This book hardly needs any introduction - if you have not heard of it you must have been cataloging the names of the minor characters in ¨War and Peace¨ over the last 10 months or so. Basically this book is written in Dawkins´ normal expansive and eloquent style which readers of his earlier books will have become accustomed to; even given the subject matter this book carries you along at a fair old pace - for a non-fiction book this is quite the page turner.

The subject matter is Dawkins´ pet subject, namely the irrationality of the belief in god or any other supreme, all knowing being. In this book he goes further arguing that this belief has, through the ages, significantly harmed the human race, society in general, science in particular and remains the primary cause of individual suffering today. The first half of the book is a devastating attack on the arguments offered by the proponents of religious thinking, Dawkins takes each argument for the existence of god in turn and leaves it battered and lifeless on the road to rational Nirvana (and he´d argue that this last phrase is a symptom of a language peppered with religious concepts - brainwashing us all!).

The second half of the book labors the point and you feel a certain sense of frustration with the arguments presented - ¨OK - I get it - enough already!!¨ - check out the chapter ¨Childhood, abuse and the escape from religion¨ one feels that Mr. Dawkins would rather not have included the punctuation - nevertheless it is still well written and the intelligence of the man shines through every paragraph.

Time to come clean - I am an atheist (have been since I was 18) who was brought up in a ´traditional´ Roman Catholic household and I enjoyed this book - I will almost certainly re-read it. This however is the problem with ¨The God Delusion¨ - I doubt that a devote Hindu would read this book and think ¨Wow - I´ve been duped all my life and now Dawkins has opened my mind to the futility of religion, give me a bacon sandwich¨, the thrust of the book is powerfully but I believe it will mostly preach to the converted if I can be forgiven for using another religiously bias phrase.

I believe I read somewhere that Dawkins hopes that the book will lead to a reduction in the influence religion has on the governance of our societies - particularly in the United States and that this will be achieved through the increased use of rational thought unencumbered by religious bias - I think this is a tall order for this book, good as it is, and possibly the world post ¨The God Delusion" is more polarised on this subject than it was before.

I recently read the above novel written by Matthew Moses. It was a great read filled with a brand of humor that audiences will either love or hate depending on the tolerant nature of their religious beliefs. I’ll do my best to give an overview of the story, the controversial aspects of it which may offend certain people, as well as the symoblism used throughout this work.

Story

The story revolves around Matthew Ford, a failed philosophy student who begins a feud with Jesus which escalates into the Apocalypse.

Matthew Ford feels cut off from the society around him. He stares at people from afar. He walks through a crowd rather than with them. People speak of him rather than to him. He is alone, bitter, yet unable to do anything to guide his own destiny and bring himself happiness. One night he is embarrassed by a failed internet date and returns home, one sad night in a series of many.

Once home, Matthew finds himself kept awake by a bothersome ghost intent on attracting his attention despite the fact that the big final is tomorrow. In an act of displaced rage, Matthew heaves the ghost out of the house evicting it from its place of eternal residence.

The following day, after a horrible morning and a near car wreck, Matthew takes his final and proceeds to the parking lot to return home when he is accosted by two Cherubim, Mel and Ezekiel, the eternal innocents of the Christ. They tell him of an important meeting he has with their boss. Unnerved by the pair, Matthew finds himself kidnapped when he attempts to get away and spirited into the atmosphere, through space, and into a black hole on his way to Heaven.

What Matthew finds in Heaven is far from golden fields and Eden. It is a grim, Orwellian world where all are bored, watching Prime Time television for their sole glimmer of entertainment, Jesus is a neo-con fascist dictator, and the angels are a fringe element of brutal thugs constantly dreaming of undermining Jesus' regime.

Once at the spire, the heart of Heaven, Matthew is ushered into the presence of the Almighty where he is made part of a photo-op for the struggling Messiah. With the current problems of the Church and in Jesus' faltering authority, it has been decided to make an example of Matthew for the whole of Existence. In evicting the ghost, Matthew has broken one of Creation's laws. Only an agent of the Church may evict, i.e. exorcise, any known entity from a property. Because Matthew is not an agent of the Almighty, he is told that his eviction of the prior night is non-binding and he must accept the ghost back. Stubborn, not simply because he has finally had enough of being pushed around, but also because he sees this as one more burden added to an already crushing life, Matthew refuses the order and even demands to speak with God. To his surprise, Matthew discovers the once great Creator is now a vegetable in a wheelchair.

In an act of disdain and the beginning of his maturation, Matthew tells Jesus no shaming “The Christ” in front of the whole of Heaven. Matthew is cautioned there will be repercussions but fails to heed the warning. Upon his return to Earth, Matthew discovers that Jesus' threat is not an idle one. It begins with a poor case of acne. Then Matthew's professor is given a vision to fail his student. In a fit of rage, Matthew strikes back against Jesus in the only way he can: he desecrates a nativity scene. The feud between the two escalates until Matthew frames a priest for a string of robberies only to reveal a deep criminal streak in the Church and threaten its earthly foundations.

It is into these uncertain times that Satan appears to offer Matthew the opportunity to truly hit Jesus while he is down. Fearing what the Messiah will do in response to his latest act, Matthew finds himself seduced into aiding the Devil and becomes a new age pop guru that guides the world away from religion to a new philosophy. An important piece of his new agenda is the obese who Matthew encourages to accept the ultimate diet: fasting. In so doing he creates not only a deep undermining separation between the fat and thin, but also stokes a growing, underlying rage through the stress of withdrawal.

Matthew's philosophy proves disruptive to America. The fat are fomenting food riots across the country and his speeches are increasingly calling for not merely a change of government but its outright overthrow. Beginning to feel doubts about what he is doing, Matthew hesitates in continuing on with the plan between him and Satan. It is then that Matthew finds himself the subject of an assassination attempt by the Vatican in order to stop the rise of the Antichrist. In a harrowing escape attempt, Matthew is murdered. Only then is it revealed that Satan was behind the murder plot before the Devil casts Matthew into Purgatory and seizes Matthew’s body for his own.

As Matthew tries to find a way out of Purgatory, Satan brings to fruition a rebellion that topples the American government and pushes the world closer and closer to World War III. The Vatican is invaded via the Patriot Act while Pakistan and India destroy one another in a nuclear war and China goes to war with Taiwan.

Through the help of two coyotes, men that smuggle Mexicans into Heaven, Matthew finds his way back to Paradise narrowly escaping an angelic border patrol that drives the group into the lands of Buddha. It is there that Matthew learns of the truth behind the two thousand year cease fire between Heaven and Hell. Heaven is collapsing, that collapse what effectively we call the expanding universe. In an effort to stop the collapse, Satan created universal law in order to bind the chaos for the eventual rebuilding of Heaven. Instead, Life appeared and God refused to allow their death for such an endeavor. Increasingly bitter and upset at God's refusal to allow him to save Existence and finish his work, Satan is cast out of Heaven along with Jesus, one of his followers. In order to regain favor with God, Jesus attempts to enlighten man making good on his probation. To the shock of all, Jesus is crucified leading to God having a stroke. With the Creator incapacitated, Jesus hurries back to Heaven and enacts a coup stealing the authority of Existence. With his power base still wobbly, Satan offers a truce between Heaven and Hell that has held for twin millennia. It is only now, with the threat to all of Existence, that Satan's deeper motives have become clear.

Events find themselves driven towards that final battle at Mount Megiddo between man, the undead, angels, and demons for the fate of all Existence.

Controversy

The controversy surrounding the novel comes from the humorous take on Christianity. Jesus is perceived as a megalomaniacal, totalitarian leader who has usurped power in Heaven and is brainwashing humanity to serve as his pawns against the angelic opposition, those who believe God should be restored to power. One joke has Islam being created by Gabriel, one of the angelic faction leaders, in order to wipe out Christianity and discredit Jesus in order to bring about a successful coup in Heaven.

Christianity is revealed to be this large corporate entity run from the Spire, the central point of Heaven. There, in the boardroom, Jesus, his apostles, and the Pope via teleconference develop new policies in order to drive up membership and challenge their competitors in the religious markets including Islam, Buddhism, and the Christian franchises (protestants/cults).

Paradise is a drab, banal, Orwellian world of steel and glass where everyone lounges around constantly being subconsciously indoctrinated. With nothing to do, the majority of Heaven has become addicted to Prime Time television for their regular fix of “life”.

God is a vegetable in a wheelchair. Paralyzed and left mute by a stroke after seeing Jesus’ crucifixion, the Almighty can only communicate via an electronic device similar to Stephen Hawking’s.

Other topics covered by the book are corruption in politics, the parasitic self-help movement, the rise of Russia, and Church abuses. The latter has proven inflammatory with the novel revealing that the Catholic Church runs a pornographic website as well as deals in organized crime

Symbolism

The story itself is very symbolic in points dealing with religion.

Christianity is criticized for being a cult of personality around Jesus, its very precepts being similar to those of authoritarian figures such as Hitler, Stalin, and others. It focuses on an all powerful, unquestionable, god-like figure who rules over all.

Likewise, the very tenets of Christianity call for no thought, only faith. Give, invest yourself totally. Forget your individual will. Become a part of the mass. Forget personality, originality, uniqueness. Be silent and let Jesus speak for you. Become part of the herd, the flock, and be led by your shepherd.

Thus the boring lifestyle of those that reside in Heaven. They can do nothing, are not allowed to live. All man’s needs are met, no reason for complaint allowed. It is a blissful retirement for those that furthered the Church in its work and growth on Earth. Yet these “retirees’” lives are bland perfection. Without needs or challenges the mortal is lost on the immortal plain. Their yearning for their former flawed lives is shown in their fascination with Prime Time television. It shows the counterproductive lifestyle of Heaven, how man is greatest in his attempt at perfection but is lost when he attains it. In becoming an ideal he loses what he is.

God himself is written as this helpless, mute figure at the whim of Existence. He serves as the perfect symbol of religion, a mystery that everyone projects their own views on to explain the unknowable. He is also shown to be quite human having created the Universe by accident.

The fall of Heaven into Existence is another symbolic facet of the novel. God, giving in to rage, loses control of his reason and shatters a part of Paradise. From that broken, flawed part of Paradise the Universe comes to be. It is the beginning of mortality over immortality.

Finally there is Satan, a figure that dares to challenge absolute evil. His intentions are not to destroy Existence but to save Paradise. He sees the threat of mortality to immortality and only assumes the mantle of destroyer in order to become a sort of savior. He is the ideal of corruption, that the ends may distort the means. In truth, Satan is a mockery of the Jesus character: he fell in order that Creation may continue.

Final Opinion

This was a fun novel. It went places I didn’t think anyone had the courage to. If one is able to read this book with the mindset that it is merely a fun diversion rather than a biblical tome then it is a great piece of entertainment. Don’t take it seriously. Have fun with it and its alterations on long established principles such as religion, God, Jesus, and Creation. The book isn’t bashing. It’s trying to tell a story.

This book is not meant to be a literary triumph. Far from. There may be some deep message buried in there but above all it is meant to make you laugh with its wild ride. This novel is a hilarious distraction from the very real and dangerous world we find ourselves in. You can’t help but to smile and chuckle as you read it. With the way things are today, who could ask for anything more?

My partner says that in Britain it is easier to come out as gay than as a Catholic. If the first is likely to spark some curiosity, the second sounds dull. The publication reviewed here is exactly about being gay and … well, if not always Catholic, then at least having a taste of religion.

Disclosures: Conversations Gay and Spiritual by Michael Ford is a very simple read. It is a collection of interviews with gayand lesbian people, mostly Christians from Britain and USA and few from other places in the world. A lot of these peoplewere or are engaged in different ministries in their faith communities. An Anglican priest who left his Church after a [straight]bishop made clear that no personal talents he had could overweight his homosexuality. Two mothers, Catholic women, withchildren in their teens fell in love with each other. A boy, whose family belonged to a fundamentalist Christian community, at thefirst opportunity went to look for Christians who would not be disgusted with him for being gay. Among the twenty five stories there is one of a person with whom many of us in Quest came across – James Alison, a theologian from London. The last chapter is a particularly touching interview with Sister Eva, a Catholic nun who for some ten years worked for the Terrence Higgins Trust,  the first HIV agency in Britain.

This book is not about prayer or transcendental experiences of two dozen gays and lesbians. “Spiritual” in its title refers to broadly understood fundamental questions, like: Who am I? Why does it happen to me? What should I be like?

A lot of the stories Michael Ford has collected are dramatic. They touch major struggles and decisions: coming out to one’s parents, or wife, or bishop; leaving the seminary or priesthood, separating from a spouse or accepting that one’s relationship would never be accepted, celebrated and supported by the Christian community, etc. Some of those to whom the author spoke, were still struggling to come to terms with who they are. Others spoke about being at peace with what they had discovered about themselves. All these interviews explored, in one way or another, stories of being a gay person in the context of faith, in a  community of believers or of leaving such a community. This book gives a voice to those whom many of our brothers and sisters in the Church would prefer not to hear at all. Especially, because it is not a discussion, or a series of arguments, but a sincere witness to the joyful and sad experiences of these men and women.

You might think it's hard for biographers and historians to re-imagine the sex lives of our long-gone ancestors, but that's nothing compared with recreating their religious lives. There's something intensely secretive about prayer, even when it is carried out communally. After all, as anyone who has ever sat through a religious service while counting the hats or wondering whether they locked the front door will recall, there's no way of knowing what the worshippers are actually thinking about, even when they are mouthing the words. Prayer, like thought, leaves few visible traces, although history shows the effect that private religious beliefs have had on people's actions and the fates of nations. (Ostentatious prayer is also powerful: I remember being at a Mass in Naples where the women in the congregation showed their disapproval of an unpopular priest by continuing to mutter their rosaries - just audibly - instead of the responses he was trying to lead them in).

Eamonn Duffy has studied the surviving English Books of Hours, devotional manuals for lay people which began to be popular from about the middle of the 13th Century, became widespread and much more affordable with the arrival of printing (they were mass-produced by Gutenberg, Caxton and others) before being suppressed and falling into disuse after the Reformation. In particular, he looks at the additions and erasures made by the owners, as records of how people’s actual religious practice was constructed.

At the top end of the market, Books of Hours were sumptuous consumer durables, commissioned specially for wealthy patrons who were often shown in the illustrations, in much the same way as patrons were painted kneeling in the stained glass windows or altar pieces they had paid for. Duffy connects this imagery with a popular devotional exercise in which the believer was supposed to imagine themself present at the scenes described in the Gospels – kneeling with the worshipping Shepherds at the nativity, for example, or at the foot of the Cross alongside Mary and St John. (This technique was still taught in the early 1970's when I was receiving religious instruction from motor-bike-riding Sister Dymphna, so I was interested to find that it dated back to Pope Innocent III’s Fourth Lateran Council, in 1215).

As durables, Books of Hours tended to change hands down the generations, and a book originally commissioned for a wealthy titled landowner (or, more often a landowner's wife, as they were particularly female accoutrements) might seventy years later belong to a merchant, a city brewer's wife or even a better-off peasant. This allows Duffy to trace fashions in devotion, as certain cults and prayers became more or less popular over time. Owners’ names and the dates of births and deaths of family members, as aide memoires for prayer on their anniversaries, might be written in by one owner and then erased by a later possessor, and a personal devotion to a particular saint be emphasised by underlining the saint’s name and feast days, by sticking in cards gathered on pilgrimages (a present from Walsingham, for instance: some books of hours had specially designed spaces for this purpose, like scrapbooks for cigarette cards) and by marginal jottings of personally composed prayers attached to particular saints. Of these, perhaps the most poignant is the prayer written by Thomas More (later to be canonised himself) on successive header and footer spaces over several pages of his book of hours, a prayer probably composed while he was in the Tower of London under sentence of death.

Not surprisingly, the story gets more sombre as religious politics became nastier and more contentious in the approach to the Reformation. A lady of the Tudor court used the flyleaf of her Book of Hours for a collection of autographs – often combined with a request to be prayed for - from important people. Henry VII, his formidably devout mother Margaret Beaufort and his queen all signed, as did Henry VIII, his wife Katherine and his daughter Mary. The latter two names, though, far from being remembered in her prayers, were carefully scraped out, presumably at the time of Henry’s historic divorce when they were both banished from the court.

Books of Hours continued in use during the early Reformation (the Latin Mass was retained under Henry VIII) with a few careful excisions. Those saints in the calendar who had also been popes tended to have their titles neatly removed, and anything to do with Thomas a Becket was usually erased: Becket, a martyr who had defied an earlier royal Henry over the topical question of Papal authority (and won!) was naturally unpopular with the Tudor reformers and all traces of his cult were suppressed, even from people’s private prayerbooks. In at least one case, his devotions were first erased from the book and then carefully written in again about 20 years later in the reign of Mary when it became possible. It is not quite clear what motivated people to do this: was there really a thought police which would flip through their prayer books to check whether they still retained the old styles?

This is a lovely book as an object: Duffy’s explanations are illustrated with beautiful reproductions from the originals on almost every page. My only criticism is that it’s a bit too big to read comfortably in bed.

Seven Protestant authors, five of them scholars from Oxford University, have written a collection of fine theological papers on issues relating to homosexuality in the context of the contemporary debates in the Anglican Church. None of them perceive homosexuality as a problem in itself. They do not defend a particular pro-gay stance, though they are clearly not scandalised by gays’ claims for their own normality and the appropriateness of gays being contributors to the life of the Church. Rather, the authors explore the ways gay people may find and do find themselves at home with scripture and Church tradition.

Christopher Rowland’s paper, ‘The Letter Killeth, but the Spirit Giveth Life’, is an exciting polemic addressing the temptation of “slavery to the Book”. In this most enjoyable text, Rowland recalls the 16 cent. German Anabaptist, Hans Denck, whose reaction on literalism in reading the Bible was remarkable for his time and useful for ours: the Bible is the witness to the living Word of God – Jesus Christ. Therefore, a Christian life is one of discernment of the God’s will for here and now, rather than one of uncritical conformity to the rigidly (mis)understood text. Rowling shows how, from the beginning, scriptures were read in the light of the then current experience of the Church and this provided the Church with a realistic vision of humanity and an effective message to the world. He concludes that a debate on homosexuality – as well as any other issue – is pointless unless we are attentive to and appreciative of our own experiences which provide necessary space for scripture and the tradition of the Church to assist us in understanding and embodiment of the “character of Christ”.

Marilyn McCord Adams’s Sexuality without Taboos reminds us how much social discomfort and anxieties contribute to what society denounces as bad, shameful, or unacceptable; and in religious terms – sinful and/ or blasphemous. The author’s judgement is razor-sharp: taboos are enemies of Christian discernment, because they make an idol of the status quo, they employ fear for maintaining the social order and they prevent society from a truly moral reflection. Same-sex attraction has been such a taboo ‘since the foundation of the world’; a proper Christian attitude would be to offer this to God to help us to make a better sense of it. Jane Shaw’s Marriage, Sexuality and the Christian Tradition is particularly interesting now, when registration of same-sex partnerships has become available. The default inclination will be to model our celebrations and partnerships on contemporary marriage and the family. Shaw offers a short historical journey to learn from a diversity of Christian attitudes to and understanding of family and relationships; in its light one may wonder how much  newness God expects from lesbian and gay couples coming together for better, for worse…

This book brings confidence in questioning the unquestionable and valuing one’s own experience of oneself.

When Maureen Paschal begins researching for her book on Historic Females badly portrayed, she thinks she's just following a lifelong passion and dream. Little does she know she's embarking on a path that will change her self and world irrevocably.

It begins with a mysterious encounter in a shop in Jerusalem, which leads into a vision of Mary Magdalene the day of the Crucifixion. From there, Maureen returns home, writes her book, and continues on with her life as normal. Except for the recurring dreams.

Eventually, the dreams become more insistent. At a loss, Maureen turns to her cousin Peter, a Jesuit Priest, who has always been there for her and helped her through. In this instance, however, Peter is feeling well over his head.

Events continue to unfold mysteriously, with Maureen following along. When a chance finally presents itself for her to find some answers, she takes it, even though it leads to more questions and further mystery along the way.

Her trip to the Languedoc region of France will be life-changing--for Maureen, and everyone else involved.

_________

I loved this book, and am very interested to see where McGowan will go from here. Fans of The DaVinci Code will more than likely enjoy it, and any fan of mysteries/puzzles or folklore will also find a lot to like. The story centers around Mary Magdalene and her place in the life of Christ. It paints a very intriguing picture of her, and Him, and many other names from Religious History as well (which is where the series part comes in, as mentioned in the Afterword.)

If you like a good puzzle, mystery, or loved The Da Vinci Code, you'll probably enjoy this book. Ottavia Salina is a nun who enjoys a celebrated career working in the Vatican Archives. Her life is a simple and quiet one, until one day she is asked to help decode symbols tattooed on the body of a dead Ethiopian. No one will tell her who he is or what he's done, only that she needs to figure out what the markings on his body mean. It is to be her main priority, and a Swiss Guard Captain, Kaspar Glauser-Rvist will be assisting her.

The mystery and unanswered questions are too much for her, and on a visit home, she has a nephew assist her with searching the internet, in the hopes of finding information on her dead man, which she does. Almost more than she wanted to know. She then confronts the captain with her knew knowledge, and finds herself dismissed from her job, and exiled to Ireland. Disheartened, she arrives in Ireland only to find important men waiting to take her to a plane to send her back to Rome.

After this dizzying turn of events, she finds that the Captain had gone to bat for her, insisted she be a part of his time, receieve an apology, and get her job back, before he would go forward with the project set to him by the Vatican. At long last, Dr. Salina gets her answers. Their dead ethiopian stole a piece of the True Cross. It was not the only theft of its kind. The Vatican wants to get to the bottom of these thefts, and to find the people responsible for them. This is the task set to Dr. Salina, the Captain, and eventually, their partner Farag Boswell.

Using Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy as their guide, the three puzzle their way through a series of tests set forth for aspirants wishing to gain membership in the oldest religious order in existence: the Staurfilakes, protectors of the True Cross. Their lives, needless to say, will be changed forever.