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Author Calaway has undertaken a massive project demonstrating his determination to help readers understand some of the many mystical terms and historical characters cited in the Holy Bible, drawing in the main upon quotations from the New International Version. His diligently researched efforts are designed to provide intellectual and etheric explanations to aid those students and religious devotees who wish to probe deeply. He presents an initial explication of the dictionary’s inclusion of premillennial and dispensational theology. These complex conceptions may cause conflicted reception yet must be taken as necessary to any thorough and open-minded study of the materials shared.
Calaway’s work, part of a multi-volume set, is an encyclopedic array of biblical information, with this volume focusing on the letters E through J. It varies between standard definitions and details very briefly described and essays of larger issues comprising several pages. Examples of the former are simple physical items such as “earthen vessels,” whose notation is given as a reference to “jars of clay.” By contrast, the longer contributions, necessarily offered for the greater understanding Calaway strives to impart, include such subjects as “Eastern languages, key religious terms”—a segment spanning fourteen pages and listing hundreds of words by their religious or sectarian origin, including such samples as Ananda, Bhagwan, and matha from Hinduism, gohonzon, lamasery, and Shramana from the Buddhist religion, and kami, Matsuri, and Obatai-taisai from Shinto beliefs. In the J portion, Calaway gives a charming definition of the expression “jot and tittle” spoken by Jesus regarding small, almost insignificant matters, while in the same section is the word “Judaism,” for which the author has set forth more than six pages of terminology and history, both ancient and modern.
Calaway, a retired Navy chaplain who holds a master of theology degree, is an experienced counselor and author of several books exploring religious subject matter. His History and Mystery series encompasses five volumes, with this one containing 8,000 definitions and sixty essays, along with other practical and philosophical contributions. In his thoughtful foreword to the essays and encyclopedia, Calaway advises readers that such collocations as he has constructed—gathering data and cultural lore from all the world’s recognized spiritual groupings and writings—are rare, if indeed others exist at all.
The wide range and intensive exploration of significant themes and straightforward facts establish him as a dedicated scholar, while his presentation of ideas and concepts reveals him as both rational and broadminded, recognizing that his audience will also cover a large swath of opinion and outlook. For example, he gives readers the gentle but appropriate warning that they will encounter in his collection the information that “certain individuals, groups of institutions” will be shown as “cults, false prophets,” or other negative designations. This is because the items cited appear only in sources that offer and may stress those assertions. Such material, combined with the wealth of specific words and broad concepts covered. offers readers with a thirst for understanding at any level a rare grasp of spiritual, historical, and, at times, mystery-laden biblical truth. Calaway’s impressive work will undoubtedly be adapted by studious Christians and utilized for group presentations and individual contemplation.
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