How to Like Paul Again (book)

How to Like Paul Again: The Apostle You Never Knew: The Apostle You Never Knew by Conrad Gempf
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Book description: You know you're supposed to like him, but you just don't. Maybe it's the authoritarianism, maybe it's the arrogance, maybe it's the views he seems to hold, maybe it's the way that he drones on and on until you're falling asleep. Well ... you're not the only one. None of that is new. Not even the last bit (see Acts 20:9). But there's a secret to liking an initially unlikeable person like Paul: walk a mile in his moccasins. Or three. This small book aims to take you inside three controversies that Paul faced. Would you have advised him to do anything differently? Would you have done as well as he did? This is a quick and entertaining introduction to the letters of Paul, from which you'll also learn about yourself.

My review: I completely understand why people are rating this book 5 stars. I think it is a must read for anyone new to reading/interpreting the Bible (particularly the Pauline letters) so they avoid flat fundamentalist proof-text readings of the texts (and, may I dare say, many SDAs need to read it). The author takes an excellent approach to hermeneutics and exegesis and does it in very plain, conversational language. For me, personally, however, the style irritated me - I felt like it was a bit forced at times trying to make it conversational and simple. So please don't misunderstand me - the 3 stars is my rating for myself. I liked the book but didn't love it. However, I highly recommend it for someone new to the Bible or who have been "infected" with simplistic approaches to it. If a reader is already knowledgeable about appropriate approaches to interpreting ancient texts and arrived at a historico-grammatical reading of the text, they would probably be a bit bored with it. So - highly recommended as an introduction to responsible reading of the Pauline letters!

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How to Like Paul Again (book)

How to Like Paul Again: The Apostle You Never Knew: The Apostle You Never Knew by Conrad Gempf
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Book description: You know you're supposed to like him, but you just don't. Maybe it's the authoritarianism, maybe it's the arrogance, maybe it's the views he seems to hold, maybe it's the way that he drones on and on until you're falling asleep. Well ... you're not the only one. None of that is new. Not even the last bit (see Acts 20:9). But there's a secret to liking an initially unlikeable person like Paul: walk a mile in his moccasins. Or three. This small book aims to take you inside three controversies that Paul faced. Would you have advised him to do anything differently? Would you have done as well as he did? This is a quick and entertaining introduction to the letters of Paul, from which you'll also learn about yourself.

My review: I completely understand why people are rating this book 5 stars. I think it is a must read for anyone new to reading/interpreting the Bible (particularly the Pauline letters) so they avoid flat fundamentalist proof-text readings of the texts. The author takes an excellent approach to hermeneutics and exegesis and does it in very plain, conversational language. For me, personally, however, the style irritated me - I felt like it was a bit forced at times trying to make it conversational and simple. So please don't misunderstand me - the 3 stars is my rating for myself. I liked the book but didn't love it. However, I highly recommend it for someone new to the Bible or who have been "infected" with simplistic approaches to it. If a reader is already knowledgeable about appropriate approaches to interpreting ancient texts and arrived at a historico-grammatical reading of the text, they would probably be a bit bored with it. So - highly recommended as an introduction to responsible reading of the Pauline letters!

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Doubting Stephen (book)

Doubting Stephen by Anne Borrowdale
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Book description

What happens if everything you’ve built your life on turns out to be wrong? Jill Sandley knows what her brother Stephen did to her husband on his stag night 25 years ago. It’s why she made sure Stephen left the country, and never came back. Her daughter Georgia knows the incredible power of crystal healing. It’s why she and her homeopath boyfriend have devoted their lives to alternative therapies. Georgia’s sister Charli knows Jesus loves her. Hasn’t he provided her with the perfect Christian husband? The Sandley family’s confidence in their beliefs seems unshakeable, but then Georgia contacts Stephen, and Stephen has his doubts. 

My review

A thoroughly enjoyable and satisfying read. Covers so many themes: religion (Christianity), alternative medicine (crystal therapy), sex (hetero- and homosexuality), a mysterious death, the way humans construct ideas of truth - and the intersection of all these. The death plays a secondary role to the characters and their relationships to each other (although the plot around the death gets pretty suspenseful near the end!) - and they reflect a little (or a lot) of all of us who have grown up in religious or health fundamentalisms. The writing is excellent and the story is totally engaging as we peer under the surface of faith and family. The ambiguous title is great. Although all the ideas I've listed above may seem heavy the story is actually easy to read but wonderfully provocative. Highly recommend it!

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Frozen (movie)

Fearless optimist Anna teams up with Kristoff in an epic journey, encountering Everest-like conditions, and a hilarious snowman named Olaf in a race to find Anna's sister Elsa, whose icy powers have trapped the kingdom in eternal winter.

A very good message about the power of love to thaw frozen hearts. In the style of the great Disney classics - great animation, enjoyable songs and music, great humour and a wonderful reindeer who steals the scenes he's in. thoroughly enjoyable and heart warming. One for the whole family.

Overall= ****, Story= ****, Humor= ****, Soundtrack= ***, Action= ****, Special Effects= ****, 3D Quality= ****.

 

Philomena (movie)

A world-weary political journalist picks up the story of a woman's search for her son, who was taken away from her decades ago after she became pregnant and was forced to live in a convent.


A tragic story that exposes, yet again, the shocking policy of the Catholic Church in Ireland to "punish" single women who had babies outside of marriage by forcing them to work in convents and selling their "illegitimate" children. Judi Dench (Philomena) and Steve Coogan (Martin Sixsmith) are outstanding in their roles as the mother searching for her son after 50 years of silence and the journalist who partners with her to help her on her journey. Filmed and directed in the unique way the British do drama, it's almost too "nice" a portrayal - although there are moments of heart-rending grief. The evil of religious judgmentalism is counterbalanced by amazing forgiveness - it's a moving story of another stolen generation that needs to be told. Some have suggested that this movie is this years The King's Speech. But I don't think it is quite that good. Definitely worth seeing though.

overall=***1/2 ; acting=***1/2 ; story=**** ; humour=***1/2

 

The Gatekeepers (book)

The Gatekeepers by Stephen Moss
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

BOOK DESCRIPTION: In this marriage of modernity to antiquity, two mysteries, one contemporary, the other ancient, twist their way to the startling origin of Christianity.

The Reverend Richard Jim Hamilton built the powerhouse Hamilton Ministry, and now has his sights on the US Presidency. Arrayed against him though are his wife, his Chief Lieutenant, and his son Joshua, who in the pursuit of exposing his father, also exposes the Bible’s greatest secret—and turns religious convention on its head.

MY REVIEW: At the heart of this novel is a very controversial thesis that St Paul (as he his known) was merely an entrepreneur who picked up on the apocalyptic-teaching Jesus, radically altering Jesus' message to allow everyone into "God's kingdom" and, by promoting this lie, made lots of money which contemporary Christian religious organisations have continued to do - particularly televangelists. This central thesis is wrapped around by a fairly straightforward set of thriller sub-plots.

The central thesis takes a number of proof texts from the New Testament documents, combined with what we now know about the chronology of the writing of those documents, to propose that Paul was a capitalist - capitalising on the potential money-making opportunity that creating a new religion - albeit based on an existing one - would bring.

The book most certainly presents a thesis worth considering - all ideas should be considered fairly and critically before determining their validity. I would like to read a non-fictionalised argument for the proposal of the book along with the scholarly argument and evidence in support of it. If someone knows where to fond that, I'd be very interested! In particular, the argument offered doesn't deal with any potential objections. The believers in the story who meet at the conference to discuss the thesis offer no substantial objections - one on particular is constructed as merely emotionally collapsing as his threat is threatened by "the facts". The author would have had a more substantial and believable thesis if he'd had someone at the table like N T Wright (fictionalised, of course!) arguing critically with the thesis.

The fiction part of the story - the story of the televangelists and his motives, the way his followers are ripped off and emotionally damaged - resonates with what we know of the worst forms of contemporary Christian evangelism. Enough has been documented about the nefarious activities of televangelists to fully accept the way in which the author presents the story. There is no doubt the story comes across as authentic.

Having said all this about the generally positive aspects of the story, it is written in what comes across as a first draft. It could do with a good edit and the misspellings became very irritating. It shouldn't, though, put you off reading what is quite an engaging story. It's provocative and presents a very different view of the origins of Christianity to the dominant narrative throughout the history of Christianity. It's going to be interesting to see what sort of responds the book receives from Christians - lay and scholars - if any. It does smack, somewhat, of being a bit Dan Brownish with its theories - but time will tell. Check it out and see what you think.

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