Misquoting Jesus, by Bart D. Ehrman. HarperSanFrancisco, 2005.

Believing the Gospels to be the true word of God, the author is disconcerted to discover that there are provable discrepancies in copies made at different places and times - some unintentional and others intentional - which have changed the meaning or interpretation of the message. He concludes there is currently no way to really know what happened and what Jesus actually said, because so many changes were made to support the positions of different factions within the early and medieval Church. The history and research are interesting and well documented - almost tediously so - but ultimately Ehrman fails to convincingly state how his findings affected his belief in the veracity of todays editions of the Gospels. Disillusionment is evident, but a corresponding re-affirmation of his faith is not very strong or convincing. I was left with the impression that the Gospels were, and still are, used as a teaching tool to support the beliefs of Christianity, and that they can, and probably will, be changed again as new discoveries are made and new research is published.