Further reading

Non-Fiction

Title	Author	Comments
Bible Unearthed: Archaeology’s New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin of Its Sacred Texts, The	Finkelstein, Israel; Silberman, Neil Asher	Great book on the historicity of the Old Testament. See The Bible Unearthed.
Treasures of Darkness: A History of Mesopotamian Religion, The	Jacobsen, Thorkild	Fabulous book on Mesopotamian religion, gods and myths.

Fiction

For some reason I love fiction, especially, science fiction, that deals with religious issues. Below are some I recommend:

Title	Author	Comments
Barabbas	Lagerkvist, Par	Very long ago I read a novel about the man whom the Israelite crowd chose to free while Jesus was crucified. It may have been this one.
Black Easter/The Day after Judgement	Blish, James	Two novellas, part of the After Such Knowledge series. A warmonger pays a black magician to release Hell on Earth for a few days, so he can see what happens. What happens is that the capital of Hell, Dis, is set up in Death Valley … and God is a no-show. The second novella has a great twist in the tale. (Both used to be available in a single volume.)
Canticle for Leibowitz, A	Miller, Walter M.	After nuclear war devastates the earth civilisation slowly emerges again, nurtured by the Roman Catholic Church. Three long stories cover the three stages of the return of humankind to their pre-war state: Fiat homo, Fiat lux and Fiat voluntas tua, all centered on and around a single monastery. A book full of irony, sadness and poetry. “The shark was very hungry that season …” The sequel, Saint Leibowitz and the Horse Woman, completed by someone else after Miller’s death, is very different. I didn’t enjoyed it that much.
Case of Consience, A	Blish, James	Part of the After Such Knowledge series. A Jesuit priest joins a mission to another planet as a missionary. When they arrive he discovers that the inhabitants have no notion of original sin. In order to save them, he has to cause them to fall …
Doctor Faustus	Marlowe, Christopher	Kit Marlowe’s take on the old story.
Dear and Glorious Physician	Caldwell, Taylor	Loved it as a kid and just reread it. Written by someone who clearly believes every word in Luke, is (or was) a devout Christian, and has a gift for sketching settings. Rome and Israel come to life, and the story is pretty compulsively readable. With the benefit or better hindsight it is possible to recognise historical errors – the real Pilate was not the sort of guy who would lift a finger to intervene between a troublemaking Jew and Jewish authorities.
Faust I & II	Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von	The classic story of Faust’s pact with the devil. He even gets Helen of Troy! Part II is more of a slog than Part I. Mephistopheles: “Von Zeit zu Zeit seh ich den Alten gern”. German editions: Part I; Part II.
God’s Warrior	Slaughter, Frank G	A novel about Paul.
Paradise Lost	Milton, John	I only read books 4 and 9 long ago. Am planning to read the whole thing again.
Quo Vadis	Sienkiewicz, Henryk	I loved this to bits. In ancient Rome patrician Marcus Vinicius desires Christian Lygia Calina, and ends up redeemed.
Robe, The	Douglas, Lloyd C	Another one in the read and enjoyed long ago category. Roman soldier Marcellus wins Christ’s robe, and sets out to learn more about its former occupant.