Disappointing
I confess. I had high hopes for Saving Paradise: How Christianity Traded Love of this World for Crucifixion and Empire by Rita Nakashima Brock and Rebecca Ann Parker (c2008, Beacon Press). It appeared to be just my cup of tea, or shall we say dose of religion & art. But two months later, I have had to abandon my quest. I have read at least 4 books in the time that I consumed about 100 pages of Saving Paradise… not an impressive show for my effort.
Some of the things that defeated me are, I admit, fairly quirky. I enjoy a book that feels good in my arthritic hands. If it is too heavy or awkwardly-shaped, it discourages me. At nearly 600 pages in an approximately 6” x 9” format, the book is by no means small. But I have, in the past, overcome that obstacle if I have had sufficient motivation. Unfortunately authors Brock and Parker stifled the significant motivation that I had to consume their book. The problem is that they destroyed my enthusiasm with minutiae. One-hundred pages into the tome, I determined that the authors couldn’t bear to edit out of their treatise one morsel of their painfully-researched material. I suspect that that weakness will doom it to the dusty shelves of academic libraries or seminary bibliographies. It’s a pity, because I wanted to be with them through this interesting journey. But I can’t give it the attention the authors would like me to give… not now, maybe sometime. I will let you know if I blow the dust off of it and try again.