Book Review: Lost Christianities

Title	Lost Christianities: The Battles for Scripture and the Faiths We Never Knew
Author Ehrman, Bart D.	Bart D. Ehrman
Rating
Tags	early christianity, sects, forgeries, scripture
Your review	Ehrman in this book writes about the broad variety of Christian viewpoints in the early centuries after the life of Jesus and the apostles. It was not until the 4th century that the books of the new Testament were finalized, and it was around the same time that what Ehrman calls the proto-orthodox views of Christian belief overcame the other views to become the orthodox Christian standard views. As the other sects of early Christianity lost out, their writings were, for the most part, lost. Over time, some of these writings have been found again, most notably with the Nag Hammadi discovery in the 1940s. Thus a new vision of early Christianity is required, one in which there were many competing doctrines, with proponents of each having lively debates with each other, and in which each church might have its own set of works it considered sacred Scripture. There's some unexpected humor in the work. Look at page 146-7 to find out what one early author thought was the relationship between weasels and oral sex., Ehrman is a decent writer, which is necessary, as he is a scholar writing about scholarly topics, which can tend to get rather dry. Yet the topic is quite fascinating, to see a new picture of a particular period that had so much influence on our world today, unfold. Recommended.
Other authors 1
Publication	Oxford University Press, USA (2005), Edition: New Ed, Paperback, 320 pages
Publication date	2005
ISBN	0195182499 / 9780195182491

When America Can't Handle the Truth

A friend sent me this brilliant post that expresses better than I did what I feel about America and the Obama/Wright racial issue. It is by Pierre Tristam of the Daytona Beach News-Journal online. Find it at this address: http://www.news-journalonline.com/ColEssays.htm.

Book Review: The Darkest Evening of the Year

Title	The Darkest Evening of the Year
Author Koontz, Dean	Dean Koontz
Rating
Tags	thriller, paranormal
Your review	The only Koontz I've read before are the 1st and 3rd of the Odd Thomas books, and I loved them. This book I mostly loved. Koontz is amazing at getting into the skin of his characters. In this book there are sociopaths and there are good and noble people. There's also great love for animals and golden retriever rescue is a plot point in the book. I had trouble with the supernatural ending, though I know that Koontz writes a lot of paranormal books. I think it is a philosophical problem I have. Maybe miracles exist, but not for everyone who needs them, and that makes for a deity that plays favorites.
Other authors 1
Publication	Bantam (2007), Hardcover, 368 pages
Publication date	2007
ISBN	0553804820 / 9780553804829

Book review: Touchstone, by Laurie R. King

Title	Touchstone
Author	Laurie R. King
Rating
Tags	historical mystery, england. 20th century
Your review	In my opinion, Laurie R. King is One of the Best Authors Ever. Admittedly, my knowledge of contemporary literature is limited, but I'll stand by it anyway. I was aware of King before I ever read her. She had the temerity to use Sherlock Holmes as a character in one of her series, the Mary Russell series. All the Holmes pastiches I had read were pretty dreadful, and understood the character not at all. But people kept talking about how good she was, and I did finally read some of her Kate Martinelli series about a woman policeman in San Francisco. They were very good. So eventually, I took the plunge and read the Mary Russell series and loved them, too. She did right by Holmes., if you can get around the outrageous premise he would get romantically involved with a woman, and a young one, at that. King makes it work, and she does it by having a respect for Conan Doyle's famous character. But characters in a series have some limitations. They have to survive, first of all. They have to develop as characters, but not in a way that will turn the reader off (although the Dexter series by Jeff Lindsay has pushed that envelope until it is almost useless). So King has written some stand-alone novels, and while her series books are excellent, it is in her stand-alones that she puts herself into that rarified atmosphere of author whose works illuminate the human condition in marvelous, and sometimes heartbreaking, ways. In Touchstone, the plot revolves around Harris Stuyvesant, a US FBI agent in 1927. Harris is after radicals, especially one who has set three bombs in the US. The trail leads him to Richard Bunsen, a British labor leader, and Harris goes to England after him. A British agent connects hims with Bennett Grey, a man with the odd talent of usually knowing who is telling the truth. Grey and his sister are good friends of Laura Hurleigh, who is a Duke's daughter and Bunsen's mistress. Grey is able to connect Harris up with the Hurleigh family. A tightly-plotted story ensues, building to a literally shattering conclusion, one that takes the reader apart and puts her back together as a new individual. In Laura Hurleigh , King has created a character that deserves to be rediscovered by new generations of readers much as they now discover King Lear, or Frodo Baggins, or Sherlock Holmes. Bennett Grey is almost as great a character. Recommended reading? No, more like required reading.
Other authors 1
Publication	Bantam (2007), Hardcover, 560 pages
Publication date	2007
ISBN	0553803557 / 9780553803556

Obama's Speech

Well, Obama won me over. I'm supporting whoever the Democrat is in November, for many reasons, the makeup of the Supreme Court most importantly. I've had some doubts for various reasons about Hilary and Obama. Hilary for her ties to corporate America, Obama on his experience (though I'm aware that Lincoln started his Presidency with less experience), and because Paul Krugman dislikes his health care program. But his speech was a thing of beauty. He mentioned the grievances of both sides, the wrongs of both sides, but made clear he disagreed with Wright without entirely repudiating him. More importantly, he did not deny the anger of the black community and their reasons for it, while acknowledging some resentments among whites. It was masterful, and powerful, and gives me hope that he could indeed be what we need as President. As usual, Jon Stewart summed it up the best on The Daily Show. He said, finally, somebody talked to Americans about race as if talking to adults.

Reframing Jeremiah Wright pt. 2: Jim Wallis article

Here is an article from Jim Wallis saying much of what I was trying to say and doing it better.

Reframing Jeremiah Wright

Wright is Obama's pastor who has been so in the news recently for making inflammatory statements. See the ABC News report here. Wright says such things as maybe we should sing God Damn America, and that America's actions helped cause 9/11. I was watching this being discussed on This Week with George Stephanopoulis in the round table, and all the whites on the panel could not conceive, it seemed to me, of any reply to what Wright said in terms other than how reprehensible his statements were. Only African-American Donna Brazile was a dissenting voice, saying that Wright is actually pretty moderate among black preachers, and mentioned the ability of these preachers to uplift their hearers.

If you don't know me, I am a white woman, a progressive/liberal on social issues. I've been doing a lot of reading in current events. And I'm not at all insulted or outraged by the things Wright said. Everything, everything, that I hear about the state of black America today leads me to understand that there are very valid reasons for anger. The rate of imprisonment for black men, tied in part to the rate of much stiffer sentences for crack cocaine than powder cocaine ... guess which one is used more by black and which one is used more by whites (this issue is finally being addressed, by the way). The level of poverty and unemployment. The percentage of predatory loans that are the only loans many blacks and Hispanics can get. The much higher rate of disease, and the much more restricted access to decent health care. On, and on, and on, you can find so many reasons for black anger.

Do I think there are things black culture can do to help with these problems on their own? Things that need fixing by them for themselves? Yes. But there is so much that has to be addressed by all of us, of all colors and genders, to create a lasting positive change. And I don't see it happening much. Reading the comments on the news stories it seems to me that so many whites are complacent. Many of them are willing to vote for Obama. But they seem to think the state of America is just fine, and to bitterly resent any one trying to tell them it is not. How much in the campaign are we hearing about black issues? How much are we hearing about ways of stimulating the economy for the lower end of the income spectrum? How much are we hearing about the deplorable state of American prisons, where there is a huge minority population? You do hear some about health care, but not enough. How much do we hear about the need for better health care, especially mental care, of the troops, which also have a high proportion of minorities?

If you read my book reviews, you'll see a recent review of What We Say Goes, by Noam Chomsky. He discusses that there are some issues you can't basically talk about in the US because people are so convinced of one way of thinking that those who say reality is something different are simply not understood. And that is what I believe I saw today on the round table on This Week. Too many people will simply not look at what Jeremiah Wright is saying with any conception that he may be right.

We've come a long way since the days when a teenaged Emmett Till could be brutally murdered for being impertinent to a white woman. But please let us not think that the distance we've come is all the distance there is. We have further to go, and it will take a majority of us to get there.

As for Reverend Wright, one comment in the Atlantic links to his sermon that gave Obama the title of his book, The Audacity of Hope. Take a look at it to get a more complete picture of the man.