Saturday, February 04, 2006

What I've been reading

This book is absolutely wonderful. It's a fictional account of the life of Jesus from age 12 to his crucifixion at age 33. It's told from the perspective of Christ's childhood friend, Biff, who's kind of an Eddie Haskell type character. The author, Christopher Moore, has clearly done some research into that period of history and some basic tenets of world religions. I love the way he interprets some of the more familiar gospel accounts, as well as shedding light on where Jesus got some of his stuff. If you're looking for an entertaining (and purely fictional) look at the life of Jesus, check this out. But, you don't have to take my word for it...OK, I don't have a cutaway to a child telling you how much he/she enjoyed the book, but I did love it when Lavar Burton used to say that on Reading Rainbow.

I've been working on this book since, oh, August, I think. It's a book that both Mark Shivers and Tom Katona told me I needed to read. It is truly an amazing book. The reason for the long read is that I need time to digest each chapter, plus, it's not exactly a book I can read before bedtime. I'm sure people who write more eloquently than I have given synopses of this book, so you might want to find one of those online. Basically, as the title suggests, Newbigin addresses issues of truth and the gospel as they relate to the pluralist society in which we live. He provides wonderful definitions of relativism, pluralism, and bunch of other isms. His chapters on mission, and how we are to conduct ourselves as we dialogue with one another are priceless. I think my favorite $10 phrase is "Plausibility Structure," which is his title for the way that a culture makes sense of the world around them. I'm hoping to post some quotes from this book, but forgot to bring it with me to the coffee shop this morning. It's a great book. Pick it up and plow through it.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I read Lamb last summer and loved it. Absolutely the best account of John the Baptist I have ever read! The guy is a raving lunatic in this book!

mark said...

dude..ive been meaning to get this book for a while..your post reminded me and i def need some fictin right now..anyway, i havent laughed out loud like i do reading this in a long time..pricless stuff so far..love that miriam eventually went and lived on the island of lesbos..

so many people would be offended by the book..too bad for them..awesome stuff..

if there was one book i wish i had memorized, it might be the one you are reading by Newbiggen..so much good stuff there..

peace

Stuart Hill said...

i just started the pluralism book last night, after reading your post (hooray for universities and these things called 'libraries') and the first chapter has me really excited.

noe said...

I love Lamb! Now i want to read it again... well, after the stack of new books i've been collecting the past few months... why is it that there are always more book that i want to read than i actually have time to read?

anyways, i hadn't read your blog in a while... it was nice to catch up on my alan's blog reading (if that made any sense)... i like the beard.

as always, you're awesome!

peace, n