[.ca] Desire of the Everlasting Hills: The World Before and ... (ISBN 0553502387)

From Amazon.com:
Desire of the Everlasting Hills is another present from the pen of Thomas Cahill, author of How the Irish Saved Civilization and The Gifts of the Jews. In this third volume of the bestselling Hinges of History series, he knits together history, politics, sociology, and faith with contemporary insights that yield remarkable results. After painting with broad brush strokes an entertaining picture of the Greek, Jewish, and Roman world, Cahill focuses on Jesus. With illuminating deductions and clever speculation, Jesus is seen though the eyes of his biographers in their Gospel accounts. Each of these authors' lives is reconstructed in such a way that the richness of their writing and their subject matter is wonderfully enhanced. The section on Paul, detailing how his life and letters shaped the early church, should be required reading for every student of the Bible. From his beginnings in the cosmopolitan city known as Tarsus through his calling, like the patriarchs and prophets before him, he becomes "the perfect vehicle for this moment in the development of the Jesus Movement." His mix of Greek reasoning with rabbinical training casts the stories of the early church into a thoughtful theology. He is seen here as the earliest egalitarian who not only impacted the early church but all of western civilization. Cahill challenges many traditional religious ideas while also taking on some of the more radical contemporary interpreters of biblical literature. As with the other volumes in this series, the marginal notes are filled with a wealth of interesting information. Combining his own fresh translation of many New Testament highlights with respect and humor, Thomas Cahill's book is for the believer and nonbeliever alike. --Tracy Danz

The hills are alive...:
Oh wait -- that's another matter. Thomas Cahill's third outing on the hinges of history brings us to Jesus Christ, and appropriately so, for so much of the word 'hinges' on this person (and we'll define that word more closely in a moment) in many, often unknowing ways. Obvious hinges are the calendar which, even when modified to be BCE/CE rather than BC/AD cannot escape the fact that break is with this phenomenon. Cahill has taken up the task not of showing who Jesus is, either as person (and that can be God-man, special prophet, political activist, or mythological figure) but rather to show some of the differences, a before-and-after, if you will, of what the world was and came to be due to the influence of this person, which obviously requires an examination of the influences on other persons, too. Cahill uses ancient historians, modern scholarship, Biblical texts, and simple logic and reason to show influences and changes brought about by the Jesus Movement/Christianity. Packed with details written in an interesting manner, Cahill manages to interest, challenge and enlighten all at the same time. Put together with the other two books (Gift of the Jews, which might serve as a prequel, and How the Irish Saved Civilisation, which carries Christianity further), this trilogy is a good introduction to the history of modern theology, philosophy, intellectual sensibilities, and how the world owes so much that is never quite realised to so few.

Frank, gabby, open-eyed, and insightful.:
Thomas Cahill is attempting something very difficult here. He is trying to tell the story of the person about whom everyone else has already told the story. He is trying to stand in the cataract of Jesus scholarship and grab out a few choice coins (not rocks), without getting drenched by a spray of technical verbiage. He is trying to write a biography that is chatty and colloquial, but also based on clear reasoning and sound scholarship. He is trying to write in a fair-minded manner about someone everyone either loves or claims to like in a deconstructionist manner that, finally, amounts to something resembling fear. I have read quite a few similar attempts by non-scholars, or by scholars on Sunday afternoons, to do something like this, and I feel this one comes off pretty well. Probably the closest comparisons might be A. N. Wilson's skeptical Jesus, A Life (inferior), or Philip Yancey's mushy-evangelical The Jesus I Never Knew (not bad). As you can see from reviews below, Cahill manages to offend a lot of Christians and secularists. Considering all the chances he is taking, both with style and substance, one might call that an accomplishment. My advice would be to read a chapter before deciding if this is your style, if possible. I almost always found his arguments reasonable and informed, and I have read a lot of these books, on all sides. For me, the fact that he has literary pizzazz, and is not afraid to make a joke, maybe even a pun, does not hurt. This is not a book written by a robot. Cahill treats the text with the respect of relating it to the world of our experience, even if he is sometimes a tad groanish in doing so. Furthermore, while not a scholar, Cahill relies on a few fairly reasonable ones -- no, that does not include anyone in the Jesus Seminar, but unfornately, neither does it include N. T. Wright, in my view the best -- and he brings a fair amount of ecclectic background knowledge to the texts. (I was shocked to find him referring to the Chinese philosopher Yuan Zhiming, for example, who I thought was my secret.) If some disrespectful comment here on John or another Gospel bothers you, try Craig Blomberg's Historical Reliability of the Gospels. If you ae attracted to the subtitle, "The World Before and After Jesus," but find too little about Jesus' impact on history, I might recommend Christianity on Trial, the fascinating works of Vishal Mangalwadi, or the relevent chapter of my own Jesus and the Religions of Man. If you're offended by Cahill because he makes bad jokes, I can't help you there. But I think he is ultimately serious about Jesus, and I'm with him there. David Marshall / christthetao@msn.com

Even the Footnotes are Interesting:
Thomas Cahill has written a series of "hinges of history" books in which he investigates how a few people made major differences in the advancement of history. This book is about a single person, Jesus. The authors translation and thoughts give an immediate and real sense of who the man was and how civilization is different because of him. Cahill is simply a very good writer, which makes anything he writes worth reading. In this case the subject of his book is fascinating by himself. I often found my self disagreeing with Cahill's opinions (e.g. that Jesus thought that an "end time" was fast approaching) but his reasoning was well stated and the evidence is always mixed. I do wish he had stated clearly the Mary the Magdalene (her name is Mary; she is from the city of Magdala, like today's Jimmy the Greek) was never identified in the gospels as a prostitute before he made jokes about it. Cahill clearly makes that point, but only after he jokes about her "profession." Nevertheless, his humor is a large part of what makes the book enjoyable and the obvious respect he has for Jesus and all the apostles is another plus. I especially recommend his description of the world pre and post Jesus and his chapter on Paul. PS Don't skip the footnotes.

Great Book:
I use this book continually. I find myself going back to review it quiet often.

Engaging and readable:
This book effortlessly paints the historical context in which Jesus and his early followers lived. It's very broad in scope, with an emphasis on trends and big ideas rather than painstaking detail (which I think makes it more readable--I wasn't looking to curl up with a dry "The Bible As History" textbook). Cahill does make a few convenient assumptions (e.g. Paul wasn't sexist, "Wives, submit to your husbands" was simply him playing to the attitudes of the times ?!?) and I suspect knowledgeable readers might find a few bones to pick with him. But he writes beautifully, with obvious passion for his topic. His respect for both the Jewish and Christian traditions is evident and, for me (I am Christian), broadens the appeal of this book. (Gifts of the Jews was great too).