Rating: 
Summary: Fun to Read, But...
Review: ...Cahill is an engaging writer, and there is hardly a dull pagein the book. Speaking of the four centuries spent by Israel in Egypt prior to the Exodus, he says, "Enslaved Israel's brush with Egyptian religion, when the Israelites in the second millennium B.C. were forced to build mausoleums for dead Pharaohs, may have been enough to keep the Jews away from all that woo-woo 'spirituality' about the Mummy's Curse and the floating and immortal souls of dead kings and their retinues. Israelite religion was about land and progeny, thank you all the same--not the unreal realms of the dead, backed up by creepy movie music." He does go a bit too far at times: ("Earth to Jesus: Hel-lo!"). Of vastly greater importance, however, is the fact that Cahill's theology and exegesis are more of the same tired old liberalism which is found in most bestselling "religious" books and which was largely discredited decades ago. Seeking to get into the minds of Jesus and Paul in order to tell us what they really said or meant while at the same time aping the old Barthian and Harnackian theologians (Paul really didn't write the Pauline epistles) makes no new contribution to Christian literature. Read this book as entertaining writing, but with a watchful eye to its teachings.
Rating: 
Summary: Outstanding work
Review: After having read and loved his earlier work, I thought that the subject matter, Jesus, would present Mr. Cahill with problems with regard to "written" evidence. However, he flawlessly handles and conveys a very compelling arguement for some missing gaps. Though they are no more than guesses, one can see where his thinking is going. His writing is clean and very easy to follow. I would recommend this book. Should read other works first.
Rating:
Summary: Desire of the Everlasting Hills
Review: For someone like me, who has always looked at the church and religion with disdain, and therefore largely ignored it, this book surprised me -- it fully engaged my mind and heart. Cahill took a subject both enormous and detailed, and distilled it down to its purest ideas and neatest plot line, and did it like a novelist, not a historian. The book is a gift.
Rating: 
Summary: An engaging and thought-provoking read
Review: I thoroughly enjoyed this book, which I read while on retreat at a monastery. No, I'm not very religious -- just like the solitude, and this book was a good one to keep me company. Cahill has a very engaging and readable style, and if he's not as scholarly as some would like, he taught me a lot about the time of Christ that I didn't know before. Though at times his objectivity is overwhelmed by his clear faith, and though he gives the Shroud of Turin a little more credence than I would, I felt that was okay -- I enjoyed reading the work of someone who's clearly passionate about his subject. And I wish we could go back to the faith of early Christianity -- the world would be an infinitely better place.
Rating:
Summary: Thomas Cahill's Gift to Us
Review: The third installment of the "Hinges of History" is Cahill's latest gift to us. I enjoy Cahill's easy to read style, full of anecdotes that not only gets the message across but makes you want to read more. Ignore the detractors! Read the book for it's own sake...for a fresher insight into Jesus and the followers of the early Church. If you want a literary epic read Virgil's Aeneid in the original Latin, "Arma virumque cano!" If you want a down to earth fresh look at the Life of Christ pick up "Desire of the Everlasting Hills". To the halfwits who wanted footnotes and a bibiliography, they must have closed the book before page 320 or they got it as a .99 Book Club deal, because 22 pages of this book are acknowledgements, footnotes, and references!
Rating:
Summary: Liberation ( politically correct) Theology
Review: He has worked diligently to manipulate the Bible to agree with his world view. It IS interesting that he accepts Paul's writings as accurate, but believes the book of John was contrived. He says Jesus never declares himself divine in the NT? What NT is he reading? Read "More Than a Carpenter" by Josh McDowell for another opinion.
Rating:
Summary: A Great Place to Start -- And Then Go Deeper
Review: I've read Desire of the Everlasting Hills three times now, and gotten more out of it each time. I am now beginning to read a number of Cahill's sources -- helpfully provided by Mr. Cahill in his excellent Notes section at the back of the book. Very highly recommended!
Rating:
Summary: Entertaining and fascinating
Review: This book was an excellent read that I could hardly put down. I have little to add to the comments on the scholarly nature of this book other than that I would have appreciated an extensive bibliography.
Rating:
Summary: Ignore Albert Zaccor's review
Review: For your information, John Crossan is part of the Jesus Seminar, a group of self-proclaimed Jesus pundits. This is a group that has very unconventional means of doing scholarly research on Jesus. I highly recommend JP Moreland's Jesus Under Fire. In this book Jesus Under Fire challenges the methodology and findings of the Jesus Seminar, which generally clash with the biblical records. It examines the authenticity of the words, actions, miracles, and resurrection of Jesus, and presents compelling evidence for the traditional biblical teachings. Combining accessibility with scholarly depth, Jesus Under Fire helps readers judge for themselves whether the Jesus of the Bible is the Jesus of history, and whether the Gospel's claim is valid that he is the only way to God. The Jesus Seminar is the creation of a media culture looking for a story. This book refutes its conclusions point by point.
Rating: 
Summary: About What I Expected (sigh)
Review: This is a pretty sorry attempt at describing the life and times of Jesus. The author continually interjects his biases (opinions, whatever) into his writing, making little or no attempt to maintain an historical objectivity. I suppose that this is where we have come as a culture, and I also suppose that this (Thomas Cahill) is exactly what we deserve.
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