|  |
| Customer Reviews: | | Average Customer Review:
Write an online review and share your thoughts with other customers.
 Christianity - the real story Jul 20, 2007
This book by Andrew Delos (not his real name) is the best history of early Christianity that I have ever read - and I have been researching this topic for years. I've read the Bible and I've read many books and listened to audio courses on how Christianity developed. But I have never read anything so comprehensive and believable as this analysis. Delos references biblical text, the Dead Sea scrolls and other historical documents and archeological findings and stitches them together to tell the story of the historical Jesus and the development of the church. While not everyone is interested in this topic, and many let their religion get in the way of their curiosity, I highly recommend this book to anyone with an open mind about how one of the major world religions really evolved into its present form.
 Shoddy Research May 31, 2007
This book is not a scholarly work. On the contrary, the book is poorly researched, highly derivative, and inadequately referenced. Delos makes highly controversial claims (Jesus was a Pharisee, Luke's was the first Gospel written, Jesus was only pricked by the spear, the Sanhedrin had the power to inflict capital punishment, etc., etc.) without even so much as an attempt to substantiate his claims. A true scholar making such claims would support them with argument and references. Delos doesn't even support them with a footnote. The work of a scholar should show scholarly work. This book does not. A Few examples:
1. Professors are scrupulously careful about their grammar and punctuation-this book is shot through with typographical errors. E.g., spaces between quotation marks and the text they enclose; leading quotes at the end of text.
2. Professors are meticulous with their endnoting and citation style-this book has no citation style and the endnoting is horrific. E.g., spaces between endnote numbers and text; endnote numbers at the beginning of lines of text; endnotes to noncontroversial statements; no endnotes to controversial statements.
3. Indexing of scholarly works is important if you're going to track down references. The index is woefully inadequate, as can be shown from one example: Remember my mentioning Delos' controversial assertions about the priority of Luke? He placed a stumbling block in the way of verification of those assertions by omitting any reference to Luke from his index.
I could go on, but I'll stop here. Open the book to almost any random page and you'll find an error similar to one of those described above. The most pervasive errors, which permeate the entire work, are the face-value acceptance of data which fits the author's preconceptions and the offhand rejection, without justification, of data which doesn't.
Highly intelligent refutations of the conventional Christian view of Jesus' career have been written, but this is not one of them. One highly intelligent refutation of the conventional Christian view of Jesus' career is Did Jesus Exist? by George A. Wells. A highly intelligent defense of the conventional Christian view of Jesus' career is Jesus and the Eyewitnesses: The Gospels as Eyewitness Testimony by Richard Baukham. Either of these books is a much better investment than "Myths We Live By."
4 of 8 found the following review helpful:
NOT UNIQUE IN ITS FINDINGS, AND CORRECT IN ITS CONCLUSION WHAT IS IMPORTANT IS THE MESSAGE OF PEACE AND NONVIOLENCE AND JUSTICE Oct 25, 2006
Readers may wonder at the author's anonimity, as several other well known studies in biblical theology reach the same and similar conclusions, confirming this author's findings, including studies published by Catholic and other orthodox clergy.
But the author stating it is the message of peace, equality and justice which is the heart of the Gospel of Jesus, and of Paul, which have eternal verity, cuts right to what the whole thing is all about. For further reflection upon this essential point, please read anything by the Rev. Father Johnm Dear, SJ, especially his Jesus the Rebel and Disarming the Heart, both available here in the mighty amazon
8 of 9 found the following review helpful:
First read the book and then... Oct 19, 2006
I read the three most recent reviews about the Delos book. All three "reviewers" seem determined to convince us that the book is worthles--without giving any reasons to support their judgement. They probably never bought or read the book. "Quantum" invokes St.Paul who condemns "false apostles, deceitful workers" who like "Satan disguise themselves as angels of light." Apparently "Quantum" wants to tell us that Delos is one of them! "James" finds the book "intriguing but erroneous." Not one word as to how or why it is "erroneous." G.Glenn" speaks of "sloopy (sic) scholarship" and goes one step further saying that "actually there isn't any scolarship to be seen." What about the 640 endnotes, most of them from the books of the New Testamentand other sources. What about the copious notes at the end of each Chapter? Apparently Mr. Gless never saw them.
I think I know what's happening here. These "reviewers" want to kil the book, pure and simple. Unlike other recent books like the Da Vinci Code or the Judas Gospel which deal with apocryphal text of questionable validity or origin, the Delos book is grounded on the canonical texts of the Bible. The Church leaders could ignore the other books but the Delos book is different. It is factual, it is documented by chapter and verse. It does not deal with wild theories. And it brings out already existed in the Scriptures but was ignored by the theologians. Such evidence is hard to refure or ignore. Easier to dismiss it with a couple of choice words!
I read the book. Yes, it raises questions about important Christian beliefs and gives a different, new picture of the origins of Christianity and the primary role of St. Paul. But I agree with Delos that Christianity is not the rituals and the supernatural happenings. It is the moral message. I believe the Delos book will prove to be one of the really important books of our time. But to write an honest review one has to READ it first.
1 of 10 found the following review helpful:
Absolute Waist of Time Oct 17, 2006
Who ever Andrew C. Delos actually is, he/she has nothing to say. This is without a doubt the most poignant example of sloopy scholarship. Actually there isn't any scholarship to be seen.
|
| | |
|
|
