San Bernardino's UCC Church

We had a fun adult ed forum on Sunday after church. Jim Comer is a member of our congregation and a history professor at Victor Valley - he helped lead a great discussion of the Da Vinci Code as it relates to the development of the early Christian church. We decided to skip the conspiracy theories about secret cults that rule the world and focus on the gnostics, women's role in the church and how the gospels were chosen. Lots of discussion flowed, lots of opinions, pro and con, about the movie and the book, lots of interest in how our faith came to be what it is. Jim and I promised a reading list of books about the gospels, early Christianity, and lots more. So here it is! Jim's books first, then mine - I didn't find the Amazon links like he did, sorry.

The basic texts: *The Complete Gospels*
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0944344496/qid=1148921340/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1/104-0553423-7542300?s=books&v=glance&n=283155

Silberman's history of early Christianity, *The Message and the Kingdom*
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0800634675/sr=8-1/qid=1148918964/ref=pd_bbs_1/104-0553423-7542300?%5Fencoding=UTF8

The Old Testament world: Origins of the Torah
*Who Wrote the Bible?*
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0060630353/qid=1148921654/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1/104-0553423-7542300?s=books&v=glance&n=283155

The J text with beautiful explanatory material: *The Book of J*
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0802141919/qid=1148921933/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1/104-0553423-7542300?s=books&v=glance&n=283155

The new translation of Torah, by the chair of Hebrew at Berkeley:*The Five
Books of Moses*
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0393019551/qid=1148922050/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1/104-0553423-7542300?s=books&v=glance&n=283155

Archeology of the Old Testament period from one viewpoint: *The Bible
Unearthed*
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0684869136/qid=1148921755/sr=2-2/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_2/104-0553423-7542300?s=books&v=glance&n=283155

Another viewpoint, with a great deal of detail on the early monarchy:
*What Did the Bible Writers Know?*
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/080282126X/ref=pd_sim_b_3/104-0553423-7542300?%5Fencoding=UTF8&v=glance&n=283155

Tabor's more controversial work about the "royal family" and the
Jewishness of Jesus.
*The Jesus Dynasty*
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0743287231/qid=1148919043/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1/104-0553423-7542300?s=books&v=glance&n=283155

The history of Southern France in the Middle Ages: *Pilgrims, Heretics and
Lovers*
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0025797700/qid=1148921446/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/104-0553423-7542300?s=books&v=glance&n=283155

Another reading of the grail legend: *From Ritual to Romance*
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0691021074/qid=1148921541/sr=2-2/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_2/104-0553423-7542300?s=books&v=glance&n=283155

Jesus' brothers' names are in Matthew 13:5. James is identified by Paul as
Jesus' brother in Galatians.

In Memory of Her: A Feminist Theological Reconstruction of Christian Origins, Elisabeth Schussler Fiorenza

The Gospel of Mary of Magdala: Jesus and the First Woman Apostle, Karen L. King

Women and Redemption: A Theological History, Rosemary Radford Ruether

The Forgotten Desert Mothers: Sayings, lives and stories of Early Christian Women, Laura Swan

Jim's blog is http://jcomer2001.livejournal.com/ and he blogged about the Jesus Dynasty book.