A.J. Jacobs was an Agnostic Jew when he decided, based on the memory and example of his ex-Uncle Gil to explore the faith of his ancestors, and to try to live as close to what the Bible teaches as it is possible to do so in this modern, almost strictly secular world. But is it possible to do exactly as the Bible teaches? Is it possible to live as it instructs its believers to do, and to the things it says, and avoid the behaviors, mindsets and actions it says to avoid?
Jacobs goes through the Bible and makes a list of the rules to follow, and stops shaving, which soon changes his appearance from "Clean-cut and professional" to someone people will cross the street to avoid. But the hardest rules for him to follow are, surprise!, the ones about disciplining your children, especially the "spare the rod and spoil the child" type. Or the one about killing your child should they disrespect you.
To help him in his quest, Jacobs assembled a "Faith Council" of various rabbis, priests, ministers and other men of faith to advise him on the really hard questions. And he takes trips all over to help him understand Biblical scripture, from the Creation Museum to a trip to the small church home of a group of serpent handlers, trying to understand what each has to say about the Bible and how they interpret it.
He even gets to travel to Jerusalem and meet his ex-Uncle Gil, now shunned by his entire family, and realize that his "uncle" just seems to view him as one more person to convert to his way of thinking about faith and the Bible. Though he enjoys the trip to Israel, he realizes that Gil's way is not his way, and he doesn't want to continue the association.
And yet, in the end, he does eventually feel more whole and at peace. But it doesn't last, once he cuts his beard and shaves, and returns to the secular modern world. But he does come to the conclusion that, contrary to what some sects believe, *everyone* practices cafeteria religion from the Bible. It's just what they choose and what they ignore are all different.
This was a fairly fascinating book, but lost me when the author didn't discuss how many rules in the Bible are against the law nowadays. Even his extremely brief foray into stoning people for their sins (involving tiny pebbles dropped on their shoes because of his dislike of confrontation) basically shows how ridiculous some of the "rules" in the Bible are and how ridiculous they are in the modern age.
Perhaps it was just this cowardice that made him not confront some of the most extreme of the Bible rules: that if someone not of your religion proselytizes you, you are to kill him. And if you catch someone of your family trying to convert people to a religion not your own, you are supposed to not only kill the members of your family who are proselytizing this other faith, but anyone they might have converted.
An interesting book, but it avoids some of the most confrontational parts of the Bible and seems to fall for apologetics in others. Worth reading if you stumble across a copy, but not worth spending a lot of time seeking out.
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