Cover of The Lost Scroll and the Secret of LifeThe Lost Scroll and the Secret of Life by Tom Jankovic looked to be an interesting story when I saw it on Amazon.com when looking for books to download on my Kindle. It had several positive reviews on the Amazon website. Interestingly, now that I have finished the book, it no longer shows as being available for Kindle, though it is available in paperback.The author of the book has quite an impressive background. He has studied Christianity, Buddhism, Gnosticism, Vedanta, and Quantum Physics. The book is an attempt to create a fictional story tying all of his fields of study into a compelling adventure for the search of a lost scroll that will reveal to the seeker the secret of life.
The concept of the story itself had great potential. Unfortunately, the story itself fell kind of flat for me. The characters themselves have a fairly superficial development. The dialogue between the characters was also fairly flat. The plot of the book was not very believable. The main character has a chance encounter with a stranger then uproots his lifestyle to search the quest.
Without revealing too much of the plot, the protagonist of the story discovers lessons along the way that challenge the traditional belief as espoused by the Western church. He discovers that when the Roman Emperor Constantine accepted Christianity as the official religion of the Roman Empire, he established a committee to determine which teachings of Jesus would be allowed in the Bible and which would be destroyed. In this manner, the Church would maintain control of the masses.
The story goes on to discuss the theories of quantum physics and how everything in the world is interconnected, no matter how seemingly disparate they appear. The author touches upon the belief of some that Jesus traveled and studied in the East learning from master teachers. Our hero discovers that through Buddhism, Gnosticism, and Vedanta, that Jesus was teaching that the secret of life is within each of us and that there is truth from all of the various faiths and all flow from a single Source of life.
While the story itself was lacking, I did learn a few things from reading it. It made me curious enough to want to learn more about some of the other faith practices mentioned in the book. I already read a lot of Christianity and some Buddhism, but now I am interested in delving more into the Gnostics and the ancient faith of Vendanta.
Thanks for the review. I think I'll skip it.
ReplyDeletenot the worst book I ever read, but far from being one of the best. I am glad it was fairly short
DeleteIf you accept blogging awards, I've got one for you to pick up at http://myqualityday.blogspot.com
ReplyDelete