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Title: The Gifts of the Jews: How a Tribe of Desert Nomads Changed the Way Everyone Thinks and Feels (Hinges of History, Vol 2) by Thomas Cahill ISBN: 0-385-48249-3 Publisher: Anchor Pub. Date: September, 1999 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.41 (99 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Not Just Another Turn of the Wheel
Comment: With verve and his now familiar but own inimical semi-archaeological style, Cahill tells us that the Jews, by getting in on the ground floor of recorded history, were able to almost single-handedly shape Western Consciousness as we know it (Please also see his equally fascinating book "How the Irish Saved Civilization"). Using the Old Testament as his anchor, Cahill takes us on a grand seven thousand year romp through history, chronicling as he goes the events that led to Western Consciousness and our current cosmological worldview. It was the Jews that led us from the world of the wheel-where nothing was ever new and thus where there was no need for a past, present and future, or for individual self-consciousness for that matter--to the open-ended worldview we now share-in which for the first time, "time itself" was to include a past, present and a future, and novelty and progress became conscious possibilities. It was the Jews that taught us the idea that a god could be centered inside our head as a "spirit" instead of outside it as a "monument." Without the intervention of the ten nomadic tribes of Israel, we might still be worshiping idols gods and following the "ways of the wheel." Again Five Stars for Thomas Cahill.
Rating: 5
Summary: Don't overlook this little book!
Comment: Cahill's work in "Gifts of the Jews" is much more literarily entertaining and captivating than Volume I in the "Hinges of History" series.
Cahill starts his book by linking Hebrew descendancy to Sumerian culture, which, as some reviewers erroneously assumed, is correct. Although scholars diverge to some extent about Abraham's influences, a Sumerian background has not been openly proved or demonstrated, but it is a plausible theory. I believe Cahill points this out in a footnote, which is fine, but this reader would like to have seen this point preempted within the text itself.
Secondly, and this is a warning to conservative Christians and Evangelicals, Cahill's perspective on Biblical inerrancy is VERY LIBERAL (see pages 129-131, 243). Although I am not an Evangelical, I do associate with them daily (I'm a seminary student), and so I would say that the sort of brandish manner which Cahill writes about the text of the Bible and its origins would probably chap the hide of most conservative Christians. Cahill also challenges modern evangelical theology by demonstrating past use of the allegorical method of biblical interpretation, which most evangelicals have abandoned as heretical. Cahill also tries to show that Jewish theological evolution was epigenetic, or that God's revelation to his people was increasing over time, something most liberal theologians condone, but most conservatives do not (even "via media" theologies may disagree with the epigenetic model). All in all, if you're a conservative Christian, you might be offended by this book's contents.
Personally, I found this book refreshing and quite praiseworthy of the Jews; a class of people that have been marred and singled out for centuries. This book gives them their due recognition in more ways that one. Cahill convincingly shows that much of Western thought and culture stems from this "little tribe of desert nomads," which he apellates "the dusty ones."
I recommend it with 5 stars (if you're open to liberal theology and biblical-cultural interpretation).
Rating: 4
Summary: Cliff's Notes for the Old Testament
Comment: This is in part a simplified version of the Old Testament for those of us who didn't have to go through Bar Mitzvah; in fact it might be considered a modern version of the Old Testament, with some introductory chapters about the Jews' antecedents, the Sumerians.(As they needed a newer version in King James' day, perhaps we need this one today.) All the major Jewish patriarchs and kings and myths are here; certainly at least some of it must be considered mythological in character. Cahill attempts to explain what is and was unique about the Israeli God as compared to the previous gods; his main point is that previous religions everywhere in the world had been cyclical whereas Jewish history is uniquely historical and allows for progress in the world, including scientific progress. Also, the Jewish religion allowed from the beginning a personal relationship with God, who actually revealed himself and created and influenced history(often, at least in the beginning, in a quite vengeful way)so that the frequent use of the pronoun "I" could be incorporated into the Psalms of David. Beforehand,he claims, there had been no possibility of individual psychology. Cahill's interpretation of the Sumerians' myths of Gilgamesh are interesting and similar to his treatment of Irish prehistoric myths in "How The Irish Changed Civilization" which is also an interesting read.
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Title: Desire of the Everlasting Hills: The World Before and After Jesus (Hinges of History (Paper), Vol 3) by Thomas Cahill, Luann Walther ISBN: 0385483724 Publisher: Anchor Pub. Date: 13 February, 2001 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: How the Irish Saved Civilization: The Untold Story of Ireland's Heroic Role from the Fall of Rome to the Rise of Medieval Europe (Hinges of History, Vol 1) by Thomas Cahill ISBN: 0385418493 Publisher: Anchor Pub. Date: March, 1996 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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Title: Sailing the Wine-Dark Sea: Why the Greeks Matter by Thomas Cahill ISBN: 0385495536 Publisher: Doubleday Pub. Date: 28 October, 2003 List Price(USD): $27.50 |
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Title: Jesus' Little Instruction Book: His Words to Your Heart by Thomas Cahill ISBN: 0553374338 Publisher: Bantam Pub. Date: 01 October, 1994 List Price(USD): $8.95 |
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Title: Tides of War: A Novel of Alcibiades and the Peloponnesian War by Steven Pressfield ISBN: 0553381393 Publisher: Bantam Pub. Date: 28 August, 2001 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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