Interesting and thought-provoking, but far from being “the Gospel truth.”
Quest for the historical Mary.
Bible scholar Tabor adds to modern scholarship that argues that the lives of certain biblical characters have been “deliberately erased” by adding Mary, the mother of Jesus, to that list. Though Mary has retained an honored spot in the Christian faith, and a special level of reverence among Catholic believers, especially, Tabor argues that her true life and influence have been completely forgotten by the church and that this was done entirely by design. The author draws on recent archaeological and textual discoveries but also tends to stretch his suppositions in ways that are plausible but not necessarily probable. He should be credited for making it clear to the reader that Mary was born into a deeply troubled, violent, and dangerous time and place and that dynastic infighting, rebellious fervor, and Roman oppression must have shaped her early life in profound ways. Tabor asserts that Mary, influenced by these experiences, held an outsize sway on the thinking not only of Jesus, but also of John the Baptizer. He boldly declares that Mary “is not only at the heart and soul of what scholars call ‘the Jesus Movement’ but also the glue that held it together.” In order to support this theory, he uses a historical-critical reading of scripture, evidence from apocryphal writings, and simple speculation that can never be proven or disproven. Though it is undeniable that Mary’s place in Christianity was manipulated and mythologized through the centuries (especially in regard to early church discomfort with sexuality), it is far harder to accept whether her “real” role was as broad and profound as Tabor believes. Searching for a clearer picture of who Mary was in her own context is commendable; however, Tabor’s labors come up short of being thoroughly convincing.
Interesting and thought-provoking, but far from being “the Gospel truth.”Pub Date: Sept. 30, 2025
ISBN: 9781101947845
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: May 2, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2025
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.
Greed, depravity, and serial murder in 1920s Oklahoma.
During that time, enrolled members of the Osage Indian nation were among the wealthiest people per capita in the world. The rich oil fields beneath their reservation brought millions of dollars into the tribe annually, distributed to tribal members holding "headrights" that could not be bought or sold but only inherited. This vast wealth attracted the attention of unscrupulous whites who found ways to divert it to themselves by marrying Osage women or by having Osage declared legally incompetent so the whites could fleece them through the administration of their estates. For some, however, these deceptive tactics were not enough, and a plague of violent death—by shooting, poison, orchestrated automobile accident, and bombing—began to decimate the Osage in what they came to call the "Reign of Terror." Corrupt and incompetent law enforcement and judicial systems ensured that the perpetrators were never found or punished until the young J. Edgar Hoover saw cracking these cases as a means of burnishing the reputation of the newly professionalized FBI. Bestselling New Yorkerstaff writer Grann (The Devil and Sherlock Holmes: Tales of Murder, Madness, and Obsession, 2010, etc.) follows Special Agent Tom White and his assistants as they track the killers of one extended Osage family through a closed local culture of greed, bigotry, and lies in pursuit of protection for the survivors and justice for the dead. But he doesn't stop there; relying almost entirely on primary and unpublished sources, the author goes on to expose a web of conspiracy and corruption that extended far wider than even the FBI ever suspected. This page-turner surges forward with the pacing of a true-crime thriller, elevated by Grann's crisp and evocative prose and enhanced by dozens of period photographs.
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.Pub Date: April 18, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-385-53424-6
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2017
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
The author's youthfulness helps to assure the inevitable comparison with the Anne Frank diary although over and above the...
Elie Wiesel spent his early years in a small Transylvanian town as one of four children.
He was the only one of the family to survive what Francois Maurois, in his introduction, calls the "human holocaust" of the persecution of the Jews, which began with the restrictions, the singularization of the yellow star, the enclosure within the ghetto, and went on to the mass deportations to the ovens of Auschwitz and Buchenwald. There are unforgettable and horrifying scenes here in this spare and sombre memoir of this experience of the hanging of a child, of his first farewell with his father who leaves him an inheritance of a knife and a spoon, and of his last goodbye at Buchenwald his father's corpse is already cold let alone the long months of survival under unconscionable conditions.
Pub Date: Jan. 16, 2006
ISBN: 0374500010
Page Count: 120
Publisher: Hill & Wang
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2006
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