Holiday Book Guide

November 15, 2006

The holidays are fast approaching, and one of the greatest gifts is knowledge. We've compiled a list of some of the latest books on religion and history for you to consider putting under the tree or giving to your loved ones as you light the candles.

Biblical Archaeology

The Sacred Bridge: Carta's Atlas of the Biblical World: An Overview of the Ancient Levant, Anson Rainey and R. Steven Notley, Jerusalem, 2006.

Scholars Rainey and Notley provide 300 innovative maps, illustrations, charts and tables to give the reader an in-depth overview of the Levant in both Old and New Testament times with comprehensive historical background to the Biblical eras.

 

Megiddo IV: The 1998-2002 Seasons, Israel Finkelstein, David Ussishkin and Baruch Halpern. Tel Aviv: Monograph Series of the Institute of Archaeology; Tel Aviv University - No. 24, 2006.xvi+860 pages with maps, plans and photographs. Hard cover, $95.00

This is the second in the series of final publications of the Megiddo Expedition. It reports the finds in the 1998-2002 seasons, with several references to the campaign of 2004. The main topics dealt with are the Early Bronze Age temple compound (with an update on the previous publication), the Late Bronze I stratum on the lower mound, the settlement of the late Iron I and its destruction in a fierce conflagration, the elaborate palace (Palace 6000) of the Iron IIA on the northern edge of the mound and the controversial northern stables. It also reports the results of two surveys conducted in the Megiddo countryside.

 

Jewish Quarter Excavations in the Old City of Jerusalem, Vol I and II, edited by Hillel Geva. Jerusalem: Israel Exploration Society, 2006.

The first and second reports of the archaeological excavations conducted in the Jewish Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem under the direction of the late Professor Nahman Avigad from 1969 to 1982. (Watch BAR for an in depth review.)

 

Religion

Judaism

Essential Torah, George Robinson. New York: Random House, 2006. 624 pages, $35.00

Everything you're ever wanted to know about the books that make up the Jewish religious texts from New York Jewish Week film critic and author of Essential Judaism George Robinson.

 

Hagar, Sarah and Their Children: Jewish, Christian and Muslim Perspectives, Phyllis Trible and Letty M. Russell, editors. Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2006. 211 pages, $24.95

Abraham had two sons, one by his wife Sarah and one by his wife's slave Hagar. Those two sons, according to the Bible and Quran, would become the ancestors to all of the people of the world's three monotheistic religions. Renowned feminist Bible scholars Trible and Russell look at the two historic women from the perspective of those who claim to be their descendants.

 

Christianity

Christian Beginnings and the Dead Sea Scrolls, John J. Collins and Craig A. Evans. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2006. 144 pages, $16.99.

This collection of essays by six of the world's Dead Sea Scroll scholars—John Collins, Craig Evans, Martin Abegg, R. Glenn Wooden, Barry Smith, and Jonathan Wilson—examines some of the major issues that the Dead Sea Scrolls have raised for the study of early Christianity.

 

What Have They Done with Jesus? Beyond Strange Theories and Bad History—Why We Can Trust the Bible, Ben Witherington III. San Francisco: Harper, 2006. 352 pages, $24.95

With all the new studies coming out with different hypotheses and ideas, scholar Ben Witherington III, of Asbury Theological Seminary, takes a more traditional approach to the study of Jesus.

 

The Lost Gospel of Judas Iscariot: A New Look at Betrayer and Betrayed, Bart Ehrman, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006. 208 pages, $22,00

Following the release of the “Judas Papers” by National Geographic, scholar Bart Ehrman, of UNC-Chapel Hill, takes his reader's on the journey of their discovery, authentication and impact on religious history.

 

The Politics of Jesus, Obery M. Hendricks, Jr. New York: Doubleday, 2006. 384 pages, $26.00

Scholar and author Obery Hendricks of the New York Theological Seminary offers a new look at the historical Jesus as more than just a moral leader. His interpretation reveals Jesus to be a powerful political revolutionary who championed the rights of the poor and the oppressed, and it traces how the institutions of Christianity went astray of the message.

 

Saints Behaving Badly, Thomas J. Craughwell. New York: Doubleday, 2006. 208 pages, $15.95.

Those among the pantheon of people sainted by the Church weren't always such goody-two-shoes. In Saints Behaving Badly Craughwell creates a brand-new form of hagiography by looking for all the sleazy, lurid details in the lives of 32 saints, from the blood-stained hands of St. Olga to the greedily non-compassionate Thomas á Beckett.

 

What Paul Meant, Garry Willis. New York: Viking, 2006. 192 pages, $24.95

Garry Willis argues against much scholarly opinion, that what Paul meant was not something contrary to what Jesus meant. Rather, Willis says, the best way to know Jesus is to discover Paul. Unlike the Gospel writers, who carefully shaped their narratives many decades after Jesus’ life, Paul wrote in the heat of the moment, managing controversy and sometimes contradicting himself, but at the same time offering the best reflection of the earliest Christian era.

 

A Short History of Christianity, Stephen Tomkins. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2006. 256 pages, $15.00.

Tomkins takes readers on a journey through the key stages of Christian development, covering the people, the events, the movements, and the controversies of the Church, dealing with the well-known (Augustine, Martin Luther), the unique (Simeon Stylites, the people's crusade, the Muggletonians), and the recent (Karl Barth, John Paul II, the Toronto blessing).

 

History

Crusader to Modern

Mysteries of the Middle Ages: The Rise of Feminism, Science and Art from the Cults of Catholic Europe, Thomas Cahill. New York: Doubleday, 2006. 368 pages, $32.50

The Renaissance didn't just materialize out of nowhere. In Mysteries of the Middle Ages author Thomas Cahill explores the medieval roots of the growth of art, science and the place of women in European society. Part of his monumental “Hinges of History ” series, which also includes The Gift of the Jews (which spent 39 weeks on The New York Times best-sellers list) this new work was acclaimed by one reviewer as guaranteed to make the list as well.

 

An Illustrated History of the Knights Templar, James Wasserman. Rochester, VT: Inner Traditions, 2006. 192 pages, 175 illus., $19.95

Full of contemporaneous illustrations and manuscripts from the era of the Crusades and modern-day photographs of their castles and strongholds, the Illustrated History of the Knights Templar gives a history of the order from its inception in 1096 to its forced demise in 1312.

 

Roman

Caesar: Life of a Colossus, Adrian Goldsworthy. New Haven: Yale, 2006. 592 pages, $35.00

How are we to understand Julius Caesar? A visionary? An autocrat? Author Adrian Goldsworthy leaves that decision up to the reader, but he presents the murdered leader of Rome as a man very much of his times, a politician and a general, two roles that need to be looked at together to begin to get a glimpse of what this most famous of Roman leaders accomplished.

 

Augustus: The Life of Rome's First Emperor Anthony Everitt. New York: Random House, 2006. 416 pages, $26.95

Upon the death of Caesar, Octavian, his named heir, fought a ruthless civil war against Marc Antony for control of the empire, emerging victorious and well on his way to becoming what we commonly think of as Rome's first Emperor. But he never called himself that. Author Anthony Everitt attempts in this latest work to "make Augustus come alive," and to study the man who earned that title: Augustus, or revered one.

 

Terry Jones's Barbarians, Terry Jones and Alan Ereira. London: Trafalgar Square, 2006. 288 pages, $29.95

It might be difficult to look on the bright side of life when you're labelled a barbarian or a vandal, and Terry Jones of Monty Python fame, thinks these forefathers of ours have gotten a rather bad rap by the victorious Romans. In fact, the Britons, Gauls, Celts, Dacians, Vandals and Goths were much more civilized and modernized than history would have us believe. It was the uncivilized Romans who plundered and pillaged their way through Europe. Cue voice over, "Haagbard Etheldronga and his Viking hordes are currently appearing in 'Grin and Pillage it' at the Jodrell Theater...."

 

Roman Britain, Guy de la Bédoyère. London: Thames & Hudson, Inc. 288 pages, 294 illustrations, $39.95

One of those “civilizations” that Rome conquered was Britain. For almost 500 years the Britons lived under the control of the Roman empire, a subject very well studied admits the author. But de la Bédoyère's take on the history of Roman Britain focuses on the advanced archaeological record as more and more remains become uncovered and on a new worldview of Britain's historians.

 

Egyptian

Mummies and Death in Egypt, Françoise Dunand and Roger Lichtenberg. Cornell University Press, 2006. 248 pages, $39.95

Mummies are fascinating, and there are so many questions surrounding them that they have captured our imagination for millennia. Author Dunand and Lichtenberg answer those questions in an in-depth study and fully illustrated summary of everything that we currently know about mummification rituals and practice, including the results of modern-day X-ray and CAT Scan technologies.

 

Chronicle of the Queens of Egypt, Joyce Tyldesley. London: Thames & Hudson, 2006. 224 pages, $34.95

Egyptologist Joyce Tyldesley chronicles 3,000 years of the females from the ruling class of Egypt, their accomplishments and fates, dynasty by dynasty.

 

Greek

The Trojan War, Barry Strauss. New York: Simon and Shuster, 2006. 352 pages, $26

Cornell University professor Barry Strauss brings a new perspective based on new research and scholarship to the study of the ancient war, whether it happened the way the story has come down to us and its importance to the study of Greece in the Bronze Age and history as a whole.