Critical essays

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,...

People with questions. The Bible is absolutely full of them. A crook on a cross. A wild man in a cemetery. A five-time divorcée. A despondent cripple. A grieving sister. A father at the end of his rope. Why are these portraits in the Bible? So we can look back in amazement at what Jesus did? No ... these aren't just Sunday school stories. They are historic moments in which a real God met real pain so we could answer the question. "Does God care when...