★★★★★

This is a well-written, concise, interesting overview of the argument against Christian fundamentalism … particularly Creationism.

How did the universe come into being? We don’t know. But new discoveries in quantum theory, as well as research done by Stephen Hawking and his colleagues, have demonstrated that matter can and does arise quite spontaneously from the vacuum fluctuation energy of “empty” space.

Intelligent Design? Mills states that “ID’s greatest triumph … has been in convincing the general public that there is a controversy raging among scientists over Intelligent Design. There is no scientific controversy whatever.”

So how did life begin? Well, we know God isn’t necessary. There is no need for spontaneous creation of complex cells; the first cells contained no nucleus at all, consisting mainly of an exterior membrane. Biological membranes form easily and spontaneously from a mixture of water and simple lipids. From there, the evidence for evolution is overwhelming, and Mills carefully refutes argument after argument posed by creationists.

Life after death? Forget having science on your side, here. For example, if the law of the conservation of mass/energy necessitates consciousness after death (because mass/energy can be neither destroyed nor created) then the same law requires consciousness before conception.

There just isn’t any real debate among scientists in these matters. A study in 1998 revealed that, of the membership of the National Academy of Sciences, only 7 percent believed in a personal God, and even fewer in Creation Science or Intelligent Design. The point I took away from the book is this: Religious beliefs must remain beliefs; no more or less. The Bible’s creationist claims are not and cannot be supported by science.

★★★★

I have been on the lookout for a good introductory book for adults to the stories in the Bible, and someone told me this children’s book would actually be a good one. They were right, I read through every story and enjoyed it! It’s a one-year collection of short Bible stories; you get 211 from the Old Testament, and 154 from the New (mostly Acts and the Gospels).

Do be aware that its target audience really is young children. You won’t find any of the Bible’s “adult themes” herein. Rahab isn’t a harlot; she’s just a nice lady. Mary isn’t a virgin. I guess that would be a little too complicated to explain.

365 days wasn’t quite enough for Partner to get through the Bible, probably because of an overemphasis on the teachings of Jesus, so you won’t find a full coverage of the Bible. For example, if there was anything at all about Ezekiel, one of the Bible’s more important prophets, I missed it. I was a little surprised at this, since Ezekiel’s dreams and publicity stunts would make for memorable children’s lessons.

You will, however, find a great deal of attention given to the kings of Israel and Judah, to the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple, to the deportation into captivity, to the release from captivity and rebuilding of the Holy Land. Excellent; I’m in favor of this emphasis. Few Christians grow up knowing anything at all about Judaism’s past, its defeats, sufferings, and desperate hopes for redemption. This is, after all, the atmosphere which birthed Christianity, for Christ means “Messiah,” the long-awaited redeemer.

Great book, cute pictures, and even I could understand the simple writing.

★★★

Roger tells the story of Moses, leaning heavily on the Biblical version, and does so pretty straight-forwardly. Moses grows up in an Egyptian palace, learns about his Hebrew roots, kills an Egyptian taskmaster, flees into the desert for forty years, sees a burning bush, returns to Egypt at God’s command to lead the Israelites out of bondage. All by the book.

Everyone knows the story of the plagues of Egypt. Frogs and locusts and bloody rivers and stuff. They’re as destructive in Roger’s version as they are in the Bible. In fact, as the plagues roll on and Pharaoh won’t buckle, Moses begins to feel sorry for Egypt. He tries to convert Pharaoh away from Egyptian gods to the God of Abraham, hoping to stave off further suffering. Failing this, Moses trudges through Egyptian lands warning people of the next plague, a murderous hailstorm, and begging them to stay indoors.

Eventually, Moses leads Israel out into the desert, where the people turn cranky, and God loses patience. The story’s theme of God-ordained suffering continues. When Israel at Baal Peor begins to worship the wrong god, the God of Abraham tells them to kill all their wayward brethren. Moses watches his brethen slaughter twenty four thousand of their own.

As they reach the promised land, God instructs Israel to murder everything that moves. “You shall not leave alive anything that breathes.” Moses weeps for Canaan’s inhabitants, and makes up some unconvincing excuses for God’s behavior. There was no alternative to God’s ruthlessness, he decides. Israel must kill the males because if they don’t, the enemy armies will be an ever-present threat. If Israel hadn’t proven themselves untrustworthy, God would probably not require this. They must kill the females because the women deserve it. These women enticed Israel’s men with their feminine wiles. They must kill all the cows because … well, I guess Moses doesn’t have an excuse for this one.

All this is relayed in a matter-of-fact tone. God speaks directly to Moses, so we are given no reason to believe all this pain isn’t sanctioned by the Big Guy, Himself. Near the end of the story, as Moses is about the die, Joshua, his successor, asks him a question: “Moses, how can we convince others that God is not a cruel tyrant, but a wise, forgiving, and indeed a feeling God?” Moses in essence tells Joshua he’ll have to figure that one out on his own. Okay, this is fine so far, but suddenly the book threw me for a loop. As it settled to a close, Roger felt compelled to include an evangelical pitch. God desires all to come to him. “Are you choosing not to believe, to be left behind in Egypt?” Uh, Roger, did you read your own book? Is God a jealous, genocidal murderer or is he not? Can you at least give some hint that all this inhumanity wasn’t really God’s doing, before asking us to follow him?

★★★★★

Separation of church and state in America—fact or fiction? What did our founding fathers really intend? Rosman, a “Jew by heritage, atheist by belief, and Unitarian by affiliation,” steps us through the evidence he collected from proponents of both sides of the debate. He starts out with a lengthy discussion of the “guys in wigs,” and the religious beliefs they espoused. Then he methodically considers the primary founding papers, including:

The Treaty of Tripoli

Do these documents and more betray a Christian underpinning? Or do they encourage religious tolerance? Is the constitution really based on the Ten Commandments? When did God find His way into the Star Spangled Banner, and how did “In God We Trust” turn into our national motto, even adorning our coins? Rosman’s controversial finding: We became a nation “under God” in the 1950’s, when cold war propaganda necessitated our uniting against those godless commies in the USSR.

Rosman’s analysis is very well-organized and actually quite balanced, even when he exposes America’s cold war strategy. His research leads to the expected conclusion: Our nation was NOT founded on Christian beliefs. Although a few early individuals did make efforts to merge religion and government, most of those efforts were met by reason and properly rejected.

It turns out our founding fathers shared a diverse collection of beliefs. Many were Christians, many were Deists, many were careful to give no indication. The settlers who founded our nation may have known their Bible, having come from nations where Christianity was the primary religion, but America was founded on religious freedom. We can’t describe these men in wide brushstrokes, collectively categorizing them all as Christians or Deists or Atheists. That’s as nonsensical as pretending all the writers of the New Testament were Trinitarians or Adoptionists. Different people hold different religious views—whether 2,000 years ago, 250 years ago, or today. And toleration of these differences forms the strength of our nation.

I enjoyed the book and learned a ton, but two annoyances keep me from giving it a five-star review: A bit of a slow start, and an inordinate number of editing errors. I don’t usually let errors influence my ranking, but this one definitely needed a better editor. 

★★★★★

If you’ve read other books in the Baker Exegetical series, you know pretty much what to expect here: Deep analysis with appreciation for multiple scholarly viewpoints, and every effort made to provide a precise interpretation. Often, this means resorting to the original New Testament Greek, which does make the text difficult to read … especially if you don’t know any Greek! You don’t have to, but if you know just enough Greek to be dangerous, without being a scholar of Biblical languages, this book will be perfect for you.

This approach, with liberal references back to the Old Testament, is particularly appropriate for one book of the Bible: Revelation. Its deep symbolism makes it a daunting book for most Bible readers.

In my own book about Revelation (http://www.thewayithappened.com) I discuss primarily the historical setting of which John of Patmos wrote. I believe the only way to truly understand Revelation is to first immerse yourself into the beliefs and struggles of first-century Christianity in Asia Minor (where the seven churches of Revelation reside). But when you’re ready to dig deeper into the Apocalypse’s Hebrew roots and symbolism, this is a great book … whether read as a  complete study or used as a reference. Osborne doesn’t neglect the historical essentials, he just delves much deeper and takes a much more scholarly approach. It must have taken forever to compile. 869 pages with plenty of ink on each.

Five stars for Osborne’s vast, no-nonsense research, a necessity for every Revelation scholar.

★★★★

Crossan is one of the premier Jesus scholars of today, and this book is quintessential Crossan. It’s a condensed, recently reprinted, more readable version of his 1994 masterpiece, The Historical Jesus.

Crossan’s research is controversial, more focused on the real life of a first-century sage (Jesus) than in the messianic God-man Christianity turned him into. I believe Crossan’s most irritating position (to conservative Christians) is his insistence that Jesus never rose from the tomb … because he was never entombed in the first place. Jesus’ body was probably pulled from the cross and eaten by dogs, with his remains dumped in a shallow grave, like the majority of other Roman crucifixion victims. Nevertheless, Crossan’s portrayal of Jesus is warm and powerful.

This little 200-page book is for people who want a quick introduction to Crossan’s research without tomes or tangents.

★★★

This book has sold a lot of copies and generated a lot of discussion since its publication in 1997, but it really just didn’t do it for me. Schroeder’s premise is that Bible thumpers and secular scientists need to put their heads together, compromise a little here and there, and realize that the Bible story goes hand-in-hand with 20th-century scientific discovery.

That means the seven-day creation story is true (Einstein’s theory of relativity helped us out a little on this topic) by measuring time from God’s perspective. The cosmic clock of Genesis is based on the characteristics of cosmic background radiation. The dinosaurs were created on day five, a day that lasted roughly a half billion years. The flood really happened when the Bible says it did, but it wasn’t a universal event. Before the flood, people lived extraordinarily long lives, because the climate was less demanding. You get the idea.

I agree with Schroeder that the conditions of our universe and our own little world are incredibly fine-tuned, and thus a bit difficult to explain. Schroeder quotes Weinberg’s famous calculation that if the energy of the big bang fifteen billion years ago were different by one part out of 10 to the 120th power, there would be no life anywhere in the universe. It’s as if the universe is tuned for life from its inception. There have been a number of thought-provoking responses to Weinberg’s conclusion, but it’s still difficult for me to put out of my mind the idea that something really special has happened for our benefit … something quite carefully planned.

It’s a puzzle without easy explanation, alright. I just don’t get why anyone would choose the Bible’s myths as the foundation for their explanation. As carefully as Schroeder has put his theory together, it still just feels contrived and overly complex to me. If Schroeder wants believers and scientists to hold hands and sing Kum Ba Yah, he’s going to need to write down to the non-scientist level. But why bother? Don’t the earliest Bible stories make a whole lot more sense as theological or political or moral treatises than as history books? Why not let religion be religion and science be science?

★★★★

Helms begins his book by claiming that he writes as a literary critic of the four Gospels, not as a debunker … then he proceeds with a thorough debunking.

This is a good mix of original ideas and established scholarship. Helms’ message is clear: that the Gospels are artful, fictional variations of a common theme, individualized by each author’s motives. He treats separately the birth narratives, miracles, passion story, and resurrection appearances, showing how each is often related to the Old Testament in order to lend artificial authority, or derived from pagan myths or contemporary miracle claims.

I found the book thought-provoking, though a little disturbing in tone. It’s short, not meant to be an in-depth study. Recommended as a starting point for research in the development of the Gospels.

★★★★★

I promised to work on a couple more books about the afterlife, and wanted to include this one. I went through a period a while back where I grew fascinated by studies of life after death, and delved into a number of different approaches to the topic. Scientific studies, though woefully inadequate to date, make for fascinating reading. I think we’re just wired that way.

I read about hauntings, claims of reincarnation, visits to heaven and hell, séances, and just general paranormal events. (My computer just changed my misspelling of “paranormal” to “paranoia;” a reasonable faux pas.) More unproven than scientific, these books nevertheless kept me entertained. There is, however, one subtopic that stands head-and-shoulders above the rest, as worthy of further study.

That’s near-death experiences (NDE’s). But it’s still difficult to locate an unbiased  treatment. So biased are both the believers and the debunkers that it’s quite a challenge to sort out what’s legitimate and what’s not.

This Idiot’s Guide proved to be a well-balanced introduction. It provides not only accounts of various NDEs, but science’s response. Then, the debunkers are debunked, and finally the religious get their say on the matter too. (NDE’s do not always support our religious beliefs; in fact, the stories of NDE’s tend to irritate exclusivists who can’t stomach the idea that non-believers share the same often-glorious experiences.)

Recommended.

PLEASE NOTE: The author has contacted me to explain that this book has been out of print for some time, and that it was replaced by what she considers a much better publication: The Big Book of Near Death Experiences.

★★★★★

Beal is a professor of religion at Case Western Reserve University, and an accomplished author. His writing style is fluid, intelligent and entertaining. I confess, though, that I’m not totally sure what the focus of this book is! The subtitle is The Unexpected History of an Accidental Book, which is pretty open-ended, and Beal takes advantage of his generic subtitle to meander around a bit, working in a number of interesting tidbits and topics. Makes for a great, if a bit undirected, read.

Beal is a Christian with a deep respect for the Bible, albeit one who has “drifted quite a distance from the familiar biblical waters of the conservative evangelical tradition in which [he] was raised.” Bottom line, he doesn’t consider the Bible inerrant by any stretch, and finds beauty and inspiration in its multitude of voices.

Beal begins by bemoaning America’s Biblical illiteracy. Less than half of all adult Americans can name the first book of the Bible, or the four Gospels. More than half of graduating high school seniors guess that Sodom and Gomorrah were husband and wife. The Bible has risen to the status of a cultural icon, but it’s no longer read. Instead, value-added products such as magazines and graphics novels is a thriving industry. Anything to avoid reading the Bible’s actual text.

If we did read the Bible regularly, we probably wouldn’t be convinced of its univocality (meaning, the assumption of its internal consistency.) Most of us have the idea that the Bible provides answers to life’s questions, and when we come to a crossroads, we’re taught to ask, “What does the Bible say?” Fact is, the Bible will often say lots of things on our topic, drowning us in a confusing array of contradictory advice. The Bible is not a book of answers, but a library of questions. Not a wellspring of truth but a pool of imagination, rich in ambiguity, contradiction, and argument.

★★★★

“A very interesting book …”

The following is an unsolicited review of my book posted on Amazon by Henry Slofstra. Thanks, Henry!

I found this to be a very interesting book, given my predilection for imaginative Christian literature, such as Dante or Milton, over scholarly work. The book straddles the two genres, and this neither fish nor fowl approach has likely undone some readers and reviewers. In my own view, the book is at its best when Harmon is in story-telling mode, imaginatively reconstructing events in the Mediterranean world during the slice of time in which the last book of the Bible was written. The protaganists are a Jewish Christian father and his son, but the perspective sometimes shifts to that of the writer, John, whoever he may have been. Harmon subscribes to the Preterist view, which means that the events depicted in Revelation correspond with first century Roman and Jewish history, and less so, with a predictive vision of the end of days as given to John by God. You don’t need to accept the Preterist view in order to enjoy the book; but there’s no question that the times in which the book was written were epical. Given one reviewer’s view that the book may shake one’s faith, I’d add only that some faiths could do with a bit of shaking.

The format of the book is unconventional in how different modes of discourse are handled. It’s not bad, and perhaps an improvement. The usual approach is to place background asides in box insets, and corroborating material in footnotes. Harmon has used the approach of setting these asides inline in a different font, and I found that this approach did avoid the kind of annoying page flipping found in other secondary histories.

At least this is a book that works for me, at an imaginative level, given that I’m not a reader interested in questions of scholarship addressed in the extensive bibliography cited by Harmon. I look forward to more from this writer.