Nero and Paul by Kathie Lee Gifford & Bryan M. Litfin

Book Synopsis:

Centuries ago, against the backdrop of Roman domination and decadence, a rabbi-turned-evangelist challenged the ideology of an immoral emperor. Two competing messages clashed—and they were messages that echo into our modern world.

One voice says, Do what feels good. Gain more influence. Focus on yourself and build your own kingdom. Another says, Live for something beyond yourself—something eternal. Carry out your God-given mission, no matter the cost. Follow your King to the end of the world if you must . Only then will you truly live.

Combining historical accuracy with narrative imagination, Nero and Paul drops you into the drama of human pride and divine destiny that unfolded on the stage of imperial Rome.

You'll travel with Paul as he ventured from Jerusalem all the way to Spain, making friends, winning converts, and persisting through grueling opposition. You'll see up close Nero's kingdom of wealth, glamour, sex, and power—the proud trappings of a self-proclaimed god. In contrast, Paul boldly offered what the world desperately the Messiah's life-giving good news of God's presence indwelling his people.

Though this epic clash of worldviews led to bloodshed and death, the crown of eternal life triumphed over the laurel wreaths of Rome—just as the light of Jesus triumphs over the darkness of the world in every age.

My Review:

Note: I received an ARC of this book through NetGalley

3/5 stars. The main informational and narrative part of this book was great. I loved the juxtaposition of Paul, an incredible evangelist who spread the early church faithfully, with the utter depravity of Nero and his family before him. I also enjoyed seeing Paul's life, which I was already familiar with, in a chronological, narrative story. However, where I struggled was with the author conversations at the end of each chapter. They added nothing to the book and really took me out of the narrative. Kathie Lee Gifford was also annoying with how much humble-bragging she inserted. I would have enjoyed the book more if those end conversations weren't included.

My main takeaway from this book is just how absolutely awful the Roman imperial line was around the time of the early church. I knew that Nero was insane, but I had no idea of the specifics. There was so much intermarrying, constant sexual sin, murder of many forms, and a general air of self-indulgence. Every time I learned a new detail about Caligula, Agrippina, Claudius, and, of course, Nero, I thought it couldn't get worse. But then it did.

In contrast, Paul's life was anything but self-indulgent. I already knew a lot about his life from the Bible, but as that is not presented fully chronologically, it was nice to see details from the book of Acts, all of Paul's letters, and other known historical info put together in a compelling narrative. While I didn't learn as much about Paul as I did Nero, there were some small things new to me.

The narrative part of this book was well-written. It never felt boring, but I also never felt there were too many creative liberties taken for the sake of making it a story. It struck a good balance. The parts that were exaggerated for narrative effect were engaging and full of good sensory details.

Now I'm going to rant a bit about the parts I could've gone without. Every time a chapter narrative ended, the authors included a transcript of their conversation about that chapter. While the authors acknowledged that the transcript was edited for clarity, it felt like more than that, like it was scripted. A lot of moments were cringey and unnatural.

The biggest parts that were cringey were any time Gifford tried to relate something in Paul's life to her own. She was trying to talk about all the trials she's faced in life, yet also somehow made it so much about herself and her success. The worst for me was when she compared Paul being in a storm at sea and then shipwrecked to her family being on a plane with bad turbulence, which, by the way, also happened to be a private jet with an FBI agent along for security. There were many moments like that where what should have been a discussion of the historical characters came back to Gifford talking about how successful she has been in show business and how much people like her.

Another thing I wasn't a fan of with GIfford was some of her views. There was nothing fundamental, but there were a few things that gave me pause. Gifford's whole thing, not just in this book but in everything she writes, seems to be staunchly "anti-religion" but pro-Jesus. I get not liking the legalistic practices people can tend to fall into, but to shun "religion" as a concept entirely is almost going against what the Bible says. This was especially weird considering she says she's a Messianic Jew, which is a group that is very "religious."

The second thing Gifford said, which was only mentioned once but was still iffy, was that Jesus was a "radical feminist." It's true that Jesus treated women with dignity and respect in a time when culture didn't, but the term "radical feminist" is such a loaded term that means a lot more than what it should. I didn't like her applying a modern ideological term to Jesus.

Content:

There is a lot of negative content in this book, but none of it is glamorized and it's all shown as sinful.

Language: a**, wh*res

Sexual Content: naked bodies, orgies, incest, rape, homosexuality, sex addiction, adultery, prostitutes and brothels, Nero castrating a boy and dressing him up like a woman and marrying, a mention of sex trafficking, a mention of pornography.

Violence/Gore: depictions of Jesus' crucifixion, stoning, blood, murder (including of family members) through various methods, stabbings, beatings, poisoning, suicide, murdering a pregnant woman, decapitation, people dying in a fire and getting set on fire, people getting torn apart.

Drugs/Alcohol: drunkenness, death by poison