Reason Read: American author challenge and this one was available.
I was a bit afraid to read this but I have to admire the author for deciding to read the Gospels after she realized that she did not know enough to support her opinions. I appreciated how she read the Gospels and how she wrote about her reading. It's what we all should do. Read it, ponder, and write about it. I also enjoyed how she pulled in literature into her experience and her comments. Mary Gordon is a Catholic. Her father was Jewish but converted to Catholic. She is against prosperity preachers as am I but I think she thinks all protestants are of that ilk. I definitely differ from the Ms Gordon's ideas but I applaud her for reading the Gospel and writing about that experience. Don't just accept her thoughts, read the Gospels yourself. ( )

Why did I never think of this? To read the Gospels with the same kind of attention I give to poetry or a good novel! I had not expected this wonderfully piquant mixture of personal and critical. The first chapters and the last ones are the best, but she did her homework on all of it. There were no easy outs. Some of her middle chapters of things that bother her - such as "The Problem of Ascetism" - are not problems for me. But her chapter which reflects on whether a sacred text itself is responsible (for anti-Semitism, for example) is explosive stuff. I brought it up at a dinner table of 8 committed Christians, and while it's likely I presented the idea badly the reaction was fierce and negative. It hit some kind of nerve. Worth a read, this text, to see what response it draws. ( )

A great book, Mary Gordon has read the Gospels closely and wrestled with the words and stories. I wanted her to write about every word of the four Gospels. ( )

A writer, who has always considered herself a Christian, is challenged one day by the realization that she has never read through the Gospels in their entirely. So this is the record of her thoughts as she read them. She exerpts the part she wished to reflect upon and then shares her thoughts. As a Christian of a different strain than her I did not agree with a lot of what she had to say, though it is always interesting to see how someone reading the Bible with fresh eyes reacts to what they read. I found her writing a bit 'dry' though--it didn't engage me or move me very much. So aside from the actual Bible excerpts, I found myself just wanting to get to the end of this. I would only recommend it if you want to read every memoir anyone writes about their experiences with the BIble (there seem to be quite a lot today). ( )

Reading Jesus is actually the book that I wanted to write. I am reading it green with jealously because while Mary Gordon gets to do this, the odds are dim that I ever will, though I'll create a blog one day.

That disclaimer out of the way, Mary Gordon's writing is luscious and wonderful, of course. She really has captured a mediative quality, like we are listening to her talk to herself about these gospels.

On the other hand, there have been few insights of bold interest -- and in the chapter I just finished, about the woman taken in adultery, really a boneheaded interpretation at least in part. Of course what Jesus wrote in the dust the first time was the 10 commandments. This isn't my idea, this is from something I read somewhere and sadly can't give credit too. And another book I read, about the evolution of human language and writing, suggested that the 10 commandments might have been more like "stop signs", you know like those signs that have a bar slashed over them, meaning don't do whatever the picture is? Thus "no kill", "no lie", etc.

At any rate, Jesus makes it perfectly clear to the men in the crowd that there are a lot of sins and that he knows.... And what he writes the second time, might be or ought to be "love one another as God loves you".

People make a tremendous deal out of the amount of illiteracy there would have been back in Jesus' day, so could Jesus even read and write, being the son of a carpenter? Certainly people were more skilled in oral storytelling and memory back then. But even the most illiterate person can "read" a stop sign..... would know what a "heart" sign means.

It's one of the most powerful gospel stories, to me, so this review has dived off the grid....

I'll add more when I finish the book!