heart of Gospel

Excellent writing with cogent examples. Good for thinking. A fresh perspective. ( )

Wills surprised me--I have long had the basic conclusion of which he writes: Jesus began no church. While I was irritated at his section on the Jesus Seminar, it's okay - it is his opinion - and I disagree with him. But the book was well done!!

On the whole I enjoyed reading this book. It certainly presented a few new ways of looking at certain passages of Scripture. However, I do have a few issues with it.

Willis, near the beginning, decries those such as Thomas Jefferson who tried to remove anything smacking of the super-natural (miracles, healing, the Resurrection, etc.) and in that I agree with him, but he then proceeds to symbolically interpret almost every miracle event in the gospels. "Satan" is merely a symbolic representation of collective human badness; "Hell" is merely the fact that Jesus felt abandoned on the cross; the virgin birth, Mary being faithful; the temptations in the desert, Jesus' early years being trained (inexplicably) by the Essenes and then Jon the Baptist (remember Satan doesn't exist); those "possessed" were merely sick; and so on. I was a bit curious as to how he would explain the Resurrection, but that managed to be the one super-natural event he retains; why, I don't know.

He presents a Jesus who is anti-clerical, anti-liturgy, anti-religion; basically a mix of pietistic Quaker and "spiritual" hippie. He denies the validity of any Church (let alone the Roman Catholic Church), states that apostolic succession is a lie, that there is no Real Presence in the Sacrament (he doesn't even give baptism the time of day), etc. The strange thing is that this comes from a man who considers himself a Roman Catholic, and even has written a book entitled (apparently somewhat ironically) Why I am Catholic, which he doesn't seem to be at all.

Now, do not misunderstand me. I am not a "bible literalist" and agree that many of the stories in the Bible should be taken on a metaphorical level. What bothers me, then, is that, to me, Willis appears to do exactly what e spends a chapter condemning others of: namely creating a "Jesus" that sounds remarkably like he is. As a theologian, I can safely say that one should ALWAYS beware of a "Jesus" who agrees it you in every way.

So, worth a read, but probably not more than one. ( )

Surprisingly good. I share some of the book's insights on my podcast Jesus in Books: http://jesusinbooks.com/scandalous-jesus-leviathan/ ( )