Saturday, June 14, 1997

Religion in the media: a look at recent books and software

The Dallas Morning News

BOOKS

"Jesus and the Holocaust: Reflections on Suffering and Hope," by Joel Marcus (Doubleday, $14.95). This slim volume offers an interesting take on an awesome challenge. The author was raised in a "secular Jewish home" in Chicago but is now a Christian theologian who lives in Scotland. He has no first-hand connection to the Holocaust. And yet he chose to offer a series of sermons linking the biblical descriptions of the life of Jesus with the events of World War II. He draws upon a number of artistic and literary sources - including, particularly, the poetry of Emily Dickinson - to shed light on the topic. Does he come up with answers? Not hardly. Does he raise some thought-provoking questions? That he does. He finds parallels in the suffering of the Jews and the suffering of Jesus - both inexplicable for him without the structure of faith and redemption. -Jeffrey Weiss

"The Politically Correct Guide to the Bible," by Edward P. Moser (Crown Publishers, $12). Sometimes "Saturday Night Live" picks up on a funny premise that holds up for the a start of a skit that, however, goes on and on and on until you wish the show had been canceled the week before. If you find "The Politically Correct Guide to the Bible" in a store, pick it up and read the first three pages. "In the beginning - assuming there was a beginning as opposed to an endless cycle - in the beginning ..." Now put the book back on the shelf. You've avoided more than 100 pages that are increasingly unfunny and offensive. -Jeffrey Weiss

SOFTWARE

"The QuickVerse 4.0 Deluxe Bible Reference Collection," Teacher's Edition, CD-ROM for Windows (Parsons Technology, $379 plus s&h, $129, 1-800-779-6000. http:www.parsonstech.com/software). This collection of products contains everything in the new collection and more, with 12 translations and 17 Bible reference titles. It is targeted for teachers and serious Bible students. It includes the PC Bible Atlas (interactive maps - or you can draw your own based on biblical locales); Nave's Topical Bible (collection of indexes to search the Bible, with more than 20,000 maps); Strong's Concordance (view the transliterated Hebrew, Aramaic or Greek behind each KJV word); and the New American Standard Exhaustive Concordance (same but based on NAS), and study notes from some of today's most popular study Bibles (the Disciple's Study Bible; Treasury of Scripture Knowledge; Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary on the Whole Bible; the Rainbow Study Bible; the New Scofield Study Bible; the Believer's Study Bible and The Ryrie Study Bible Expanded Edition). Reference books in the software are: Willmington's Guide to the Bible; the Bible Knowledge Commentary - Old Testament and New Testament; the Teacher's Commentary; the Victor Bible Background Commentary: New Testament; and the Holman Multimedia Bible Dictionary. Discounts are available to those who already own any products included in this Bible Reference Collection. -Laurel Laurentz

"HeavenWord Screen Saver," audio screen saver for Windows on CD-ROM, (HeavenWord, $9.95 plus s&h, 1-(888)-726-4715. http:www.HeavenWord.com). Hear the Psalms read while you go about your business in this audio screen saver. Available in the King James Version or the New International Version, it does require a sound card. As the Psalms are being read by a clear, pleasant male voice, the screen is filled with the written words in colorful, large type that can be read from across a room. The entire book can be saved to a hard disk or, to preserve space, the book is broken into thirds. The parts can be added or subtracted from the hard drive at any time. Volume is easy to adjust with the space bar on your keyboard. -Laurel Laurentz

(Writers are staff members of The Dallas Morning News. Write to them in care of: the Religion Section, Dallas Morning News, Communications Center, P.O. Box 655237, Dallas, Texas 75265.)

(c) 1997, The Dallas Morning News.

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