I was simply delighted to find this book but once I read it I regretted buying it.  It is misleading in quite a few places and outright wrong in others. Sometimes I felt like the authors were simply lying to their audience.  I learned more about Roman paganism by reading the biography of Cicero by Anthony Everitt and I learned more about Persian and Babylonian paganism in the first sixty pages of Persian Fire by Tom Holland.  The section on Rome seems to imply that we do not and can not know very much about Ancient Roman religious practice, when the opposite is true, then in the bibliography of the section only two volumes are listed!  The sections of Israel and Christianity were full of erroneous information, so much so I felt like it was a purposeful propaganda campaign design to discredit Christianity and Judaism.  The most valuable reason for reading the book is to find out what the latest attacks are against the Church.  The allegation of “magic” in Christianity and Judaism, for example, shows a complete lack of understanding of religious practice in both religions.

Anthony Everitt did a masterful job in bringing Cicero to life in this biography.  Starting off with a foggy idea of the turbulent times of Republican Rome’s final days I left with a clear understanding of the political climate that lead to the rise of the Roman Empire.

The first Chapter started with a brief overview of pertinent political developments in the republic and political positions and obligation.  The author never disappoints with his ability to explain life in Rome without appearing condescending to the amateur historian who surely must be less aware (like me).  The use of primary sources (including numerous personal letters between good friends) was extensive and the use of quotes stuck me as a brilliant use of humor that greatly contributed to the author’s ability to make Cicero seem like someone I would want to befriend had he lived in modern times and makes me wish more politicians on Capitol Hill were more like he was.

Anthony Everitt’s Cicero comes with a high recommendation to anyone interested in history, biographies or politics.

For my birthday my parents gave me The Apologetics Study Bible, which I have grown to love and recommend for everyone.  It is put together by the Southern Baptists rather than the Catholics but the scholarship is the highest quality.  The thing that impressed me the most was the commentary.

During the Enlightenment a few ideas were proposed that have slowly begun to dominate Bible scholarship which are just false (and sometimes subtly, sometimes not so subtly deny the divinity of Christ).  One example is Spinoza.  In his Treatise on Religion and the State he writes:

“Sober and literal statements do not move the soul; if Moses had said that it was merely the East wind (as we gather from a later passage) that cleared a path for them through the Red Sea, it would have made little impression on the minds of the masses he was leading….But when interpreted literally, it is full of errors, contradictions, and obvious impossibilities-as that the Pentateuch was written by Moses.”