This month in the\u00a0Patheos Book Club<\/a>, we\u2019re exploring Brent Landau\u2019s compelling new book,\u00a0Revelation of the Magi<\/em>. \u00a0In it, Landau reveals a forgotten ancient manuscript discovered at the Vatican that recounts a very different and suprising tale of the Wise Men\u2019s journey to Bethlehem than we\u2019ve learned from the biblical Christmas story. \u00a0Read more about the book here<\/a>.<\/p>\n As part of our blogger roundtable on the book, we invited several authors to review the book and submit their questions to Landau for his response. \u00a0Our Q&A begins here.<\/p>\n Q. \u00a0Blogger Peter Wallace<\/a>, Host & Founder of <\/strong>Day1.org<\/a>:<\/strong><\/p>\n I came away from reading this book appreciating once again the power of story or myth to communicate truth. What are the primary truths you see this story communicating to us today?<\/p>\n I\u2019d also like to know if you found any other interesting documents in the Vatican library we don\u2019t know much about!<\/p>\n A. \u00a0Author Brent Landau:<\/strong><\/p>\n I agree with you that truth can be manifest in a story, whether or not that story is \u201chistorically factual.\u201d This is certainly the case with the\u00a0Revelation of the Magi<\/em>, since this text\u2013interesting as it may be\u2013tells us nothing about the \u201chistorical Magi\u201d (whoever they were). I think that the central truth communicated in the\u00a0RevMagi<\/em> is that trying to impose human limitations on divine revelation is bound to fail. Christ informs the Magi that the fulfillment of their long-awaited prophecy is but one isolated instance of his revelation to humanity. Indeed, the very fact that the earliest form of the\u00a0RevMagi <\/em>never uses the names \u201cJesus\u201d or \u201cChrist\u201d may suggest that the author felt these designations to be too particularistic and culturally-bound to be helpful in describing this being. In this way, the\u00a0RevMagi<\/em> is a logical outgrowth of the Apostle Paul\u2019s idea that the \u201cChrist event\u201d is truly cosmic in scale.<\/p>\n As for whether there are other texts still hiding in the Vatican Library: I hope so! The only way I ever learned about the\u00a0RevMagi<\/em> was because I was looking for a text like this to research for my dissertation. So I don\u2019t know what other secrets the Vatican Library might be holding. However, it\u2019s a very important reminder that some of the most fascinating ancient writings aren\u2019t buried in the sand, but simply sitting on a shelf in a library or monastery somewhere, waiting to be found!<\/p>\n Q. \u00a0Blogger Carl Gregg<\/a>, progressive Baptist pastor in MD, and Spiritual Director:<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/strong><\/p>\n If you were asked to preach on a text from \u201cThe Revelation of the Magi\u201d in an open-minded, progressive Christian congregation on Epiphany Sunday 2011, what text(s) would you chose and what are some highlights of the sermon you would preach?\u201d<\/p>\n <\/strong><\/p>\n <\/strong><\/p>\n A. Landau:<\/strong><\/p>\n If I were going to preach a sermon on the\u00a0RevMagi<\/em>, I would probably preach on what I consider to be the most pivotal verse in the entire text\u2013what Christ says in his epiphany to the Magi:<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cAnd I am everywhere, because I am a ray of light whose light has shone in this world from the majesty of my Father, who has sent me to fulfill everything that was spoken about me in the entire world and in every land by unspeakable mysteries, and to accomplish the commandment of my glorious Father, who by the prophets preached about me to the contentious house, in the same way as for you, as befits your faith, it was revealed to you about me.\u201d<\/p>\n My sermon would ask whether this statement is a\u00a0truly\u00a0pluralistic theology. Yes, it does do quite a bit better than most ancient and modern Christian thought on other religions. But it does so\u00a0inclusively, that is, it\u00a0includes<\/em> other religions within the framework of Christian revelation. In essence, it seems to suggest that everybody in the world is a Christian but doesn\u2019t know it\u2013a position that probably wouldn\u2019t sit well with very many Buddhists or Muslims. But it is\u00a0also\u00a0possible to understand theRevMagi<\/em> to be saying that the divine revealer that the Magi encounter is no more intrinsically \u201cChrist\u201d than intrinsically \u201cBuddha\u201d or \u201cKrishna.\u201d That is much closer to a truly pluralistic theology, but is this the religious vision that open-minded, progressive Christians should seek after? That is the ultimate question I would pose to the congregation.<\/p>\n Q.\u00a0Blogger Amy Julia Becker<\/a> <\/strong>from\u00a0Thin Places<\/a>:<\/strong><\/p>\n Dr. Landau mentions the contemporary theological implications of this ancient text, and he mentions the influence of the text on art and, to a lesser degree, the conquistadors. I\u2019m wondering if there is any sense of why this legend fell out of use, if it \u201clived\u201d for a thousand years, and I\u2019m wondering what it\u2019s theological value was during those years of use.<\/p>\n Secondly, what does the role of silence\u2013 in the naming of the magi and the emphasis on silent prayer\u2013 tell us about the origins of this document and\/or the theology within? I\u2019m curious especially if there is any connection to the eastern orthodox tradition.<\/p>\n A. Landau:<\/strong><\/p>\n First, the question of why it fell out of use. I\u2019m still studying the reception history of the text, and I don\u2019t yet have a sense of the precise moment when the text fell into oblivion. My best guess would be that it was connected with the Protestant Reformation, because that\u2019s when many apocryphal texts and traditions became the victims of Martin Luther\u2019s\u00a0Sola Scriptura (\u201conly the Bible!\u201d) doctrine. But this is something I hope to understand better in the next couple years\u2013and I do agree with you that it\u2019s strange for a text that was so influential to have become almost totally unknown today.<\/p>\n As for its theological value during the years that it was in use; again, the reception history has not yet been fully documented. But I would mention two uses to which I know it was put\u2013one theological, and one more \u201ctheo-political.\u201d For the first, Thomas Aquinas found it very useful in his\u00a0Summa Theologica for countering a possible objection to God\u2019s providence. If one were to object that it was unnecessarily obscure for God to reveal the birth of Christ by means of a star because nobody would understand the significance of such a star, Aquinas counters that the Magi text indeed explains that the Magi\u00a0were\u00a0expecting such an event and\u00a0did\u00a0understand its significance.<\/p>\n For the \u201ctheo-political\u201d influence of the text, the consequences have arguably been quite negative. The\u00a0Revelation of the Magi was part of a complex of legends in the medieval world that claimed that powerful Christian kingdoms did exist in unknown parts of the world. So this text may have inadvertently contributed to the start of European exploration\u2013the explorers could find these kingdoms, unify Christendom, and share in the material wealth of these communities. And of course we know how that turned out for the people who actually lived in such places.<\/p>\n Finally, the Magi\u2019s practice of silent prayer. I don\u2019t know nearly as much about Eastern Orthodox Christian traditions as I would like, but I have indeed received other suggestions that the Magi\u2019s practice in this text may be related to the Orthodox practice of saying prayers that are purposefully made inaudible. I think that the Magi\u2019s silent prayer is closely related to the overall theological outlook of the\u00a0Revelation of the Magi. If God\u2019s being and revelation are as boundless as the narrative as a whole claims, then perhaps the only suitable way of praising such a God is in silence, without words. It could be that the community in which the\u00a0Revelation of the Magi was produced did indeed practice silent prayer, since it is obviously such a central feature of the Magi\u2019s piety and it\u2019s not otherwise clear why the Magi would be so closely associated with silent prayer. It\u2019s also important to keep in mind that silent prayer in antiquity was relatively unusual\u2013it doesn\u2019t necessarily mean that a group that practiced this would have automatically been considered heretical, but it\u2019s definitely not a typical mode of religiosity at this time.<\/p>\n