[Note: The following is a review by Diane Donovan that appeared in the widely-used Midwest Book Review. Diane writes many reviews and offers authors other service as well. Check her website.]
Diane Donovan, Editor,
Author of San Francisco Relocated
Donovan’s Literary Services
California Bookwatch
The Liberating Birth of Jesus
Lee Van Ham
OneEarth Publishing
978-1-7340299-0-1 (paperback) $11.95
978-1-7340299-1-8 (eBook) $ 2.99
http://theoneearthproject.com/
The story of Jesus’ birth and impact on the world is so famous that readers might wonder at the need for yet another book on the subject. This alternate viewpoint is a much-needed adjunct to both the story and the efforts of humanity to survive, and thus provides a very different perspective than most.
The Liberating Birth of Jesus: A Birth Story Able to Reverse Our Planet’s Perils is not a holiday story, but draws important connections between dreams, angel lessons, acts of goodness, and the real meaning of Jesus’ creation story. As such, Mary, Jesus, the cosmological and psychic impact of Jesus’ arrival on Earth, and underlying messages pre- and post-Jesus are connected to both human affairs and planetary health and systems as a whole.
Lee Van Ham crafts a blend of new age and religious inspection that old school Christian readers may at first find puzzling or challenging. The difference lies not in the Jesus story itself, which is more than familiar, but in perceptions of its translation and impact.
The tone of this methodical consideration of political, social, and religious systems is scholarly, yet accessible. It creates solid references between scripture and broader new interpretations of its meaning than most religious inspections offer: “Tamar’s story in Genesis 38 oozes intrigue, family dysfunction, and trickery. It revolves around the levirate law, so named because of its derivation from the Latin levir, which means “brother-in-law.” According to this law, if a woman’s spouse died, the spouse’s brother was required to marry his sister-in-law (Deuteronomy 25:5-10). When it operated well in patriarchal cultures, it was better than a modern life insurance policy. While today a husband can buy insurance on his life to assure the economic viability of his wife and family in case of his death, continuing relationships with in-laws and community are not assured. Social vulnerability increases. The levirate law provided both economic and social glue for a community. A brother who refused to follow the law opened himself to public shame for putting his own interests above the wellbeing of his relatives and the community as a whole. Furthermore, this economic and social law was given divine sanction, meaning that to disobey it was to disobey God, so when Judah and his sons disobeyed it, Tamar exposed them socially, economically, and spiritually.”
This food for thought is weighty and compelling, of necessity requiring that readers move slowly through the book. There’s simply so much to digest and consider that a quick reading is not recommended.
Choices in the narration of the birth story in the Bible and the impact of social, political, and religious perceptions in how it was presented provide intriguing insights with wide-ranging messages for any Biblical student: “Matthew is eager to show that the birth story includes wider geographies and ethnicities than Judea and Jews. The magi were from a geography beyond Judea, just like some of the women in his genealogy, and are another example of how Matthew decisively includes foreigners in his transforming story.”
Discussions of patriarchy, matriarchy, the politics of Rome, the “naming of Jesus by an angel,” and other circumstances often challenge an average Christian reader’s long-held assumptions and viewpoints about Biblical history—and this is a good thing.
Those who appreciate different approaches to Biblical interpretations and events will find The Liberating Birth of Jesus a significant new approach to Biblical scholarship. It’s not just an urgent call to action, but a recreation story of empowerment that pinpoints a major point of diversion and hope between past Biblical perceptions and modern analysis: “…the creativity of people 20 centuries ago connecting the Jesus of Bethlehem and the Christ of the eons and cosmos. Their context, however, differs from ours in that “Christ” was not then assumed to be Jesus’ second name. What is especially important for us today is to rediscover how they are separate.”
What is happening in today’s world, ecologically and politically, is impacted by misinterpretations about the birth and impact of Jesus.
This broader cosmological consideration of planetary ecology is a much-needed, empowering read recommended for a new generation of thinkers as well as those who would incorporate the creation story’s cosmology into revised approaches to life.