Books of the Month - January 2009
Happy New Year everyone!
The first Books of the Month selection for 2009 will be "Fabricating Jesus" by Craig A. Evans. Evans specialty is the historical Jesus and the Jewish background of the New Testament era. He is a Professor of New Testament and director of the graduate program at Acadia Divinity College in Wolfville, Nova Scotia.
Sensationalism sells books, newspapers and Hollywood movies. Has sensationalism also reached the colleges and universities, such that exaggerated claims about Jesus, unheard of even a century ago, are now being popularized by scholars as true facts? What are some of the outrageous claims being made about Jesus? For example, was Jesus married to Mary Magdalene? Was Jesus a cynic, mystic or even Gnostic? Did Jesus never claim to be the Son of God? Did Jesus fake his death on the cross? Did Jesus really ever exist? Evans addresses these and other questions being raised today by scholars who should know better and convincingly argues why such claims should be soundly rejected.
Purchase your copy here or here.
The second Book of the Month feature this month is "Jesus Among Other Gods" by Ravi Zacharias. Born in India, he is President of Ravi Zacharias International Ministries and has lectured in over fifty countries and is widely known as one of today's leading apologists for the Christian faith.
You can believe anything you want from a religious standpoint these days, and be accepted in most circles as long as you do not claim your beliefs to be true and exclusive. Why? Because that's not tolerant of other people's beliefs. Zacharias points out that unquestioning acceptance of all things spiritual is absurd, for plainly and simply, all religions cannot be true. Logically, only one can be true and the rest must be false. But how are we to know what is true and what is not?
Zacharias deals with some important questions, such as:
Aren't all religions fundamentally the same?
Was Jesus who He claimed to be?
Can one study the life of Christ and demonstrate conclusively that He was and is the way, the truth and the life?
Two of my favorite chapters include 'The Anatomy of Faith and the Quest for Reason' and 'Is God the Source of My Suffering?'
Purchase your copy here or here.
Labels: Books of the Month
posted by Tim @ 08:26
10 Comments:
These books are a small step forward but still a long way behind available scholarship. Try "Who Are the Netzarim? by Orthodox Jew (in good standing in an Orthodox synagogue in Israel) and follower of Ribi Yehoshua as Mashiakh: Paqid Yirmeyahu of the Netzarim in Ra'anana, Israel.
Learn.
www.netzarim.co.il
"and is widely known as one of today's leading apologists for the Christian faith"
Well, that's good, cuz frankly, you guys have a lot to apologise for!
Apologetics is the term, from the Greek, 'apologia' I believe, which means "in defense of"
I've never liked the term "Apologetics" myself, because as a whole, Christianity has nothing to apologize for in the sense that you're using the word. However, as for the actions of some people who claim to be Christians, but whose deeds say otherwise, well- that's another story all together.
Yirmeyahu: thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment. Newcomers are always welcome. I appreciate it. I'll check out this web address this weekend, when I've got some time.
Interesting. you might try readin Zen Way/jesus Way, too.
S - nah. if it's not avaiable on christianbooks.com, it obviously isn't worth reading.
I say obviously, because in the whole time green has been reviewing these books, exactly once (last month) has he recomended a book without linking to them.
(incidentally green, IG actually bought one of those rare heathen books you recomended as a pressie for j-man. see what happens when you look outside your normally limited sphere?)
scribe: who wrote the book you suggest? Can I get it on amazon?
AG: I review what interests me, same as I do for my movie reviews. Because I like giving my opinion on stuff. If people actually read the books I recommend occasionally, well that's good.
Sure it may not be everyone's most desired reading, and that's fine. Feel free to recommend books on your blog that you like. That would be interesting.
I buy books online from CBD or Amazon, whichever is cheaper and has what I'm looking for. The selection is better and I can avoid crowds at the malls and stores. In the case of last month, I did link the books to amazon.com only, because CBD obviously wouldn't have them. You must have missed it.
Incidentally, which book did IG buy for the J-man on my recommmendation? I'd love to know his opinion, and yours too if you've read whatever book it is as well.
" In the case of last month, I did link the books to amazon.com only, because CBD obviously wouldn't have them. You must have missed it."
No, i didn't miss that. In fact, that was EXACTLY MY POINT!
Whatever you view, you'd surely have to admit that the selection of books on cbd are all going to
be limited in that they're all pro-xian (or at least xian friendly). By only ever reviewing books that fit this very narrow criteria, you needlessly limit yourself - and lower the overall appeal of your reviews.
Truth be told, i don't even usually read your reviews (just scan them for the pretty pictures) because they'll be reliably coming from just a single perspective. I'd doubt I'm the only one either.
By all means, of course you should review what interests you. And of coursee a lot of what interests you will be books about your sky daddy. that's fine.
But here's a suggestion: since you usually review a couple of books each month, why not do one xian and one more general book?
AG: of course the books on CBD are going to be pro-Christian. The name of the company is Christian Book Distributors for a reason.
IN the limited time I have to read, books like these are generally what I choose. It would'nt be as credible a review if I didn't read the book first before reviewing it.
Sad that you don't actually take up some of my recommendations. You may actually learn something or be challenged intellectually. But that you don't or won't hardly surprises me.
Heck, I might even review scribe's novel in this space - if it ever gets published....
Who's Scribe? What's his book called???
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