Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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13 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Prodigious learning!, June 15, 2009
They say you can learn something new everyday, and it's true as long as you're reading Tom Verenna every day! His grasp of both the issues and what has been said about them is amazing. A prodigy, he brings to mind the young Jesus reasoning with the elders in the temple. This collection of essays reports on a number of raging biblical-historical debates in a manner that is objective and yet avoids the trap of politely making every view sound equally convincing. Bravo!
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11 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A breath of fresh air!, June 15, 2009
With so much already written on the Historical Jesus question, it is easy to declare a never-ending stale mate and ignore the enterprise altogether. However, Mr. Verenna has taken the challenge a step further by requiring the reader to question the reasons for many of the assumptions made by a large body of scholarship. Too many scholars approach this issue with pre-conceived subjective conclusions and find and report "evidence" to support their predetermined hypothesis. Undoubtedly, this book will receive attacks from detractors - I ask that you consider the arguments laid out by Mr. Verenna and not be swayed by the inevitable ad hominem attacks that have plagued and clouded the world from inquiry, reason and the ability to think a new. Bravo! To Mr. Verenna, I am proud to have this book on my shelf next to the great light of textual criticism. ~ Rich Rodriguez
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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Ancient men and their muses share relevance and lessons for today's historian, July 28, 2009
This book was a pleasure for me to read. It's clear and concise definitions of minimalism, it's challenging and yet insightful criticism of bias in some academic circles, and it's occasional flourish of wit and humor made this book a very fine and enjoyable read.
Thomas S. Verenna's insight into the role of the history writer of antiquity is a lesson even for us today. Much like the spin of today's media, the writing of ancient people whether in creating history, religion, literature, were creating a narrative; a story. Why a person writes a gospel, an epistle, or any other story is not always answered best by saying that they wanted to record what happened. We human beings are more complicated than to merely be record-keepers, and our creations seek more than the where, when, and how. We seek meaning in that we create it first.
Verenna's collection of essays deals with various facets of ancient literature, history and religion in ways that challenge not only many common misconceptions but also much of academic bias that has been left unchallenged for far too long. From what we know about Paul and his influences, the ancient Israel and its identity, and to whether or not reading the Torah to the communities in the first century was common, it is a collection of thoughts worthy of the attention of both the laymen and the professional.
Whether evaluating the many attempts to academically investigate the authenticity and import of Jesus' life and sayings (including the Jesus Seminar), an overview of historical minimalism as well as a defense of it in response to the so-called `maximalism' (which is reminiscent of methodologies used by creationists in the field of biology), or a comparison of various tropes such as the dead that cannot rest from Homer to the Bible, Verenna takes us on a tour of ancient literature in a way that seeks to re-connect religion and myth, sacred and story, canon and canard.
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