My Jesus Year

Currently reading My Jesus Year: A Rabbbi's Son Wanders the Bible Belt in Search of His Own Faith by Benyamin Cohen.

I tend to read a lot of spiritually-related books, but my reading habits are eclectic and vast. This particular book caught my interest as it was in a blurb by the writer A.J. Jacobs, the author of two very good books, The Know It All and The Year of Living Biblically. In the first book, Jacobs sets a goal of reading the entire Encyclopedia Britannica in a year's time. No easy task. In his second book, Jacobs takes on the tenets of his Jewish faith placing them in the context of the Torah and the Bible and living "by the rules" set out in both.

Because I liked Jacobs' books, I decided to read Cohen's book. Because I have lived in the Bible Belt, I was intrigued how he would carry out his journey. One of the interesting things is that Cohen is an Orthodox Jew who married the daughter of a Methodist clergyman. Since she was no longer interested in the faith of her birth, she converted to Judaism. Orthodox Judaism. Like many converts, she tends to be a little more adherent to her "new" faith than her author-husband.

As I write this, Cohen has just attended his first "Megachurch" service in Georgia. The journey of the year has just begun, and I'm along for the ride.