Raised in a secular family but interested in the relevance of faith in our modern world, A.J. Jacobs decides to attempt to obey the Bible as literally as possible for one full year. He vows to follow the Ten Commandments. To be fruitful and multiply. To love his neighbor. But also to obey the hundreds of less publicized rules: to avoid wearing clothes made of mixed fibers; to stone adulterers. The resulting spiritual journey is at once funny and profound,...

A renowned historian, biographer, and novelist provides a deeply personal, literary, and historical exploration of the Bible.

An acclaimed author takes readers back to early Christianity to ask how a box of handwritten scrolls became the Bible, and forward to see how the multibillion-dollar business that has created Biblezines and Manga Bibles is selling down the Bible's sacred capital.

Arguing that the Bible cannot serve as a rulebook for sexual morality, examines the text and its historic interpretations and highlights the book's many contradictory messages regarding sex, marriage, adultery, and divorce.

Brilliantly reconciles homosexuality and Biblical scripture, and reveals that religious anti-gay bias is based almost solely upon a misinterpretation of the Bible. Through the experiences of five very normal, Christian, American families - including those of former House Majority Leader Richard Gephardt and Episcopal Bishop Gene Robinson - discover how people of faith handle the realization of having a gay child or family member.

"In our culture, the Bible is monolithic: It is a collection of books that has been unchanged and unchallenged since the earliest days of the Christian church. The idea of the Bible as "Holy Scripture," a non-negotiable authority straight from God, has prevailed in Western society for some time. And while it provides a firm foundation for centuries of Christian teaching, it denies the depth, variety, and richness of this fascinating text. In A History...

"The Bible as we know it today is best understood as a process, one that begins in the tenth century BCE. In this revelatory account, a world-renowned scholar of Hebrew scripture joins a foremost authority on the New Testament to write a new biography of the Book of Books, reconstructing Jewish and Christian scriptural histories, as well as the underappreciated contest between them, from which the Bible arose. Recent scholarship has overturned popular...