Gospel

Rating:
Summary: Fun, delightful fun ... nothing more
Review: This is not a book for those who take their literature too seriously. The characters are stock - the drunken Catholic Professor without faith, the innocence graduate student who gets deflowered, the evangelistic who is a huckster... The text is loose and free-flowing - some decent editing would significantly reduce the size of the book.

So why five stars? Barnhardt obviously did a great deal of research on church history, apocrypha, monastic life, linguistics, etc. One is always finding a new tidbit of information - not necessarily useful but delightful trivia. And dispite the flaws, one becomes attached to the characters and the plot as the plot meanders around England, Greece, Israel, Africa, Alabama(?) always one step behind the prize manuscript of the "missing gospel"... a wonderful lazy summer day's read.

Rating:
Summary: Do-Si-Do through the Labyrinth
Review: Come along on a wild, intellectual ride, careening from Chicago to Ireland to Italy to Greece to Israel to the Sudan to Ethiopia, following the reprobate religious scholar, Dr. Patrick O'Hanrahan, and the semi-hapless perpetual grad student, Lucy Dantan, as they try to track down a lost 1st-Century Gospel, written by one of the Twelve Disciples...and enjoy fine living, abject poverty, attempted murder, theft, intellectual rivalry, religious theorizing, and spiritual agonizing along the way, plus the periodical, parenthetical Voice of God commenting on the action...Wilton Barnhardt (author of Emma, Who Saved My Life, also a grand book) has written a meaty and challenging mystery, whose characters are unafraid of the Big Questions, a book far more accessible than The Name of the Rose but with that same attractive flavor of the mysteries of scholarship and ancient manuscripts. Conspiracies and counter-conspiracies are revealed, characters grow in self-knowledge, and the reader gets to follow along in amazed pleasure (or pleasurable amazement?) as the plot twists and turns to its unexpected, emotionally-gratifying conclusion. I'd recommend this novel to anyone who loves a good academic mystery---it's really well-written, the intrigue nevers stops.

Rating:
Summary: Fascinating and funny
Review: Lot's of fun. He does a wonderful send up of academic types. The scenes fly around the world, each with a good sense of place. A great book to curl up with and read on a wintry night.

Rating:
Summary: Great Premise, Tired Characters
Review: Simply put, I did not enjoy this book as much as some of the other reviewers obviously did. As it contains more that 700 pages, the book provides a virtual around-the-world-in-80-days adventure quest involving a young graduate student in search of her errant mentor, an aging theology professor financed by the University of Chicago to lay hands on a missing gospel of one of the original disciples of Jesus. Sadly, the novel's most troubled aspect is in its trite characterizations. Lucy, the grad student represents the quintessential Catholic school girl laden with Irish Catholic guilt while Paddy, the professor in his deluded quest for notarity in the academic world, soaks himself with alcohol from all points of the globe. The only character worthwhile, the Holy Spirit, speaks in asides which are insightful and mildly amusing.

However, if you can get past the rather annoying personalities of the two main characters, focus on the gospel itself that heads each of the major chapter breaks, and enjoy how its revelation awakens the protagonists to their real missions in life, then the book can be called successful.

I was recommended this book after having read the www.Amazon.com reviews of "The Da Vinci Code" by Dan Brown. I must say that I was mislead; the books have little in common--Brown's style is much breezier, more in the adventure/screenplay genre--his focus is mainly on the unfolding mystery. Barnhardt's epistle deals more with the change in his characters than the actual plot--I think I would have liked more plot and less character. Barnhardt's resolution at the last chapter called "The Promised Land" mercifully comes off as campy in an otherwise seemingly serious tale of two lost souls that find their way back to an ever patient Holy Spirit.

Barnhardt's research combined with his imagination makes the book seem factual--it is his immense database of knowledge that urges the reader forward through to the end.

Recommended to those who like conspiracy theories and hidden ancient mysteries.

Rating:
Summary: Dazzling Work of Fiction(?)
Review: One of the reasons this story is so tantalizing is that there exists rumors and semi-evidence of several "fifth" Gospels. The story had several unique features - from the reprinted "Gospel" to the political aspects (far-fetched) to the addresses by God ("We think...").

I have often thought this would make an excellent movie on the order of Sagan's "Contact" but in retrospect I can see Hollywood introducing sex, emphasize the change of locales and the chase and downplay the intellectual/religious aspects of the story. If a theater cannot show Kazanzaki's "The Last Temptation of Christ" (a soaring, beautiful work) then how could they show a tale that purports that Jesus never rose from the dead?

The writing is just superb, the research impressive, and even the footnotes within the Gospel seemed to enhance instead of detract from the saga. Buy this for a snowy weekend and enjoy.

Rating:
Summary: The most entertaining book that I've ever read
Review: "Gospel" is fascinating! The story is one heck of a romp through
Europe, The Middle East, Africa and the early Church. I learned so much about Christendom and how our traditions that we take for "Gospel" came from that I've read it three times and have given the book to scores of friends, none of whom has disappointed. The footnotes, while they may bog down the narrative a bit, are so illuminating and compelling that you have to stop at each one and absorb them carefully.

Do yourself a favor. Read this!

Rating:
Summary: mostly awesome
Review: I have always loved Eco's books and have searched for other works of there kind. I found this in "Gospel". As a biblical scholar I find his historical knowledge top notch. The only thing that keeps it from that coveted 5th star is the part at "TPL". If you read it you will understand. Otherwise an inpressive work, both entertaining and educational with a lot to think about.

Rating:
Summary: An uphill read that's worth the effort
Review: This book is... bizarre. Pieces of it are good old-fashioned novel; they whiz by like beach reading. Pieces of it are irreverent to the point of offensive, which did a great job of putting that bemused "I was about to chuckle but I'm not sure it would be polite" look on my face. And the offensiveness is relevant, as it is supported by detailed footnotes about religious history that are weird enough to raise your eyebrows right off your head. The footnotes read like... well, like footnotes, slow going. You've gotta want to know. But after a few pages, you realize you *do* want to know.

If Wilton Barnhardt were a career theologian, or if the book were nonfiction, I'd know how much of the footnote information to believe. As it's a work of fiction and as Barnhardt has, from all I've read, not concentrated on religion, per se, during his career, I'm left wondering how much of his background material is fact and how much is fiction. It's an important question; the book has huge emotional impact, and a lot of that impact comes from the assumption the reader naturally makes that the footnotes are factual.

The thing that balances out the irreverence and the potential offensiveness of this book is the incredible warmth and heart with which Barnhardt treats his main characters. The real story of this book is the love that each flawed person deserves. The real story of this book is the feeling I came away with: that I was, in spite of my flaws, loveable. Any book that can make you feel that way is well worth buying.

Rating:
Summary: A Romp Through All the Flavors of Christianity
Review: In "Gospel," Barnhardt has pulled off a difficult task with grace (pun intended) and style. Ostensibly the story of a Professor and a graduate student from the University of Chicago's Department of Theology hot on the trail of a newly discovered first-century gospel, Barnhardt uses this frame to present us with a panorama of Christianity and Christians, past and present. Along the way, the reader gets a view of many places in the world intimately involved with Christianity, and its troubles: England, Ireland, Italy, Israel, Africa, and Louisiana.

By managing the delicate balance of telling an interesting story and providing an encyclopedic vision of the various strands and streams that comprise Christianity, Barnhardt's work will appeal to those who have delved into work such as that of Elaine Pagels. I found myself willing and eager to go on the journey with Barnhardt's protagonists. In the end, I wondered if the television evangelists whom I find so easy to ridicule are not quite as bizarre when measured against the historical development of Christianity.

In "Gospel," we travel through England to Ireland, where we meet the mysterious Black Pope and his retinue of apostate Jesuits. From there, we travel to Assisi where we meet Franciscans who, not surprisingly, relate that the resurrection of Christ is not a critical aspect of their faith, that feeding the poor is what matters. From there, we travel to the dusty shelves of the Vatican Library, where scrolls lay around undisturbed for centuries. The journey continues to the mythical Mt. Athos, then to Jerusalem, then to ravaged Africa before making a circle of sorts back to a suburb of Baton Rouge.

The blending of fact and fiction made this an irresistible tale for me. One of the things I liked most is the way that Barnhardt uses the figure of O'Hanrahan, apostate Jesuit, Professor of Theology, and chronic alcoholic, as the mouthpiece to impart vast theological learning. After reading the book, I find it harder to dismiss claims of a 900 foot Jesus when compared with the veneration of relics and the stories of the martyrs that form what might be called a good Catholic education. I do not mean to imply that Barnhardt leads one to accept fundamentalism as valid, far from it. However, through the figure of O'Hanrahan he does make one realize that one person's sacred revelation is another person's ridiculous fairy tale.

The gospel of the title is in itself interesting, a sort of "what-if" told by the mythical Mathius, who was the replacement for Judas. Interspersed through the narrative in sections, it makes one wonder who the disciples really were and how they lived their lives after Christ's death.

"Gospel" presents a number of delightful characters, and some sinister ones. When we meet Lucy Dantan, she is a somewhat lost graduate student in Theology, working on but never completing a boring thesis and leading a boring life. By the end of the book, her transformation is complete, as she chooses a brave course for her life. Having been a graduate student myself, I deeply appreciated Barhardt's portraits of the denizens of academic departments.

Part academic novel, part exposition on the forms of Christianity, and part character study (with the voice of the Holy Spirit thrown in for good measure), "Gospel" delights and diverts. Although it is a longish book, it was a joy to read.

Rating:
Summary: Overlong, but very thought provoking
Review: In the late 1970s I saw an atrocious mini-series on television called "The Word." It starred Darin McGavin (later to become Kolchak, the Night Stalker) and was based on the novel by Irwin Wallace (at least, I think that's what the author's name was). It is my understanding that Wallace's novel is pretty bad, as well--Wallace once wrote a novel about writing the novel he was writing, which even in a post-modern concept sounds pretty terrible (I think, to be really original, he called that one "The Novel"). In any case, the whole premise of "The Word" was that an investigator discovers that the gospels were a hoax--an entirely made up account, based somewhat on historical personages, but expanded on in elaborate ways to create an interest and a cult. Woah, I thought. Why couldn't it have been like this? How do we *know* that the Gospel was inspired, rather than invented? (No use writing in, I'm familiar with the "you must have faith" verses--I might know them better than you, in fact.) Since then I've been fairly skeptical about the word. In some ways, this might explain my fascination with the concept of the unreliable narrator, as ultimately the most unreliable narrator of all is the author him- or herself.

Which is a bit far afield of the novel in question, but puts a little background on why I was interested in this novel about the search for a fifth gospel. While basically an adventure story, with kidnappings and arsons and misunderstandings and close calls, etc., the intellectual basis for this story is solidly researched, as evidenced by the copious footnotes and the index. The danger about mixing such solid research in an extremely James Bond-ish plot (even if none of the characters achieve Bond's superhuman status) is that the audience is not quite sure what to believe.

Interspersed with the adventure story is the lost gospel itself, which tries to cover some of the myths and popular beliefs about the other gospels and the disciples that wrote them. Fundamentalists will be offended, no doubt, just as they were offended by _The Last Temptation of Christ_ and _Live from Golgotha_. But Barnhardt's view has a strong feeling of verisimilitude, even if his made-up gospel doesn't.

The book is long, but not over-long, and the action is exciting, if straining credulity at times, but overall it provides solid entertainment with just enough thought to make you think twice about those other gospels, and the books surrounding them.