Diana Butler Bass

The author puts the best face on Christianity by citing individuals who have embodied the best aspect's of Christ's teachings over the last two millenia. It's a rather selective history, although it still can't avoid mentioning a few folks who were burned at the stake for their beliefs. In the end, it's clear that Bass is a good person, but it's not clear exactly what the basis of her Christian faith is. She doesn't spell it out clearly. It would seem to consist in choosing the parts of the Bible she agrees with and ignoring the rest (such as its attitude toward women and homosexuals.) She seems optimistic that Christianity is evolving with a changing world. Perhaps she's in a better position to know than I am. I guess as long as people need something larger than themselves to believe in, they will be attracted by religion, no matter how flawed it is. All around the world, the best people take their religions and use them to help the disadvantaged, fight against hatred, and promote ecumenalism--but the worst folks continue to give all religion a bad name.

The audiobook narrator, while perfectly pleasant most of the time, drops into ridiculous accents when reading things written by non-Americans, making them sound sub-literate. This is idiotic. In the first place, these things weren't written in English to begin with. I'm sure their authors sounded perfectly competent in their native languages--why read them in English as if they are struggling to pronounce each word? Just idiotic. I have to repeat it again! Idiotic.… (mer)