Apr
30
Written by:
host
4/30/2009 7:00 AM
The stack of books on my desk keeps growing, and these three are similar in the fact that they are summaries of research in three very different topics. The first I recommend to everyone; the others are for those with more specialized interests.
What Americans Really Believe by Rodney Stark. Baylor University Press, 2008, 208 pp.
The Pew Forum's US Religious Landscape survey has gotten a lot of press in recent weeks, and it's absolutely essential reading for church staff members and leaders. Another book, though, is equally valuable reading. Stark's research is highly respected by those who study the development of Christianity in our country, and his expert analysis of other writers and studies is concise and clear. This book is essential reading for anyone interested in knowing how Christians in different denominations think about everything from views on sin and evil to who believes in UFOs and angels. Want to know what the statistics say about youth participation in church? Want to know why Americans have such high rates of church attendance? Is religion "hardwired" into certain kinds of human personality? The answers to those questions and much more are in this fascinating (and well-written) book. It would be an interesting book to read as a church staff, I think.
The Final Days of Jesus: The Archaeological Evidence by Shimon Gibson. HarperOne, 2009, 272 pp.
Gibson is well-known in the field of archaeology for his research in Israel, and he was the archaeologist who was present at the recent discovery of the controversial "Jesus' family tomb." He's also extremely well-read and frequently describes and analyzes the work of others, and the book is written for those who have never studied archaeology at all. The book explores each of the places Jesus went to during his final week from an archaeological perspective, the goal being to see what contemporary research can add to the ways we interpret the biblical texts. Because his strength is archaeology and not textual analysis or theology, the book occasionally seemed to me to have too strong an appreciation for literalistic interpretations of the text. Yet, as his final chapters make clear, the difficulties in determining with certainty exactly what happened to Jesus in his last days are many, and he certainly makes a good case for knowing more about archaeology in order to be a good interpreter of the biblical text. This was my bedtime reading for the past week, and it never once made me drowsy!
Q, The Earliest Gospel: An Introduction to the Original Stories and Sayings of Jesus by John S. Kloppenenborg. Westminster John Knox Press, 2008, 170 pp.
Q is a theoretical gospel that was a source for the creation of the gospels of Matthew and Luke, and biblical scholars are almost unanimous in their agreement that such a gospel really existed at one point in time. Anyone who wants to explain the formation of the synoptic gospels or talk about how and why they are different from one another should know the basics about Q. This book, however, goes way beyond being an introduction for the average reader, the title notwithstanding. Instead, it's a book for those with a good deal of patience for meticulous textual analysis, multiple competing theories about matters that to most people would be of little consequence, and summaries of scholarly opinion. My suggestion, if you're not a fanatic about such things? Check it out from the library, and read the first couple of chapters, then skim a bit of the rest. That much would be a sufficient introduction to those who have never encountered Q before. Those who had the good fortune of learning about Q long ago will appreciate the refresher course. Just don't try reading this book right before bedtime if you want to absorb its riches!
~ Tim Gossett