false http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1171570481m/107274.jpg 107274 3 C.S. Lewis once noted that nowhere do the Gospels say, "Jesus laughed." He's probably laughing now, if he's got access to Bart Ehrman's <I>Jesus: Apocalyptic Prophet of the New Millennium</I>. The title doesn't even hint at the yuks that Ehrman's prose delivers, but from its very first page, <I>Jesus</I> will tickle your funny bone and stimulate your brain. "At last count," Ehrman begins, "there were something like 8 zillion books written about Jesus .... It's not there aren't <I>enough</I> books about Jesus out there. It's that there aren't enough of the right <I>kind</I> of book. Very, very few, in fact. I'd say about one and a half." <p> The right <I>kind</I> of book, according to Ehrman, is one that portrays Jesus roughly as Albert Schweitzer did, as a first-century Jewish apocalypticist: "This is a shorthand way of saying that Jesus fully expected that the history of the world as we know it (well, as he knew it) was going to come to a screeching halt, that God was soon going to intervene in the affairs of this world, overthrow the forces of evil in a cosmic act of judgment, destroy huge masses of humanity, and abolish existing human political and religious institutions. All this would be a prelude to the arrival of a new order on earth, the Kingdom of God." Ehrman's is a historical-Jesus book, a very smart, humble, and humorous popular summary of Christian and secular evidence of Jesus' life, work, and legacy. He believes that apocalypticism is the true core of Jesus' message, and that comfortable middle-class complacency among scholars, clergy, and laypeople has forged a counterfeit, domesticated, "ethical" Jesus to cover up their befuddlement about his misprediction of the apocalypse. The book will frustrate many readers because it offers no real guidance regarding what one should <I>do</I> with Jesus' apocalypticism. Its project--to prove that Jesus was wrong about the apocalypse--may even appear destructive to some. Yet the argument is convincing enough to induce among careful readers a constructive experience of confusion. <I>Jesus</I> makes readers ask the very question it appears to ignore, in a newly humble way: how, then, should we live? A serious matter, but considering humanity's endless string of wrong answers and infinite capacity for self-delusion, worthy of some good belly laughs, as well. <I>--Michael Joseph Gross</I> 103404 1999 Jesus: Apocalyptic Prophet of the New Millennium total:56|5:16|4:19|3:17|2:2|1:2| 56 213 88 4 5 3 false false Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Fri Feb 20 03:35:22 -0800 2009 Sun Mar 29 04:05:21 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Mon Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Fri Feb 15 08:55:32 -0800 2008 Fri Feb 15 09:16:48 -0800 2008
Ehrman's whole book is built around a single thesis: ...more...]]> 3 0 false false Mon Jun 23 18:47:15 -0700 2008 Fri Aug 08 10:12:26 -0700 2008 more...]]> 3 0 false false Sat Jun 28 04:50:37 -0700 2008 Sat Jun 28 04:56:01 -0700 2008 more...]]> 0 0 false false Thu Dec 03 07:50:42 -0800 2009 Thu Dec 03 07:50:42 -0800 2009 0 0 false false Wed Dec 02 11:47:18 -0800 2009 Wed Dec 02 11:47:18 -0800 2009 5 0 false false Wed Nov 18 11:31:43 -0800 2009 Wed Nov 18 11:31:43 -0800 2009 0 0 false false Tue Nov 03 18:05:06 -0800 2009 Tue Nov 03 18:05:17 -0800 2009 3 0 false false Tue Oct 20 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue Oct 20 01:57:29 -0700 2009 Fri Oct 23 12:44:47 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Mon Oct 19 06:44:16 -0700 2009 Mon Oct 19 06:44:16 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Sat Oct 17 16:35:22 -0700 2009 Sat Oct 17 16:35:22 -0700 2009 5 0 false false Fri Oct 16 02:02:40 -0700 2009 Fri Oct 16 02:02:40 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Tue Sep 15 11:26:45 -0700 2009 Tue Sep 15 11:26:45 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Sun Sep 13 02:19:35 -0700 2009 Sun Sep 13 02:19:35 -0700 2009 5 0 false false Mon Sep 07 02:26:12 -0700 2009 Mon Sep 07 02:26:12 -0700 2009 3 0 false false Thu Sep 03 00:21:37 -0700 2009 Thu Sep 03 00:21:37 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Fri Aug 28 22:26:22 -0700 2009 Fri Aug 28 22:26:55 -0700 2009 3 0 false false Wed Aug 26 16:19:00 -0700 2009 Wed Aug 26 16:19:00 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Sat Aug 01 17:48:23 -0700 2009 Sat Aug 01 17:48:23 -0700 2009 5 0 false false Fri Jul 24 23:07:20 -0700 2009 Fri Jul 24 23:07:25 -0700 2009 http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=107274