Take a photo of a barcode or cover
alassel 's review for:
Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth
by Reza Aslan
I picked up this book after the interview the author did with a Fox News anchor went around Facebook a week or two ago, as I was impressed with how he handled her and wanted to see what he had to say. The book absolutely did not disappoint, and I learned a lot about the early beginnings of the Christian church and faith as well as about both Jesus the man and Jesus the Christ. This book also confirmed my opinion that Paul was a complete asshole.
I know very little about the socio-political world in existence when the events of the Bible took place, and the author does an excellent job of describing it with what is known and then putting the events of the Bible into that setting. I found his writing to be very clear and good at stating what is actually known historically (very little), what is inferred from various documents, and what is likely complete fabrication and how it contradicts other accounts (even two different Gospels within the Bible). He takes the time to point out when his theory is different from those held by other prominent scholars, and explains why he feels his is the correct one, which I found quite interesting. The book does not have footnotes, which I understand some people dislike, but the epilogue does have a condensed set of arguments from each chapter with applicable references that is surprisingly easy to read.
The transition of Christianity from the ravings of a poor Jewish peasant man who preached for a few years into the codified religion of miracles and virgin births is fascinating. The nascent Christian church basically carefully constructed a fantasy around what Jesus said and what he did and who he was in order to shove him into a mold of the Messiah and the Christ, right down to denying his family and insisting he was the product of a virgin birth. Given that unless they had changed from the Jewish zealotry that Jesus espoused they would've been wiped out, I understand the reasoning, but I wish they hadn't gone quite so far into ridiculousness. As the conclusion to the book notes, Jesus of Nazareth was an interesting man with good ideas, one as worth of respect as the fictional Jesus the Christ, and it's too bad that the latter has nearly wholly absorbed the former.
Anyone who is a Christian should read this book, even if they think they will disagree with it, and think critically about why the religion turned out the way it did. This is a well-written and interesting book, and one I wish I'd been able to read as a teenager questioning the religion I'd been raised in.
I know very little about the socio-political world in existence when the events of the Bible took place, and the author does an excellent job of describing it with what is known and then putting the events of the Bible into that setting. I found his writing to be very clear and good at stating what is actually known historically (very little), what is inferred from various documents, and what is likely complete fabrication and how it contradicts other accounts (even two different Gospels within the Bible). He takes the time to point out when his theory is different from those held by other prominent scholars, and explains why he feels his is the correct one, which I found quite interesting. The book does not have footnotes, which I understand some people dislike, but the epilogue does have a condensed set of arguments from each chapter with applicable references that is surprisingly easy to read.
The transition of Christianity from the ravings of a poor Jewish peasant man who preached for a few years into the codified religion of miracles and virgin births is fascinating. The nascent Christian church basically carefully constructed a fantasy around what Jesus said and what he did and who he was in order to shove him into a mold of the Messiah and the Christ, right down to denying his family and insisting he was the product of a virgin birth. Given that unless they had changed from the Jewish zealotry that Jesus espoused they would've been wiped out, I understand the reasoning, but I wish they hadn't gone quite so far into ridiculousness. As the conclusion to the book notes, Jesus of Nazareth was an interesting man with good ideas, one as worth of respect as the fictional Jesus the Christ, and it's too bad that the latter has nearly wholly absorbed the former.
Anyone who is a Christian should read this book, even if they think they will disagree with it, and think critically about why the religion turned out the way it did. This is a well-written and interesting book, and one I wish I'd been able to read as a teenager questioning the religion I'd been raised in.