jesus, interrupted

I have been on a crazed reading binge! So many amazing unputdownable books.

First, I finished "Seven Loves" by Valerie Trueblood. I read most of it in Hawaii. It's beautifully written, lush and evocative, with sentences that shatter your very heart. The author is a poet.

The book is a reflection on seven relationships May has had in life - her husband, her lover, her son, the man who caused her son's death, etc. Wonderful - but there is no plot to pull the reader along. When I put the book down, I didn't feel a strong enough connection to want to pick it up. I only read on for the perfect, piercing sentences. Example: When thinking about religion, May "had petitioned someone in secret, those first years, to take hold of her and wring out the dark water and bring her back." I love that description - wring out the dark water.

There's another passage about happiness and its many forms:

"There was selfish, hoarded pleasure, offering itself in the wrong place; there was exuberance that flared up hissing like a camp stove. There were risks, mistakes. Mistakes could certainly carry a wild happiness. In a life like hers, a life impossibly protected and fortunate as you looked at lives around the world, a life burst open and pumped out and then stubbornly, appallingly reverting to something that would have to be called happiness - you could never choose one day."

Upon reading Ayelet Waldman's recommendations for Mother's Day books, I bought "Life Among the Savages" by Shirley Jackson and "Family Man" by Calvin Trillin. Excellent choices! I was in a fever to get "Life Among the Savages" because I adore humorous domestic tales set in the mid century. Who knew Shirley Jackson had a funny family life? It was totally enjoyable and relatable. She makes remarks like "having the third child is the easiest" which are definitely of another era.

I was chortling and giggling throughout the incredibly charming "Family Man." I want to read this book to my husband, he'll get a kick out of it. He also dislikes asparagus and cats. Trillin writes his bemusement upon finding the Koala Kare changing tables in men's restrooms, their family tradition of Chinese food for Thanksgiving, and his distaste for the yowling Siamese cats. He has a perfect light touch with these topics - never cloying.

I also listened to "Happens Every Day" by Isabel Gillies, a memoir about divorce. I find it oddly fascinating as she recounts the breakdown - every time I listen, I try to pinpoint the moment her husband gave up on the marriage. He was a poetry professor and she was an actress on "Law and Order" so they are interesting people to begin with. Plus they are both from fancy WASP families who summer in Maine. Then you add all the drama of her husband leaving her for another woman and it's very gripping. She's kind of ditzy but utterly sympathetic as a mother trying to preserve the family for her sons.

And I read "Jesus, Interrupted" by Bart Ehrman in a state of mild euphoria as he basically explains everything you wondered about Christianity. My own teenage stage of extreme religious devotion collided abruptly against my college class on the Ancient Mediterranean World. We read the Bible along with other texts of the time and it blew my mind to learn that stories of miracle-working gods on earth born of virgins were not rare.

This is the book I should have had at the time. Ehrman explains that the Bible is often regarded as the inerrant guide, God's Word on earth. Yet it has lots of contradictions about almost everything. When did Jesus die? What was his behavior like on the cross? Did he call himself God? Why did he perform miracles? What did he want his followers to do in regards to Jewish law? The list goes on and on and these are not insignificant questions.

This leads to a history of theology - when and how various Christian beliefs developed, such as the Trinity, Heaven & Hell, resurrection of the body, the immortal soul, etc. It is insanely fascinating - I wanted to jump up and down as I read this out of joy of finally understanding. I felt the same way when reading "Guns, Germs and Steel." Also when I read an article in the Utne Reader about what's behind the beliefs of the political parties. http://www.utne.com/Politics/Liberals-Arent-Un-American-Conservatives-Arent-Ignorant.aspx

The Bible is the basis for much of our society - what it says and why it says things are relevant to our lives today. And yet, as the author points out, no one talks about the historical study of Jesus. Pastors learn this stuff but they don't teach it in churches. So no one knows what the Bible is really saying.

Anyway, it was a great book and I think everyone should read it. It's far from an attack on believers - it's a compelling history of the Good Book. It's intriguing reading this book after reading "Life of Pi" - which makes the point that humans prefer the better story over a factual account to explain the world.

I want to read more of Ehrman's books.