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stephenrobak 's review for:
The main issue is that the book itself is poorly conceived. It started with a clear and intriguing concept. At first, Jacobs endeavors to live the Bible literally, all 700 rules he finds, for a year.
Within two weeks, he shifts his goal to focusing on one rule a day and incorporating it into his life. But for most of the year, most of the rules would remain in the back of his mind and not necessarily followed.
A couple weeks after that, he decides to shift goals yet again and to discover the "original intent of the text" and live the original Bible lifestyle as he interprets it. Quite a wide departure from his original goal and the title of his book.
It gradually devolves into him following his own heart to determine the original intent of the text and how to apply it to his own life. He mirrors the semi-literalists that he criticizes at the very beginning of the book when he gives himself license to cherry pick only the rules that he's comfortable with (or that will make his book more marketable). But all the time, he continues to write as if he is actually following the Bible literally. The entire book is marvelously disingenuous in this way.
Sure, there are some lovely moments in the book, but the glaring inconsistencies in Jacobs's approach (along with his neurotic personality in his writing) made it impossible for me to really enjoy.
Within two weeks, he shifts his goal to focusing on one rule a day and incorporating it into his life. But for most of the year, most of the rules would remain in the back of his mind and not necessarily followed.
A couple weeks after that, he decides to shift goals yet again and to discover the "original intent of the text" and live the original Bible lifestyle as he interprets it. Quite a wide departure from his original goal and the title of his book.
It gradually devolves into him following his own heart to determine the original intent of the text and how to apply it to his own life. He mirrors the semi-literalists that he criticizes at the very beginning of the book when he gives himself license to cherry pick only the rules that he's comfortable with (or that will make his book more marketable). But all the time, he continues to write as if he is actually following the Bible literally. The entire book is marvelously disingenuous in this way.
Sure, there are some lovely moments in the book, but the glaring inconsistencies in Jacobs's approach (along with his neurotic personality in his writing) made it impossible for me to really enjoy.