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The Scandalous Gospel of Jesus: What's So Good About the Good News?
| | <blockquote> <p>How the Church Domesticated Jesus</p> </blockquote> <p>With his unique blend of eloquence and insight, the esteemed Harvard minister Peter J. Gomes invites us to hear anew the radical nature of Jesus' message of hope and change. Using examples from ancient times as well as from modern pop culture, <i>The Scandalous Gospel of Jesus</i> shows us why the good news is every bit as relevant today as when it was first preached.</p> | |
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The Five Gospels: What Did Jesus Really Say? The Search for the AUTHENTIC Words of Jesus
| | <P><I>Did Jesus claim to be the Messiah<BR>Did he promise to return and usher in a new age<BR>How did Jesus envision the Kingdom of God</I><P><I>The Five Gospels </I>answers these questions in a bold, dynamic work that will startle traditional readers of the Bible and rekindle interest in it among secular skeptics. In 1985 the Jesus Seminar, comprising a distinguished group of biblical scholars, was founded by Robert W. Funk. They embarked on a new translation and assessment of the gospels, including the recently discovered Gospel of Thomas. In pursuit of the historical Jesus, they used their collective expertise to determine the authenticity of more than fifteen hundred sayings attributed to him. Their remarkable findings appear in this book.</P> | |
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The NIV Harmony of the Gospels
| | The classic Robertson/Broadus <I>Harmony of the Gospels</I>, newly revised for students of the <I>New International Version</I>. | |
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Reversed thunder: The Revelation of John and the praying imagination
| | <p>Peterson's eloquent meditation on the Revelation of St. John engages the imagination and awakens the intellect to the vitality and relevance of the last words on scripture, Christ, church, worship, evil, prayer, witness, politics, judgement, salvation, and heaven.</p> | |
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Misquoting Jesus: The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why
| | <p> When world-class biblical scholar Bart Ehrman first began to study the texts of the Bible in their original languages he was startled to discover the multitude of mistakes and intentional alterations that had been made by earlier translators. In <i>Misquoting Jesus</i>, Ehrman tells the story behind the mistakes and changes that ancient scribes made to the New Testament and shows the great impact they had upon the Bible we use today. He frames his account with personal reflections on how his study of the Greek manuscripts made him abandon his once ultraconservative views of the Bible. </p> <p> Since the advent of the printing press and the accurate reproduction of texts, most people have assumed that when they read the New Testament they are reading an exact copy of Jesus's words or Saint Paul's writings. And yet, for almost fifteen hundred years these manuscripts were hand copied by scribes who were deeply influenced by the cultural, theological, and political disputes of their day. Both mistakes and intentional changes abound in the surviving manuscripts, making the original words difficult to reconstruct. For the first time, Ehrman reveals where and why these changes were made and how scholars go about reconstructing the original words of the New Testament as closely as possible. </p> <p> Ehrman makes the provocative case that many of our cherished biblical stories and widely held beliefs concerning the divinity of Jesus, the Trinity, and the divine origins of the Bible itself stem from both intentional and accidental alterations by scribes -- alterations that dramatically affected all subsequent versions of the Bible. </p> | |
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In Search of Paul: How Jesus' Apostle Opposed Rome's Empire with God's Kingdom
| | <P>John Dominic Crossan, the eminent historical Jesus scholar, and Jonathan L. Reed, an expert in biblical archaeology, reveal through archaeology and textual scholarship that Paul, like Jesus, focused on championing the Kingdom of Goda realm of justice and equalityagainst the dominant, worldly powers of the Roman empire. </P><P> Many theories exist about who Paul was, what he believed, and what role he played in the origins of Christianity. Using archaeological and textual evidence, and taking advantage of recent major discoveries in Italy, Greece, Turkey, and Syria, Crossan and Reed show that Paul was a fallible but dedicated successor to Jesus, carrying on Jesus's mission of inaugurating the Kingdom of God on earth in opposition to the reign of Rome. Against the concrete backdrop of firstcentury GregoRoman and Jewish life, In Search of Paul reveals the work of Paul as never before, showing how and why the liberating messages and practices of equality, caring for the poor, and a just society under God's rules, not Rome's, were so appealing.</P><P> Readers interested in Paul as a historical figure and his place in the development of Christianity</P><P> <BR> Readers interested in archaeology and anthropology</P> | |
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The Last Week: A Day-by-Day Account of Jesus's Final Week in Jerusalem
| | <p> Top Jesus scholars Marcus J. Borg and John Dominic Crossan join together to reveal a radical and little-known Jesus. As both authors reacted to and responded to questions about Mel Gibson's blockbuster <i>The Passion of the Christ</i>, they discovered that many Christians are unclear on the details of events during the week leading up to Jesus's crucifixion. </p> <p> Using the gospel of Mark as their guide, Borg and Crossan present a day-by-day account of Jesus's final week of life. They begin their story on Palm Sunday with two triumphal entries into Jerusalem. The first entry, that of Roman governor Pontius Pilate leading Roman soldiers into the city, symbolized military strength. The second heralded a new kind of moral hero who was praised by the people as he rode in on a humble donkey. The Jesus introduced by Borg and Crossan is this new moral hero, a more dangerous Jesus than the one enshrined in the church's traditional teachings. </p> <p> <i>The Last Week</i> depicts Jesus giving up his life to protest power without justice and to condemn the rich who lack concern for the poor. In this vein, at the end of the week Jesus marches up Calvary, offering himself as a model for others to do the same when they are confronted by similar issues. Informed, challenged, and inspired, we not only meet the historical Jesus, but meet a new Jesus who engages us and invites us to follow him. </p> | |
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