This book attempts to understand Jewish religion from the inside in first century Galilee. The autor's basic thesis is that first century Jews (at least in Galilee) saw the world in terms of flows--flows of water, goods, money, and people--originating in God and passing through the countryside. Their conflict with Roman power lay in the Roman's diversion and damming of those flows.



The difficulty with the book is the author's failure to provide an adequate definition of her argument. Her ideas are very interesting, and at times seem persuasive, but in the end there is a failure of communication. In the hands of another author willing to spend more time leading the readers, I think her thesis might be more effective.