The Lost Message of Jesus
Chalke, a British social activist, broadcaster and author of The Parenttalk Guide to Your Child and Sex and Faithworks, asserts that churches neglect Christ's basic message that "the Kingdom... is available now to everyone through me." Instead, Chalke says, pieces of Christ's message have been overemphasized and distorted. Like a refinisher removing lacquer from antique furniture, Chalke seeks to strip falsity and tradition from the gospel by examining the accounts of Christ's life in their original context. Clear explanations and plenty of anecdotes reveal truths that get little air time in most pulpits. For example, Jesus offered forgiveness outside the temple. In doing so, he brought hope to people the Pharisees had shut out of the temple—and threatened the nation's power structure. Such insights illustrate the immediacy of Christ's message; Chalke says Jesus offered forgiveness "  'right here, right now' and for free." But just as the furniture refinisher risks damaging the original while restoring its beauty, Chalke scrapes the outer boundaries of Christian orthodoxy with questionable treatment of the traditional Western notion of original sin (he cites no scripture in saying Christ emphasized humanity's "original goodness") and of the atonement. Chalke appears to reject the idea that Jesus' death was a sacrifice for sin, maintaining instead that the crucifixion destroyed "the ideology that violence is the ultimate solution." The book's intent—to free the gospel from religious bias and expose its unvarnished power—deserves kudos, but some traditional Christians may greet the specifics with skepticism.Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.