Daughter of Jerusalem (Daughters of Faith)

Rating:
Summary: Can't wait for the next Daughters of Faith novel!
Review: I read this for a Christian bookclub I belong to. I loved reading it, comparing it to the Bible and learning more about the first Christians and their fight to spread the Good News. Mary Magdalene's story is timeless because it shows how so many women have lived their lives in pain before finally finding Jesus and beginning a new life. I strongly recommend this to Christians longing to learn more. I definitely look forward to reading the next Daughters of Faith novel.

Rating:
Summary: Can't wait for the next Daughters of Faith novel!
Review: I read this for a Christian bookclub I belong to. I loved reading it, comparing it to the Bible and learning more about the first Christians and their fight to spread the Good News. Mary Magdalene's story is timeless because it shows how so many women have lived their lives in pain before finally finding Jesus and beginning a new life. I strongly recommend this to Christians longing to learn more. I definitely look forward to reading the next Daughters of Faith novel.

Rating:
Summary: Enlightening and Accurate
Review: I thouroughly enjoyed Thom Lemmons' book. It help me to set myself in the time after Jesus' death and really focus on what they were going through. It also helped me put together the fragments of Mary's life. Easy and fun to read!!

Rating:
Summary: I'm really enjoying this book
Review: Maybe I should wait to finish the book before writing a review, but I have no reason to believe this book will turn bad: it's so good.

I enjoy reading good religious fiction because sometimes we get to thinking that Biblical figures weren't anything like real people. Mary of Magdala, Peter, Andrew, Stephen: they're all so very real when seen through the author's eyes. We can feel sorrow and joy, excitement and fear through these well known people.

It's also difficult to fill in the blanks left in the Scriptures. Maybe we're meant to imagine what goes in the blanks. Just what were the seven demons expelled from Mary of Magdala? Who was Stephen? Why was he martyred? What did he do to get the attention of Saul? And what about Saul? We know what motivated him-he tells us in his own letters. And we know the followers of the Way found it very hard to trust him in the beginning. Seeing all of this action unfold in this novel really helps put some flesh onto the Acts of the Apostles.

Religious fiction at its best should make one want to turn to the Scriptures, to read and pray again over the messages to be found there now that we have become friends with the people we read about.

I own the second book in this series and I'm looking forward to it. I hope it's as good as this one.

Rating:
Summary: The Story of the Early Church
Review: This is a stunning retelling of the story of Mary Magdalene, the follower of Christ who played a critically important role in the Easter story.

As the book begins,the disciples are at the stage where the sting of Jesus' death has begun to be healed by the events of Pentecost. It is a time when Mary reflects on her life thus far.

As a young woman, Mary naievely gets herself into a position conductive to what we would now call date rape with a young man who is already engaged. Of no use to her family after her deflowering, she is thrown into the streets, where to survive she is forced to become a kept woman. As time goes on, she tries to compensate for her helplessness by using her sexuality to gain a measure of power - until she meets Jesus and her life is changed forever.

In the early days of the church Mary must now face a life without her Teacher, the knowledge that the chances of ever meeting a man who would be willing to marry her is now slim to none, the possibility that some or all of her male friends might be executed ... and her past, which now comes back to her.

Although the characters from Mary's past and Peter and Andrew's families are added to flesh out the story, the novel sticks to biblical accuracy. The fact that Mary has to deal with her past life even after her salvation is also true to life and very realistic.

The secondary characters are also well drawn, especially an overwhelmed but unflappable Simon Peter and a fascinating Joanna - who along with Mary herself proves that the female disciples played a different but no less essential role in early Christianity than the Twelve. The section where she describes her conversion is one of the most interesting parts of the book to me, and makes me wonder why Mr. Lemmons created a fictional friend of John's for book three instead of telling the story of this undoubtedly gutsy lady who left not only her husband but Herod's court for Jesus. Surely she deserves as much attention as Lydia Purpuraria.