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Tuesday, December 15, 2009

A Book Review: The First Christmas

The First Christmas
(What the Gospels Really Teach About Jesus's Birth)
by Marcus J. Borg & John Dominic Crossan


I started and tried reading this book in January 2008 and only got about 40 pages into it.  I don't know why I never finished it but I love what the title and sub-titles suggest.  I learned many, many details about the nativity story as it is found in the gospels of Matthew and Luke.  The differences in the two gospels is far greater than I had ever realized.  Though I gained some insight into the story, I have to admit that the book became a bit too analytical for me.  I am a person that takes things very literally.  That is, I guess, why I chose a medical field as a career.....a bone is a bone...a cell is a cell....a lung is a lung.  I don't need to know why a lung is called a lung and not a kidney, and how things would be different if it were. 
    I believe what the Bible and the gospels tell me.  I want to continue to learn from them.   But I don't, however, need any knowledge gained broken down into "fact fundamentalism" or "Christian biblical literalism". 
   There are, I'm sure, readers that would want this depth of information.  My husband, for instance, and his Sunday School reading group would eat this up.  I think they've read other writings by these authors,  but as for me, it was just a bit more bang for my buck, if you know what I mean.  It wasn't a waste of time, by any means.  I just think that a lot of the more analytical information was lost on me.



1 comments:

Jessica said...

Hmm. Interesting. I think I get what you're saying - I hate it when I'm reading something and they pick everything apart to the point where I don't know WHAT to think. Doesn't sound like this is one for me.