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Scripting Jesus

Author: L. Michael White

Publisher: Harper Collins

Published: 2010-04-15

Total Pages: 534

ISBN-13: 0061985376

In Scripting Jesus, Michael White, famed scholar of early Christian history, reveals how the gospel stories of Jesus were never meant to be straightforward historical accounts, but rather were scripted and honed as performance pieces for four different audiences with four different theological agendas. As he did as a featured presenter in two award-winning PBS Frontline documentaries (“From Jesus to Christ” and “Apocalypse!”), White engagingly explains the significance of some lesser-known aspects of The New Testament; in this case, the development of the stories of Jesus—including how the gospel writers differed from one another on facts, points of view, and goals. Readers of Elaine Pagels, Marcus Borg, John Dominic Crossan, and Bart Ehrman will find much to ponder in Scripting Jesus.

The Confrontational Wit of Jesus

Author: Catherine M. Wallace

Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers

Published: 2016-07-27

Total Pages: 163

ISBN-13: 1498228917

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Jesus did not die to save us from God. He died because the Romans did not tolerate charismatic teachers who attracted a lively following. Jesus attracted that following through his personal compassion, his confrontational inclusivity, and his skill in using laughter as a nonviolent weapon of mass disruption. The Gospel authors picked up Jesus' witty techniques. They adeptly parodied the literary conventions of heroic biography, laying out "the kingdom of God" in a point-for-point contrast with the empire of Caesar Augustus. Most of this contrast was Jewish Prophetic Rant, Standard Edition: the God of the Jews had always demanded justice for workers, food for the hungry, care for those unable to earn a living, and an end to monopolizing natural resources for private and imperial profit. Jesus added a fourth and telling point: God is nonviolent. God smites no one. God's loving-kindness and compassionate presence embraces all of humanity equally. We are all the children of God. Then and now, that's a revolutionary claim. It portrays our obligation to the common good as a sacred obligation. It's owed to God. In cultural terms, that's the most potent variety of obligation. This is the cultural heritage at risk from fundamentalism, which portrays God as both crazy-violent and vindictive.

Jesus > Religion

Author: Jefferson Bethke

Publisher: HarperChristian + ORM

Published: 2013-10-14

Total Pages: 241

ISBN-13: 1400205409

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Abandon dead, dry, religious rule-keeping and embrace the promise of being truly known and deeply loved. Jefferson Bethke burst into the cultural conversation with a passionate, provocative poem titled "Why I Hate Religion, But Love Jesus." The 4-minute video became an overnight sensation, with 7 million YouTube views in its first 48 hours (and 23+ million in a year). Bethke's message clearly struck a chord with believers and nonbelievers alike, triggering an avalanche of responses running the gamut from encouraged to enraged. In his New York Times bestseller Jesus > Religion, Bethke unpacks similar contrasts that he drew in the poem--highlighting the difference between teeth gritting and grace, law and love, performance and peace, despair, and hope. With refreshing candor, he delves into the motivation behind his message, beginning with the unvarnished tale of his own plunge from the pinnacle of a works-based, fake-smile existence that sapped his strength and led him down a path of destructive behavior. Along the way, Bethke gives you the tools you need to: Humbly and prayerfully open your mind Understand Jesus for all that he is View the church from a brand-new perspective Bethke is quick to acknowledge that he's not a pastor or theologian, but simply an ordinary, twenty-something who cried out for a life greater than the one for which he had settled. On this journey, Bethke discovered the real Jesus, who beckoned him with love beyond the props of false religion. Praise for Jesus > Religion: "Jeff's book will make you stop and listen to a voice in your heart that may have been drowned out by the noise of religion. Listen to that voice, then follow it--right to the feet of Jesus." --Bob Goff, author of New York Times bestsellers Love Does and Everybody, Always "The book you hold in your hands is Donald Miller's Blue Like Jazz meets C. S. Lewis's Mere Christianity meets Augustine's Confessions. This book is going to awaken an entire generation to Jesus and His grace." --Derwin L. Gray, lead pastor of Transformation Church, author of Limitless Life: Breaking Free from the Labels That Hold You Back

Republican Jesus

Author: Tony Keddie

Publisher: Univ of California Press

Published: 2021-09-09

Total Pages: 376

ISBN-13: 0520385691

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The complete guide to debunking right-wing misinterpretations of the Bible—from economics and immigration to gender and sexuality. Jesus loves borders, guns, unborn babies, and economic prosperity and hates homosexuality, taxes, welfare, and universal healthcare—or so say many Republican politicians, pundits, and preachers. Through outrageous misreadings of the New Testament gospels that started almost a century ago, conservative influencers have conjured a version of Jesus that speaks to their fears, desires, and resentments. In Republican Jesus, Tony Keddie explains not only where this right-wing Christ came from and what he stands for but also why this version of Jesus is a fraud. By restoring Republicans’ cherry-picked gospel texts to their original literary and historical contexts, Keddie dismantles the biblical basis for Republican positions on hot-button issues like Big Government, taxation, abortion, immigration, and climate change. At the same time, he introduces readers to an ancient Jesus whose life experiences and ethics were totally unlike those of modern Americans, conservatives and liberals alike.

What Did Jesus Look Like?

Author: Joan E. Taylor

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2018-02-08

Total Pages: 288

ISBN-13: 0567671496

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Jesus Christ is arguably the most famous man who ever lived. His image adorns countless churches, icons, and paintings. He is the subject of millions of statues, sculptures, devotional objects and works of art. Everyone can conjure an image of Jesus: usually as a handsome, white man with flowing locks and pristine linen robes. But what did Jesus really look like? Is our popular image of Jesus overly westernized and untrue to historical reality? This question continues to fascinate. Leading Christian Origins scholar Joan E. Taylor surveys the historical evidence, and the prevalent image of Jesus in art and culture, to suggest an entirely different vision of this most famous of men. He may even have had short hair.

Jesus, Disciple of the Kingdom

Author: Osvaldo D. Vena

Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers

Published: 2014-01-08

Total Pages: 223

ISBN-13: 1610979400

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That Jesus started his career as a disciple of John the Baptist is an idea that has gained almost universal recognition in the scholarly world. His coming from Galilee to be baptized by John in the river Jordan is the most compelling proof of Jesus' subordination to John. But quickly after John was executed Jesus started his own career, not as a disciple anymore, but as a teacher in his own right. In this book Osvaldo Vena makes the claim that throughout his ministry Jesus remained a disciple, not of John, but of a higher power, God, and God's kingdom. Thus, Jesus called men and women to join him as co-disciples as he went about proclaiming the nearness of the kingdom through word and action.In this work Vena contends that in the Gospel of Mark, Jesus is presented as a prototype of true and faithful discipleship, a model to be followed and imitated by ancient as well as contemporary believers. This presentation amounts to an emerging Christology espoused by the early Markan community on the verge of destruction from outside forces, specifically the Jewish-Roman war, as well as internal divisions resulting from struggles for power in the community.

Jesus and Well Being

Author: Thomas V. McGovern

Publisher: WestBow Press

Published: 2017-06-29

Total Pages: 312

ISBN-13: 1512791377

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The author begins and ends with the challenging question that many ask today: How do our lives make sense in light of the life of Jesus? Drawing on Jesus's gospel parables and sayings and Paul's letters, each chapter invites readers to explore the virtues of wisdom, love, justice, courage, temperance and transcendence. Jesus's 1st century life deserves our continuing study as we develop a truly mindful spirituality for 21st century well being. Professor McGovern's distinguished teaching and scholarly life work is clearly evident as he artistically weaves together so many threads to enable the reader to create their own spiritual tapestries. This book will inspire readers with lifelong traditional commitments as well as those who may currently identify as "spiritual but not religious." Thought provoking ideas. Pragmatic applications. A good story. Transformative.

From Jesus to Christianity

Author: L. Michael White

Publisher: HarperCollins

Published: 2016-04-12

Total Pages: 363

ISBN-13: 0062241974

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L. Michael White, one of the world’s foremost scholars on the origins of Christianity, provides the complete, astonishing story of how Christianity grew from the personal vision of a humble Jewish peasant living in a remote province of the Roman Empire into the largest organized religion in the world. Rather than reading the New Testament straight through in its traditional, or “canonical” order, From Jesus to Christianity takes a historical approach. Looking at the individual books chronologically, in the sequence in which they were actually written, readers can see what they divulge about the disagreements, shared values, and unifying mission of the earliest Christian communities. White digs through layers of archaeological excavations, sifts through buried fragments of largely unknown texts, and examines historical sources to discover what we can know of Jesus.

Questioning the Historicity of Jesus

Author: Raphael Lataster

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2019-07-01

Total Pages: 508

ISBN-13: 9004408789

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This volume explains the inadequacy of the sources and methods used to establish Jesus’ historicity, and how agnosticism can reasonably be upgraded to theorising about ahistoricity when reconsidering Christian origins.

Off Script

Author: Cary Schmidt

Publisher:

Published: 2011-07-01

Total Pages:

ISBN-13: 9781598941692

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We all have a script for our lives. It resides in our minds and hearts--perhaps a good bit in our imaginations. Things are good in our script. But every now and then, God takes our lives off script. He reaches into our circumstances with events we would never choose. These unexpected adventures are often painful, uncomfortable, and scary. Off script times are pivotal, defining moments. If your world has gone awry, if your life is off script, this book will help you discover God's heart, God's joy, and God's truth in the fog of an uncertain reality. If your life hasn't gone off script, then these pages will prepare you for the moment that it does.