Sunday, January 19, 2014

What I'm Reading #55

The all around anti-darling of the conservatives for daring to be a Muslim who writes about Jesus--can you think of a better reason to read this book!?  Reza, a religion scholar, pursues a line of reasoning that explores the utterly human reality of Jesus in the context of his contemporary cultural and historic realities, while also identifying the factors that led to his messiah-fication.  Wonderful ideas and compelling information.  A book worth talking about.
Posted by at
Labels:

1 comment:

Chris said...

I read it last year, and commented on it in my blog (I thought I did anyway...I can't put my finger on it). In any case Aslan used parts of the works of two of my professors for his book: Fr John Meier, of Catholic University (retired) and Dunwoodie Seminary, and Morton Smith, who was one of my history professors from Columbia University.

My comment is this: none of the information Aslan is setting down is new or startling. The reason Zealot is a good book is that it puts forward the information in a way that non-theologians and non-Biblical scholars can understand and appreciate. There is some controversy over some of it, of course, but none of it shakes my own faith in any way.

The argument that Aslan shouldn't be writing about Jesus because Aslan is a Muslim is just ridiculous. Aslan is a Biblical scholar. Non-Christians, non-Jews, and non-theists can also be Biblical scholars.

You may want to read his book on Islam. Both books are on Kindle, by the way.

3:40 PM

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)