Reading Update

Someone asked what I have been reading. Well, let me tell you.

I just finished a novel by Tami Hoag called Kill The Messenger. I have never read any of her mysteries before, but I will read more. It was an engaging story that I could not put down and the end surprised me.

I listened to The Jesus Papers by Michael Baigent. He is the author that wrote Holy Blood, Holy Grail. While the ideas in that book were wild (became the basis for The DaVinci Code --- this book is ridiculous. He takes the extreme view on every Biblical question, and makes it seem like it is logical and sensible --- but if you have done any textual criticism (which I am sure most of you have not) you know that he is way off base --- but he makes it sound so . . . "good". Don't waste your time.

If you want to read a provocative book about Jesus, check out James Tabor's The Jesus Dynasty. He argues that most of the original disciples were Jesus brothers and that James was the main dude not Peter. He is probably right about that --- some of his other conclusions, however, are a little questionable.

I also just finished Bart Ehrman's book Misquoting Jesus. I heard Bart speak last February at the Stetson Winter Pastor's School. This was a very good book if you want to try to understand the problems and complexities of textual criticism. He is writing not to scholars, but to us, and he puts the issue into rather plan language. A very good book explaining why and how the Bible came to be in the form it is today.

I think that is all the new books I have just finished.
My reading list for Israel includes:

• Peter Gomes The Good Book
• Crossan The Essential Jesus
• Crossan & Reed Excavating Jesus
• Rick Diamond Wrestling With God

I will probably re-read

• Marcus Borg The Heart of Christianity
• Borg & Wright The Meaning Of Jesus
• Rubenstein When Jesus Became God
• Bruce Feiler Walking The Bible

Of course I will have the requisite:

• Fodor's Israel
• Jerusalem Walks
• Lonely Planet Israel
• The Holy Land (the best book on the sites in Israel) by Murphy-O'Conner
• The NRSV Bible

I need a couple of good novels --- any suggestions. Something light and fun to counter all of this heavy theological stuff. Thank goodness I can take two suitcases --- one will be filled with books!