★★★

In what appears at first to be an anonymous book, “Femigod” first questions mainstream and organized religion and then presents various spiritual and philosophical alternatives as superior. The author, it turns out, is named Femi (whether male or female I was unable to detect) and concludes that we are all gods in our own right, more powerful than we are led to believe. “Femigod” describes his/her own spiritual enlightenment by lightly skimming a plethora of belief options.

The traditional Eastern, Western, and African religions are covered first, highlighting their inconsistencies, contradictions, and absurdities. None of these objections are covered in detail, and none are original or deep; all are reflections of the author’s own disillusionment with no counterarguments, presented more as questions than answers in order to encourage you to critically examine your own faith upbringing. (Why is God male? Why does he want to be worshipped? What is God’s hangup about sex? etc.)

After delving into various myths and introducing a number of philosophers, Femigod then presents metaphysical alternatives: The astral world, paganism, astrology, and more. Along the way, you’ll learn a little about Tarot, angels, and mind-altering drugs.

My disappointment in the book was not in the topic, nor the obvious metaphysical slant, but in its shallow presentation. This topic is simply too much to cover in 168 pages. Read this one if you’re already questioning traditional religion and looking for something else to dive into. Then find other books to learn more about those alternatives.

Here, then, are some parallels to get you thinking:

1. Jesus’ face shines like the sun, just as Moses’ did.

2. Jesus’ disciples are terrified, just as the people were afraid of Moses.

3. Jesus took three people up the mountain with him (Peter, James, and John). Likewise, Moses took three people up the mountain with him (Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu).

4. Moses’ transformation was a result of coming into the glory of God. Jesus is transfigured by his own glory, transcending Moses.

5. A cloud envelopes the mountain where Jesus stands, just as it did Mount Sinai, where Moses stood.

The Septuagint–the Greek version of the Hebrew Bible, written between the 2nd and 3rd centuries BC–gives a different figure. It lists Goliath’s height as four cubits and a span; about six and a half feet. Still unusually tall for that era.

Which version should be believed? Did the Septuagint translators, disbelieving the incredible height in the original story, change it to only four cubits? Or was the Hebrew version updated to turn Goliath into a mythical giant?

Your guess is as good as mine.

Here is what seems to happen. A group of bandits running a protection racket appear out of nowhere. They make the point that not one of them has bothered any of Nabal’s shepherds, and in fact, neither has anybody else while the bandits have been around. Don’t they deserve a little reward for protecting the shepherds? “Give, I pray thee, whatsoever cometh to thine hand unto thy servants,” they demand.

Nabal refuses to be threatened, and turns them down. Who is this David fellow, says he? Never heard of him.

So, four hundred bandits set out with swords to kill Nabal and take what he has by force. But Abigail, Nabal’s wife, catches wind of what’s going on.

“Then Abigail made haste, and took two hundred loaves, and two bottles of wine, and five sheep ready dressed, and five measures of parched corn, and an hundred clusters of raisins, and two hundred cakes of figs, and laid them on asses.”

Abigail saves the day by succumbing to the bandits’ protection racket, and Nabal is allowed to live.

//It’s surely not my intention to discredit the Catholic Church, but one of its teachings doesn’t quite jibe with the Bible. It’s this idea that Peter was the successor to Jesus, the leader of the new community of Christians. The first Pope.

This doctrine is founded primarily upon today’s verse, in which Jesus seems to designate Peter as the foundation for the new church. Never mind that this is only one interpretation of the verse (naming Peter as the rock in question). Never mind that the authenticity of the verse is disputed among scholars. Never mind that this is the only verse—not only in the Bible, but in any early historical document we’ve uncovered—which names Peter as the new boss.

The real problem is that there are many passages in the Bible citing somebody else as the head of the church. The real successor seems to be James, the brother of Jesus. Peter may have been bishop of Rome, a satellite Christian assembly in a faraway land, but James was awarded the position of bishop of Jerusalem, the central and authoritative assembly. Christianity, in every example you read during the life of Peter, was centered in Jerusalem, headed by James.

Paul writes that James, Peter, and John were the pillars of the church (Galatians 2:9), but could it be that James, the first one mentioned—more than Peter, Paul, or John—as the true successor preserves the more authentic message of Jesus? Is the Epistle of James, with its doctrine of justification by works, the book we should really be reading?