EXTREME RIGHTEOUSNESS
Seeing ourselves in the Pharisees
By Tom Hovestol. Authentic Media. 254 pages. £8.99
ISBN 978-1-85078-761-7
As the title suggests, this book offers a study in the nature and defining characteristics of the people described in the New Testament as ‘Pharisees’. The author’s central thesis is that these people, and the important movement to which they belonged, have been caricatured and misunderstood in a most fundamental way, so that the real challenge they present to distorted forms of Christian theology and devotion are invariably overlooked and ignored.
Hovestol writes at a popular level, using his own biography to illustrate his discovery of the relevance of the Bible’s portrayal of the Pharisees as the instrument of critical reflection on his personal life, and on evangelical religion in general. His broad conclusion is both simple and uncomfortable: we are much more like the Pharisees than we realise and there are grave dangers in apparently orthodox, respectable religion! This case is well made, and appears to be based on serious reading and research concerning the various movements which provide the crucial context within which the ministry of Jesus was undertaken. The book issues a series of needed warnings to evangelicals and it rightly challenges widespread presuppositions about the Pharisees.
