The Cities That Built the Bible Hardcover – March 15, 2016 by Dr. Robert Cargill (HarperOne)

Professor Cargill offers an engaging and innovative introduction to biblical archaeology based on the latest evidence and scholarship which, I imagine, will be rewarding to both those who are and are not deeply immersed in the sacred texts of Judaism and/or Christianity. I was raised Catholic but have since college called myself an atheist, so I found myself in the middle with this book. I gained new insights on the stories that I remembered, while the unfamiliar elements whetted my curiosity. The latter experience I see as one of the purposes of this book, as an enticement for further study and exploration of both the texts and the locations where they were created. Furthermore, the book itself seeks a middle ground in what it desires from the reader, both to bring the Bible down to the material level as a purely human creation like all other literature, yet at the same time to raise it up to the high level of appreciation that it deserves as an historical treasure worthy of study by believers and nonbelievers alike.

The informal style of the book is part of its charm, and the art that conceals art. It is accessible yet not dumbed down. Personally, as an academic, I'm used to reading impersonal, often dry prose suffused with technical jargon, and so this book's casual style, while jarring at first, was a breath of fresh air. The frequent humorous asides contribute to an authorial persona so passionate about his subject that to adopt an artificial register would work against one of the goals of this book. Cargill injects a very human persona into the book, one that not only thinks but also touches, tastes, smells, and feels what he describes. The locations he discusses are meant to be experienced, and he models the reader's expectations of that experience should they ever travel there. I myself have traveled to Rome, and despite my fervent secularism, standing in the Roman Forum and St. Peter's Basilica was the closest I've come to a spiritual experience.

This book's mission is one I hope succeeds. Societies that lose touch with their own history become lost and wander down dangerous paths, and the Bible is a fundamental building block of the civilization that we have today. If we fail to understand what built that foundation, what's built upon it is doomed to collapse.