circularity in that argument.
The main case for Jesus that Pitre wants to make is for His divinity. The Gospels, as Luke Timothy Johnson and other scholars have explained, try to answer, however obliquely, the question Jesus himself poses to Peter: “But who do you say that I am?” (Mk 8:29). Pitre makes the case that the Gospels--even the synoptic Gospels--speak to Jesus’ being God. Pitre makes a lively, even entertaining, argument, using some passages, e.g., the reference to the sign of Jonah, in ways I certainly hadn’t thought of before. Even though as a Catholic I accept Jesus’ divinity, I am willing to allow that others may look at Pitre’s argument and reasonably come to different conclusions. One train of thinking might be this: Pitre notes that Jesus speaks in parables and riddles, and so His claims to divinity are indirect. Moreover, an outright and indeed blasphemous claim to His divinity might have put an even earlier end to Jesus’ three years of ministry. But the Gospel writers should not have been constrained by either Jesus’ particular application of rhetoric or his need to be circumspect; why did the Gospel writers not forthrightly declare that Jesus was God? I think the proper response to this is that Matthew, Mark, Luke and John wanted the person encountering the Gospels to answer for themselves who Jesus was and is. In other words, by transmitting the way Jesus conveyed who He was to His disciples perhaps they, too, would draw in and win over later followers of Christ. It’s much more efficacious to engage the potential convert that way than simply to assert that Jesus is God.
Brad Pitre has written a wonderful and engaging book. Even if you don’t agree with all of his conclusions, you will appreciate his logical and engaging discussion. This book is meant for the general reader, although it does have a scholarly apparatus by way of careful notes. An index would have been nice but this is a short book of a couple hundred pages. If you’re on a long flight, this book would be the perfect company.
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Reviewed in the United States on October 28, 2016
★★★★★ 5
A wonderful book for all Christians who wish to defend the credibility of our bible
Format: Paperback
Brant Petrie is a wonderful Catholic Bible Scholar, having both a deep love and understcanding of his own faith and the faith of Jesus of Nazareth, Judaism. Everyone of his books and videos provide deeper insight who is Jesus, the ancient faith He handed on and even why it grew as swiftly as it did...always using the Old Testament to enlighten our understanding of the New. He couldn't do this if he wasn't completely convinced himself of Who Jesus is and the credibility of the Scriptures that reveal Him to us. That is what this book is about. Petrie takes you point by point through the arguments that modern scripture scholars and atheists put forth about the New Testament, that we have no idea who wrote the Gospels, they were written anonymously, they are myth or folktale etc. The most stunning reality is that these people literally ignore the facts; they ignore common sense The second topic he tackles is the assertion that Jesus wasn't divine because He never claimed to be God. They dismiss John's gospel, saying the idea that Jesus was God, was a later development and clearly not believed from the beginning as witness by the fact that no where in the Synoptic Gospels does Jesus claim divinity. Petrie, again using his understanding of Judaism and how ideas are expressed in the culture, clearly demonstrates that while, Jesus never stands up pounding his chest saying, "I am God", He very distinctly, even explicitly makes His divinity known. If He hadn't, the high priest would not have rend his garments and there would never have been a crucifixion. The case is made simply and in a straight forward manner. Arguments that all of us can use, with love, when the credibility of scripture is questioned. He also has a pleasant writing style. He has a wonderful sense of humor in his videos and while it is less obvious in the book, his gentle strength is quite evident. If you love scripture and the Christian faith, this is a book you will want to read.
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Reviewed in the United States on May 18, 2020
★★★★★ 5
The best "Jesus book" outside the Bible
Format: Kindle
If you are looking for a dry academic tome that spends page after page delving into the minutiae of little known biblical passages, you need to look someplace else. If, however you are looking for a fresh, dynamic and eye opening book tackling the big questions about who Jesus claimed to be, the reliability and authorship of the Gospels, and other questions surrounding the life and ministry of Jesus, then this is the book for you.
Written by a well respected academic but for a non-specialist readership, Dr. Pitre's writing is engaging while not being breezy. He uses footnotes to back up his assertions but not so many as to overwhelm the reader. Don't get me wrong, I like a weighty academic tome as well as the next nerd. I would strongly recommend one of Dr. Joshua R. Brotherton's books.
But nerds aren't Dr. Pitre's only intended audience. It's all of us who have been bombarded with claims that the gospels are unreliable and anonymous, written well after the lifetime of the Apostles. That Jesus never claimed to be divine or that the resurrection is nothing more than myth. It addresses these and other issues in a way that makes you resolve to buy copies of his book for family and friends even before you're halfway through the book. I know I did and I bet you will to.
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Reviewed in the United States on June 8, 2024
★★★★★ 5
An Excellent Summary Defending The Synoptic Gospels and Jesus Christ's Claims of Divinity
Format: Hardcover
This book is an excellent summary that refutes the arguments made by modern theologians and scholars of the Bible that claim that the Gospels were of anonymous authorship, written late in the 1st Century AD, and Jesus of Nazareth never claimed to be divine. Bart Ehrman's (an avowed atheist that seems motivated to denigrate Christianity) shoddy scholarship is frequently given as an example to be refuted.
The author cites the Apostolic Fathers and more recent scholars to show that the claims made by the revisionists are incorrect. There are several detailed 5 Star reviews, so I won't duplicate their praises for Dr. Pitre's book.
The book is a quick read and there are numerous end notes. A minor criticism is that the book lacks a bibliography, but the sources are fully identified within the end notes. The author makes a couple of very interesting observations concerning the Transfiguration of Jesus and how Jesus fulfilled Scripture (namely, the Book of Jonah) that I had not considered before.
One of the negative reviews cites the notes in the New American Bible as evidence that Dr. Pitre's book is incorrect. While it is true that the Catholic Church in the U.S. uses the NAB translation in its liturgy, other Biblical scholars dispute the notes included in that edition of the Bible. A similar problem exists with the notes included with Oxford's Catholic Study Bible. The notes were written by modern revisionists.
I suppose you have to decide whether to accept the words of the Apostolic Fathers (i.e., men that either were or knew the Apostles) and Jesus Christ, or if -- 2000 years later -- you're too sophisticated to accept the word of some ancient guys.
The author is Catholic, and the book has been granted an Imprimatur. However, since this book does not get into the weeds concerning doctrinal differences, it should be of value to any Christian.
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Reviewed in the United States on January 15, 2024
★★★★★ 4
Good but more academic
Format: Hardcover
I love Brant Pitre, especially his books Jesus and the Jewish Roots of the Eucharist and Jesus the Bridegroom. I would say those books should be required reading for anyone who is catechist or is involved in RCIA as Catholics. This book is good, however it is primarily an academic work where Dr. Pitre takes on the Historical Jesus movement and Dr. Bart Ehrman in particular. In this book he goes on to show that the gospels were written within a few decades of Jesus death by the disciples that have given their names to the gospels. He uses his knowledge of Jewish faith and culture to show that Jesus really does claim to be God in all the gospels, not just the Gospel of John. It is a good book but not one that I would find useful on a regular basis.
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Reviewed in the United States on March 14, 2016