Gospel

I don't know if this book made much of an impact when it was first published, but it would be a real loss if it never did. Ever since The Da Vinci Code, many books have tried to follow in its success but this book blows them all away. Gospel is about the search for the loss first-century gospel, and the impact that such a find will have on our understanding of Christianity. The central characters are Patrick O'Hanrahan, a professor emeritus from the University of Chicago, a drunk and disillusioned academic in search of the glory he once had; and Lucy Dantam, a young doctoral student at the same school of Theology, also disillusioned and yet still looking for her own path in life. The two of them take a journey through Europe and Africa in search for this loss gospel, while battling endless intrigue that involves a mad monk, a rabbi, the CIA, a TV evangelist, a multimillionaire, the Iranian government, spies, and much more! I really enjoyed the characters in this novel, who are laugh-out-loud funny at times. They all battle their own demons, so to speak, and you soon see how their own personal quest to make sense of their lives is interwoven with their larger quest for the lost gospel. There is also the quest of the gospel writer as well, who too is looking for the Truth. Some people seem to dislike the characters for one reason or another. That is fair, but it is surely a good break from the stereotype of the handsome professor and his beautiful sidekick. Understandably, the length of this novel may be an obstacle to some, but if you enjoy books like The Da Vinci Code or other historical books, this is it. This book was tremendously well-researched, but as with all books like this, I highly encourage you to do your own research to verify what you believe. This book had me scrambling to google every few pages to wonder: Wow, is this really true? Was there really a female pope? Was this saint really martyred in such a grotesque way? It is unfortunate that Wilton Barnhardt hadn't written more books. I wonder if he would return to this same theme, or similar theme. He seems to have done an extraordinary work in this one.

It is rare to have a compelling story with such great research backing it up. The story line is two academics, one eccentric ex-Jesuit, "has been" and a young stereotypical Catholic woman, in search for a missing gospel. The book is interspersed with passages from the missing gospel, asides from God, and the quest itself; which is funny and entertaining. With that entertainment, comes references of church and bible lore which for their irreverence would surely offend some, so if you are dogmatic, better not read it (no put down intended; you would find it offensive). However, if you have an interest in historical aspects of how the gospels in the bible were accepted, the politics of the church and the region, and day to day issues of early and mid millennium Christianity, this is a great book without plowing through scholarly texts. One can compare it to the "Da Vinci Code" but the "Da Vinci Code" does not come near the scholarly references "Gospel: A Novel" uses. What is even of greater interest is "Gospel: A Novel" was written ten years before "Da Vinci Code" and is as a good as a book now as it was then. Do not be concerned by its length, it should hold your interest like a long, slow smoking cigar.

"Gospel" is fascinating! The story is one heck of a romp throughEurope, The Middle East, Africa and the early Church. I learned so much about Christendom and how our traditions that we take for "Gospel" came from that I've read it three times and have given the book to scores of friends, none of whom has disappointed. The footnotes, while they may bog down the narrative a bit, are so illuminating and compelling that you have to stop at each one and absorb them carefully.Do yourself a favor. Read this!

Come along on a wild, intellectual ride, careening from Chicago to Ireland to Italy to Greece to Israel to the Sudan to Ethiopia, following the reprobate religious scholar, Dr. Patrick O'Hanrahan, and the semi-hapless perpetual grad student, Lucy Dantan, as they try to track down a lost 1st-Century Gospel, written by one of the Twelve Disciples...and enjoy fine living, abject poverty, attempted murder, theft, intellectual rivalry, religious theorizing, and spiritual agonizing along the way, plus the periodical, parenthetical Voice of God commenting on the action...Wilton Barnhardt (author of Emma, Who Saved My Life, also a grand book) has written a meaty and challenging mystery, whose characters are unafraid of the Big Questions, a book far more accessible than The Name of the Rose but with that same attractive flavor of the mysteries of scholarship and ancient manuscripts. Conspiracies and counter-conspiracies are revealed, characters grow in self-knowledge, and the reader gets to follow along in amazed pleasure (or pleasurable amazement?) as the plot twists and turns to its unexpected, emotionally-gratifying conclusion. I'd recommend this novel to anyone who loves a good academic mystery---it's really well-written, the intrigue nevers stops.

In "Gospel," Barnhardt has pulled off a difficult task with grace (pun intended) and style. Ostensibly the story of a Professor and a graduate student from the University of Chicago's Department of Theology hot on the trail of a newly discovered first-century gospel, Barnhardt uses this frame to present us with a panorama of Christianity and Christians, past and present. Along the way, the reader gets a view of many places in the world intimately involved with Christianity, and its troubles: England, Ireland, Italy, Israel, Africa, and Louisiana.By managing the delicate balance of telling an interesting story and providing an encyclopedic vision of the various strands and streams that comprise Christianity, Barnhardt's work will appeal to those who have delved into work such as that of Elaine Pagels. I found myself willing and eager to go on the journey with Barnhardt's protagonists. In the end, I wondered if the television evangelists whom I find so easy to ridicule are not quite as bizarre when measured against the historical development of Christianity.In "Gospel," we travel through England to Ireland, where we meet the mysterious Black Pope and his retinue of apostate Jesuits. From there, we travel to Assisi where we meet Franciscans who, not surprisingly, relate that the resurrection of Christ is not a critical aspect of their faith, that feeding the poor is what matters. From there, we travel to the dusty shelves of the Vatican Library, where scrolls lay around undisturbed for centuries. The journey continues to the mythical Mt. Athos, then to Jerusalem, then to ravaged Africa before making a circle of sorts back to a suburb of Baton Rouge.The blending of fact and fiction made this an irresistible tale for me. One of the things I liked most is the way that Barnhardt uses the figure of O'Hanrahan, apostate Jesuit, Professor of Theology, and chronic alcoholic, as the mouthpiece to impart vast theological learning. After reading the book, I find it harder to dismiss claims of a 900 foot Jesus when compared with the veneration of relics and the stories of the martyrs that form what might be called a good Catholic education. I do not mean to imply that Barnhardt leads one to accept fundamentalism as valid, far from it. However, through the figure of O'Hanrahan he does make one realize that one person's sacred revelation is another person's ridiculous fairy tale.The gospel of the title is in itself interesting, a sort of "what-if" told by the mythical Mathius, who was the replacement for Judas. Interspersed through the narrative in sections, it makes one wonder who the disciples really were and how they lived their lives after Christ's death. "Gospel" presents a number of delightful characters, and some sinister ones. When we meet Lucy Dantan, she is a somewhat lost graduate student in Theology, working on but never completing a boring thesis and leading a boring life. By the end of the book, her transformation is complete, as she chooses a brave