The Mythmaker

This is a very interesting book by the Talmudic scholar, Hyam Maccoby, that was republished by Barnes and Noble. The subtitle clearly states the general theme of the book: Paul and the Invention of Christianity.

The author believed that Christianity as we know it was an invention of a somewhat deluded, yet sincere Paul. He also believed that Paul was not above a little "embellishment" of his background in the pursuit of promoting his new faith.

Interestingly, much of the evidence for these contentions is derived from the Book of Acts and Paul's letters. Many other sources are mentioned as well. Pauline Christianity, in the author's view, resulted from Paul's synthesis of Gnosticism, the Mystery cults and Judaism. The religion of Jesus, James and the Jerusalem Church was lost for the most part, but can still be glimpsed - being basically Judaism with Jesus as Messiah.

The author's reasoning seems good in most instances, but in a few places I was not totally convinced. I think I would have to agree though that much of what he believes seems to be the truth.

It is not a very long book - about 210 pages. Give it a try and see what you think.

The Sparrow and Children of God

I recently read THE SPARROW and its sequel CHILDREN OF GOD by Mary Doria Russell.

These books are about Jesuit expeditions to another inhabited planet, Rakhat. Lots of wild stuff happens - some of which might be distasteful to some. Many topics to ponder while and after reading this book. Note that the book moves back and forth in locale and time which can get a bit tedious sometimes. Recommended if you are up to all of this.

The first book takes a while to get going and ends in a rather bad place in my view - disturbing might be a better description. You need to read the second book to really understand what happened on Rakhat; one can get a very wrong idea from reading only the first book. Personally, I liked the second book better.

I have never read anything quite like this before. It is not your standard science fiction. I don't want to say too much, because it will spoil it. Give it a try, keeping in mind what I say here.