The Robe

I read this book last year, but it is perfect for the Easter season, so I decided to review it now.

This book is a masterpiece! Lloyd C. Douglas's "The Robe" follows a Roman solider through the years before and after Christ's crucifixion. The Roman solider is present at the Crucifixion and is deeply affected by this experience. "The Robe" follows the political and social times that Christ lived in and illustrated the changes that started from Christ's life and resurrection.

What Douglas believes occurred right after Christ's crucifixion was very interesting and plausible. The historical context was well researched and believable. I enjoyed understanding this story in greater depth than we normally give it, even during Easter. My heart broke my times for all in the story... How those around the crucifixion of Christ must have been haunted! Highly recommended reading!

My husbands favorite quote (because he hates clutter):

"Hoarded things might easily become a menace; a mere fire-and-theft risk; a breeding ground for destructive insects; a source of worry. Men would have plenty of anxieties, but there was no sense in accumulating worries over things! That kind of worry destroyed your character. Even an unused coat, hanging in your closet; it wasn't merely a useless thing that did nobody any good; it was an active agent of destruction to your life." p. 275

Other favorite quotes:

(Referring to Christ) "How often he talked about generosity! In his opinion there was nothing meaner than a mean gift. About the worst thing a man could do to himself or a fellow creature was to bestow a grudged gift. It was very hard on a man's character to give away something that should have been thrown away! That much of Jesus' teachings you could accept, my friend, without any difficulty." p.251

"This faith is not like a deed to a house in which one may live with full rights of possession. It is more like a kit of tools with which a man may build him a house. The tools will be worth just what he does with them. When he lays them down, they will have no value until he takes them up again." p. 347

(This is referring to the new Christian movement and it's relation to Rome. It is an interesting perspective on how the opposing forces could have viewed Christ and His followers.) "You mean - they might try to overthrow the Empire?"

"Not by force. If some foolhardy fellow were to stand up on a cart and yell at these captive people to take up arms against their masters, they would know that was hopeless. But - here comes a man without an army: doesn't want an army; has no political aspirations; doesn't want a throne; has no offices to distribute; never fought a battle; never owned a sword; hasn't a thing to recommend him as a leader - except - except that he knows how to make blind men see, and cripples walk; and, having been killed for creating so much excitement, returns from the dead, saying, 'Follow me - and I will set you free!' Well - why shouldn't they follow him - if they believe all that? there is more than one kind of courage, my child, and the most potent of all is the reckless bravery of people who have nothing to lose...

"...They have no fear. Now - you set a thing like that in motion - and there'd be no end to it!" p. 407-408

(I love this quote about slavery.) "...you don't rob a slave of his divine character when you buy him and hitch him to a plow, between an ox and an ass. He has had no choice in the matter. It isn't he who has demoted mankind: it is you! He is still free to believe that God is his spiritual Father. But you aren't! ... his slavery has made you a relative of the beasts, because that is your conception of a man's value." p.172

"The Romans will be crushed, but not because they are too fat (because of slave labor). It will be because they have believed that all men are beasts. Enslaving other men, they have denied their own spiritual dignity." p.172