Killing the Buddha: A Heretic's BibleSimon and Schuster, 2004 M01 13 - 304 pages "If you meet the Buddha on the road, kill him." The ninth-century sage Lin Chi gave this advice to one of his monks, admonishing him that this Buddha would only be a reflection of his unexamined beliefs and desires. Peter Manseau and Jeff Sharlet took Lin Chi's advice to heart and set out on a car trip around America, looking for Buddhas along the road and the people who meet them: prophets in G-strings dancing to pay the rent, storm chasers hunting for meaning in devastating tornados, gangbangers inking God on their bodies as protection from bullets, cross-dressing terrorist angels looking for a place to sing. Along the way Manseau and Sharlet began to wonder what the traditional scripture they encountered everywhere -- in motels, on billboards, up and down the radio dial -- would look like remade for today's world. To find out, they called upon some of today's most intriguing writers to recast books of the Bible by taking them apart, blowing them up with ink and paper. Rick Moody recasts Jonah as a modern-day gay Jewish man living in Queens. A.L. Kennedy meditates on the absurdity of Genesis. In Samuel, April Reynolds visits a man of tremendous vision in Harlem. Peter Trachtenberg unravels the Gordian logic of Job by way of the Borscht Belt. Haven Kimmel dives into Revelation and comes out in a swoon. Woven through these divine books are Manseau and Sharlet's dispatches from the road, their Psalms of the people. What emerges from this work of calling is not an attack on any religion, but a many-colored, positively riveting look at the facets of true belief. Together these curious minds tell the strange, funny, sad, and true story of religion in America for the spiritual seeker in all of us: A Heretic's Bible. |
From inside the book
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Page 9
... course, I had no need for anything beyond the usual prayers. Nothing about my personal life was large enough to bother God with in any official way: I pushed up the words I was told to use almost as if I were reciting a poem, something ...
... course, I had no need for anything beyond the usual prayers. Nothing about my personal life was large enough to bother God with in any official way: I pushed up the words I was told to use almost as if I were reciting a poem, something ...
Page 12
... course, demand an omnipotent, omnipresent, omnicognizant God who can also be rendered easily in print by generations of variously qualified scribblers. I tend to find—no matter how divine the available inspirations—that the assumption ...
... course, demand an omnipotent, omnipresent, omnicognizant God who can also be rendered easily in print by generations of variously qualified scribblers. I tend to find—no matter how divine the available inspirations—that the assumption ...
Page 13
... course, there is the handyman God, the perfect craftsman, the watchmaker who leaves us his finest watch. This is the God we thank for sunsets and healthy children and the touch of our lovers' hair. This is the God we used to emulate in ...
... course, there is the handyman God, the perfect craftsman, the watchmaker who leaves us his finest watch. This is the God we thank for sunsets and healthy children and the touch of our lovers' hair. This is the God we used to emulate in ...
Page 14
... course) can produce the rest of humankind only by combining incest with adultery. Both Abraham and Isaac claim their wives are their sisters, in case they are murdered for them when they are abroad, and never mind the inevitable threat ...
... course) can produce the rest of humankind only by combining incest with adultery. Both Abraham and Isaac claim their wives are their sisters, in case they are murdered for them when they are abroad, and never mind the inevitable threat ...
Page 15
... course. Genesis shows another familiar guise of God—the Absentee. God makes the snake “subtil” (and perhaps not recognizably a snake—he goes on his belly only later, remember) and yet does nothing to prevent the inevitable, and frankly ...
... course. Genesis shows another familiar guise of God—the Absentee. God makes the snake “subtil” (and perhaps not recognizably a snake—he goes on his belly only later, remember) and yet does nothing to prevent the inevitable, and frankly ...
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answer arms asked Baba beginning believe blood body brother Buddy called Carl church close coming congregation course dark deacons dead didn’t don’t door everything eyes face faith father feel felt fingers fire front girl give hair hand happened hard head heart holy it’s Jesus Jonah keep killed kind knew land later leave light lived looked Lord mind morning mother moved never night offered once pray prayer Reverend rolled seemed seen side sister sitting sound stand stood stopped story suffering sure talking tell That’s There’s things thought told took trying turned Velmajean voice waiting walked watched wife woman
Popular passages
Page 37 - And it came to pass, that at midnight the Lord smote all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh that sat on his throne unto the firstborn of the captive that was in the dungeon; and all the firstborn of cattle.
Page 37 - Thus saith the LORD, About midnight will I go out into the midst of Egypt : And all the firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh that sitteth upon his throne, even unto the firstborn of the maidservant that is behind the mill ; and all the firstborn of beasts.
Page 228 - Come, my beloved, let us go forth into the field ; Let us lodge in the villages. Let us get up early to the vineyards; Let us see if the vine flourish, whether the tender grape appear, And the pomegranates bud forth: There will I give thee my loves.
Page 126 - Doth Job fear God for nought? 10 Hast not thou made an hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he hath on every side ? thou hast blessed the work of his hands, and his substance is increased in the land. 11 But put forth thine hand now, and touch all that he hath, and he will curse thee to thy face.
Page 19 - I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake; for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth; neither will I again smite any more every thing living, as I have done.
Page 158 - Thus saith the LORD the King of Israel, and his redeemer the LORD of hosts ; I am the first, and I am the last ; and beside me there is no God.
Page 106 - He will keep the feet of his saints, And the wicked shall be silent in darkness; For by strength shall no man prevail.
Page 160 - But ye shall be named the Priests of the LORD : men shall call you the Ministers of our God : ye shall eat the riches of the Gentiles, and in their glory shall ye boast yourselves.
Page 126 - And the Lord said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil?