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He used the Good Book to write a good book

Author A.J. Jacobs spent 365 days trying to follow every rule in the Bible for his book "The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible." His spiritual journey has been described as "funny and profound, reverent and irreverent, personal and universal." And Wednesday, March 5, he's coming to Grandview United Methodist Church to share "The Art of Living Biblically" as part of the congregation's Lenten program.

"I read the book and just loved it and couldn't resist sharing it with the congregation," Grandview associate pastor the Rev. Andrea S. Brown said.

She's in good company. The Rev. Jim Wallis said Jacobs' experiment has "disarmingly sincere, refreshingly humorous, and unexpectedly insightful results." Rabbi David Ellenson called the book "a tale of an intense and intelligent spiritual search that will speak powerfully and instructively to a generation of seekers."

Jacobs is editor-at-large for Esquire magazine and "as an agnostic, I'd never seriously explored such things as sacredness and revelation," he notes on his Web site, ajjacobs.com.

"I tried not to covet, gossip, or lie for a year. I'm a journalist in New York. This was not easy," he adds. He also had some trouble with instructions to smash idols and stone adulterers.

In addition to relating his own difficulties with following an ancient text in a modern world, Jacobs looks at how "various fascinating religious groups" do it. "I embedded myself among several groups that take the Bible literally in their own way, from creationists to snake handlers, Hasidim to the Amish."

The Amish?

"I did indeed spend some time in Lancaster," Jacobs said in an e-mail interview. "I loved much of the Amish way of life — the humility, the simplicity, the quietness."

In the book, he mentions staying at Smucker's Farm Guest House and his noticing Amish making use of leaf blowers and Rollerblades. "The lessons from my weekend with the Amish is this: You cannot stop religion from evolving. Even here, where customs and dress were supposedly frozen in the sixteenth century, they will find a way."

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He also mingled with local Mennonites Faye and Jennifer Landis, who "taught me a lot about faith," he said.

The book hasn't proved as controversial as he expected. Jacobs said it has "been warmly received by religious groups, which is, as they say, a blessing. I think it's because I went into the project deeply curious. I went in to learn and go on a spiritual journey, not to mock religion. And in the end, I found lots in the Bible that I love and have adopted."

Actually, he added, "The really angry letters actually came after my first book about reading the Encyclopedia Britannica ['The Know It All']. I misspelled the name Wayne Gretzky in that book, and Canadians don't like that."