Author Description

The power of scripture is remarkable in that the scriptures of all the world’s major religions have endured and have inspired millions of people, beginning with the Hindu Vedas (approx. 1500 BCE) through the Book of Mormon, published in 1830, and acted as an important attraction to people joining the Church of the Latter-Day Saints. Christian scriptures and lore have been especially evocative in being the inspiration for hundreds of plays, music, narratives, and even parodies. Even in the skeptical second half of the 20th century, Judeo/Christian stories and theology has inspired works as fundamentally different as Thomas Mann’s giant quartet, Joseph and His Brothers and the seriocomic movie, Dogma with appearances by two avenging angels, the Metatron, a demon, the thirteenth apostle, a muse, a cardinal, the last survivor of the line of Jesus, and the Lord, who has a penchant for Skeeball, on the Jersey shore.