Top 10 Recently Reviewed Books About Jesus

Was there a man named Jesus who lived, was executed, and then after three days rose from the dead? Christians believe so - this is the central doctrine of their faith, on that justify belief in God, in an afterlife, and in their own salvation. Others are not so sure about this, however, and some argue that it is a false belief - even from the perspective of Christian tradition itself.

Assuming that Jesus really existed in some fashion, what did he really do and say? Can we know anything about what his original ideas were, without later additions and mythologizing? And if so, how? These are the sorts of questions which have occupied theologians and scholars for hundreds of years. And, for a long time, there was widespread agreement on the answers to those questions.

Jesus appears to be alive and well in America. Many people seek to discover the 'historical' Jesus who gave rise to the Christian religion, but at least as interesting is the 'cultural' Jesus which has given rise to all sorts of modern religious movements, political developments, and cultural progress...

Who was Jesus? Innumerable people - scholars and lay people alike - have wanted to answer that question and have therefore embarked upon a "quest for the historical Jesus." What has been the result of their efforts? According to Charlotte Allen, not very much. Allen argues that these "quests" reveal much more about the psychology and ideology of the questors and little or nothing about Jesus.

About 100 years before the probable lifetime of Jesus, a man came to Jerusalem who eventually came to be called "The Teacher of Righteousness." Given the name Judah by author Michael O. Wise, this all-but-forgotten preacher and prophet prefigured the stories surrounding Jesus in a startling number of ways. Equally messianic figures, they both were arrested and condemned by authorities due to their religious claims.

Was Jesus really an innovative figure in Judaism, or was he instead the inheritor of a previously established belief system about the nature of the role of a Messiah? Traditional Christian opinions have ranged widely on this issue, with some saying that Jesus claimed a unique Messiah role, and others arguing that this was only claimed later by the Christian community, because it was totally unknown in Judaism.

If you look at the books written by liberal Christian theologians about Jesus, you'll find a bewildering array of Jesuses with all sorts of agendas, ideas, and personalities. Who was this Jesus supposed to be? A political revolutionary? A religious dissident? Maybe a quiet mystic whose life got blown out of proportion? Perhaps he was a cynic philosopher, or just a nobody who got confused with someone else?

Who was Jesus? Biographies of him are plentiful and arouse intense passion among authors and readers - more so than with the biographies of other figures. Everyone seems to have their own opinions as to who Jesus was and what his intentions must have been.

Lenowitz has provided us with an interesting and in many ways unique volume of information regarding messiahs and messianic movements. If this is a topic which interests you, then this is one book which you will want make sure you include in your reading.

Was Christianity originally founded upon the teachings and activities of a real person named Jesus, or was it rather based upon a fictionalized character created to convey mysterious truths? Does the answer to this question have any consequences for the nature of Christianity, either for today or for the future?