The Jesus Papers

The Jesus Papers: Exposing the Greatest Cover-Up in History
by Michael Baigent
Baigent's earlier book (Holy Blood, Holy Grail) stirred a lawsuit of plagiarism against The Da Vinci Code. Baigent loves the provocative, and this book followed suit. I suspected I might disagree with him, but I set out to give this author/historian a fair shake.

His blatant lack of intellectual integrity, however, was overwhelming.

Baigent references "incontrovertible evidence" (pg 7) that Jesus survived the crucifixion and was alive on earth in A.D. 45. With some digging, we find his source: a letter from Rev. Bartlett who in the 1930s heard that his mentor Canon Lilley had been invited by a former student to Saint Sulpice in the 1890s to translate a document which may have come from Abbe Sauniere. Lilley, by the way, is now deceased, and the document is now either "concealed or destroyed."

Really?

I don't mean to get snarky, but a disappeared document that is (at best) three-times removed is "incontrovertible evidence"?

I had a hard time believing Baigent's future claims after that. Yet it grew worse. He spends dozens of pages debunking the Bible as "bad history... inconsistent, incomplete, garbled, and biased" but then turns and makes an argument for Jesus' cross survival based meticulously on a turn of phrase in Mark's gospel (a rare portion, I suppose, that isn't bad history). To top it off, Baigent even briefly questions Jesus very existence, which (if true) negates all of Baigent's own work. (See also the following MSNBC interview with Baigent)

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The author does finally acknowledge the difficulty of his "evidence," saying that the date itself (A.D. 45) is "the only part of Bartlett's letter that I can accept without dispute or suspicion" (pg 263). I had to wonder why he waited 250 pages to point that out, however.

Baigent seems primarily driven not by fact or historical congruity, but by a thirst for conspiracy theory. (I started counting the number of times he wrote, "Could it be that [such and such]?") Just look at the subtitle: "Exposing the Greatest Cover-Up in History."

This book masquerades as scholarship, but I'd put it closer to works on Sasquatch and Area 51:

Mildly entertaining with scant facts.


GRADE:
_ _ _ _ F
Not badly written in style, but an insult to intelligence.

Behold... the Man!

Behold... the Man!
by Charles Swindoll
Though I've heard and read the story of the Jesus' death many times over the course of many years, it's amazing how much there is still left to learn.

Swindoll hits many lesser known backgrounds and details of Jesus' final day leading up to the crucifixion. He bases most on the four gospels with some historical accounts. The book begins with the Last Supper and ends at the cross with a short Epilogue addresses the question of why it all happened. The whole book is fairly concise at only 108 pages.

Especially helpful were the included charts in chapter four on the chronology of events and on Jesus' six trials. Most fascinating was chapter five: "The Man Who Missed His Cross" (focusing on the released Barabbas).

My only criticism is merely a personal one. I've never been the biggest fan of Swindoll's writing style--it feels slightly dated. Still, the book is very readable and the content makes it a valuable piece.

Worth the read. You will never view the cross the same again.


GRADE:
_ B _ _ _
Not fantastic writing, but great (and concise) content.

The Seven Sayings of the Saviour on the Cross

The Seven Sayings of the Saviour on the Cross
by A. W. Pink
I breathed a sigh of satisfaction when I finished the last sentence of this book. Pink is eloquent and powerful, even decades after his death. In no overstatement, this book is truly great.

Pink mentions that it was the goal of ancient Greeks to say much in little: "to give a sea of matter in a drop of language." Nearly all of these 139 pages gave oceans of matter.

The book is divided into seven chapters based on each of Christ's final words on the cross with seven points under each. Pink adds his own perceptive observances often, supporting them with frequent Scripture.

I found myself writing "Well said," "So true," and "Interesting perspective" in the margins. Pink's words are sometimes comforting, sometimes challenging, sometimes chilling... but always thoughtful and theologically sound.

My only criticism--and it is a minuscule one--is that once or twice (to meet his seven-point format) he stretches a single point into two. Still, Pink has a way of presenting the same material in a fresh way.

Pink's own dying words were: "The Scriptures explain themselves." Clearly, he was a man who knew and loved those very Scriptures. His words will ring true for decades yet to come.

Good for the soul.


GRADE:
A _ _ _ _
Beautiful topic, beautifully written.

The Gospel According to Starbucks

The Gospel According to Starbucks: Living With a Grande Passion
by Leonard Sweet
Most books have both good and bad points in them. But every so often, I run across a book that has practically no redeeming value. This was one of those books.

Bluntly, it was one of the worst books I've read.

The essence of the book's message: Church should be E.P.I.C. (Experiential, Participatory, Image-Rich, Connecting). Starbucks does EPIC really well. Therefore, the church could learn a lot from Starbucks.

The format takes each letter (E.P.I.C.) and covers a chapter on how Starbucks enacts that letter, followed by a chapter on how the church could follow sync. It is ridiculous, offensive, and flirting with blasphemy to have God saying, "Wow, Starbucks has a great thing going there. Let's try that." (By the way, the Epilogue is entitled "Jehovah Java.")

The content is way off base. But the style is also lacking. Sweet extends his metaphors far beyond bounds of sense and interest. Boxes within the pages (with themed titles like "Brewed for Thought" and "Grounds for Truth") attempt to stir thinking, but are usually rhetorical questions with minimal substance. The ideas aren't even fresh, as I've heard this basic message many times before.

Sweet is clearly a coffee aficionado and he knows something of marketing strategy. This book would've been fine (not good, but OK) if it were just on that subject. But when he drags in the gospel according to Starbucks, it's a whole different story.

Don't waste your time on this book.


GRADE:
_ _ _ _ F
Bad content. Bad style. Just bad.

Edward Elgar: Memories of a Variation

Edward Elgar: Memories of a Variation
by Dora M. Penny Powell (Mrs. Richard Powell)
Edward Elgar was either genius or crazy--and I'm leaning toward genius. The orchestra composer interwove a complex puzzle into his music that has since been left unsolved after his death.

This book recounts Elgar's life with emphasis on his second most famous musical piece, "Enigma Variations" (his first was "Pomp and Circumstance"). Enigma takes a basic theme and spins it into 14 variations, each cryptically based on a friend of Elgar.

The identity of the friends have all been discovered. (The author of the book inspired Variation 10, entitled "Dorabella Intermezzo.") But greater still is the overarching enigma. Elgar himself wrote in 1899 (recorded in the book):

"The Enigma I will not explain -- it's 'dark saying' must be left unguessed, and I warn you that the apparent connexion between the Variations and the Theme is often of the slightest texture; further, through and over the whole set another and larger theme 'goes', but is not played... the chief character is never on stage."

Enigma is the perfect word for it (and for him!).

Elgar's Enigma was never solved. Neither was his famous Dorabella Cipher, a cryptic letter to the author shown in the book appendix. Some of the world's top cryptologists have tried to solve it, but no one has... yet.

A fascinating book on a fascinating man, particularly for the puzzle-lover.


GRADE:
_ B _ _ _
The writing wasn't great, but I curved up for sheer interestingness of topic.

The Shack

The Shack
by William P. Young
I've heard a wide spectrum of responses to this book-- very positive to very negative. I was curious to read it and see where I would fall. My response is: Very uneasy.

Many have said that The Shack isn't meant to be a theological piece and is simply fiction. I disagree. This book was designed to teach through narrative.

A good majority of the book is dialogue, in which Mack (the main character) is being taught by God embodied in three persons. The conversation is not uninteresting (in fact, it was pretty engaging), but it leaves us with the question:

Is the teaching sound?

There are many themes of the book (too many to mention here). But one that stood out is stated by Papa, the female character representing God the Father (who, as written, reminds me of Corrina, Corrina). She says to Mack: "I'm not asking you to believe anything, but I will tell you that you're going to find this day a lot easier if you simply accept what is, instead of trying to fit it into your preconceived notions"(emphasis added).

The Shack is successful in breaking down our notions of God, but I am uneasy about the new notions it gives us to replace them. While I enjoyed the book literarily, it subtly draws us away from Scripture (or God "in a book", as Young calls it). This sets me on edge.

Frankly, it seems much wiser to know God as he has shown himself through his own Word instead of seeing Him through the imagination of a 21st century author.


GRADE:
_ _ _ D _
Engaging narrative, but questionable theology.

The God Delusion

The God Delusion
by Richard Dawkins
Dawkins states the core of his book in chapter two. God is a delusion, he says, because “any creative intelligence, of sufficient complexity to design anything comes into existence only as the end product of an extended process of gradual evolution. Creative intelligences, being evolved, necessarily arrive late in the universe, and therefore cannot be responsible for designing it.”

This is a faulty fundamental assertion, coming though a couple unfounded assumptions. A simple review is far insufficient to hit the particulars, but here are my initial afterthoughts on the book as a whole:

Dawkins is an intelligent man. I respect his value of science, his passion for knowledge, and his search for answers.

Still, Dawkins (and atheist scientists) are not the only thinking people. Some have a faith simply through parental upbringing; others approach God with deep intelligence. Many intelligent people have looked at much of the same facts Dawkins presents and reached the opposite conclusion, faith in God.

I'd hoped Dawkins' book would face more of the “greats” of faith (C.S. Lewis, A.W. Tozer, Ravi Zacharias, e.g.) and ignore the religious extremists like Ann Coulter and Fred Phelps. Dawkins would be equally upset if I used the opinions of the wilder atheists (see YouTuber TheAmazingAtheist, for a public example) to represent him.

Admittedly I had a few misconceptions about Dawkins and aspects of Darwinism (though I still think it incorrect, having examined further). Dawkins, however, also has his own misconceptions about Christianity--and Judaism, Islam, and others.

Throughout the book, I get the feel that Dawkins believes not only that humans are evolved, but also that smarter humans are evolved further still. (This, by the way, explains the pomposity that often creeps up through the pages.) If Dawkins views himself as among the most supreme beings, does that make him, in his own eyes... godlike?

This book seems more trendy than anything. He makes a few valid points, but I think it’s mostly popular because it’s an edgy topic.


GRADE:
_ _ C- _ _
If you can read past the arrogance, Dawkins is thoughtful and occasionally correct.