The June Book Bag
A new month brings a new batch of books I'll be offering you, my esteemed web companions, for review on my blog. Here's the deal: you get a free book and you write a short review (a couple of paragraphs) after this posting. Couldn't be simpler.
All you have to do to claim your book is e-mail your name and address (I won't share your details with anyone else) and agree to write a short comment on this blog telling me what you thought of the book. One book per person only; though you might suggest a second choice in case your first choice has already been taken.
Send your e-mails to: william.crawley@bbc.co.uk with the subject heading "June Book Bag". Please don't try to claim a book by leaving your details in a comment here. Read on for a list of this month's books.
"101 Questions & answers on The Da Vinci Code and the Catholic Tradition", by Nancy de Flon and John Vidmar OP
"An Army of Banners: the Real Face of Orangeism", by William Brown
"The Life of Hunger" (translated by Michael Emmerich), by Amelie Nothomb
"Faith in Her Words: Six Centuries of Women's Poetry", complied by Veronica Zundel
"Consuming Passion Why the Killing of Jesus Really Matters", edited by Simon barrow and Jonathan Bartley
"Order from Chaos: Responding to Traumatic Events", by Marion Gibson
"Creed of Love: Refections on the Apostles' Creed", by Fr Bill Swan
"Changing World, Changing Church: Out of the Pew thinking" by Michael Moynagh
"Nobody's Fool: The Life of Archbishop Robin Eames", by Alf McCreary
"From China With Love: A Long Road to Motherhood", by Emily Buchanan
"The Lost Message of Jesus", by Steve Chalke and Alan Mann
"The Oxford Dictionary of Buddhism", by Damien Keown
"Father Figure: A Novel", by Ann Widdecombe
"The Gardens of the Dead: A Novel", by William Brodrick
Comments
I know this comes incredibly late but 鈥榖etter late than never鈥欌 I hope鈥
Having read three books on The Da Vinci Code (as well as the book itself) I found '101 Questions and Answers On The Da Vinci Code And The Catholic Tradition', by Nancy De Flon and John Vidmar, accurate and well-researched. Its treatment of the relevant biblical texts and Christian traditions is, as far as I can see, balanced, and the language used is easy to understand (even when dealing with subjects such as Q or bringing psychologists such as Carl Jung into the conversation!). It brings a fresh perspective on some of the main issues.
On a negative note, I found Section Five (on 鈥楾he 鈥淪acred Feminine鈥 And Women in Christianity鈥) lacking a bit of self-criticism. Admittedly Dan Brown鈥檚 book goes (in my opinion) too far with some of its affirmations about Mary鈥檚 status as almost our God-Mother. However, the fact that this book鈥檚 authors do not acknowledge the Bible鈥檚 general lack of female perspective on the main theological issues does not help those who think that this is an important element missing in our biblical texts. I do not think that sentences like 鈥淭he Hebrew Scriptures honor several great women as heroines in the history of Israel鈥 or the so oft-used texts from the Pauline tradition (Galatians 3:28, for instance) appropriately answer the feminist questioning of the patriarchal structures that can be found in the Bible.
Apart from that, the book is worth reading 鈥 I learned a lot from it.