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Jesus and Christianity
A.N. Wilson, Jesus: A Life This impressively researched and thought-out work attempts to find the historical Jesus amidst the mythical figure. Wilson sorts through the four Gospels, comparing them with contemporary historical reports and analyzing them for consistency. The Gospels often disagree or omit alleged major events reported in one or the other, and these are pointed out. For example, if the story of Jesus raising Lazurus from the dead was based on a true incident, why did three of the four evangelists fail to mention it? There are other details which stick with me, although it's been several years since I read this work:
Did you know, for example, that a "manger" is not another word for a stable, but simply a feeding trough? Even the Gospels don't tell us that Jesus was born in a stable, it is merely said that he was seen in a manger. Wilson rightly points out that it would be more logical to suppose that a cradle was not available so that a feeding trough was substituted. Like so much of the story of Jesus (or any other revered figure), the hopes and aspirations of the followers are projected upon the person, and so the Christmas story as we know it developed.
This is an intriguing and compelling work that anyone interested in this enigmatic man called Jesus of Nazareth should read.
Norton, 1992 (2004 edition). 269 pages, about 6 x 9 inches, paperback. New.
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