The Good Book Is Great |
For too many Decembers, I told myself while decorating our tree that I really ought to re-read the gospels – or at least the dramatic nativity scene from Luke depicted in “A Charlie Brown Christmas.”
Like a lot of my resolutions, that one died on the shelf. It wasn’t because I disdained faith; I was a religion minor in college. But, as a secular person reared among like-minded people, I always felt there were better ways to learn and grow.
Then, about two years ago, I decided to read the entire Bible. I wasn’t driven by a spiritual awakening or hunger but, instead, by feelings of profound ignorance. Many moons ago, when I reviewed books for a living, I quoted the Victorian poet and critic Matthew Arnold, who wrote that learning should focus on “the best that has been thought and said” in order to understand the human spirit. Yet, I had never seriously engaged the most popular and influential book in the history of Western civilization. The embarrassment I would have felt if I’d never read Shakespeare or “Don Quixote” – and that I still feel in my failure to tackle Joyce – had never previously extended to the Bible.
If I had a deeper yearning,........