The Lazarus Effect
Tags : books, fiction, lazarus, new testamentCategories : books |
Over the last week or so I’ve been reading something a little different – some christian fiction. Now there’s two words I usually don’t like to see put together “Christian” + “fiction” – too often that means some pretty trashy, low quality, often dodgy theology content that fills the shelves of our Christian bookshops. But “The Lazarus Effect” is different.
The Lazarus Effect is written by acclaimed New Testament scholar Ben Witherington III and his wife Ann. Ben is one of my three favourite NT scholars, the other two being N T Wright and Scot McKnight. All three write a combination of serious scholarly books and Christian books aimed at the rest of us. And like McKnight, Ben Witherington has his own blog, which is one of my top reads.
Briefly, the story is set in modern Israel, where an American archaeologist Dr Art West discovers the tombstone of the biblical character Lazarus, as well as manuscripts linking him to the authorship of the gospel of John (an interesting proposition that Witherington has discussed in other places as well). A range of characters of multiple religious and ethnic backgrounds get involved as a fast-paced thriller/detective/court-room drama ensues. Despite it’s Christian authorship, the novel is very generous and respectful to those of other faiths. Short chapters and a simple style make this a quick and enjoyable read. I found this novel good to read in short sharp burst of a couple of chapters at a time when I was busy, but also good to sit down with for longer periods as well.
So for a novel written by a couple of Professors in non-literary fields, The Lazarus Effect is pretty good. It does have a feel of a first time effort and realistically is not going to win any serious literature awards, but I found it very enjoyable and a little bit thought provoking. I’d been exposed to Witherington’s ideas about Lazarus before so that didn’t strike me as being too surprising but for someone who hadn’t heard these ideas previously this could be a little controversial and very stimulating. Certainly the authorship of John and the identity of the “beloved disciple” is one of those biblical mysteries that it would be fascinating to discover an answer to. In this novel Witherington provides his answer, and in a most entertaining fashion. Well worth reading.
