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Veritas: A Harvard Professor, a Con Man and the Gospel of Jesus's Wife

Product ID : 43921909
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About Veritas: A Harvard Professor, A Con Man And The

Product Description From National Book Critics Circle Award-winning author Ariel Sabar, the gripping true story of a sensational religious forgery and the scandal that shook Harvard. In 2012, Dr. Karen King, a star professor at Harvard Divinity School, announced a blockbuster discovery at a scholarly conference just steps from the Vatican: She had found an ancient fragment of papyrus in which Jesus calls Mary Magdalene "my wife." The tattered manuscript made international headlines. If early Christians believed Jesus was married, it would upend the 2,000-year history of the world's predominant faith, threatening not just the celibate, all-male priesthood but sacred teachings on marriage, sex and women's leadership. Biblical scholars were in an uproar, but King had impeccable credentials as a world-renowned authority on female figures in the lost Christian texts from Egypt known as the Gnostic gospels. "The Gospel of Jesus's Wife"--as she provocatively titled her discovery--was both a crowning career achievement and powerful proof for her arguments that Christianity from its start embraced alternative, and far more inclusive, voices. As debates over the manuscript's authenticity raged, award-winning journalist Ariel Sabar set out to investigate a baffling mystery: where did this tiny scrap of papyrus come from? His search for answers is an international detective story--leading from the factory districts of Berlin to the former headquarters of the East German Stasi before winding up in rural Florida, where he discovered an internet pornographer with a prophetess wife, a fascination with the Pharaohs and a tortured relationship with the Catholic Church. VERITAS is a tale of fierce intellectual rivalries at the highest levels of academia, a piercing psychological portrait of a disillusioned college dropout whose life had reached a breaking point, and a tragedy about a brilliant scholar handed a piece of scripture that embodied her greatest hopes for Christianity--but forced a reckoning with fundamental questions about the nature of truth and the line between reason and faith. Review ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR Smithsonian * The Christian Science Monitor * Minneapolis Star Tribune * Shelf Awareness FINALIST FOR THE EDGAR AWARD FOR BEST TRUE-CRIME BOOK OF THE YEAR FINALIST FOR THE INVESTIGATIVE REPORTERS AND EDITORS BOOK AWARD FINALIST FOR THE RELIGION NEWS ASSOCIATION NONFICTION BOOK AWARD "Mesmerizing....[Sabar] has our attention, and slowly, remorselessly, he pays out the rest of his devilish yarn...Savor the denouement--and don't leave at intermission." --WALL STREET JOURNAL "[A] madcap, unforgettable book...for enthusiasts of ancient Christianity...and readers of idea-driven capers, whether by Daniel Silva or Janet Malcolm. It's a barely believable tale, crazier than a tweed-sniffer in the faculty lounge." --NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW "Fascinating...engrossing...The interaction of [the con man and the Harvard professor], one with a deep need to deceive and the other with a desperate need to believe, presents a wholly human story of frailty and weakness." --NPR "Wild and propulsive...And, of course, it has a Florida connection...Veritas is packed with details and tells a complex story, but Sabar's prose is clear and inviting, and the book is structured with a well-tuned sense of suspense. It's a wonderfully absorbing example of truth being stranger than fiction." --TAMPA BAY TIMES "Extraordinary....astonishing...The book is as good as a detective novel, possessing plot, subplots, hidden motives, bees in eccentric bonnets and startling revelations." --MINNEAPOLIS STAR TRIBUNE "A tour de force of investigative journalism." --PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE "It's a story about journalism done right, about Sabar's own capable, dogged sleuthing to get to the bottom of those famous headlines...In our moment of truthiness, to borrow a term from Stephen Colbert, Veritas offers a vital lesson less about Christianity than about wh