The Review Revolution: Improving Culture through Kvetching

Putting the Fun in Fundamentalism! A Review of THE YEAR OF LIVING BIBLICALLY

OK, so I try to maintain a crater-like distance between the work I do for PW and the books I read for fun on my blog.  (Please see the Big Fat Hairy Disclaimer to the right.)  But occasionally there is actually a religion book that is so fun and entertaining that it is inherently blog-worthy.  Such is the case with the new A.J. Jacobs book The Year of Living Biblically.  I've been crowing about this book since I read it in June.  It's hilarious, insightful and smart.  And did I mention that it's hilarious?

Basically, the premise of the book is that the author takes it upon himself to live all of the commandments of the Bible for a full year.  (Well, he does leave out a few things.  He doesn't pluck out his own eye, for example, or kill a magician.) The memoir follows his year, as he does the things we might expect--he stops gossiping, starts giving to charity, and tries to be entirely truthful--and then does other things many readers will find surprising.  Several times I found myself saying, "Yikes!  I never knew that was in the Bible."   I would look it up, just to make sure--and yep, there it was.  That Bible is one seriously wacky book.

I've written a long review of The Year of Living Biblically for Books & Culture, and if you're interested in learning more about the book, you can access the link here. 

Also, the author is touring over the next few weeks to a lot of major cities across the country, including Portland, Boston, New York, Austin, Pasadena, and other places.  He'll be in Cincinnati on Monday, November 13 -- he's speaking and signing at Joseph-Beth at 7:00.  I hope some of you like-minded folks in southern Ohio can come out for it.  In my job, I see so many mediocre and even bad books succeed that when a truly original and special one comes along, I want to help it find its audience. 

Read this book!

Healing After Miscarriage: Two Book Reviews

I've written a review essay about books on miscarriage for explorefaith.org. There are so many bad and superficial books out there about pregnancy loss that it feels heartening to call attention to two very good ones.  Miscarriage is a quiet and nearly invisible sorrow that too often goes unrecognized.  I'm astonished by how common it is, and also astonished that I never had to know before just how common it is.  It seems like a lot of women I meet are walking wounded from that festering pain of a dream deferred.

             

		Books  of Hope and Healing after Miscarriage  by Jana Riess   Since  my loss I have encountered so many others who have experienced pregnancy loss. I had no idea it was so common before it happened to me because people didn’t talk about it…it helps so much to talk and cry.   These words, confessed by a Georgia woman in the wake of her miscarriage, haunted me when I discovered them in the pages of Bernadette Keaggy’s helpful book Losing You Too Soon: Finding Hope After Miscarriage or the Loss of a Baby. Like the bereft Georgia mother, I too had no idea how common miscarriage is until I became a statistic  myself this summer. Some physicians think the rate is one in five pregnancies, others the more aggressive estimate of one in three. All I know is that, naively, I never expected it to happen to me, and was devastated when it did.   In the past weeks I have discovered two helpful books to help women who are coping with the loss of a pregnancy . . . . [Click here to continue reading the review essay on explorefaith.org.]

Mormons Are Christians, Too . . . Or Are They?

I have a brief article in the current issue of Christian Century (which, if you don't know, is a venerable magazine of Protestant thought, leaning more toward the liberal/liturgical/granola side of the Christian spectrum).  In it, I address five things I wish mainline Protestants understood about Mormons, and claim that Mormons can legitimately call themselves Christians. 

Apparently, the magazine is receiving some seriously angry mail about the piece.  Since I haven't yet seen the letters, I'm not sure what triggered the response--whether it's something specific I wrote or if people are just sputtering because their beloved Protestant vehicle gave a bully pulpit to a heretic.  (Which is a fair point.  I can't see an official Mormon periodical extending the same courtesy to, say, a Presbyterian minister or Episcopal priest.  This is one of many, many reasons why Protestants are so cool, and why Mormons have a lot to learn.)

I can't seem to link directly to the edited version that's in the magazine, so I'm just going to paste the original version (which is a little longer and, I think, funnier and more light-hearted) here for your thoughts. I am scratching my head about this -- that spot between the horns tends to get really itchy -- and hope you can speak honestly about why this is controversial.  What is offensive about this essay?  It is never my goal to offend or provoke anyone, just to educate.   I want my writing to help people think and hopefully look at issues in a new way, just like good writing does for me.   Huh.