In these strange times, writers and others who are intrigued by religion have extra time on their hands. This offers a special opportunity, often hard to manage when deadlines beckon, to read substantive, off-the-news material.
So The Religion Guy offers a few suggestions on what media folk might read themselves or recommend to their audiences.
First, heavy material.
For obvious reasons, any educated 21st Century citizen should read through Islam’s holy book, the Quran, at least once and here’s the chance. (Note that for Islam, English versions are mere educational paraphrases; actual Scripture exists only in the Arabic language.) This can be a challenge for non-Muslims because the meaning is often elliptical, the context obscure and the chronology absent. So The Guy highly recommends “The Study Quran: A New Translation and Commentary” (HarperOne, 2015) by a team of North American Muslim scholars led by Seyyed Hossein Nasr of George Washington University. The readable text is enlightened by elaborate commentary.
Serious inquirers might want to compare the comments in the rather fusty 1934 Quran translation by Abdullah Yusuf Ali (Amana), a traditionalist favorite. For personal reading, M.A.S. Abdel Haleem’s rendition is a felicitous choice (Oxford University Press, 2004). However, The Guy recommends that journalists quote from Majid Fakhry’s translation (New York University Press, 2000) because it carries approval from Sunnism’s Al-Azhar University in Cairo.
Jewish Scripture, a.k.a. the Tanakh or what Christians call the Old Testament, is much better-known. But those desiring a brush-up can make good use of the commentary from a non-Orthodox standpoint, published with the Jewish Publication Society translation, in the “Jewish Study Bible” (Oxford, second edition, 2014).
With Christian Scriptures, two scholars produced nicely readable overviews. The late Catholic Father Raymond E. Brown wrote the moderately liberal “An Introduction to the New Testament” (Yale University Press, 1997). Presbyterian Donald A. Hagner provides a moderately conservative interpretation in “The New Testament: A Historical and Theological Introduction” (Baker Academic, 2012.) Oh, a disclosure: Hagner is a personal friend.)
Biographies and histories are always easy-chair favorites. If the theme is of interest there’s the lively and idiosyncratic “A History of Christianity” by scholarly British journalist Paul Johnson from 1976 (out of print but used editions are on sale).
There have been many good tomes lately about the American founders and founding. Lest he slight the religion of the non-religious, The Guy spotlights the recent “Thomas Paine and the Clarion Call for American Independence” by Harlow Giles Unger (Da Capo Press). Firebrand Paine’s pro-independence tract “Common Sense” electrified the colonists in 1776, but we learn here how he scandalized Americans with his remarkable attack on biblical religion, “Age of Reason” (1796). An unresolved curiosity: Paine was no pacifist, but why did he so harshly scorn his Quaker roots?
We also all need COVID-19 Era escapism and nothing serves better than a good old British novel. Here are three that all revolve ‘round the Church of England and the town of Salisbury with its magnificent cathedral (built 1220-1333; save up to see it for yourself when international travel resumes).
— The hyper-prolific Anthony Trollope got the idea for his 1855 novella about a small-town church dispute, “The Warden,” during a Salisbury Cathedral visit. This became the first of his six “Barsetshire” chronicles.
— Susan Howatch wrote all six of her “Starbridge” novels about 20th Century church mysteries and scandals surrounding the cathedral town she gave that fictional name. The first is “Glittering Images” (1987).
— William Golding’s huge-selling first novel “Lord of the Flies” (1954) evoked his years teaching schoolboys in Salisbury. The theme of original sin continued in his lesser-known “The Spire” (1964), a compelling saga about a medieval cathedral dean’s pride in building his town’s improbably massive cathedral.
Editor’s note: At this moment, tmatt is reading — for the fifth or sixth time — the classic novel “The Children of Men” by the great P.D. James. I just thought that I would toss that in, since this haunting view of the culture of death in a future England is set — oh my — in 2021.