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The Year of Living Biblically One Man Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible A J Jacobs 9780743291477 Books

Download As PDF : The Year of Living Biblically One Man Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible A J Jacobs 9780743291477 Books

The Year of Living Biblically One Man Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible A J Jacobs 9780743291477 Books

Early in the book the author states that, "one of the reasons I embarked on this experiment was to take legalism to its logical extension and show that it leads to righteous idiocy". Good news because that is exactly why I bought this book. It's also pretty clear by the cover that the author is going to take a humorous look at literalism which is cool with me. Religious literalism has and continues to cause tremendous suffering on our planet and some savage mockery might be the perfect antidote. Too bad this isn't what the author delivers.

In one part of the book the author addresses stoning. Since he is trying to live by the literal words of the bible he decides to engage in stoning people who he observes breaking biblical laws. Naturally he couldn't walk around actually stoning folks so instead he holds a handful of tiny pebbles and gently drops them on the feet of sinners. It's rather cute until you think about the fact that some cultures actually continue to practice organized biblical stonings which involves a crowd of people bludgeoning a `sinner' to death with fist sized rocks. This trend of sugarcoating literalism continues throughout the book. The author is surprised out how tame Jerry Falwell's sermon is and finds himself charmed by a friendly Pentecostal snake handler.

What the book felt like to me was an episode of Wife Swapping or a Jerry Springer monologue. After all the adventure and turmoil we all learn an important lesson about life. In the authors case I guess he learned about religious tolerance and understanding. Unfortunately religious literalists are anything but tolerant and understanding. Mr. Jacobs compares strict observance of religious ritual with obsessive compulsive disorder and refers to religion as perhaps a `healthy neurosis' as if religious fundamentalism were a positive outlet for people with OCD. I would suggest that it's more likely to be used as justification for intolerance or confirmation of a person's already established beliefs. The author talks about the positives of `cafeteria Christianity' i.e. choosing what you wish from the Bible and discarding the rest. Someone might focus on the love thy neighbor portions while ignoring the stories of the Israelites slaughtering cities in God's name. On the other hand you can focus on the passages about gays being an abomination and ignore the much larger sections on Jesus helping the poor.

Whatever Jacob's goal was early on in the book it seemed to be completely lost by the end. We live in a world where woman are beaten for showing ankles or imprisoned for traveling unescorted and this kind of mentality isn't limited to the middle east. The author even mentions a small but frighteningly influential group of Christian literalists called the Dominionists who reside right here in the United States and long to see the laws of Leviticus used as the basis for our legal system.

`The Year of Living Biblically' was more mildly witty than laugh out loud and the author's attempts and sentimentality fell kind of flat given the subject matter. In the end it seemed like the book just lost its mooring and drifted off. According to the author his father enjoys scanning through reviews of his sons books on Amazon and gives not helpfuls to negative reviews so I suppose I can expect at least one. I'll be looking for it.


Tags : The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible [A. J. Jacobs] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. From the bestselling author of The Know-It-All comes a fascinating and timely exploration of religion and the Bible. Raised in a secular family but increasingly interested in the relevance of faith in our modern world,A. J. Jacobs,The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible,Simon & Schuster,0743291476,Biblical Criticism & Interpretation - New Testament,Personal Memoirs,Christian life.,Religion & Spirituality Christianity,BIBLE COMMENTARY,Bible,Biblical Studies - General,Biography,Biography & Autobiography Personal Memoirs,Christian life,Criticism,Criticism, interpretation, etc,General Adult,Humor,Humor General,Humor Topic Religion,Non-Fiction,RELIGION Biblical Criticism & Interpretation New Testament,RELIGIOUS,Religion,ReligionEthics,SATIRE AND HUMOR,Topic - Religion,United States

The Year of Living Biblically One Man Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible A J Jacobs 9780743291477 Books Reviews

I heard about this book a couple of years before I got around to purchasing and reading it. I know a lot of people who claim to take the Bible literally and who claim to live their life as closely to the guidelines set out therein. Well, the author did just that and his results are wildly different than the people I know.

While trying to follow the Bible as literally as possible, A.J. Jacobs discovers contradictions, some explicit, others springing from differences in translation and interpretation. He has difficulties incorporating the realities of modern life (like having to carry a chair with him so he doesn't accidentally sit in a seat a menstruating woman has been in; it's unclean) and it is only due to the eternal patience of his wife that he is able to live within some of these restrictions (although she draws the line at a rule that states he can't touch her at ALL for weeks after her c-section delivering their twins; spoiler he suspends his "quest" for about a month after their birth).

The challenge the author undertakes in this book is something I, myself, would NEVER attempt, but I did find his account illuminating. Like him, I think a lot of people seek to live the best lives they can by following tenets set out in the good book, but being human, fail to varying degrees. Jacobs's quest did lead him to being a kinder, more thoughtful person, so even as a self-described agnostic, by the end of his journey, he felt it was worthwhile.

I don't want to go too in depth about my views on religious; my personal beliefs aren't relevant to this review. It's a well-written, engaging, funny account that answers a lot of questions I had about how would one have to live if they really took the Bible as literally as they said they do. His conclusion confirmed what I suspected it's impossible to follow ALL the rules literally and EVERYONE cherry picks.

But don't take it from me. Read this and be yourself, enlightened. It's not going to make you a true believer (it certainly didn't affect my beliefs in any way), but it might increase your understanding.
I was pleasantly surprised by Jacobs' balanced, informed perspective. He is not using the premise to clown or poke fun, like I had initially thought; nor is he claiming to have any kind of psedo-scientific, spiritual transformation. Jacobs begins the book as a skeptical agnostic and ends it as a skeptical agnostic -- just a more informed and worldly one.

I read this with a long list of questions everything from "what's the deal with mixed fabrics?" to "how can any woman belong to anything that's so expressly sexist?" and Jacobs impressed me by acknowledging everything succinctly. This book isn't just anecdotal, but impressively dense with research. He explores everything from hasidc judaism all the way to baptists and the bible belt, getting an intimate look at the beliefs and percieved benefits of people from all different faiths. I would have liked him to continue his Abrahamic investigation into the quran instead of stopping at the news testament. But perhaps, coming from a jewish family, he felt unqualified.

All in all, I definitely got what I was looking for in this book an objective perspective on many of the beliefs and rituals of modern Americans and the high-lights of an impressively exhaustive investigation of the bible. I think it should be mandatory reading for everyone, regardless of their personal faith.
Early in the book the author states that, "one of the reasons I embarked on this experiment was to take legalism to its logical extension and show that it leads to righteous idiocy". Good news because that is exactly why I bought this book. It's also pretty clear by the cover that the author is going to take a humorous look at literalism which is cool with me. Religious literalism has and continues to cause tremendous suffering on our planet and some savage mockery might be the perfect antidote. Too bad this isn't what the author delivers.

In one part of the book the author addresses stoning. Since he is trying to live by the literal words of the bible he decides to engage in stoning people who he observes breaking biblical laws. Naturally he couldn't walk around actually stoning folks so instead he holds a handful of tiny pebbles and gently drops them on the feet of sinners. It's rather cute until you think about the fact that some cultures actually continue to practice organized biblical stonings which involves a crowd of people bludgeoning a `sinner' to death with fist sized rocks. This trend of sugarcoating literalism continues throughout the book. The author is surprised out how tame Jerry Falwell's sermon is and finds himself charmed by a friendly Pentecostal snake handler.

What the book felt like to me was an episode of Wife Swapping or a Jerry Springer monologue. After all the adventure and turmoil we all learn an important lesson about life. In the authors case I guess he learned about religious tolerance and understanding. Unfortunately religious literalists are anything but tolerant and understanding. Mr. Jacobs compares strict observance of religious ritual with obsessive compulsive disorder and refers to religion as perhaps a `healthy neurosis' as if religious fundamentalism were a positive outlet for people with OCD. I would suggest that it's more likely to be used as justification for intolerance or confirmation of a person's already established beliefs. The author talks about the positives of `cafeteria Christianity' i.e. choosing what you wish from the Bible and discarding the rest. Someone might focus on the love thy neighbor portions while ignoring the stories of the Israelites slaughtering cities in God's name. On the other hand you can focus on the passages about gays being an abomination and ignore the much larger sections on Jesus helping the poor.

Whatever Jacob's goal was early on in the book it seemed to be completely lost by the end. We live in a world where woman are beaten for showing ankles or imprisoned for traveling unescorted and this kind of mentality isn't limited to the middle east. The author even mentions a small but frighteningly influential group of Christian literalists called the Dominionists who reside right here in the United States and long to see the laws of Leviticus used as the basis for our legal system.

`The Year of Living Biblically' was more mildly witty than laugh out loud and the author's attempts and sentimentality fell kind of flat given the subject matter. In the end it seemed like the book just lost its mooring and drifted off. According to the author his father enjoys scanning through reviews of his sons books on and gives not helpfuls to negative reviews so I suppose I can expect at least one. I'll be looking for it.