DD 231-235.999 (Tony) The Road to Guadalupe by Eryk Hanut (232.917 HAN)

A Modern Pilgrimage to the Goddess of the Americas

Having read the dust jacket, I thought that I was in for a quirky, informative read about people who make pilgrimages to shrine dedicated to Mary, mother of Jesus. It sounded interesting and a change of pace from the recent books on religion I have been reading for this project. So I cheerfully checked it out.
Then I read the about the author- creator of Rumi meditation cards, married to a expert in mysticism (the fact that he was married to a guy didn't bother me), lives in Vegas. I got a little freaked out. "Oh, great, this is some book about following a New Age cult version of The Virgin Mary", I thought.
But, I stuck to my guns and gave the book a try (after praying to God for protect from demonic forces and cooties, mind you)
Oh, how glad I am I decided to give this book a chance. Unlike the last 3 or 4 books writen by scholars of the Bible, which ended up being a preachy attack about how the Bible is mindless fantasy written by Jewish and Christians looking to assimulate the beliefs and gods of other religions- this book wasn't preachy at all! It's one man's account to visit the shrine of The Tilma of Guadlupe and examines the mystic side (and I caution as a Christian) of Catholicism. Now, granted the author claims that this isn't a "Catholic" practice (and the fact that he state a few times how he hates to oppression of the Catholic Church) and he's right to some degree. However, the worship of saints and places where miracles took place has a history steeped in Catholic practisioners.
It's one of a few reasons why I have issue with the Catholics. As a beleiver, I believe you don't need a preacher to absolve you of sins, I don't beleive that if I was to pray to St. Francis that my cat's paw will be healed, and I do not believe that if a man with a funny hat says "Jump" that I have to ask "How high?" if I do it. (Although, if I find out God likes to wear funny hats- I'll recend my last comment).
I am not alone in these beleives. My wife was raised until around age 9, as a Catholic, and she came to know these practices are wrong in order to be saved by the blood of Christ. I also know that some Catholics are starting to beleive that many practices of the Catholic Church are not Biblical and they are working to change that from within. As an example of this, I cite my wife's grandmother.
But, in terms of a book for entertainment merit, I really enjoyed this. There's even a recipe for eggs in this that I'd love to try. And yes, there are even instructions for a few "spells". Which I read in order to be informed, but I have no intentions of every using.
Erik Hanut seemed to be a fascinating guy and I would love for him to come to our church and even have lunch with him and talk about what he felt about the service in relation to his core beliefs. (Consider this an always open invitation if you are ever in Durham, North Carolina) I really apreciated his open beliefs of others and I really felt reading this book that I wasn't being criticized beleiving that what events I read about are contrary to my own. For that, I thank you Mr. Hanut.

Afterword: And now time for me to be an idiot. Until I recently saw a rerun of the show scrubs, I didn't know if the word Guadalupe was pronounced, Guad- ah- loop or Guad- ah- lou- pay.
Thanks to John C. McGinley (Dr. Perry Cox)- it's the 2nd way.
See, you can even learn from watching sitcoms.

DD 226-230.999 (Tony) The Dead Sea Srolls, 1947-1969 by Edmund Wilson (229 WIL)

The Dead Sea Scrolls were announced recently to be making a visit to North Carolina's Science Museum in Raleigh. So when I found that a book on the Scrolls were in the next level of my Dewey Project readings- I jumped at the chance to prep myself for the exihibit.
The book is actually 2 books in one. Volume 1 is written immediately after their discovery in 1947 and volum 2 is written after 22 years of research and woe. So, lets review each volume separately.
VOLUME 1:
I thought I was familiar with the contents of the scrolls, but having read this book- I found that not just I be a bunch of Southern Baptists in Wake County were dead wrong. Being the product of a mother and grandparents whom considered themselves members of the true congregation, I was raised with the knowledge that the DSS (as I will refer to the scrolls from now on) was comprised of every book of the Modern Bible. However, I now know that is not true, but that in reality not every book was found, nor are many of the scrolls Canon, but actually filled with Jewish mysticism (think Kabbalah, without Madonna or Aston Kutcher)
The most fascinating parts of this book deals with the history of the original owners of the DSS and with the pains taken to find, obtain and begin to research the texts. The biggest problem I had though with those parts were that anytime a french guy or an arab was qouted, the sentence is typed in the native tongue and not translated. It may not seem like a big deal, but this lack of interpretation is a big rason as to why I hate the movie "Stargate".
The least interesting parts involve the author's lengthy attempts to explain why misspelling make these texts saying different meanings. I know it's an important step for researchers, but for someone like me, I was the just of the research. I don not need to know how to conjugate Hebrew.

Volume 2:
This section was written just after the 7 Day War, so there are plenty of accounts of the cultural battle of Jews and Arabs. These recounts make for a compelling read and the author does a tremendous job.
However, I am getting tired of reading books about religion written by skeptics. It's getting old! This guy keeps saying Jesus is not the Messiah, nor is he the son of God, because many of the DSS was finding accounts of Jesus' life were very similar to the tales of Jewish Folklore that deal with heroes and "messiahs'. Let's get one thing straight. each of the "messiahs" the author talks about never were raised from the dead after 3 days, much less 3 centurys, nor do the folk tlaes reveal this, thus this explains why the Jews are still looking for their Savior. Christ on the other hand did raise from the dead and not only do the 4 gospels proclaim this, but over 300 hundred 1st hand accounts have been found by other writers attrbuting that they saw this ressurection. Mr. Wilson never even entertains this fact.
So, once the writer went into this diatribe against Christianity and literally said that beleivers were living in a pipe dream, I lost interest in this book (the whole not just a particular volume) pretty quick.