I just finished reading the novel “The Breath of God” by Jeffry Small and it was a delight on many levels. The story is in the style of “The DaVinci Code” in that it is built around a real-life event. In this case, the event was a report by a Russian novelist (in 1887) that he saw a document in a Buddhist monastery in northern India suggesting that Jesus (yes, THAT Jesus) may have spent several years from his adolescence through his twenties studying Hinduism and Buddhism in India, prior to returning to start his own ministry in Judea. The story concerns a doctoral candidate from Emory University who is writing his dissertation on this legend. While in India trying to find evidence, he learns the documents were moved to Bhutan shortly after their discovery. Some evangelical Christians get wind of this and want to find and destroy the documents—using the help of an ex-military Christian terrorist— before they can be scientifically verified. Within the cloak-and-dagger storyline, the author (Jeffrey Small—acclaimed writer and speaker on religion and spirituality) weaves in ideas on the mystic origins of Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity, and even Islam. I highly recommend it!
