What Jesus meant
By: Garry Wills
Publisher: Viking
Published: 2006
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 143
ISBN-13: 9780670034963
Subjects: Teachings; Criticism, interpretation; Bible
Description: In what are billed as "culture wars," people on the political right and the political left cite Jesus as endorsing their views. Wills argues that Jesus subscribed to no political program--He was far more radical than that. It is only by dodges and evasions that people misrepresent what Jesus plainly had to say against power, the wealthy, and religion itself. Jesus came from the working class, and he spoke to and for that class. This book will challenge the assumptions of almost everyone who brings religion into politics--"Christian socialists" as well as biblical theocrats. But Wills is just as critical of those who would make Jesus a mere ethical teacher, ignoring or playing down his divinity--Jesus without the Resurrection is simply not the Jesus of the gospels. He argues that this does not make people embrace an otherworldliness that ignores the poor or the problems of our time.--From publisher description.
Table of contents: title: Foreword: Christ not a Christian; title: The hidden years; title: The work begins; title: The radical Jesus; title: Against religion; title: Heaven's reign; title: Descent into hell; title: The death of God; title: The life of God; title: Afterword.