Robert A. Oden

Really, astonishingly good.

This was, to paraphrase the title of another Oden book, "The Old Testament without Theology". It treats the Old Testament as the epic of one more culture, and discusses it as history, anthropology and literature: How does it mesh with the history we know; how does it reflect what the Israelites believed (and how that changed over time), how was it written (in other words why does the style seem to change so much, along with all the contradictions from one verse to another).?

This sort of thing is often interesting even when uninspired, but, damn, Oden knows the material well, knows how to make it come alive, and knows how to tell a good story.… (meer)