The Book of Longings by Sue Monk Kidd
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
A remarkable book of historical fiction. I always enjoy Sue Monk Kidd’s work and this was true to form another great read. This will drive some of the fundamentalists crazy but it’s interesting to reimagine Jesus as he might have actually live in the first century. There is so much about the historical Jesus that we really don’t know. One of my favorite quotes in the author’s notes at the end of the book is the following.
“Claims that Jesus was not married first began in the second century. They arose as Christianity absorbed ideas of asceticism and Greek dualism, which devalued the body and the physicality of the world in favor of the spirit. Closely identified with the body, women were also devalued, silenced, and marginalized, losing roles of leadership they’d possessed within first-century Christianity.”
Sue Monk Kidd