Historical Jesus Books - Page 2

Desire of the Everlasting Hills

Thomas Cahill

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Total reviews: 123 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

In Desire of the Everlasting Hills, Thomas Cahill takes up his most daring and provocative subject yet: Jesus of Nazareth, the central figure of Western civilization. Introducing us first to "the people Jesus knew," Thomas Cahill describes the oppressive Roman political presence, the pervasive Greek cultural influence, and especially the widely varied social and religious context of the Judaism in which Jesus moved and flourished. These backgrounds, essential to a complete understanding of Jesus, lead to the author's stunningly original interpretation of the New Testament--much of it based on material from the ancient Greek brilliantly translated by the author himself--that will delight readers and surprise even biblical scholars. Thomas Cahill's most unusual skill may lie in his ability to bring to life people of a faraway world whose concerns seem at first to be utterly removed from the present day. We see Jesus as a real person, sharp-witted and sharp-tongued, but kind, humorous, and affectionate, shadowed by the inevitable climax of crucifixion, the cruelest form of execution ever devised by humankind. Mary, while not quite the "perpetual virgin" of popular piety, is a vivid presence and forceful influence on her son. And the apostle Paul, the carrier of Jesus' message and most important figure in the early Jesus movement (which became Christianity), finds rehabilitation in Cahill's realistic, revealing portrait of him. The third volume in the Hinges of History series, this unique presentation of Jesus and his times is for believers and nonbelievers alike (for Jews and Christians, it is intended by the author as an act of reconciliation). With the same lively narration and irresistible perceptions that characterize How the Irish Saved Civilization and The Gifts of the Jews, Thomas Cahill invites readers into an ancient world to commune with some of the most influential people who ever lived.

Life of Christ

Fulton J. Sheen

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 30 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

The Best Story of the Life of Christ -- 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

This book is the best, most accessible way to learn about the life of Christ. All will enjoy it -- every member of the family!

I have waited four years for the words on these pages... 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

In 2005 I was given the inner knowing that Christ is who He said He is.
It was in a split second of an experience I cannot put into words.
My hunger was born at that moment.
As many books as I have read in the last four years, nothing, nothing, compares to this. Not even C.S. Lewis and Mere Christianity, although his comment to those who state that Christ was only a "good teacher" was one of the best comments I have ever read...of course, that is what I once said...
I can't say anymore than all the reviews here. I am ever grateful for however this book made it to my hands. It is even more amazing that I was given the ability to understand it.

Editorial Review:

Bishop Fulton Sheen presents a passionate portrait of the God-Man, the teacher, the healer, and most of all, the Savior, whose promise has sustained humanity for two millenia. Here is the story of the greatest man that ever lived.

The Jesus Papers: Exposing the Greatest Cover-Up in History (Plus)

Michael Baigent

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Total reviews: 152 Average rating: 3.0 of 5

Absolutely Ridiculous 1 out of 5 stars.
3 of 4 people found this review helpful.

To begin with, only a few chapters of this book even deal with the so-called crucifixion controversy. A large portion of this book deals with Baigent's own experiences crawling around caves and chapters literally go by without any mention or reference whatsoever to Jesus.

Secondly, Baigent's thesis is absurd. First, he states that he doubts that Jesus ever existed, then goes on to say that a replacement Jesus was crucified, then proposes that Jesus survived the crucifixion. His arguments are conflicting and convoluted, referencing documents he cannot produce or even prove exist to support his claims. Many of his arguments are centered around the Gospels, which he himself goes to great lengths to discredit.

He states that the many conspiracies of the Church are Vatican cover-ups, citing their own selfish reasons for keeping such a secret. Thus, he argues, the Vatican is biased and cannot be trusted. Yet, he ignores his own motives for writing this book and "uncovering" these conspiracies...fame and fortune

Editorial Review:

What if everything we have been told about the origins of Christianity is a lie?

What if a small group had always known the truth and had kept it hidden . . . until now?

What if there is evidence that Jesus Christ survived the crucifixion?

In Holy Blood, Holy Grail Michael Baigent and his co-authors Henry Lincoln and Richard Leigh stunned the world with a controversial theory that Jesus Christ and Mary Magdalene married and founded a holy bloodline. The book became an international publishing phenomenon and was one of the sources for Dan Brown's novel The Da Vinci Code. Now, with two additional decades of research behind him, Baigent's The Jesus Papers presents explosive new evidence that challenges everything we know about the life and death of Jesus.

The Christ Conspiracy: The Greatest Story Ever Sold

Acharya S

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Total reviews: 249 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Controversial and explosive, The Christ Conspiracy marshals an enormous amount of startling evidence that the religion of Christianity and Jesus Christ were created by members of various secret societies, mystery schools and religions in order to unify the Roman Empire under one state religion! This powerful book maintains that these groups drew upon a multitude of myths and rituals that already existed long before the Christian era and reworked them into the story the Christian religion presents today-known to most Westerners as the Bible. Author Acharya makes the case that there was no actual person named Jesus, but that several characters were rolled into one mythic being inspired by the deities Mithras, Heracles/Hercules, Dionysus and many others of the Roman Empire. She demonstrates that the story of Jesus, as portrayed in the Gospels, is nearly identical in detail to those of the earlier savior-gods Krishna and Horus, and concludes that Jesus was certainly neither original nor unique, nor was he the divine revelation. Rather, he represents the very ancient body of knowledge derived from celestial observation and natural forces. A book that will initiate heated debate and inner struggle, it is intelligently written and referenced. The only book of its kind, it is destined for controversy.

Jesus and the Disinherited

Howard Thurman

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 10 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Read this book! 5 out of 5 stars.
7 of 7 people found this review helpful.

Want to know the experience of an African American in America in the thirties and forties, the man who "discovered" Ghandi, went to India, and brought back his message, the man who then taught his students at Boston University School of Theology this message.

One of his students was Martin Luther King.

This short book should be bought, read, and shared.

Victory in respecting personality 4 out of 5 stars.
7 of 7 people found this review helpful.

I tracked down Jesus and the Disinherited after reading Richard Lischer's fine study of Martin Luther King Jr, Preacher King. Howard Thurman, I had learned, was an influence on Martin Luther King Jr. A scholarly Christian reflecting on the African-American experience, he preached non-violence long before it was fashionable. As the back cover states, this is "an influential book whose message helped shape the civil rights movement and changed our nation's history for ever."
Thurman compares the situation of African-Americans to that of the Jews in the time of Jesus. He analyzes the psychological effects of oppression on individuals. He describes the strategies oppressed people adopt for survival based on fear, deception and hate. Fear teaches our body to avoid confrontation with a member of the dominant community, we use double talk so as not to attract negative attention, and our only possible response becomes hatred which keeps us from moral disintegration.
Jesus' call to love enemies was revolutionary. Genuine love must be a mutual recognition of the dominant and oppressed communities as human beings. Genuine love at an individual level (I hate all Asians, but this person I know to be a human being) may lead to an exceptionalism which does not remove the deep hatred of the others collectively.
Thurman concludes, "What, then, is the word of the religion of Jesus to those who stand with their backs against the wall? ... They must recognize fear, deception, hatred, each for what it is. Once having done this, they must learn how to destroy these or to render themselves immune to their domination." (p. 108)
The power of this book derives from Thurman's own experience of oppression and his analysis of Jesus' own experience of minority. It is not betrayal to love our enemies; it is a victory when the dominant and oppressed communities respect each other as equals.

Editorial Review:

In this classic theological treatise, the acclaimed theologian and religious leader Howard Thurman (1900-1981) demonstrates how the Gospel may be read as a manual of resistance for the poor and disenfranchised.

"Richly endowed. . . . It is the centerpiece of the black prophet-mystic's lifelong [work]."


--Vincent Harding

Jesus: A Revolutionary Biography

John Dominic Crossan

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Total reviews: 50 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Hit and Miss 3 out of 5 stars.
6 of 12 people found this review helpful.

J.D. Crossan's conclusions are really hit or miss in this book. I found his work on the infancy narratives and Jesus' egalitarian philosophy to be generally on the mark but I have some major disagreements elsewhere.

First, he admits that he does not believe in miracles. I'm OK with such a sentiment as long as one explains the numerous miracle stories in the Gospels. Crossan fails to do so in a convincing manner.

Second, Crossan pretty much ignores Jesus' apocalyptic utterances, passing them off as later additions to the Jesus tradition. However, he provides little evidence to convince the reader of that conclusion.

Finally, his take on the resurrection stories is absurd. He wants us to believe that they weren't meant as historical narratives but as stories used to prop up the Twelve or Peter or the Beloved Disciple above the general community. To me, it seemed like eisegesis and not exegesis. I can't imagine the four evangelists had anything like that in mind.

Editorial Review:

John Dominic Crossan's bestselling and critically acclaimed biography of the historical Jesus. "This is an outstanding book--both popular and intelligent. Accessible language and direct, dramatic narration . . . a compelling portrait of Jesus."

The Jesus Dynasty: The Hidden History of Jesus, His Royal Family, and the Birth of Christianity

James D. Tabor

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Total reviews: 133 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

The Jesus Dynasty offers a startling new interpretation of the life of Jesus and the origins of Christianity that is grounded in careful analysis of the earliest Christian documents and recent archaeological discoveries, including the much-discussed "Jesus family tomb."

In The Jesus Dynasty, biblical scholar James Tabor brings us closer than ever to the historical Jesus. He explains the crucial relationship between Jesus, a royal descendant of David, and his relative John the Baptizer, a priestly descendant of Aaron and Jesus' teacher. When John was killed, several of his followers -- including Jesus' four brothers -- joined with Jesus, who continued John's mission, preaching the same apocalyptic message. After Jesus confronted the Roman authorities in Jerusalem and was crucified, his brother James succeeded him as the leader of the Jesus dynasty.

James Tabor has studied the earliest surviving documents of Christianity for more than thirty years and has participated in important archaeological excavations in Israel. His reconstruction of the life of Jesus and his followers, and of the early years of Christianity, will change our understanding of one of the most crucial moments in history.

The Jesus Puzzle. Did Christianity Begin with a Mythical Christ? : Challenging the Existence of an Historical Jesus

Earl Doherty

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Total reviews: 104 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

The gospel story of Jesus is a work of dramatic fiction 5 out of 5 stars.
7 of 9 people found this review helpful.

"The Jesus Puzzle" by Earl Doherty.

This book should be of interest to those who have doubts about divine intervention in human affairs (theism).

Doherty addresses the Jesus Puzzle by tracing the likely ancestry of the books of the New Testament. There are two "traditions". The Jerusalem Tradition, which refers to the "Son of God", and includes the Pauline and other epistles; and the Galilean Tradition, which refers to the "Son of Man", and includes the gospels and a hypothetical collection of sayings known to Biblical scholars as Q.

The epistles, written in the first century CE, refer to Christ as a mythical character and intermediary between God and man; they draw on Old Testament prophesies. But they fail to mention a human Jesus. It is not until the earliest gospel, written by Mark about 90 CE, that Jesus appears in human form, complete with biography. Doherty suggests that if such a person had existed, the epistle writers would have mentioned him, as that would have stregthened their case.

Because the epistles are silent about the biography of Jesus, Doherty infers that no such person existed. Instead, Jesus was created by the author of Mark's gospel, not as an historical person but as a fictional character. Mark's writing used the technique called "midrash" to combine material from the Q document with Old Testament prophesies. The result was a brilliant work of drama which was futher embellished by the other gospel writers. The entire gospel account of Jesus's life and death, says Doherty, is a literary fabrication.

As a non-believer, I found this theory to be quite reassuring, as there is no longer any need to account for the unnatural events in the life and death of Jesus. But in order to appreciate it more fully you would need a more thorough knowledge of the Bible and Christian doctrines.

Editorial Review:

A new presentation of the argument that no historical Jesus existed. A full and comprehensive survey of the question through an examination of the early Christian record, canonical and non-canonical, from Q to the Gospels, from the earliest Pauline epistles to the second century apologists, along with Jewish, Gnostic, and Greco-Roman documents of the time. The philosophy of the era, its religious expression in the pagan mystery cults, fascinating glimpses into the historical background of the period, an in-depth consideration of the Jewish historian Flavius Josephus, are only some of the additional topics covered in the book. A richly-detailed, highly lucid and entertaining account of how Christianity began without an historical Jesus of Nazareth, who came to life only on the pages of the Gospels. The book has been styled for the general reader, though the scholarly community will find it of value as well.

When Jesus Became God: The Struggle to Define Christianity during the Last Days of Rome

Richard E. Rubenstein

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Total reviews: 83 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

The story of Jesus is well known, as is the story of Christian persecutions during the Roman Empire. The history of fervent debate, civil strife, and bloody riots within the Christian community as it was coming into being, however, is a side of ancient history rarely described. Richard E. Rubenstein takes the reader to the streets of the Roman Empire during the fourth century, when a fateful debate over the divinity of Jesus Christ is being fought. Ruled by a Christian emperor, followers of Jesus no longer fear for the survival of their monotheistic faith but break into two camps regarding the direction of their worship. Is Jesus the son of God and therefore not the same as God? Or is Jesus precisely God on earth and therefore equal to Him? The vicious debate is led by two charismatic priests. Arius, an Alexandrian priest and poet, preaches that Jesus, though holy, is less than God. Athanasius, a brilliant and violent bishop, sees any diminution of Jesus' godhead as the work of the devil. Between them stands Alexander, the powerful Bishop of Alexandria, who must find a resolution that will keep the empire united and the Christian faith alive. With thorough historical, religious, and social research, Rubenstein vividly recreates one of the most critical moments in the history of religion.

The Historical Reliability of the Gospels

Craig L. Blomberg

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Total reviews: 16 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Scholarly defense of the gospels' historical reliability 5 out of 5 stars.
6 of 9 people found this review helpful.

Blomberg, an expert in the Synoptics, does a superb job, showing the inadequacies of much liberal gospel scholarship, and making an eminently credible case for the overall historical reliability of the canonical gospels. This is clearly going to be a classic, and anyone interested in Biblical Studies should read it.

Editorial Review:

For over twenty years, Craig Blomberg's The Historical Reliability of the Gospels has provided a useful antidote to many of the toxic effects of skeptical criticism of the Gospels. Offering a calm, balanced overview of the history of Gospel criticism, especially that of the late twentieth century, Blomberg introduces readers to the methods employed by New Testament scholars and shows both the values and limits of those methods. He then delves more deeply into the question of miracles, Synoptic discrepancies and the differences between the Synoptics and John. After an assessment of noncanonical Jesus tradition, he addresses issues of historical method directly.

This new edition has been thoroughly updated in light of new developments with numerous additions to the footnotes and two added appendixes. Readers will find that over the past twenty years, the case for the historical trustworthiness of the Gospels has grown vastly stronger.