Rating: ![4 stars](http://www.reviewfocus.com/images/stars-4-0.gif) Summary: Deep and insightful, and still laugh-out-loud! Review: The best book I've read in a long time. The concepts presented were amazing in their philosophical depth, yet they were played out in passing conversations with the most biting of satire. I nearly read most of it to my wife while I was reading it. The middle to ending bogged the pace down somewhat (the New Jersey sequence), but the beginning was incredible and the ending nearly so. I really antagonized some fundamentalists I know by quoting to them! NOT for the deeply devout.
Rating: ![5 stars](http://www.reviewfocus.com/images/stars-5-0.gif) Summary: A book to bring out the Agnostic in you! Review: The book that broke my views on religion. Morrow infuses this book with such witty views and inspired observations that you can forgive him the sometimes rough quality of his narrative. Christians, beware! Morrow has written much on the subject of religion since OBD, but this is his classic opus.
Rating: ![5 stars](http://www.reviewfocus.com/images/stars-5-0.gif) Summary: Delightfully Irreverant Review: The power of this book comes in the decisions made by the author about how to express his "facts" and those things that had been changed over the course of history. The interactons with the devil are both hilarious and intriguing. They give a glimpse into the idea of holy and profane that are held by the author. The laughs are genuine to those that are sufficiently secure in their beliefs to allow for them.I would recommend the book to anyone. Enjoy the laughs just for themselves, or use them as a jumping off point to look at your beliefs in a more light hearted way.
Rating: ![5 stars](http://www.reviewfocus.com/images/stars-5-0.gif) Summary: Delightfully Irreverant Review: The power of this book comes in the decisions made by the author about how to express his "facts" and those things that had been changed over the course of history. The interactons with the devil are both hilarious and intriguing. They give a glimpse into the idea of holy and profane that are held by the author. The laughs are genuine to those that are sufficiently secure in their beliefs to allow for them. I would recommend the book to anyone. Enjoy the laughs just for themselves, or use them as a jumping off point to look at your beliefs in a more light hearted way.
Rating: ![5 stars](http://www.reviewfocus.com/images/stars-5-0.gif) Summary: This book is amazing, it talks about sexuality, religion, Review: This book is simply amazing. If you have ever felt injustice due persicution brought on by other people's religious views, this book is excellent for you. And with the all the great humor, there is also great insite. It sends a power packed message to people. I myself learned something after reading this book. It made me think. It covers everything; feminism, sexuality, gender issues, religious issues; EVERYTHING. I could not put this book down. From its humorous beggining to extremely satisfying ending, this book is truly a master piece.
Rating: ![5 stars](http://www.reviewfocus.com/images/stars-5-0.gif) Summary: Concentrated quality prose, side of blasphemy-a dash of fun Review: This is not a book for Christian Fundementalists without a very good sense of humor. This is a book for everybody else. Morrow's style wreaks havok with questions of faith of all sorts, from the gender of god, religous terrorism, and even Christ's thoughts on Christianity. If you are willing to immerse your mind into hours of stimulating prose and accompanying witticisms, then be prepared to enjoy a wild ride
Rating: ![5 stars](http://www.reviewfocus.com/images/stars-5-0.gif) Summary: God for grown-ups Review: This is the most loving, incisive, courageous view of god I've encountered in 25 years of study in comparative religion and comparative mythology, as well as in 20 years as a minister. I won't repeat the book's plot structure, whose major details other reviewers have already given. Morrow's gift is to grapple with difficult issues that the world's leading religions don't like to touch, because they're messy and there are no pat answers: --What is the nature of divinity, and how can it act in the world? --Why does god allow suffering? Why do people cause it? --How do we account for the fact that so many of god's most rabid followers seem to be the most violent, maladjusted, and lost people, motivated by fear and despising the wonderful gifts of life on earth? --What is the nature of god and heaven, "the devil" and hell? --What would Jesus think about all this? --How can a woman claim her divinity in a world stocked with people who demonize everything feminine--including love, embodiment, compassion, and women themselves? --How is it possible to survive in a world largely inhabited by frightened, tiny-minded people who create a god in their own image, who project their worst weaknesses and tendencies onto "him," and who are closed to feeling or thinking, handing themselves over to being led by wiggy neurotics or violent psychotics? (After all, throughout religious history it seems to be highly religious people who do the most persecuting, create the most grief for other people, and hate the world that they claim god created.) --What would a mature spirituality look like--one grown past the father complexes and adolescent viewpoints of fundamentalism? What amazes me about this book (I'm currently reading it for the sixth time, with even more pleasure than the first time) is how easily and naturally Morrow tells the story. And with what deft detail, humor, and observation of the problem of religion in a secular society. In my experience, that's a sign of spiritual maturity (particularly the humor). I agree with the reviewer who observed that Morrow is probably lucky that this book got pigeon-holed as science fiction. I have never understood the concept of "heresy"--it seems to me the very word evokes moral and spiritual cowardice and contempt for god's love and tolerance--so when people say this is a heretical book, I can't follow that. This is a courageous book, full of love, tolerance, and clarity of heart. A term like "heresy" isn't on the radar. OBD is, for me, a myth of power, heart, and wisdom up there with some of the great myths of the human psyche. I think in particular of the ancient stories of the descent of the deity Inanna into the underworld. Yet Morrow goes even further than that. For me, this book blew open the gates of the new millennium, and gave me heart to consider that perhaps the human spirit is open to growing past the inherited fundamentalism of the past. We have much growing and maturing to do as a species. We resist taking responsibility as stewards of this earth, each other, and ourselves. That's unlikely to happen so long as we remain tethered in spirit to our image of a distant, inaccessible, violent father god with an apparent bipolar disorder, who holds us in contempt, is motivated by punishment and pleased by syncophancy, and communicates (we are told) through the mistranslated myths of Near Eastern desert tribes of two to six thousand years ago, now published in the form of a book edited by Renaissance churchmen and others who hold life on earth in contempt. Morrow asks us to drop our nostalgia and our adolescent view of god for something living, breathing, and grown up. That work of a living, breathing, grown up, creative relationship with god is a far cry from the dead, literalist fundamentalism that poses as religion, rather than some new approaches to using fear and the mass media to wring money out of frightened, hurting people. Eliot
Rating: ![5 stars](http://www.reviewfocus.com/images/stars-5-0.gif) Summary: As with all good literature... Review: This one will likely upset you, particularly if you are of a particularly fundamentalist persuasion... The story line as stated is quite accurate but nothing can likely prepare you for the actual unfolding of events the way Morrow sees them. He isn't shy with with his razor-sharp wit deftly dicing and slicing away at many of the Western world's (and, in some cases, global) sacred cows. A much less misanthropic Swift for the 21st century. Morrow is probably lucky that his books have been slotted into Science Fiction since otherwise he'd probably be on a "most wanted" list like Rushdie. Highly recommended.
Rating: ![5 stars](http://www.reviewfocus.com/images/stars-5-0.gif) Summary: Great Satire Review: This was a refreshing change to the usual SF that deals with the messiah. I couldn't stop laughing about the absurdity of the story. Nor could I find a way to express the delight I took in reading a book that takes modern Western religion (all religion) and shows the foolishness of blind obseesion that people give religion. This book is an essential for anyone who has been overly indoctrinated with fundemental propaganda and is seeking some humor in the subject. Strangely, I think only someone secure in their own beliefs will appreciate the humor in Morrow's story. I couldn't put the book down and the ending did not disappoint.
Rating: ![5 stars](http://www.reviewfocus.com/images/stars-5-0.gif) Summary: A Thinkin' Novel With Messiahs, Devils and Jersey Review: To attempt to describe the plot of this novel would take away from the first time readers experience, so I shall not do that. I will however say this, I enjoyed the characterization of Jesus and Satan respectively and all in all, I literally absorbed this book like a. . .sponge. It took me two days to read this book, but only because I had to sleep. :) I encourage anyone who enjoys religious satire, and novels that ask the reader to think to some how get a hold of a copy of this one, and give it a go. It will be worth your time.
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