The Year of Living Biblically by A.J. Jacobs ~ Book Review

The full title of the book is:

The Year of Living Biblically - One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the bible as Literally as Possible

Whew quite a mouthful.  And quite an endeavor.    The author's  writing before this was a memoir book that was a huge challenge where he tried to become the smartest person in the world by reading the Encyclopedia Britannica from A - Z and now he was on a a quest to find something that would top that.  Raised in a secular Jewish family, living in New York and having an agnostic mind set, with the birth of his son he wondered if maybe he was not missing something in raising his child without religion.  Was there anything to faith and following a religion.  So he decided, because of his background to see if he could follow and live the bible out as literally as possible for a year.  Which presented a huge challenge as you can imagine but that was elevated because of the fact that he wasn't sure if there was a God  much less one who personally had His hand in the everyday affairs of man.  But he says he went into it with an open mindset wondering if he carried out the actions and rules if that would eventually lead him to a belief in God.  He would spend most of the time in the Old Testament because it was larger and leave the last last 4 months for the New Testament.  This is his memoir of that year.

This has been on my list for quite some time.  I wondered how one could possibly get through, in this day and age, following the bible literally.  I mean, what on earth was he going to do about stoning people and animal sacrifice, for just a couple of examples?  And I wondered what he would do with the New Testament.  I was very curious to learn where it would lead him in his own personal journey.  He was told when he first started that there was no way he would be the same person at the end of the year than he would be in the beginning and I think he experienced that though not as much as I was hoping he would while reading this.

I did enjoy this book taken in it's context.  It was laugh out loud funny at times,  a bit sad at times, and he did have some good insightful moments.  It is well written and kept me engaged.  I wondered if he would be mocking and derogatory towards those of faith but I was pleasantly surprised and though some of the situations did turn out hilarious and he might have questioned what he was required to do, he seemed to remain committed and open and while relaying situations humorously, I didn't get the sense he was openly mocking.  He read and researched the bible, formed an advisory board, with a broad scope of beliefs both Jewish and Christian, to help him figure out the different laws and writings and seemed to have an open mind throughout.   While I don't agree with some of his conclusions,  how can I when he is approaching from a perspective of unbelief, and therefore, would have no true understanding of what it means to truly believe from deep within one's heart and not just follow a bunch of rules, I do wish he would have delved much more into the gospels and mainstream Christianity rather than searching out the extremes  but his thoughts when he did visit some of the more extreme churches was actually interesting and he did seem to stay quite respectful. The final four months in the New Testament did seem rushed comparatively.   I wish he would have experienced more of what the gospel really is.  But for someone who started this journey totally as an unbeliever with the intent of trying to live out an ancient text of faith as literally as he could in this day and age, some of his thoughts were insightful and one good thing about this book is that it made good discussion at our dinner table.  Did he do it for a stunt and attention and to sell books or was he truly seeking the answer he asked at the beginning?  Only God would know his true heart and it would be interesting to see where he is today as the book was written in 2007.  All I can say is bless his very patient wife.


I gave this a rating of 8/10