I got to see the premiere of this movie at the Colony Film Fest in Marietta, Ohio. Josh Crook went to Marietta College, and so has a connection with the area. He came to Marietta from NYC to film this movie with his brother Jeff. One of the scenes (the driver’s apartment) was filmed in my boyfriend’s old apartment building. I walked up those stairs many times…weird to see it in the movie. Great flick. It’s being released through Lion’s Gate soon.

Ehrman does an excellent job of making the topic and scope of textual criticism accessible to non-scholars. While the entire book is excellent, the last chapter…specifically the last section of the last chapter…was the most important part of the book for me. Ehrman masterfully pieces together a case for the Bible as a human book, and then brings it full circle to discuss our own humanity and how it affects our reading and communication of and about any text we read. After I finished, I thought, “Every person who has read or will ever read the New Testament should read this.” It’s so essential to understanding how the NT was put together. But it also brings a new understanding to how we read ANY text. Highly recommended.

I found this book to be extremely well-organized and approachable for people on all levels of Biblical scholarship. I really appreciated his commitment to painting pictures of the world’s vast suffering, bringing it to the consciousness of an audience that doesn’t have much experience in it as compared to the rest of the world. Even if a reader doesn’t agree with his conclusions, I believe it would be difficult to dispute his presentation of the various viewpoints, and they are worth reading if you’re interested in thinking more about why people suffer.

While there were some great stories in this book, it wasn’t really presenting new information to me, although I think many people in my life would learn from this man’s experience and research. I decided to focus back on “God’s Problem,” which I had set aside for a bit to read this one.

I couldn’t believe this was released in 1960 when I saw it. The issues it tackles are the same ones we’re debating today among religious circles and between atheists and believes. It presents many different viewpoints without bias, and each character is presented multidimensionally. I loved it!

A good friend said he believes the movie is about how we raise our children in different cultures. I don’t know if that was the main thought that the writer wanted to portray or not, but it definitely brings another source of coherence to the plot besides the interconnectedness/hardship-knows-no-race themes.