bible

In The Book of Heaven, Patricia Storace creates the mythology of an alternate universe, but one the reader recognizes, as if through a veil, from its allusions to Greek legends and Old Testament stories. It is different from anything I’ve read and therefore hard to describe. Although the sections hinge on central themes, such as of the oppression of women and the nature of God and of love, they can be read in isolation. Each section presents the tale of a different woman, eulogized in the stars themselves in this world Storace creates. Her writing is contemplative; reading it is a meditation

The author visits the places or as close to the places that he thinks are the present day places mentioned in the Bible. Trouble is, there are always at least 5 possibilities for each place. But that does not stop him. He is on a journey! A quest! And an interesting peregrination it is.

Mr. Feiler visits St. Catherine’s monastery in the Sinai, home of the CODEX SYRIACUS, ”one of only two manuscripts in the world that preserves the text of the four gospels from the time when they were translated into Old Syrian in the fifth century C.E.” The library also is home to a copy of a letter