The Year of Living Biblically (Ask Away) October 9, 2007

The Year of Living Biblically (Ask Away)

By Guest Contributor
October 9, 2007

A few of you have sent me links to A. J. Jacobs‘ book The Year of Living Biblically:

YearofLivingBiblically

I’ve started reading it and a review will be posted soon enough.

(A preview: Buy the book. It’s awesome.)

If you haven’t heard of the book yet, go here and find out more.

Or you can listen to yesterday’s episode of NPR’s Fresh Air, where Jacobs was interviewed by Terry Gross. (Thanks to Christina for that link!)

In the meantime, the author has kindly accepted an interview request!

So if you have any questions for him, ask away!

And I know he’s in Chicago next week, but if you want to see when Jacobs will be in your neck of the woods, check out his book tour schedule.


[tags]atheist, atheism, Christian, Jesus[/tags]

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What Are Your Thoughts?leave a comment
  • Mriana

    I’ll wait for a review.

  • Did you try to follow New Testament commands as well as the Old Testament and if so, did you find any conflict between the two? Was one more challenging than the other?

    Also, were you already circumcised before doing the book? If not, didn’t that suck? 😉

  • Mriana

    ROFLMBO! I love you, Mike! This from a minister! You are so bad. 😉

  • monkeymind

    From the interview on NPR, it sounds like he tried to follow the Proverbs too, which I thought were just “good advice” rather than laws per se.
    Since his approach was so all-embracing, did he find any rules that were mutually exclusive, and how did he reconcile them?

  • Polly

    @monkeymind:

    If he’s treating Proverbs like rules then yes there are two (that are sequential) that are opposites:

    (NIV)Proverbs 26:

    4 Do not answer a fool according to his folly,
    or you will be like him yourself.

    5 Answer a fool according to his folly,
    or he will be wise in his own eyes.

    I think both are appropriate at different times and circumstances. I enjoy Proverbs and Ecclesiastes – except of course for, you know, all that god talk. 😉

  • Karen

    In the NPR interview he mentions that his favorite book was Ecclesiastes (also probably my favorite).

    What was his least-favorite book of the bible? What was it in the bible that surprised him the most (he was only superficially familiar with the bible before)?

  • monkeymind

    Polly, thats exactly the type of thing I had in mind, thanks. How did he put both of those into action? Also, could he ever just ignore a fool, or does he have to respond in some way to every foolish statement or action he encounters?

    I would like to hear about the more creative loopholes he thought up for rules that he found morally objectionable or even illegal at the present time.

    Has he received any feedback from Biblical literalists?

  • Mriana

    Well… I sort of like Song of Solomon. Jackie Collins ain’t got nothin’ on Solomon and his lover. 😆 SMUT, SMUT, and nothing but the SMUT, Baby!

  • Were there any biblical commands that you used to think were just absurd and worthless, but after you started living them actually started to make sense?

  • And one more (I hope you don’t mind):

    Were there any commands that by following you felt actually turned you into a worse person – i.e. less loving, more angry or intolerant, more assholish, etc.

  • Mriana

    ROFLMBO! Mike, you’re on a roll! I think I’ll let you do the questioning from now on!

  • Polly

    “assholish”
    I’m definitely adding that to my lexicon.

    “I didn’t call you an ‘asshole’, what I said, Bob, was that your comment was ‘assholish’!”

  • Richard Wade

    also “assholier than thou.”

  • If you’d like to hear A.J. Jacobs talk about his new book, “The Year of Living Biblically,” check out this audio interview link.