Prelude Gathering: A.J. Jacobs and The Year of Living Biblically

February 17, 2009

A.J. Jacobs and The Year of Living Biblically

If you haven't yet read A.J. Jacobs' book, The Year of Living Biblically, I commend it to you. Its a short, fun, and compelling narrative of a self-described secular, agnostic Jew ("I'm Jewish in the same way Olive Garden is Italian," says Jacobs), who attempts to live the Bible literally for a year. His insights are oftentimes profound, and some of his conclusions warrant consideration by those of us who call ourselves "people of the book."

Recently, I also discovered the phenomenal web-site TED: Ideas Worth Spreading. The video web-site offers for free some of the best minds, sharing from their areas of expertise. To my delight, they have a short (18 minutes or so) video of Jacobs sharing from his experience of attempting to live biblically. Not only was he hilarious, but I think some of what he has to say connects with what we'll be thinking about when it comes to reading Scripture missionally. He was formed by his experience of attempting to live the Bible literally. He changed. The text read his secular, agnostic context and brought to light certain aspects of it which have since been transformed. In a way, I think Jacobs' experience bears resemblance to what we pray for our students, and yet don't always see.

Watch the video, and share your thoughts. What strikes you about his experience? What compels you? What would you push back on?

Erik Leafblad