03-09-2010, 04:19 PM
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Contributor
Join Date: Jun 2000
Location: Los Angeles area
Posts: 40,549
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The Bible for the Biblically Illiterate
BIBLE BABEL: MAKING SENSE OF THE MOST TALKED ABOUT BOOK OF ALL TIME (or via: amazon.co.uk) By Kristin Swenson
Washington Times review
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. . . . an accessible, freewheeling newcomers' guide to the Bible aimed at attention-deficit-disordered teens, twenty-somethings and soccer moms that manages to avoid being lame.
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Washington Post review
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... Swenson's book possesses a singularly breezy tone, a kind of "Jesus Christ Superstar" approach to the sacred. God promised Abraham and his descendants "significant perks." Jacob was "the baseball cap and sagging 'see my underwear' pants to Abraham's fedora and neat wool suit." David "never disrespected Saul." Sigh.
Fortunately, Swenson isn't always trying to show off her street cred, and I suspect her approach derives, in part, from teaching 18-year-olds. Still, "Bible Babel" does aim to underscore the persistence of the biblical in contemporary culture. So Swenson appropriately refers to films like "Monty Python's Life of Brian," "Magnolia," "The Seventh Seal" and "The Seventh Sign," "The Omen" and "Evan Almighty." She describes the "Left Behind" novels in her discussion of the apocalyptic end-time, while Madonna, Black Sabbath and "The Da Vinci Code" make the obligatory brief appearances. She even points to "a Christian website that sells sex toys." This is not your father Abraham's guide to the Good Book.
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Swenson's blog
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