The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible
by A. J. Jacobs
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Book Summary Information
Author: A. J. JacobsEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2008-09-09
ISBN: 0743291484
Number of pages: 416
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Book Reviews of The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible
Book Review: The most high concept
Summary: 4 Stars
A.J. Jacobs, editor-at-large to Esquire magazine, has hit on a sure-fire high-concept theme for his latest book. Not surprisingly, it has been optioned for a movie by Paramount Pictures and Brad Pitt's Plan B productions. Quite simply, he set out to live according the Bible's precepts, strictly and literally. He identified more than 800 rules and spent a year trying to adhere to them.
Among other things, he has called this venture 'a critique of fundamentalism'. He says, 'I took fundamentalism to its logical extreme in my quest to prove that literalism is not the best way to interpret the Bible'. From the opening, he conflates - in my opinion, confuses - spirituality with religion. Arguably, he has missed the point spiritually, by concentrating on outward, rather than inward, renewal. Or rather, by tending to assume that the former must lead to the latter. Still, I mustn't criticize him for doing just what he said he would do -- live according to the rules. At heart, Jacobs is an anthropologist. He mostly finds spirituality in the same place he finds humor - in social interaction.
He has a chatty, colloquial style that you will find either charming or irritating - probably both, by turns, but mostly charming. The book is very readable, but somewhat rambling, and could have said what it has to say in fewer pages, but if you enjoy his light, amusing style, you won't mind that. This is holiday reading that nonetheless deals with very weighty matters, and that's no mean feat. I found his humour wry and amusing, rather than laugh-out-loud hilarious, but that's a matter of taste.
Atheism, and challenges in general to religious belief, are big business for publishers right now, so Jacobs has timed this book well. When The God Delusion, by Richard Dawkins, was published in Britain, some readers complained that Dawkins was 'pushing against an open door', that no one believed in the literal truth of the Bible any more. I'm not sure how true that is of Britain, but I know it's not true of contemporary America. Fundamentalism and literalism are alive and well here. Jacobs presents a formidable challenge to those positions. I am glad that he has done so with humour and sympathy, without Dawkins's vitriolic intolerance of alternative views.
And finally, Jacobs may not have succeeded in doing everything the Bible said he should do, but he did at least read it all. And that's more than most believers have done.
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