by Richard Smoley (2016)
"This epic, thrilling journey through Bible scholarship and ancient religion shows how much of Scripture is historically false--yet the ancient writings also resound with theologies that crisscrossed the primeval world and that direct us today toward a deep, inner, authentic experience of the truly sacred,"--Amazon.com.
Rabbi Dennis S. Ross
"This candid look at religion and truthfulness is ideal for anyone interested in exploring the religious basis for personal decision making, conscience and morality, including Jews of all denominations personally or in Torah study groups, Christians and social justice activists."--Back cover.
Richard T. Hughes
The idea of the United States as a Christian nation is a powerful, seductive, and potentially destructive theme in American life, culture, and politics. Many fundamentalist and evangelical leaders routinely promote this notion, and millions of Americans simply assume the Christian character of the United States. And yet, as Richard T. Hughes reveals in this powerful book, the biblical vision of the "kingdom of God" stands at odds with the values and actions of an American empire that sanctions war instead of peace, promotes dominance and oppression instead of reconciliation, and exalts wealth and power instead of justice for the poor and needy. With conviction and careful consideration, Hughes reviews the myth of Christian America from its earliest history in the founding of the republic to the present day. Extensively analyzing the Old and New Testaments, Hughes provides a solid, scripturally-based explanation of the kingdom of God--a kingdom defined by love, peace, patience, and generosity. Throughout American history, however, this concept has been appropriated by religious and political leaders and distorted into a messianic nationalism that champions the United States as God's "chosen nation" and bears little resemblance to the teachings of Jesus. Pointing to a systemic biblical and theological illiteracy running rampant in the United States, Hughes investigates the reasons why so many Americans think of the United States as a Christian nation despite the Constitution's outright prohibition against establishing any national religion by law or coercion. He traces the development of fundamentalist Christianity throughout American history, noting especially the increased power and widespread influence of fundamentalism at the dawn of the twenty-first century, embodied and enacted by the administration of President George W. Bush and America's reaction to the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. Timely and provocative, Christian America and the Kingdom of God illuminates the devastating irony of a "Christian America" that so often behaves in unchristian ways.
Joseph Blenkinsopp
"This is a completely revised and expanded edition of a classic text. Drawing on recent work on legal and didactic material and including more literary interpretation, Blenkinsopp traces the course of two related key traditions--law and wisdom--throughout the history of Israel in the biblical period. He demonstrates their essential lines of continuity with classical Jewish thought and early Christian theology." -- Publisher's description.
Thomas L. Thompson
"The Mythic Past is the first accessible overview and synthesis of two decades of scholarship on various aspects of early Palestine history - linguistic, economic, agricultural, and archaeological. While its controversial conclusion - that the Old Testament offers absolutely no historical evidence for the early history of Israel - will surely draw fire from conservative Jews, Catholics, and Evangelicals alike, the author's insistence on the Old Testament as a great collection of literature offers refreshing new ways to read it. By separating the Bible from history, we are not getting rid of the Bible; instead, we are reading it as it was meant to be read - as stories and legends, as some of the world's most beautiful poetry, pious, lyrical, and erotic, as epic narratives and wondrous folktales, often stunningly profound and evocative, as romances and adventure stories both moralistic and sentimental."--BOOK JACKET.