A study of the hymnic and liturgical material in the New Testament which describes Christ's nature and person. Professor Sanders analyzes the hymns in detail and finds in them a common mythological pattern. He traces its origin to a particular and unorthodox branch of Judaism which is itself a branch of the 'wisdom' tradition where the thanksgiving hymn had its home. His conclusions therefore have considerable importance and implications for questions about the origins of Gnosticism and its influence on Christianity. This is the full-scale historical religious study of the New Testament Christological hymns, and English readers will find particularly useful Professor Sanders' critical survey of recent continental scholarship on this and related subjects.

Samuel Rothchild, born in 1843, spent his early years in a small village in southwestern Germany, then grew to manhood on a farm in central Kentucky, and finally moved to the Pacific Northwest in a search for adventure and fortune. In Pendleton, Oregon, Rothchild became a store owner, a grain buyer, a dealer in real estate, an inventor, and a major stockholder in a newspaper, a bank, and a silver mine. He once had occasion to use his skills in defense of his town. When a group of Native Americans from outside the region invaded, the people of Pendleton felt threatened, and Rothchild-this son of Kentucky who could ride and shoot-joined a group of state militia volunteers who successfully held the invaders off just long enough for the regular army to arrive. (Native warriors at home in the region around Pendleton joined the army in repelling the invaders.) And this handsome and charming bachelor also found time for romance. He became one of the town's most admired citizens and the man whom nearly everyone trusted most. He was a long-time city councilor and was the author of many measures that abetted Pendleton's growth, its stability, and its ultimate leading role in eastern Oregon commerce. Perhaps most importantly, he worked consistently to promote the institutions of civil society. Later, Rothchild made similar contributions to civic life in the mining town that became known as Republic, Washington. He died in San Francisco in 1930. The American West owes its development to settlers like Rothchild, who saw to it that a civil society developed in hundreds of small places.