Ed Dobson

It took me a while to get around to reading this. I had read A.J. Jacobs brilliant and hilarious The Year of Living Biblically and found it an interesting look at how an otherwise secular Jew could approach the Bible, in part to debunk biblical literalism and in part spiritual exploration (and of course to sell books and entertain). I wasn't sure I wanted to read the Christian spin off version. But I like Ed Dobson and have respected the way he left a public position in the Moral Majority to pursue a pastoral vocation which connected with people on the margins (before every other Evangelical was talking about this). So I read and was pleasantly surprised by this.

The tone of this book is different than A.J. Jacobs. Dobson has long been a follower of Jesus, so he embarks on this journey as a religious insider. He also is not as stringent as Jacobs was in how he lives out his biblical year. Dobson keeps kosher, but not well. He practices the Sabbath, but not every week and not a total Sabbath in the Jewish sense. He commits to reading through the four gospels every week and fails. Some of his adjustments are do to the fact that Ed Dobson suffers from ALS (Lou Gerig's disease) and thus could not embark on as radical a change as the younger, spryer Jacobs could. But he may not have had the follow though Jacobs did anyway, I don't know.

But there are some interesting surprises here. Dobson's year like Jesus happened in the last election year (2008) and he found himself voting for a Democrat for the first time in his life because he saw Obama's views cohered with Jesus' teaching more than the other candidates (despite the fact that Dobson is staunchly pro-life). He also began drinking (after being a teetotaler) because being like Jesus meant eating and drinking with sinners. So he drank light beer and went to bars and talked to people about God. He also explores the prayer traditions of other Christians which focus on the Biblical Jesus. As an evangelical, for the first time in his life he begins praying the rosary (despite initial angst about praying 'to' Mary), the Jesus prayer and using the Orthodox prayer rope, and Episcopalian prayer beads.

Dobson learned a lot about how Jesus had a heart to reach those who wouldn't come to a church and got in some great conversations. He also identified with Jesus when some of his choices 'to live like Jesus' were misunderstood by Christian friends and religious insiders.

This is quick thought provoking read and I liked it a lot. Jacob's book is more entertaining but this is a little deeper and Dobson has a warm, easy way about him.

One small detail I particularly enjoyed was Dobson's appropriation of the Jesus prayer for intercession. Never finding it easy to pray for healing, Dobson began praying the Jesus prayer for people saying, "Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on _______." Kind of a short, easy way to pray, when words escape you. Good stuff.… (more)