Tuesday, October 09, 2001
The Two Babylons
by Rev. Alexander Hislop
Ah, where to start with this book? For me, it was a book of surprises. I was expecting it to contain an attack on the Christian teaching of the Trinity. Instead, I found that the author believes in the Trinity just as I do. I was expecting the book to be rife with personal opinions and short on knowledge. Instead, it is full of footnotes citing a variety of classic and contemporary works. I was expecting to be disgusted with malicious Catholic bashing. Instead, I found my self reminded that many of the beliefs and practices in the Roman Catholic church are wrong. I was planning on skimming the book and returning it post haste to the library. Instead, I spent the last couple of weeks reading it through. The Two Babylons is an attempt to prove that certain Roman Catholic beliefs and practices are directly linked to heresies that began in ancient Babylon. Hislop attempts to show the connections in practice and language between that church and various non-Christian religions, all of which he manages to link to the reign of Nimrod and his wife. In one sense, it's fascinating, showing distorted reflections of Christian teachings in mythologies around the world. (reminiscent of Don Richardson's Eternity in their Hearts) But I think sometimes he goes too far in trying to prove his theory. Perhaps 1500 years ago some people were secretly celebrating Saturnalia and disguising their festivities as Christmas, but today I doubt that any Catholic, even the Pope himself, is covertly worshiping the sun on December 25th. Anyway, despite its potential to offend, I would have to rate this as good waiting room material.
LibraryThing link
Ah, where to start with this book? For me, it was a book of surprises. I was expecting it to contain an attack on the Christian teaching of the Trinity. Instead, I found that the author believes in the Trinity just as I do. I was expecting the book to be rife with personal opinions and short on knowledge. Instead, it is full of footnotes citing a variety of classic and contemporary works. I was expecting to be disgusted with malicious Catholic bashing. Instead, I found my self reminded that many of the beliefs and practices in the Roman Catholic church are wrong. I was planning on skimming the book and returning it post haste to the library. Instead, I spent the last couple of weeks reading it through. The Two Babylons is an attempt to prove that certain Roman Catholic beliefs and practices are directly linked to heresies that began in ancient Babylon. Hislop attempts to show the connections in practice and language between that church and various non-Christian religions, all of which he manages to link to the reign of Nimrod and his wife. In one sense, it's fascinating, showing distorted reflections of Christian teachings in mythologies around the world. (reminiscent of Don Richardson's Eternity in their Hearts) But I think sometimes he goes too far in trying to prove his theory. Perhaps 1500 years ago some people were secretly celebrating Saturnalia and disguising their festivities as Christmas, but today I doubt that any Catholic, even the Pope himself, is covertly worshiping the sun on December 25th. Anyway, despite its potential to offend, I would have to rate this as good waiting room material.
LibraryThing link
Labels: WaitingRoomMaterial
// posted by John @ 6:04 PM 
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