Rating: 
Summary: Sometimes interesting, often boring and slanted.
Review: Podhoretz's book reinforced the view I had after attempting to read the prophets' material in the Bible - an awful lot of repetitive, obscure material to wade through in return for an occasional gem. His book is much the same but it was more productive for me than the original material as he had pre-digested much of it and provided some explanation of obscure terms and references. If you accept the pre-digestion, then of course you have to accept that it is one man's view but he seems to give at least some of the alternative views.There seemed to me to be more than a bit of hypocrisy in Podhoretz's pronouncements. For example, he castigates Paul of Tarsus for discarding the Jewish Law that he was born into but Podhoretz himself admits to being a Jew who does not observe Jewish Law. If you have some background in early Christian theology, you might discern more than a little commonality between Paul and non-observant Jews in their attitude toward the Jewish Law - that faith is written in the heart rather than on paper; Podhoretz does note some such commentary in the work of the prophets. Podhoretz's book ends with a heated diatribe on the ills of modern American society which he attacks under the charge of being enlisted in the forces of "antinomianism" which he then ties to the Old Testament prophets' views of idolatry. If you look antinomianism up in the encyclopedia or in a standard dictionary, your might not recognize it in Podhoretz's words. He gives it the worst possible twist and then throws the baby out with the bath water, attacking all antinomianism, present and past. Which again, is hypocritical because in not observing the Jewish Law, many observant Jews and Christians might call him antinomian. If you are serious about old testament study you might want to skip this book and take up some less slanted to a particular view. If you are not a serious student but would like a quick overview of a difficult subject, Podhoretz's book may be useful if you have some capability in recognizing slant.
Rating: 
Summary: Yiddish comedy at mid-staff
Review: Podhoretz, who would seem a religionist of a low order, has written a wry study of the "prophets" of ancient Palestine. While most of them are more appealing than the dread Saul of Tarsus -- the Christians call him "Saint Paul" -- they remain dreary and humorless zealots, and hardly worthy of a civilized person's attention. Podhoretz's profound enthusiasm for Mel Gibson's (...) "Passion of the Christ" is surprising -- but I suppose it is good (or at least original) to find a Yiddish supporter of such iconography in the 21st century.
Rating:
Summary: not half bad!
Review: You would like to read if you're interested in the subject matter. Recommending: The Throne Room
| 
