Biblical years: The showdown

I just finished reading My Jesus Year, about an Orthodox Jew who spends a year going to Christian churches and trying to experience Christianity to help him be a better Jew. Fittingly enough, I read The Year of Living Biblically, about an atheist who spends a year living by all the rules found in the Bible (Old and New Testaments). It was interesting reading them back-to-back the way that I did; similar topics, theoretically similar writing styles. Except that I liked YoLB much more than MJY.

I found Jacobs's journey in YoLB much more interesting and relatable than Cohen's in MJY. For one thing, it seemed that Jacobs actually had a journey. As he went through the motions of doing what the Bible said, it actually sunk in (to a certain extent). It was easy to see him start to appreciate taking time to pray, and the benefits of being grateful. By the end of the book, he had grown from the person he was at the beginning.

The same can't be said of Cohen in MJY. He states that he's a rebellious Orthodox Jew, but absolutely nothing about his behavior illustrates this. He still follows the Orthodox laws. His biggest rebellion seems to be that he's interested in seeing what goes on in a church. It's frustrating, because there's a lot about this that could be interesting. He talks a lot about his mother's death when he was a teenager and how this affected his faith at the time...but we jump from that to him in the present, in a different religious mindset. How did this happen? I have no idea. And while he claims that he's trying to understand Christianity, what's actually included in the book shows no indication of it. The episodes included involve him experiencing the most extreme ends of Christianity--snake handling, mega-churches and revivals in stadiums, that sort of thing.

At the beginning of the book, he's at a more typical service and gets upset that the minister is preaching Old Testament passages; he's upset because that's the Jewish part of the Bible, and this Christian minister has no right to interpret it, particularly to interpret it differently than Talmudic scholars. But toward the end of the book, he's in another mainstream Protestant service and says that Christian interpretation of the Old Testament no longer bother him. Why not? Because he's just become immune to it, after experiencing it for a year? Did his perspective actually change? I have no idea!

But really, it boils down to him wanting to experience Christianity without ever even trying to believe in Jesus as the Son of God. Now, I'm not saying that he should convert, but it left a bad taste in my mouth when he wound up not being particularly moved by Christmas, even after admitting appreciating the midnight service--to me, the most moving, spiritual part of the holiday. Well, of course he's left cold by Christmas! He knows it's a material holiday and while he acknowledges that there is a spiritual component...he just kind of ignores it.

Plus, he tries to be funny, but he tries in a way that's obvious. Jacobs's writing is more easy, more naturally amusing. When Cohen includes a line that's humorous, the effort is obvious.

It just bums me out because I think Cohen's book had so much potential. It just totally didn't live up to it. The Year of Living Biblically, though, is totally worth the time. And while My Jesus Year has some interesting, thought-provoking moments, they're just too few and far between to make it worth your while.

(I'd also recommend Bill Wood's review of My Jesus Year on Amazon. Reading it after writing this entry, I find myself thinking, "Yes, exactly!")