Having said that "Lamb - The Gospel according to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal" is an intensely funny and very warm and loving look at the person of Joshua (Jesus) from his birth to his death and a little beyond. The apostles take some heat as do at least one angel and the BVM gets a little bit dinged but I laughed out loud repeatedly while reading the book. At the end I had a wonderful warm human feeling for the "character" of Jesus that doesn't come through very often in the Gospels. This isn't a serious theological study of the life of Christ but in some ways it's a wonderfully funny and theological look at the life of Christ. In his afterword the author says he didn't write the book to change anyone's mind about their faith but that if you decided to treat everyone else a little nicer that would be fine.
I have no doubt that this book will send plenty of my brothers and sisters in faith right over the edge of frothing at the mouth insanity. That's too bad. Moore actually does a wonderful job of REALLY talking about the position and problems of being fully human and fully divine. How do you think that would work during the Messiah's teen years? It had some interesting moments Moore suggests. He takes on what might have happened during the years that are blank prior to Jesus beginning his ministry and the question of what happened to Joseph.
In the end I walked away with a wonderful feeling for the very human Jesus struggling with something I can not even imagine. Some may claim that this book will destroy people's faith. I say it will only destroy the faith of people who believe in brittle, fragile images of the Divine. Or whose faith is pretty brittle and fragile in its own right. I came away strengthened in my belief and have had a good long laugh along the way.
Works for me.
Peace
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