Apostle by Tom Bissell

Apostle

Travels Among the Tombs of the Twelve

Tom Bissell, Random House Audio

Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group · Print & ebook · February 7, 2017

The story of Twelve Apostles is the story of early Christianity: its competing versions of Jesus’s ministry, its countless schisms, and its ultimate evolution from an obscure Jewish sect to the global faith we know today in all its forms and permutations.

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Who it’s for
A grave, searching account that rewards close reading and slow attention.
Genres
Christian History, Pilgrimage & Sacred Travel, New Testament Biography
Published
Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, February 7, 2017

About this book

The story of Twelve Apostles is the story of early Christianity: its competing versions of Jesus’s ministry, its countless schisms, and its ultimate evolution from an obscure Jewish sect to the global faith we know today in all its forms and permutations.

Continue reading

In his quest to understand the underpinnings of the world’s largest religion, Tom Bissell embarks on a years-long pilgrimage to the apostles’ supposed tombs, traveling from Jerusalem and Rome to Turkey, Greece, Spain, France, India, and Kyrgyzstan. Along the way, Bissell uncovers the mysterious and often paradoxical lives of these twelve men and how their identities have taken shape over the course of two millennia. Written with empathy and a rare acumen—and often extremely funny—Apostle is an intellectual, spiritual, and personal adventure fit for believers, scholars, and wanderers alike.

Tomb and Text

A grave, searching account that rewards close reading and slow attention.

Come here for

  • New Testament biography with church-history reach
  • Rigorous, specialist-minded religious study

Expect

  • Tombs of the Twelve as organizing thread
  • Insight-heavy rather than devotional

Where it sits

Christian History53%
Pilgrimage & Sacred Travel49%
New Testament Biography42%

Percentages are BookFrontier’s reading of the book.

Publisher categories

  • Ancient History
  • Christian History
  • Pilgrimage & Sacred Travel
Authors
Tom Bissell, Random House Audio
Publisher
Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Published
February 7, 2017
Format
Print & ebook
Reading lane
Ancient History