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Apostle: Travels Among the Tombs of the Twelve
Who were the Apostles and what was their relationship to Jesus? Was James the Less really his brother? This synthesis of travelogue and biblical history ranges from Rome and Jerusalem, Turkey and Russia to India and Kyrgyzstan to seek answers to these ancient enigmas. Exploring the way the identities of the Apostles have evolved over two millennia, Tom Bissell charts the growth of Christianity from an obscure sect to the global faith we know today.
432 pages, Hardcover
First published March 1, 2016
223 people are currently reading
1308 people want to read
About the author
Tom Bissell
42 books178 followersTom Bissell (born 1974) is a journalist, critic, and fiction writer.
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 165 reviews
March 22, 2016
What a strange, impressive, infuriating book this is.
As I see it, Tom Bissell's Apostle has three audiences, and those parts of the book that gratify one may well aggravate the other two. There's the Bissell fans, the people who enjoy Bissell's voice and sensibility and will follow his writing wherever it leads. (Put me in that camp.) There's the travel literature readers, who want to experience all the textures of an unseen landscape. And there's biblical scholars, seeking a rigorous analysis of the lives of the twelve apostles. I don't know how much overlap there is among those three groupings, how many people are going to find themselves in the center of that interlocking Venn diagram.
For my part, my admiration for Bissell's storytelling (the chapters concerning his trips to Israel, India, and Kyrgyzstan are highlights) was matched only by my frustration at the bewildering passages dealing with the apostles themselves. "Anyone who does not find Christianity interesting has only his or her unfamiliarity with the topic to blame," writes Bissell. Fair enough. But not finding wonky exegesis of the quasi-historical/literary/religious traditions of the lives of twelve men with multiple names, fluid identities, and questionable historical reality interesting is another matter. My interest in the personal/travel sections of Apostle dwarfed my interest in the sections on the apostles themselves, which I admit I began to skim a little halfway through the text. (Similarly, I imagine serious students of early Christianity reading Apostle and wondering: I just wanted to know about the formation of the Cult of Thomas in India in the first century CE; why exactly am I being treated to this dude's gastrointestinal difficulties?)
It's been many years, but I don't remember this schism being a problem in Bissell's much earlier book Chasing the Sea. In that book, Bissell's memoir of returning to Uzbekistan after many years was deftly intertwined with an engaging history of the Soviet project to drain the Aral Sea, and I never became bored. Apostle is a major achievement, many years in the making and with a lot to recommend about it, but it ultimately left me cold and dissatisfied.
As I see it, Tom Bissell's Apostle has three audiences, and those parts of the book that gratify one may well aggravate the other two. There's the Bissell fans, the people who enjoy Bissell's voice and sensibility and will follow his writing wherever it leads. (Put me in that camp.) There's the travel literature readers, who want to experience all the textures of an unseen landscape. And there's biblical scholars, seeking a rigorous analysis of the lives of the twelve apostles. I don't know how much overlap there is among those three groupings, how many people are going to find themselves in the center of that interlocking Venn diagram.
For my part, my admiration for Bissell's storytelling (the chapters concerning his trips to Israel, India, and Kyrgyzstan are highlights) was matched only by my frustration at the bewildering passages dealing with the apostles themselves. "Anyone who does not find Christianity interesting has only his or her unfamiliarity with the topic to blame," writes Bissell. Fair enough. But not finding wonky exegesis of the quasi-historical/literary/religious traditions of the lives of twelve men with multiple names, fluid identities, and questionable historical reality interesting is another matter. My interest in the personal/travel sections of Apostle dwarfed my interest in the sections on the apostles themselves, which I admit I began to skim a little halfway through the text. (Similarly, I imagine serious students of early Christianity reading Apostle and wondering: I just wanted to know about the formation of the Cult of Thomas in India in the first century CE; why exactly am I being treated to this dude's gastrointestinal difficulties?)
It's been many years, but I don't remember this schism being a problem in Bissell's much earlier book Chasing the Sea. In that book, Bissell's memoir of returning to Uzbekistan after many years was deftly intertwined with an engaging history of the Soviet project to drain the Aral Sea, and I never became bored. Apostle is a major achievement, many years in the making and with a lot to recommend about it, but it ultimately left me cold and dissatisfied.
February 12, 2022
Thomas Bissell is a consistently interesting writer, even if his choice in subject matter doesn't always appeal to me. In lesser hands (or in the hands of a "real" historian), we might expect to read a sentence like:
========================
The questions remain: Why read this, and why did Bissell write it? I do not believe that the laws of the universe were temporarily suspended two thousand years ago in a small patch of land near the Dead Sea, and neither, apparently, does the author. We were both raised as Catholics, an experience which he enjoyed and I did not. But we share an interest in history, and perhaps even more an interest in how history is written, and by whom, and why.
Bissell seems mostly interested in answering two questions. More accurately, in addressing two questions, because it's plain that they will never be answered to everybody's satisfaction.
1. What was the process by which the Christian church cast off most of its Jewish underpinnings?
2. What is the nature of Jesus vis-a-vis God and the Holy Spirit?
The first question actually turns out to be pretty interesting to modern secular humans; the second, not so much, or at least not to this human. If, like me, you stopped thinking about religion on your twelfth birthday because your parents offered you a choice of whether to continue attending church, on the one hand, or staying home watching TV or raising Cain (so to speak) with your brothers on the other, then you probably haven't given this much thought. But I'd always assumed the Bible was a fixed set of dogma, and it was really eye-opening to read about someone trying to inject some humanism into the Jewish religion of the time, and how it spiraled into a completely new religion, entirely divorced from Jewish law, in the eighty to hundred years after his death.
In other words, it fits a human pattern pretty well: It's much easier to launch revolutions than to steer them. As someone working in technology whose seen inventions slip out of control of their creators and become something completely different in the hands of investors and marketers, this resonates. (Please note that I am not, except insofar as a pattern is established, comparing my career to that of Jesus Christ.)
===============================
The most rewarding portions of this are Bissell's description of his actual travels in the course of his writing, beginning in Israel (where he searched for the spot that Judas Iscariot met his end) and continuing through Italy, Greece, Turkey, India, France and Spain. He finds interesting things to say about each of these places, many of which are well off the tourist beat.
Most of the book is an exploration of the past -- the unknowable past, because the records simply are not there. There's a great deal of discussion of the wild leaps, the unsubstantiated inferences, the unauthorized edits (or indeed undefined role of editor) that went into writing the New Testament. At the end of the day, if you are a true believer, it is in spite of rather than because of the Bible, because even among the four Gospels there are alarming inconsistencies. (Even in the actual number of apostles, they can't get their stories straight.)
After all, if the Bible were the perfect word of God, would Biblical scholars even have a job?
Of the four authors of the gospels, Matthew was most interested in establishing continuity with the Jewish tradition (followed by four pages of references and qualifiers.)Bissell renders it this way:
Matthew, more than any other gospel writer, worked with various pieces of scripture flattened out next to him, extracting as much exegetical serum as possible. So intent is Matthew on tying Jesus' every word to to Hebrew scripture that he misinterprets....This latter quote brings to my mind an actual grey-bearded human being scratching away with a quill pen in a candlelit room, which is not something standard historians are necessarily trying to achieve.
========================
The questions remain: Why read this, and why did Bissell write it? I do not believe that the laws of the universe were temporarily suspended two thousand years ago in a small patch of land near the Dead Sea, and neither, apparently, does the author. We were both raised as Catholics, an experience which he enjoyed and I did not. But we share an interest in history, and perhaps even more an interest in how history is written, and by whom, and why.
Bissell seems mostly interested in answering two questions. More accurately, in addressing two questions, because it's plain that they will never be answered to everybody's satisfaction.
1. What was the process by which the Christian church cast off most of its Jewish underpinnings?
2. What is the nature of Jesus vis-a-vis God and the Holy Spirit?
The first question actually turns out to be pretty interesting to modern secular humans; the second, not so much, or at least not to this human. If, like me, you stopped thinking about religion on your twelfth birthday because your parents offered you a choice of whether to continue attending church, on the one hand, or staying home watching TV or raising Cain (so to speak) with your brothers on the other, then you probably haven't given this much thought. But I'd always assumed the Bible was a fixed set of dogma, and it was really eye-opening to read about someone trying to inject some humanism into the Jewish religion of the time, and how it spiraled into a completely new religion, entirely divorced from Jewish law, in the eighty to hundred years after his death.
In other words, it fits a human pattern pretty well: It's much easier to launch revolutions than to steer them. As someone working in technology whose seen inventions slip out of control of their creators and become something completely different in the hands of investors and marketers, this resonates. (Please note that I am not, except insofar as a pattern is established, comparing my career to that of Jesus Christ.)
===============================
The most rewarding portions of this are Bissell's description of his actual travels in the course of his writing, beginning in Israel (where he searched for the spot that Judas Iscariot met his end) and continuing through Italy, Greece, Turkey, India, France and Spain. He finds interesting things to say about each of these places, many of which are well off the tourist beat.
Most of the book is an exploration of the past -- the unknowable past, because the records simply are not there. There's a great deal of discussion of the wild leaps, the unsubstantiated inferences, the unauthorized edits (or indeed undefined role of editor) that went into writing the New Testament. At the end of the day, if you are a true believer, it is in spite of rather than because of the Bible, because even among the four Gospels there are alarming inconsistencies. (Even in the actual number of apostles, they can't get their stories straight.)
After all, if the Bible were the perfect word of God, would Biblical scholars even have a job?
May 20, 2016
The author spent three years visiting the supposed and disputed resting sites of each apostle. While the author is a journalist and not a scholar, he is well versed in exegetical issues, theology, and early church history. His scholarly commentary is punctuated by highly entertaining travel writing.
For each apostle, the academic issues are given along with the author’s trips from Israel (Judas) to Italy (Bartholomew, Philip, James, Peter) to Greece (Andrew), Turkey (John), India (Thomas), France (Simon), Kyrgyzstan (Matthew) and Spain (James) in search of the tombs.
Through the academics the reader gets pages of etymology, possible genealogies, information on the early Christian sects (Sethians, Nestorians Ebonites to name a few) and discussions of disputes on source material and theological issues. There is a flood of information on particulars such as Jesus’s “most beloved disciple” – was it John?; design of “pilgrimage churches”; the spread of Andrew’s bones; on Jesus’s brothers, etc. He shows how the Bible’s dearth of information on these men can be contradictory and how the text has been interpreted and/or “harmonized” over the centuries.
The travel portions are among the best of the genre. He writes of the getting to the site, the look of the surrounding area, the maintenance (or lack of), conversations with cab drivers and other tourists, priests, “curators” (custodians of relics?) and the general feel of anything he sees that relates to the apostle and/or the site’s history. I loved the woman in Kirgizstan who said she couldn’t speak of the monastery, only a priest could talk about it.
The first chapter, on Judas, is a good example of the depth and pace of this unusual narrative. Bissell cites the many and contradictory portrayals of Judas in scholarship, art and fiction (evil, penitent, tragic, tormented, possessed, confused, loving, committer of fratricide, diseased and more) that have been derived from a mere 22 mentions in the Bible. He gives background on the gospels and compares their presentation of Judas and his betrayal. He discusses the scriptural conflict of how Judas died: Acts says he “burst open and died” on Hakeldama -The Field of Blood - and Matthew says he hung himself. He notes that Judas may have bought this field with the money from the betrayal and other aspects of the betrayal story.
Side by side with the academic is the travelogue with insight into the current status of this supposed grave site - in this case -Hakeldama. The signs of the conflict in Israel are everywhere. Barbed wire and a separating wall are visible from this vacant and barren Field. Bissell and his companion see two children, sheep and a shepherd wearing blue jeans and a wind breaker. The shepherd waves and they speak. They ask if many people visit this site. The shepherd say some days 2 people visit, some days none. It is hard to interpret but he seems to want their help in his divided house (2 houses?) that may have been shot at or taken by the Israelis. Silwan, an Arab neighborhood is down the road from the Field, is currently being “settled” by Israelis (with one settlement named for Jonathan Pollard!). In further visits to other sites on this trip, the image of contemporary divided Israel are noted, most sadly as the cab driver tries to find unblocked roads to get to the Garden of Gethsemane.
This book will please few readers. The academic reader while reading the summation of sources on Thomas (and perhaps Mary) in India will not be happy to read of the author’s digestive problems in India or that the “Santhome Basilica was the single cleanest thing I had seen in India this side of Domino’s Pizza bathroom porcelain” (p.253). The travel reader will be turned off plowing through 3 pages of intricate etymology before re-joining Bissell on his travels. A book like this should appeal to believers which Bissell is not (he says so up front), but, while most of the book is even handed, there are parts when he goes overboard with needling descriptions that challenge faith. The last chapter could outright offend.
For each apostle, the academic issues are given along with the author’s trips from Israel (Judas) to Italy (Bartholomew, Philip, James, Peter) to Greece (Andrew), Turkey (John), India (Thomas), France (Simon), Kyrgyzstan (Matthew) and Spain (James) in search of the tombs.
Through the academics the reader gets pages of etymology, possible genealogies, information on the early Christian sects (Sethians, Nestorians Ebonites to name a few) and discussions of disputes on source material and theological issues. There is a flood of information on particulars such as Jesus’s “most beloved disciple” – was it John?; design of “pilgrimage churches”; the spread of Andrew’s bones; on Jesus’s brothers, etc. He shows how the Bible’s dearth of information on these men can be contradictory and how the text has been interpreted and/or “harmonized” over the centuries.
The travel portions are among the best of the genre. He writes of the getting to the site, the look of the surrounding area, the maintenance (or lack of), conversations with cab drivers and other tourists, priests, “curators” (custodians of relics?) and the general feel of anything he sees that relates to the apostle and/or the site’s history. I loved the woman in Kirgizstan who said she couldn’t speak of the monastery, only a priest could talk about it.
The first chapter, on Judas, is a good example of the depth and pace of this unusual narrative. Bissell cites the many and contradictory portrayals of Judas in scholarship, art and fiction (evil, penitent, tragic, tormented, possessed, confused, loving, committer of fratricide, diseased and more) that have been derived from a mere 22 mentions in the Bible. He gives background on the gospels and compares their presentation of Judas and his betrayal. He discusses the scriptural conflict of how Judas died: Acts says he “burst open and died” on Hakeldama -The Field of Blood - and Matthew says he hung himself. He notes that Judas may have bought this field with the money from the betrayal and other aspects of the betrayal story.
Side by side with the academic is the travelogue with insight into the current status of this supposed grave site - in this case -Hakeldama. The signs of the conflict in Israel are everywhere. Barbed wire and a separating wall are visible from this vacant and barren Field. Bissell and his companion see two children, sheep and a shepherd wearing blue jeans and a wind breaker. The shepherd waves and they speak. They ask if many people visit this site. The shepherd say some days 2 people visit, some days none. It is hard to interpret but he seems to want their help in his divided house (2 houses?) that may have been shot at or taken by the Israelis. Silwan, an Arab neighborhood is down the road from the Field, is currently being “settled” by Israelis (with one settlement named for Jonathan Pollard!). In further visits to other sites on this trip, the image of contemporary divided Israel are noted, most sadly as the cab driver tries to find unblocked roads to get to the Garden of Gethsemane.
This book will please few readers. The academic reader while reading the summation of sources on Thomas (and perhaps Mary) in India will not be happy to read of the author’s digestive problems in India or that the “Santhome Basilica was the single cleanest thing I had seen in India this side of Domino’s Pizza bathroom porcelain” (p.253). The travel reader will be turned off plowing through 3 pages of intricate etymology before re-joining Bissell on his travels. A book like this should appeal to believers which Bissell is not (he says so up front), but, while most of the book is even handed, there are parts when he goes overboard with needling descriptions that challenge faith. The last chapter could outright offend.
September 25, 2024
So Tom Bissell has been doing more than playing video games these last few years (he wrote a book on 'why video games matter,' which I can't see myself ever wanting to read). I was impressed with the staggering amount of research he has absorbed on the apostles and early Christianity. He's a former Catholic altar boy and now a non-believer, but is interested in history, myth, relics and tombs, and, obviously, narrow doctrinal and theological disputes. These are all things that I, too, want to read about, without snuck-in doses of proselytization or apologetics! So I felt like a fellow traveler with Bissell - I learned new things and remembered things I had once learned and forgotten. In some ways reading this felt like a 2016 update to a terrific undergraduate class on the New Testament that I had the privilege of taking from Ron Farmer in the early 1990s.
I will say, though, that Bissell's dense pages of information sometimes read like a regurgitation of all this research. Not in the sense of the P word, because it was probably in his own words, but he often gets sounding very scholarly but never uses endnotes. And some of it wasn't so reader friendly and I felt the urge to skim, but didn't because it's my choice to read this after all. I am ready for the Bible-trivia pub quiz.
And because the book seemed so comprehensive (though of course it isn't; the number of books written on early Christianity fills entire libraries), I was a little surprised by a few omissions:
- Though he discusses the textual criticism and redaction criticism of the synoptic gospels in great detail, he never mentions or explains Q source.
- Though he discusses heresies, fringe sects of first-century Palestine, and Gnostic texts as they become important to each apostle's story, he doesn't discuss the Qumran community of Essenes.
- Though he discusses the many Marys of the NT, he never explores the idea of Mary Magdalene as apostle.
These are all missed opportunities, I think, especially the last.
Bissell isn't afraid to use adjectives and adverbs liberally (peregrinative piety, say) even when they are strange (a Niagarically massive waterfall), but I love adjectives and adverbs, so I enjoyed those. He's frequently funny, though you have to wade through a few hundred pages before he allows the humor to emerge, little bombs like "He was either a Greek Orthodox priest or the Prince of Darkness's personal assistant." The juxtapositioning of the information-downloads with the humor and travel accounts was usually abrupt, though I got used to it more in the later chapters where he began incorporating a lot more of the travel narratives. Not sure why, except that perhaps these trips were more important to him, more recent, and more eventful, such as his gastrointestinal problems when in Chennai, India (which was really funny to read, albeit with pained sympathy). His final trip is to the tomb of James at Catedral de Santiago de Compostela, and Bissell decides to cut his account short, which was frustrating (perhaps for another book to come?), but at least it reminded me to read the book of his travel companion, Gideon Lewis-Kraus (A Sense of Direction, 2012).
All in all, very impressive book. Not a fast read, but rewarding for the time it demands.
I will say, though, that Bissell's dense pages of information sometimes read like a regurgitation of all this research. Not in the sense of the P word, because it was probably in his own words, but he often gets sounding very scholarly but never uses endnotes. And some of it wasn't so reader friendly and I felt the urge to skim, but didn't because it's my choice to read this after all. I am ready for the Bible-trivia pub quiz.
And because the book seemed so comprehensive (though of course it isn't; the number of books written on early Christianity fills entire libraries), I was a little surprised by a few omissions:
- Though he discusses the textual criticism and redaction criticism of the synoptic gospels in great detail, he never mentions or explains Q source.
- Though he discusses heresies, fringe sects of first-century Palestine, and Gnostic texts as they become important to each apostle's story, he doesn't discuss the Qumran community of Essenes.
- Though he discusses the many Marys of the NT, he never explores the idea of Mary Magdalene as apostle.
These are all missed opportunities, I think, especially the last.
Bissell isn't afraid to use adjectives and adverbs liberally (peregrinative piety, say) even when they are strange (a Niagarically massive waterfall), but I love adjectives and adverbs, so I enjoyed those. He's frequently funny, though you have to wade through a few hundred pages before he allows the humor to emerge, little bombs like "He was either a Greek Orthodox priest or the Prince of Darkness's personal assistant." The juxtapositioning of the information-downloads with the humor and travel accounts was usually abrupt, though I got used to it more in the later chapters where he began incorporating a lot more of the travel narratives. Not sure why, except that perhaps these trips were more important to him, more recent, and more eventful, such as his gastrointestinal problems when in Chennai, India (which was really funny to read, albeit with pained sympathy). His final trip is to the tomb of James at Catedral de Santiago de Compostela, and Bissell decides to cut his account short, which was frustrating (perhaps for another book to come?), but at least it reminded me to read the book of his travel companion, Gideon Lewis-Kraus (A Sense of Direction, 2012).
All in all, very impressive book. Not a fast read, but rewarding for the time it demands.
August 22, 2017
Having soldiered through 370 pages of text, I have to wonder how a lapsed Catholic received the funds to go jaunting around the world looking for the tombs of the apostles. The reader receives a clue in his chapter on Andrew. He won an award to live in a mansion in Rome and write. After some months of living in Rome, he grabs his roomie and they decide to visit Corinth to see the tomb of St. Andrew. The book reads like one part history, one part religion, and one part philosophy all seen through the lens of a guy who is fortunate, or talented, enough to win an award to live in Rome for a year free of charge and do whatever.
I learned a lot from this book; but I did not enjoy it. I did not like it. Bissell does not bother me that he is a lapsed Catholic writing about Catholicism. He bothers me that he frequently reminds his audience that he is a lapsed Catholic. So, why the pilgrimage? The answer is in the title: "Travels Among the Tombs of the Twelve." He probably received a nice advance on the book and enjoyed travel. Through this lens, readers can see the frustration of the priest in Rome when Bissell asks him 'how important are Philip and James? How do you celebrate them?' In Jerusalem, he asks a random Palestinian shepherd 'what do you know about Judas Iscariot?' The simplicity of these types of questions make Bissell look condescending while at the same time conveying his bewilderment that people place any importance on the Apostles. I am reminded of David Letterman walking New York and asking random people if they want to buy gum. Letterman thought it was funny. Or, Matt Taibbi visiting Republican gatherings with the intention of taping people on film in their stupidity. Bissell fits snugly between them.
There is not much known about the Apostles except through religious books. Bissell does an admirable job in discussing the religious texts, comparing and contrasting, and offering some perspectives on more modern experts. The ultimate lack of historical records on the Apostles leads to the conclusion, that just about any and all stories repeated in the original texts could be, and likely are, fictional. The chapter on Simon the Canannite and Thaddeus even focuses on the use of metaphors and allegory in the Gospels.
The travel commentary is a crucial part of the book. Bissell cleverly uses this commentary to break up the dryer parts of the book. Many reviewers were not too pleased to read about him harassing young lovers in Toulouse to ask them their opinions about the church in front of which they were kissing. I used these interludes of fluff to consider the meat and potatoes of the book. Like most reviewers, the travel commentary was worthless to me: 'Jerusalem is a divided city; I got drunk in Patras; I got diarrhea in India; and faced down children in India; I had fun in Kyrgyzstan.' None of that helped me understand Judas Iscariot, St. Andrew, St. Thomas, or St. Matthew. What was interesting to me is that they only thing "known" about Judas Iscariot was the he purchased a place known as the Field of Blood; but Bissell could not determine if the place had that name before or after Iscariot died.
Overall, I cannot recommend this book. Although readers can learn a little about the Apostles, that information is buried in chapters of fluff. Some of the chapters drone on and on. Bissell spent a lot of time discussing Simon Peter. He barely mentioned St. James (of Santiago Campostella fame). In fact, the book really just suddenly ended with a few pages on St. James. It was as if Bissell said 'I got 370 pages, I'm done.' It is a conclusion that I can easily expect from someone who has a jaundiced view towards the subject matter. His social skills and fearlessness may be somewhat amusing; but they did not appear to help him in his quest.
I learned a lot from this book; but I did not enjoy it. I did not like it. Bissell does not bother me that he is a lapsed Catholic writing about Catholicism. He bothers me that he frequently reminds his audience that he is a lapsed Catholic. So, why the pilgrimage? The answer is in the title: "Travels Among the Tombs of the Twelve." He probably received a nice advance on the book and enjoyed travel. Through this lens, readers can see the frustration of the priest in Rome when Bissell asks him 'how important are Philip and James? How do you celebrate them?' In Jerusalem, he asks a random Palestinian shepherd 'what do you know about Judas Iscariot?' The simplicity of these types of questions make Bissell look condescending while at the same time conveying his bewilderment that people place any importance on the Apostles. I am reminded of David Letterman walking New York and asking random people if they want to buy gum. Letterman thought it was funny. Or, Matt Taibbi visiting Republican gatherings with the intention of taping people on film in their stupidity. Bissell fits snugly between them.
There is not much known about the Apostles except through religious books. Bissell does an admirable job in discussing the religious texts, comparing and contrasting, and offering some perspectives on more modern experts. The ultimate lack of historical records on the Apostles leads to the conclusion, that just about any and all stories repeated in the original texts could be, and likely are, fictional. The chapter on Simon the Canannite and Thaddeus even focuses on the use of metaphors and allegory in the Gospels.
The travel commentary is a crucial part of the book. Bissell cleverly uses this commentary to break up the dryer parts of the book. Many reviewers were not too pleased to read about him harassing young lovers in Toulouse to ask them their opinions about the church in front of which they were kissing. I used these interludes of fluff to consider the meat and potatoes of the book. Like most reviewers, the travel commentary was worthless to me: 'Jerusalem is a divided city; I got drunk in Patras; I got diarrhea in India; and faced down children in India; I had fun in Kyrgyzstan.' None of that helped me understand Judas Iscariot, St. Andrew, St. Thomas, or St. Matthew. What was interesting to me is that they only thing "known" about Judas Iscariot was the he purchased a place known as the Field of Blood; but Bissell could not determine if the place had that name before or after Iscariot died.
Overall, I cannot recommend this book. Although readers can learn a little about the Apostles, that information is buried in chapters of fluff. Some of the chapters drone on and on. Bissell spent a lot of time discussing Simon Peter. He barely mentioned St. James (of Santiago Campostella fame). In fact, the book really just suddenly ended with a few pages on St. James. It was as if Bissell said 'I got 370 pages, I'm done.' It is a conclusion that I can easily expect from someone who has a jaundiced view towards the subject matter. His social skills and fearlessness may be somewhat amusing; but they did not appear to help him in his quest.
September 3, 2018
Įdomi, bet nevienalytė ir keistoka knyga. Autorius stengiasi išsėdėti net ne ant dviejų, bet ant trijų taburečių vienu metu. Ir tai jaučiasi.
Tom Bissell užsibrėžė papasakoti apie vieną esminių krikščionybės ir jos istorijos dalykų - dvylika apaštalų. Jis aplankė daugumą jų tikro ar tariamo palaidojimo vietų, bandė iš istorinių ir religinių šaltinių atsekti ir atkurti jų biografijas, suprasti, kas jie, ką nuveikė, kaip jų gyvenimas paveikė krikščionybę, kaip jų pačių asmenybių suvokimas keitėsi bėgant laikui.
Viena knygos dalis - tai ką Tom Bissell moka gerausiai - žurnalistinis tyrimas ir kelionių literatūra, yra puiki ir beveik be priekaištų. Autorius lanko apaštalų paskutinio poilsio vietas (Indija, Kirgizija, Turkija, Roma, Graikija ir t.t.), gyvai ir su humoru aprašo tuos kraštus, susitikimus su šventas vietas lankančiais žmonėmis, pastangas suprasti jų tikėjimą.
Kita knygos dalis - ankstyvosios krikščionybės, jos pradžios, formavimosi istorija. Išdėstyta per dvylikos apaštalų gyvenimo istoriją, per naujojo Testamento istoriją.
Trečioji knygos dalis - ankstyvosios krikščionių teologijos formavimasis, jos kontraversijos, ginčai ir disputai.
Šios dvi dalys, nors autorius ir stengiasi to išvengti, gana mokslinės ir šiek tiek sausokos, tad bus tikrai įdomios tik krikščionybės istorija besidomintiems žmonėms (nors ką gali žinoti - autorius stengiasi paįvairinti pasakojimą įvariais istoriniais anekdotais ir įdomybėmis).
Aišku, tos pastangos suderinti tris dalykus kartais išmuša iš vėžių - pvz. nuo pasakojimo apie apaštalą Tomą pereinama prie autoriaus vidurių problemų Indijoje ir tie du naratyvai greta atrodo komiškai (labiau netyčia negu tyčia). Tiesa, autoriaus garbei reiktų pastebėti, kad pigių triukų jis stengiasi išvengti. O autoriaus negarbei reikia pastebėti, kad kelionių dalis nepalyginamai gyvesnė už ilgus puslapius spėlionių ir svarstymų, kuris apaštalas kuris i rkodėl taip nutiko ir kaip keitėsi jų vardai, ir kokia tų vardų genezė - kaip pvz. nesupainioti Šv. Judo Tado su Judu Iskarijotu. :)
Kad ir kaip ten būtų, knyga gali tapti paskata giliau pasidomėti ankstyvąja krikščionybe ar apaštalų gyvenimu - tam ir pridedamas literatūros sąrašas pagelbėja.
Tom Bissell užsibrėžė papasakoti apie vieną esminių krikščionybės ir jos istorijos dalykų - dvylika apaštalų. Jis aplankė daugumą jų tikro ar tariamo palaidojimo vietų, bandė iš istorinių ir religinių šaltinių atsekti ir atkurti jų biografijas, suprasti, kas jie, ką nuveikė, kaip jų gyvenimas paveikė krikščionybę, kaip jų pačių asmenybių suvokimas keitėsi bėgant laikui.
Viena knygos dalis - tai ką Tom Bissell moka gerausiai - žurnalistinis tyrimas ir kelionių literatūra, yra puiki ir beveik be priekaištų. Autorius lanko apaštalų paskutinio poilsio vietas (Indija, Kirgizija, Turkija, Roma, Graikija ir t.t.), gyvai ir su humoru aprašo tuos kraštus, susitikimus su šventas vietas lankančiais žmonėmis, pastangas suprasti jų tikėjimą.
Kita knygos dalis - ankstyvosios krikščionybės, jos pradžios, formavimosi istorija. Išdėstyta per dvylikos apaštalų gyvenimo istoriją, per naujojo Testamento istoriją.
Trečioji knygos dalis - ankstyvosios krikščionių teologijos formavimasis, jos kontraversijos, ginčai ir disputai.
Šios dvi dalys, nors autorius ir stengiasi to išvengti, gana mokslinės ir šiek tiek sausokos, tad bus tikrai įdomios tik krikščionybės istorija besidomintiems žmonėms (nors ką gali žinoti - autorius stengiasi paįvairinti pasakojimą įvariais istoriniais anekdotais ir įdomybėmis).
Aišku, tos pastangos suderinti tris dalykus kartais išmuša iš vėžių - pvz. nuo pasakojimo apie apaštalą Tomą pereinama prie autoriaus vidurių problemų Indijoje ir tie du naratyvai greta atrodo komiškai (labiau netyčia negu tyčia). Tiesa, autoriaus garbei reiktų pastebėti, kad pigių triukų jis stengiasi išvengti. O autoriaus negarbei reikia pastebėti, kad kelionių dalis nepalyginamai gyvesnė už ilgus puslapius spėlionių ir svarstymų, kuris apaštalas kuris i rkodėl taip nutiko ir kaip keitėsi jų vardai, ir kokia tų vardų genezė - kaip pvz. nesupainioti Šv. Judo Tado su Judu Iskarijotu. :)
Kad ir kaip ten būtų, knyga gali tapti paskata giliau pasidomėti ankstyvąja krikščionybe ar apaštalų gyvenimu - tam ir pridedamas literatūros sąrašas pagelbėja.
August 4, 2019
I got this book on a bargain table at my UBS and am so, so grateful I did not spend full price on it.
From the start, I had some serious problems with the narrator. From his descriptions of fellow American tourists having "chiclet teeth" or Asian women wearing masks looking like "extraterrestrials here to take surface samples before heading back to the mother ship" (p. 184) or his charming take on Italy where "Standing in the hallway with cologned functionaries striding by was like being downwind from a cosmetics laboratory"(p. 111) or mildly mocking the gentleman who seemed covered in burs ("Did he live in a thicket? (p. 33) the author asks), it was clear he had a disdainful outlook towards the majority of people surrounding him. He was incessant in his use of the word "ragged" to describe the people of the places he visited and anxious to convey every scent he found the least bit malodorous. Page 180 -181 also contained a scene which seemed to serve as a reminder of the danger to white women in the Middle Eastern world. I was deeply uncomfortable while reading it, since it seemed a throwback to the days of "The Sheikh" and the idea of brown men's obsession with pretty white ladies. It just felt - off? icky? Definitely uncomfortable.
But it gets worse. The author clearly didn't understand his subject material. He claims Eusebius "failed to find any clear footprints of those who had gone before" (xii) but the fact Eusebius "had access to the best possible records from the impressive ecclesiastical library that had been established at Caesarea on the coast of Palestine" is found in numerous sources including After Actsby Bryan Litfin. He will often use the phrase "most scholars" when he means a majority of a minority of biblical scholars. Liberal theology represents some 20% of biblical scholarship. He states that "Today near universal agreement exists among modern scholars that Revelation was not written by a direct follower of Jesus." He gives no backing for this blanket statement, which is not in the least "universal" unless he is once more referring to his majority of a minority. He mentions Origen often, the majority of whose works didn't survive the purges done to them since he was (and in many cases still is) viewed as a heretic. (The Westminster Handbook to Origen
edited by John Anthony McGuckin) On pg. 72 he recounts a scene from Acts 5 and states that "The Holy Spirit quickly strikes them (Ananias and Sapphira) dead for withholding" when in fact the text states "Didn’t it belong to you before it was sold? And after it was sold, wasn’t the money at your disposal?"( Acts 5:4) They weren't in trouble for withholding but for attempting to take credit not due them Acts 5:4 You have not lied just to human beings but to God.” He accuses John of attacking other Christians when John is referring to the Jewish council, who were assuredly not Christians. He states "For unknown reasons, John's gospel contains a relatively large portion of unique Andrew material." (p. 151) and yet the reason is clear. John and Andrew worked the same profession, in the same bay and had undoubtedly known each other for years. It would be completely natural to include information about someone that well known to you.
I could spend hours writing out flaws within the text but I hope I have given a sufficient sampling of the kinds of errors one finds within and would prefer to close with my critiques of the writing. He apparently got to see some truly odd sights since at one point he describes a scene with "watermelon light" (p. 45) (pink and green with dark specks? seriously?) and "Above the sky was all lilac softness (p.208) What? Advises us that "My religion makes no sense, therefore I pursue it" (page 361) Huh? and concludes that "It is only our stories that lay balms across our impermanence." (p 365). I review books and even I know they are no balm for impermanence (although a good book, a comfy chair and a few hours of reading are a balm for most of life's other ills.)
I've read three books in three days on the apostles and this was easily the worst in every respect.
From the start, I had some serious problems with the narrator. From his descriptions of fellow American tourists having "chiclet teeth" or Asian women wearing masks looking like "extraterrestrials here to take surface samples before heading back to the mother ship" (p. 184) or his charming take on Italy where "Standing in the hallway with cologned functionaries striding by was like being downwind from a cosmetics laboratory"(p. 111) or mildly mocking the gentleman who seemed covered in burs ("Did he live in a thicket? (p. 33) the author asks), it was clear he had a disdainful outlook towards the majority of people surrounding him. He was incessant in his use of the word "ragged" to describe the people of the places he visited and anxious to convey every scent he found the least bit malodorous. Page 180 -181 also contained a scene which seemed to serve as a reminder of the danger to white women in the Middle Eastern world. I was deeply uncomfortable while reading it, since it seemed a throwback to the days of "The Sheikh" and the idea of brown men's obsession with pretty white ladies. It just felt - off? icky? Definitely uncomfortable.
But it gets worse. The author clearly didn't understand his subject material. He claims Eusebius "failed to find any clear footprints of those who had gone before" (xii) but the fact Eusebius "had access to the best possible records from the impressive ecclesiastical library that had been established at Caesarea on the coast of Palestine" is found in numerous sources including After Actsby Bryan Litfin. He will often use the phrase "most scholars" when he means a majority of a minority of biblical scholars. Liberal theology represents some 20% of biblical scholarship. He states that "Today near universal agreement exists among modern scholars that Revelation was not written by a direct follower of Jesus." He gives no backing for this blanket statement, which is not in the least "universal" unless he is once more referring to his majority of a minority. He mentions Origen often, the majority of whose works didn't survive the purges done to them since he was (and in many cases still is) viewed as a heretic. (The Westminster Handbook to Origen
edited by John Anthony McGuckin) On pg. 72 he recounts a scene from Acts 5 and states that "The Holy Spirit quickly strikes them (Ananias and Sapphira) dead for withholding" when in fact the text states "Didn’t it belong to you before it was sold? And after it was sold, wasn’t the money at your disposal?"( Acts 5:4) They weren't in trouble for withholding but for attempting to take credit not due them Acts 5:4 You have not lied just to human beings but to God.” He accuses John of attacking other Christians when John is referring to the Jewish council, who were assuredly not Christians. He states "For unknown reasons, John's gospel contains a relatively large portion of unique Andrew material." (p. 151) and yet the reason is clear. John and Andrew worked the same profession, in the same bay and had undoubtedly known each other for years. It would be completely natural to include information about someone that well known to you.
I could spend hours writing out flaws within the text but I hope I have given a sufficient sampling of the kinds of errors one finds within and would prefer to close with my critiques of the writing. He apparently got to see some truly odd sights since at one point he describes a scene with "watermelon light" (p. 45) (pink and green with dark specks? seriously?) and "Above the sky was all lilac softness (p.208) What? Advises us that "My religion makes no sense, therefore I pursue it" (page 361) Huh? and concludes that "It is only our stories that lay balms across our impermanence." (p 365). I review books and even I know they are no balm for impermanence (although a good book, a comfy chair and a few hours of reading are a balm for most of life's other ills.)
I've read three books in three days on the apostles and this was easily the worst in every respect.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 3, 2017
I had to abandon this after the first four chapters. The mix of travel, history and theology was off. He went way too far afield on seemingly irrelevant topics and hardly touched on others that might have been interesting. Mostly, it seems like his research, journey and experiences only served to confirm his lack of faith rather than point to any larger truths about people, history or religion. I also found his many of his descriptions to be almost disrespectful, especially of the people he encountered.
February 6, 2017
2.5 stars rounded up. This book was awkward to read because it was trying to be 3 different genres at once: travel diary, a history of Christianity, and commentary on religion. But, I powered through because the parts about the author's travels were charming. It was a noble adventure, but spoiled by his chip on his shoulder about his religious beliefs...or lack there of
May 24, 2016
"Apostle: Travels Among the Tombs of the Twelve" is a book that is extremely engrossing, exceptionally literary, frequently witty, and ultimately disappointing.
The author, Tom Bissell, is a writer who has published articles in numerous literary magazines and who has authored several books, many of which relate to travel. In "Apostle," Bissell sets out to visit a tomb linked to each of the 12 Apostles (actually 13, when St. Paul is included), a multi-year project that took the author to sites from Spain (St. James the Greater) to Kyrgyzstan (St. Matthew the Evangelist).
Each chapter in the book covers an apostle or pair of apostles, while an additional chapter discusses the evolution of the orthodox Christian understanding of the nature of Jesus of Nazareth. In general, each of the volume's 12 chapter offers some combination of a travelogue, a review of what is written about the apostle(s) in question in both canonical and non-canonical scriptures, and a popular discussion of modern scholarship related to the apostle(s) in question.
Bissell is an extremely talented writer, and the book is by and large engrossing. In some chapters, such as the one about the site in Kurmanty, Kyrgzstan, connected to St. Matthew, the travel component dominates, while in other chapters, such as the one about a site in Selcuk, Turkey, linked to St. John the Evangelist, the more biblical and historical elements take center stage. Depending on a reader's tastes, some chapters are apt to make stronger impressions than others.
At the outset of the book, Bissell states that he is a lapsed Catholic who has no ax to grind with Christianity but who is not himself a believer--a description that is born out in the book, especially when Bissell writes about his interactions with more ardent believers, such as his dealings in Chennai, India, with Saint Thomas Christians (Syrian Christians) and his interactions around Patras, Greece (St. Andrew), with assorted Greek Orthodox priests and monks.
Bissell's relative lack of faith gives him a perspective needed to write about religion in a dispassionate way. He, for instance, appreciates the fact that the Bible doesn't actually agree on the names of the apostles and whether or not there were actually 12. When recounting his visit to the joint tomb of St. Simon the Less and St. Jude (Thaddaeus) in Toulouse, France, Bissell delights in that there is no agreement in the New Testament as to just what the names of these apostles were. Are the author of the Letter of Jude, the "Judas of James" mentioned by St. Luke, and the "Judas (not Iscariot)" named by St. John the same person, three different people, or some combination thereof? Quips Bissell, "Fitting that Jude Thaddaeus became the patron saint of lost causes: discerning his real identity is as lost as New Testament causes get."
Bissell's relative lack of faith also gives him the space needed to look seriously at surviving non-canonical scriptures and to weigh the assessments of modern scholars whose research challenges received wisdom or tradition. In the process, Bissell offers some insightful observations about why the canonical gospels became canonical. (Basically, despite their other problems, they generally are better pieces of literature than those that didn't make the cut.)
At the same time, the author's lack of faith sometimes is a handicap. Bissell occasionally seems willing to grant disproportionate weight to non-canonical texts just for the sake of being edgy or rebellious, just as the dubious altar boy he once was might have done. Additionally, Bissell rarely has meaningful exchanges with the actual believers he encounters, and he rarely seems to make an effort to understand their perspective. Instead, he often pokes fun at them. To make matters worse, Bissell has an unfortunate tendency to mock his subjects through use of $10.00 words--a tendency that makes the author come off as petty and pedantic.
Although extremely interesting and admirable in many respects, "Apostle" ultimately is an unsatisfying book. For a travel writer who spent years visiting religious sites, Bissell appears unchanged by his experiences. There is no expectation that Bissell should have embraced faith in the process, but ideally, the combination of travel, research, and writing should have had some discernible impact on Bissell's thinking and understanding of the world and Christianity's place in it. But apparently it didn't, as exhibited in the book's short, uninformative final chapter (a visit to a site in Santiago, Spain, connected to St. James the Greater) that fails to identify any real perspective gained from the almost 400 pages that preceded it.
The author, Tom Bissell, is a writer who has published articles in numerous literary magazines and who has authored several books, many of which relate to travel. In "Apostle," Bissell sets out to visit a tomb linked to each of the 12 Apostles (actually 13, when St. Paul is included), a multi-year project that took the author to sites from Spain (St. James the Greater) to Kyrgyzstan (St. Matthew the Evangelist).
Each chapter in the book covers an apostle or pair of apostles, while an additional chapter discusses the evolution of the orthodox Christian understanding of the nature of Jesus of Nazareth. In general, each of the volume's 12 chapter offers some combination of a travelogue, a review of what is written about the apostle(s) in question in both canonical and non-canonical scriptures, and a popular discussion of modern scholarship related to the apostle(s) in question.
Bissell is an extremely talented writer, and the book is by and large engrossing. In some chapters, such as the one about the site in Kurmanty, Kyrgzstan, connected to St. Matthew, the travel component dominates, while in other chapters, such as the one about a site in Selcuk, Turkey, linked to St. John the Evangelist, the more biblical and historical elements take center stage. Depending on a reader's tastes, some chapters are apt to make stronger impressions than others.
At the outset of the book, Bissell states that he is a lapsed Catholic who has no ax to grind with Christianity but who is not himself a believer--a description that is born out in the book, especially when Bissell writes about his interactions with more ardent believers, such as his dealings in Chennai, India, with Saint Thomas Christians (Syrian Christians) and his interactions around Patras, Greece (St. Andrew), with assorted Greek Orthodox priests and monks.
Bissell's relative lack of faith gives him a perspective needed to write about religion in a dispassionate way. He, for instance, appreciates the fact that the Bible doesn't actually agree on the names of the apostles and whether or not there were actually 12. When recounting his visit to the joint tomb of St. Simon the Less and St. Jude (Thaddaeus) in Toulouse, France, Bissell delights in that there is no agreement in the New Testament as to just what the names of these apostles were. Are the author of the Letter of Jude, the "Judas of James" mentioned by St. Luke, and the "Judas (not Iscariot)" named by St. John the same person, three different people, or some combination thereof? Quips Bissell, "Fitting that Jude Thaddaeus became the patron saint of lost causes: discerning his real identity is as lost as New Testament causes get."
Bissell's relative lack of faith also gives him the space needed to look seriously at surviving non-canonical scriptures and to weigh the assessments of modern scholars whose research challenges received wisdom or tradition. In the process, Bissell offers some insightful observations about why the canonical gospels became canonical. (Basically, despite their other problems, they generally are better pieces of literature than those that didn't make the cut.)
At the same time, the author's lack of faith sometimes is a handicap. Bissell occasionally seems willing to grant disproportionate weight to non-canonical texts just for the sake of being edgy or rebellious, just as the dubious altar boy he once was might have done. Additionally, Bissell rarely has meaningful exchanges with the actual believers he encounters, and he rarely seems to make an effort to understand their perspective. Instead, he often pokes fun at them. To make matters worse, Bissell has an unfortunate tendency to mock his subjects through use of $10.00 words--a tendency that makes the author come off as petty and pedantic.
Although extremely interesting and admirable in many respects, "Apostle" ultimately is an unsatisfying book. For a travel writer who spent years visiting religious sites, Bissell appears unchanged by his experiences. There is no expectation that Bissell should have embraced faith in the process, but ideally, the combination of travel, research, and writing should have had some discernible impact on Bissell's thinking and understanding of the world and Christianity's place in it. But apparently it didn't, as exhibited in the book's short, uninformative final chapter (a visit to a site in Santiago, Spain, connected to St. James the Greater) that fails to identify any real perspective gained from the almost 400 pages that preceded it.
December 17, 2018
I really thought this was going to be a book about the tombs of the apostles and what they had done in evangelizing for the creation of the church.
This book was really just ramblings typically about how the apostles didn't do much and there may not really have been miracles or any good actions, but that the gospel writers were just making stuff up later.
I didn't enjoy this book and cannot recommend it to be read by anyone else. A bit of a waste of time.
This book was really just ramblings typically about how the apostles didn't do much and there may not really have been miracles or any good actions, but that the gospel writers were just making stuff up later.
I didn't enjoy this book and cannot recommend it to be read by anyone else. A bit of a waste of time.
March 31, 2017
What purported to be a search for the historical tombs of the Apostles, was, in reality, the sniping of a bitter non-believer , who claims he once wanted to be a priest. I do not know what happened to this poor man to make him lose his faith, but I do know the difference between a scientific work and an editorialized travelogue. What could have been an interesting story is just sad.
March 17, 2016
Much of the content deserves more than two stars, but Bissell's "American Karl Pilkington" act in the travelogue portions got old quickly and unbearable by the end of the book.
July 11, 2016
Details are interesting but the author is very cynical.
January 9, 2026
More like 2 1/2, I wanted to like this a lot more and some of the writing is very good, especially with regards to the travel aspect of it, but I have to admit my eyes glazed over at the (myriad) sections of each chapter that broke down all of the theological perspectives of every gospel. Some of it was interesting, but a lot of it was boring (to me, the apostate-ish Catholic). Basically, more theology than I was expecting (which maybe should have been more, my fault).
September 9, 2018
Superbly elegant writing from Bissell is augmented by top-notch production values from Pantheon in the production of this book. Well done to everyone involved!
Bissell uses the literary device of providing a framework consisting of a 21st-c tour through some sites (not all of them) which are shrines and places of pilgrimage related in one way or another to the apostles of Jesus known as “the Twelve” and which are still extant to this day.
One of the intriguing elements of this journey is the fact that these places still exist and that many flourish as places of continued pilgrimage and reverence. The intrigue stems from the fact that as a rule the majority of these “twelve” have little if any references in the traditional four gospels of the New Testament (NT) where they are first mentioned — and these twelve are not as open-and-shut cases when it comes to their actual identities anyway… What we have here are not matters either of history or of theology, but matters of Faith based on varying and sometimes contradictory folklores and legends built up over the ages.
Essentially Bissell concentrates on the “agreed” traditional list of the Twelve apostles; their biblical mentions and the variant versions of their subsequent histories are considered honestly and authoritatively from within the context of their “development” over the centuries. In the process, the reader is painlessly informed about the historical and theological concerns, particularly of the first 600 year of so of the development of Christianity — a subject of immense complexity and fascination.
The book is presented in twelve chapters, but the Twelve Apostles are covered in only ten of these chapters. Separate chapters are provided: one for coverage of Paul’s significance in all this (it should be remembered that Paul was probably the first to call himself an apostle (the word means “messenger” or “one sent forth” and Paul was indeed the one sent forth to be the apostle to the Gentiles. Paul’s authentic epistles are the earliest writings of the NT; also, by the early 60s CE, James, Peter and Paul were all dead, at least a decade before the gospels of the NT (and therefore before the first listings of the “twelve”) began to appear); the other for coverage of the concept of Christos or “The Christ” insofar as Jesus is concerned (the theological battles regarding the nature of Jesus over 300 years culminating in the final “official” declaration of his Godhead as part of the Holy Trinity was not finalised until the Third Council of Constantinople in 681 CE. Personally I cannot help but think that the arguments, stemming from the early 4th-c CE, could have had a significant impact on Muhammad, stimulating him to reject the Trinity concept altogether and revert to the “one god” (the “Allah”) concept central to Islam).
Despite these turbulent times, the individual cults associated with the Twelve managed to survive and flourish, not so much in their supposed place of origin (Palestine) but more fruitfully in foreign soils near and far away, stretching right across and throughout the Roman/Byzantine Empire. Go figure.
Bissell uses the literary device of providing a framework consisting of a 21st-c tour through some sites (not all of them) which are shrines and places of pilgrimage related in one way or another to the apostles of Jesus known as “the Twelve” and which are still extant to this day.
One of the intriguing elements of this journey is the fact that these places still exist and that many flourish as places of continued pilgrimage and reverence. The intrigue stems from the fact that as a rule the majority of these “twelve” have little if any references in the traditional four gospels of the New Testament (NT) where they are first mentioned — and these twelve are not as open-and-shut cases when it comes to their actual identities anyway… What we have here are not matters either of history or of theology, but matters of Faith based on varying and sometimes contradictory folklores and legends built up over the ages.
Essentially Bissell concentrates on the “agreed” traditional list of the Twelve apostles; their biblical mentions and the variant versions of their subsequent histories are considered honestly and authoritatively from within the context of their “development” over the centuries. In the process, the reader is painlessly informed about the historical and theological concerns, particularly of the first 600 year of so of the development of Christianity — a subject of immense complexity and fascination.
The book is presented in twelve chapters, but the Twelve Apostles are covered in only ten of these chapters. Separate chapters are provided: one for coverage of Paul’s significance in all this (it should be remembered that Paul was probably the first to call himself an apostle (the word means “messenger” or “one sent forth” and Paul was indeed the one sent forth to be the apostle to the Gentiles. Paul’s authentic epistles are the earliest writings of the NT; also, by the early 60s CE, James, Peter and Paul were all dead, at least a decade before the gospels of the NT (and therefore before the first listings of the “twelve”) began to appear); the other for coverage of the concept of Christos or “The Christ” insofar as Jesus is concerned (the theological battles regarding the nature of Jesus over 300 years culminating in the final “official” declaration of his Godhead as part of the Holy Trinity was not finalised until the Third Council of Constantinople in 681 CE. Personally I cannot help but think that the arguments, stemming from the early 4th-c CE, could have had a significant impact on Muhammad, stimulating him to reject the Trinity concept altogether and revert to the “one god” (the “Allah”) concept central to Islam).
Despite these turbulent times, the individual cults associated with the Twelve managed to survive and flourish, not so much in their supposed place of origin (Palestine) but more fruitfully in foreign soils near and far away, stretching right across and throughout the Roman/Byzantine Empire. Go figure.
September 5, 2021
Quite some time ago I picked up the theological travelogue, In Search of the Birth of Jesus: The Real Journey of the Magi by Paul William Roberts (1995). Along with remarkable insights into the cultures of the Levant (it was the first time I had learned of the Yazhidi who faced genocide in recent years by ISIS), Roberts wielded some unique takes on the Bible that I hadn't encountered before, despite being a lifelong Christian.
I'm happy to report that Tom Bissell pulls off a similar trick with Apostle, tracing journeys to sites as farflung as India and Kyrgyzstan and sharing insights from a deep well of research he had done along the way.
Bissell served as an altar boy, but today his engagement with scriptures is more out of fascination than faith. It makes him an interesting guide to the apostles, if not their resting places, because he draws from sources beyond the Bible, including those in the first centuries of the Christian Era who discussed the characters and texts with authority.
What emerges is a lively look at the earliest decades of the Christian movement in which the phrase "in one accord" was hardly the case, even though Luke tried to describe the community thusly in Acts. There were Jewish Christians, led by Jesus' brothers James, Simon (the zealous) and Jude (Thaddeus)--the ideas in parentheses are discussed by Bissell--who insisted on keeping the seventh-day Sabbath and eating vegetarian or kosher diets. There were Gentile-oriented Christians. Others spent centuries parsing over exactly how divine or human Christ was. Was it 80-20? 50-50? Ultimately the Council of Nicea compromised on a 100%-100% split.
Bissell sums up his research on pages 352: "[Christianity] is and will always be an argument about the past and the future.... [This argument] will emerge over and over again, with different parties wearing similar masks, for every spiritually engaged community is forced to confront the inevitability of newly arisen beliefs and the drifting tectonic plates of assumed morality."
Some of Bissell's travels are a bit of a stretch. Why he pursues Matthew in Kyrgystan is a mystery to me, other than ties that he had to the region from his days in the Peace Corps. The two chapters that visit resting places of two apostles reveal very little about the cities and the churches there.
Still, for those who are theologically inclined, Bissell's book is really cool. In my library I have William Steuart McBirnie's The Search for the Twelve Apostles, a more straightforward account of the fates of Christ's first followers than Bissell's circumspect one. I'm glad that Bissell was willing to follow the footsteps of other Christian scholars and explore new catacombs where the history of Christianity lies buried, waiting for rediscovery.
I'm happy to report that Tom Bissell pulls off a similar trick with Apostle, tracing journeys to sites as farflung as India and Kyrgyzstan and sharing insights from a deep well of research he had done along the way.
Bissell served as an altar boy, but today his engagement with scriptures is more out of fascination than faith. It makes him an interesting guide to the apostles, if not their resting places, because he draws from sources beyond the Bible, including those in the first centuries of the Christian Era who discussed the characters and texts with authority.
What emerges is a lively look at the earliest decades of the Christian movement in which the phrase "in one accord" was hardly the case, even though Luke tried to describe the community thusly in Acts. There were Jewish Christians, led by Jesus' brothers James, Simon (the zealous) and Jude (Thaddeus)--the ideas in parentheses are discussed by Bissell--who insisted on keeping the seventh-day Sabbath and eating vegetarian or kosher diets. There were Gentile-oriented Christians. Others spent centuries parsing over exactly how divine or human Christ was. Was it 80-20? 50-50? Ultimately the Council of Nicea compromised on a 100%-100% split.
Bissell sums up his research on pages 352: "[Christianity] is and will always be an argument about the past and the future.... [This argument] will emerge over and over again, with different parties wearing similar masks, for every spiritually engaged community is forced to confront the inevitability of newly arisen beliefs and the drifting tectonic plates of assumed morality."
Some of Bissell's travels are a bit of a stretch. Why he pursues Matthew in Kyrgystan is a mystery to me, other than ties that he had to the region from his days in the Peace Corps. The two chapters that visit resting places of two apostles reveal very little about the cities and the churches there.
Still, for those who are theologically inclined, Bissell's book is really cool. In my library I have William Steuart McBirnie's The Search for the Twelve Apostles, a more straightforward account of the fates of Christ's first followers than Bissell's circumspect one. I'm glad that Bissell was willing to follow the footsteps of other Christian scholars and explore new catacombs where the history of Christianity lies buried, waiting for rediscovery.
September 4, 2019
This book has a lot of three-star reviews, which makes me sad, since I really enjoyed it. The book is part travelogue, of the author's visits to various shrines and part history, as he covers the different stories and controversies surrounding various apostles. People expecting the book to be fully one thing or the other will be disappointed, but I loved the combination and felt it was well balanced, though a little more info on his travels would have been nice. The real weakness here is Bissell's disregard for religion. He is in no way disrespectful, but his disbelief can sometimes come off as harsh as he commentates on people believing in impossible things. I'm not saying he has to be religious, but he didn't share the sense of wonder other travelers did and that impacted his story telling quite a bit. On the other hand, Bissell's disbelief means he has no qualms about digging into non-canonical gospels and folk traditions, which was wonderful. If you are particularly rigid in your religious views, this is not the book for you, but if you want to learn about the evolution of Christianity, where the apostles' relics are kept and why they still have such a strong hold on our culture, then this is the book for you.
September 14, 2023
As history, it is fascinating, and manages to give an overview of an entire epoch about which I thought I knew something, and found out I knew nothing at all. In addition, it is funny.
I think a direct interest in religion is not necessary to enjoy it, but an interest in history is. That said, it isn't just history; Apostle is about stories, philosophy, religion, the challenge of keeping core principles centralized against fractious forces, and all of a million other difficulties that even what would become the most powerful Western force faced from its infancy. If the reader thinks that the great church schisms began at approximately the time of Luther, then it will be either very reassuring or very depressing that the first deep rifts showed up while first gospels were being written.
And, again, it is very funny. Bissell is an amazing writer, and whether his is making meta-textual asides, or telling his own narrative of slogging out to the various shrines he visited, he always has an understated comment available that allows you to hear a wry grin.
I think a direct interest in religion is not necessary to enjoy it, but an interest in history is. That said, it isn't just history; Apostle is about stories, philosophy, religion, the challenge of keeping core principles centralized against fractious forces, and all of a million other difficulties that even what would become the most powerful Western force faced from its infancy. If the reader thinks that the great church schisms began at approximately the time of Luther, then it will be either very reassuring or very depressing that the first deep rifts showed up while first gospels were being written.
And, again, it is very funny. Bissell is an amazing writer, and whether his is making meta-textual asides, or telling his own narrative of slogging out to the various shrines he visited, he always has an understated comment available that allows you to hear a wry grin.
March 9, 2016
Like Tom Bissell, I am an nonbeliever, who finds the study of early Christianity fascinating. This book is for believers and nonbelievers alike though, because it is not religious criticism, but a highly enjoyable historical travelogue. Each of the twelve apostles gets his own chapter, plus there is a chapter on Paul, the apostle "not of the twelve," and one on the historical Jesus. Bissell spent over fours years, traveling to the resting places of all twelve apostles and their relics. He also engages pilgrims he finds on his travels, which makes for some interesting and often humorous conversations. Thanks to Bissell's research and intelligence, we get not only a glimpse at the apostles, but a real view of the very beginnings of Christianity.
March 16, 2016
In this provocative "tour" of the burial sites of the Twelve Apostles (plus Paul and Jesus), Bissell does not (quite) recover the faith he lost as a teenager. In fact, many of his (negative) views about Christianity are strengthened. While I might have wished otherwise--and while I disagree with many of his interpretations of texts and traditions--I found this a valuable and interesting book.
A point I'd make (which Bissell does not) is that it seems that many ancient non-Roman Catholic Christian communities honored the remains of apostles they claimed were interred there as a protest against the Peter-centered version of Christianity in Rome. "Our saint was also one of the Twelve! His voice and our traditions are just as ancient and revered as Peter's!"
A very good read.
A point I'd make (which Bissell does not) is that it seems that many ancient non-Roman Catholic Christian communities honored the remains of apostles they claimed were interred there as a protest against the Peter-centered version of Christianity in Rome. "Our saint was also one of the Twelve! His voice and our traditions are just as ancient and revered as Peter's!"
A very good read.
March 26, 2016
I've enjoyed Tom Bissell's pieces in the New Yorker, but this book just grated me the wrong way. Bissell's snarky comments about religion in general and Christianity and Christians in particular distract from what is, in general, pretty great historical analysis about the early Church and the apostles. The travelogue is lacking - Bissell tells us what he thinks of Christians and contemporary Christianity (not much), but hardly reflects on how his travels and encounters change him and, possibly, his views of Christianity. I think his book would have been better if he focused on solely history or travelogue, or, if he still wanted to combine the two, made sure that his personal opinions didn't leak into the historical analysis.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 5, 2018
Tom Bissell, one of the best video game writers, bites off more than he can chew here, attempting to provide his usual self deprecating travelogue alongside a history of early Christianity and working through his issues as an ex-Catholic. The travel is great, bringing him from the center of the world to the edge, but ironically it's his holier than thou attitude that makes the book a slog. Everywhere he goes, he is not so much learning as checking to see whether those he meets are up on his preferred biblical scholarship; eventually there are entire chapters with no travel at all, just trying to explain why someone who doesn't believe in anything would spend so much time in crypts.
March 7, 2016
The best book on faith I've read. The story of each supposed resting place of the twelve is as fascinating and puzzling as religion itself. Many genuinely funny and heartbreaking moments happen throughout the book. As someone who only vaguely remembers the parts of the bible I had to read the few times I went to church, I wasn't as lost as I feared I'd be while reading Apostle. A great read no matter if you don't believe in a thing or are the type of person who whips themselves with a belt to punish the shame of masturbating.
September 23, 2016
The author lost me at "Palestinians are idiots and Israelis are assholes"
September 24, 2017
This is an absolutely fabulous book! Organized like many great travel books, it is personal travel based on a historical quest. In this case, the author’s travels to visit the tombs of the twelve apostles. I could read hundreds of “in the footsteps of” travel books and never grow tired—and this one is no exception. It is great! First of all, he is a very good writer. Second of all, in the book he takes up the challenge of explaining some of the fairly mind-bendingly complicated theology of the early church. Think Council of Nicaea etc. He does a great job here. His explanations are easy to understand and fun to read.
Where he falls down in my opinion is actually in the travel writing section. I recently read a wonderful book organized like this one, called Walking to Canterbury. In that book, all the people whom the author meets on the road are treated with enormous respect. In fact, you could say that is the point. Somehow, the author of Walking to Canterbury creates these multi-dimensional “fellow travelers” who hold a lot of interest in terms of character. It is pretty uplifting to read the compassionate and respectful way he paints their portraits for the reader. In contrast, Tom Bissell treats everyone as a kind of caricature (where only he comes out looking good). There are the Indians… with their quirky dialogue and his imaginings of the "dirty hovels" they live in and the French man, who surely lives all alone in an alcohol infused dismal apartment; there are the goth teens who care and know nothing… it is a bit of a drag to read caricature on top of caricature and you wonder why he imagines things the way he does-this is not fiction. And I have yet to see American tourists as beautifully dressed and yet vacuous in the way he describes. Everyone is treated with a kind of snide condescension. This is not a novel after all (and if it was, his characters still are awful!)
But anyway, that is a smaller point, and I do congratulate him for keeping his own skeletons in the closet; for refreshingly this book does not have a personal psychological component—hallelujah, if he had a bad childhood, we don’t know. He could have kept his faith commitment (he is actually a non-believer) quiet but the way he explains his own interest (Catholic childhood) makes it all the more interesting.
There is also a chapter of Christology that is extremely well done. And yet in this book of tomb visits, why did he fail to visit the most fascinating tomb of all (Holy Sepulcher Golgotha--if he wrote the chapter on "Christos" as he called the chapter, he could have delved into that tomb as well). Why didn't he? That is an amazing story that should have been in a book like this—as I would argue, with the possible exception of Thomas in India, it is the only truly interesting story of a tomb (history of the Church of Holy Sepulcher is absolutely fascinating). The other tombs are not all that interesting, in my opinion.
(I also didn't appreciate all the details of his stomach travails in India--too much information!! SHEESH!)
And speaking of India, he is great on the Malabar Christians. Less great on Toulouse, where there are more disparaging caricatures and cliches—like that of the Middle Ages being one of dark ages and the disconnect with the great Gothic Cathedrals. Or of Saint Sevrin Bascilica being built “for tourists.” Indeed, as strong as he is on early church history, I guess I could venture he is as weak on the Middle Ages.
The book is fabulous—read it for sure. It inspired me to re-read a favorite history book of mine called, The Lost History of Christianity—now that is a five star book! (Silk Roaders will love it!)
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3...
Where he falls down in my opinion is actually in the travel writing section. I recently read a wonderful book organized like this one, called Walking to Canterbury. In that book, all the people whom the author meets on the road are treated with enormous respect. In fact, you could say that is the point. Somehow, the author of Walking to Canterbury creates these multi-dimensional “fellow travelers” who hold a lot of interest in terms of character. It is pretty uplifting to read the compassionate and respectful way he paints their portraits for the reader. In contrast, Tom Bissell treats everyone as a kind of caricature (where only he comes out looking good). There are the Indians… with their quirky dialogue and his imaginings of the "dirty hovels" they live in and the French man, who surely lives all alone in an alcohol infused dismal apartment; there are the goth teens who care and know nothing… it is a bit of a drag to read caricature on top of caricature and you wonder why he imagines things the way he does-this is not fiction. And I have yet to see American tourists as beautifully dressed and yet vacuous in the way he describes. Everyone is treated with a kind of snide condescension. This is not a novel after all (and if it was, his characters still are awful!)
But anyway, that is a smaller point, and I do congratulate him for keeping his own skeletons in the closet; for refreshingly this book does not have a personal psychological component—hallelujah, if he had a bad childhood, we don’t know. He could have kept his faith commitment (he is actually a non-believer) quiet but the way he explains his own interest (Catholic childhood) makes it all the more interesting.
There is also a chapter of Christology that is extremely well done. And yet in this book of tomb visits, why did he fail to visit the most fascinating tomb of all (Holy Sepulcher Golgotha--if he wrote the chapter on "Christos" as he called the chapter, he could have delved into that tomb as well). Why didn't he? That is an amazing story that should have been in a book like this—as I would argue, with the possible exception of Thomas in India, it is the only truly interesting story of a tomb (history of the Church of Holy Sepulcher is absolutely fascinating). The other tombs are not all that interesting, in my opinion.
(I also didn't appreciate all the details of his stomach travails in India--too much information!! SHEESH!)
And speaking of India, he is great on the Malabar Christians. Less great on Toulouse, where there are more disparaging caricatures and cliches—like that of the Middle Ages being one of dark ages and the disconnect with the great Gothic Cathedrals. Or of Saint Sevrin Bascilica being built “for tourists.” Indeed, as strong as he is on early church history, I guess I could venture he is as weak on the Middle Ages.
The book is fabulous—read it for sure. It inspired me to re-read a favorite history book of mine called, The Lost History of Christianity—now that is a five star book! (Silk Roaders will love it!)
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3...
August 3, 2023
Bissel's journeys to the "tombs" of the Apostles are a mix of religious history, travel writing, social commentary, and spiritual reflection. He's very engaging and funny as he undertakes this pretty daunting task. From a sheer reference stand point it's good to have a mix of the new testament background, the apocryphal and legendary background, and the contemporary devotional history of each of these figures represented in a singular and very readable place. Also, there are some asides that had me bursting out laughing - namely that American Christianity is just "Rustafarianism for white people."
My biggest complaint is not so much Bissel's skepticism but his sweeping pronouncements about the data. The skepticism is refreshing, even helpful, as Bissel acts as an investigator of the tombs of the twelve and unravels a lot of the cons and assumptions around them. But when he starts putting together an account of the new testament he's a little out of his depth. He will conflate things, mix sources, and assume contradiction where there is only variance. And I felt that a lot of the deep dips into secondary source material detracted a little from the narrative, and probably makes this book less interesting to a casual reader.
But overall this was really great. I loved most of it and will probably consult again.
My biggest complaint is not so much Bissel's skepticism but his sweeping pronouncements about the data. The skepticism is refreshing, even helpful, as Bissel acts as an investigator of the tombs of the twelve and unravels a lot of the cons and assumptions around them. But when he starts putting together an account of the new testament he's a little out of his depth. He will conflate things, mix sources, and assume contradiction where there is only variance. And I felt that a lot of the deep dips into secondary source material detracted a little from the narrative, and probably makes this book less interesting to a casual reader.
But overall this was really great. I loved most of it and will probably consult again.
January 20, 2018
Bissell is a former Catholic. He left the church in his late teens. However, he definitely has a passion for the early days of Christianity. He takes the reader on an historic ride through the years immediately after the death of Christ and beyond. All in all Bissell gives us insight to the lives of the apostles by looking not only at the Bible but historic texts, apocrypha texts,oral tradition etc. The end product is a very readable book about how Christianity was spread throughout the Roman Empire and beyond. Bissell actually travelled to the "supposed" final resting place of all of the apostles....which makes for some interesting travel narrative as well.
July 28, 2024
This is an excellent book; part memoir, part history book, part travel journal.
It is an especially interesting introduction into early christian litterature (he gives accessible exposes of the writings of Tertulian, Origen, Josephus, Eusebius and several Apocryphal gospels). He holds no reverence for the historicity or apologetics of people and place, but this makes his research all the more intriguing, and his treatment of tradition is nevertheless respectful.
It is an especially interesting introduction into early christian litterature (he gives accessible exposes of the writings of Tertulian, Origen, Josephus, Eusebius and several Apocryphal gospels). He holds no reverence for the historicity or apologetics of people and place, but this makes his research all the more intriguing, and his treatment of tradition is nevertheless respectful.
March 22, 2024
Part theological inquiry part really ugly American.
It was hard to like this book even though I found parts of it interesting and learned quite a bit. His lack of respect for the people and cultures he was traveling among was off-putting to say the least.
It was hard to like this book even though I found parts of it interesting and learned quite a bit. His lack of respect for the people and cultures he was traveling among was off-putting to say the least.
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