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Anthology of Jesus
Book by Marchant, James
371 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1981
About the author
James Marchant
76 books1 followerSir James Marchant (b.1867-d.1956) was a British philanthropist.
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November 9, 2021
I appreciate the intent of this book. The editors, Marchant and Weirsbe, wanted to compile in one place the best of what the best of men have said about Christ. They did so in a thorough way, in the sense that the collection is wide ranging, coming from philosophers, theologians, poets, political figures, et al. It is also organized well, divided neatly into different aspects of Jesus' life and ministry and character.
Why then have I rated it so low?
The reason is simple. In casting such a wide net, it seems they chose snippets on the basis of how florid the language was. The commentary is thus not punchy, but flowery. It doesn't impact the reader so much as glaze him in a surface of shiny sentiment about Christ. Worse than that, however, is the unforgivable mistake of including numerous Catholic and liberal theologians. Both of those have highly errant views of Scripture and theology and Christ. That means you cannot relax into the book, seeking some beautiful thing about Christ. You must always be on alert for bad theology couched in beautiful sentimement.
The book isn't entirely useless. Out of the 400 selections I did pull a number of good thoughts. But I wouldn't recommend it to anyone other than someone well versed in the Word of God, and it entirely fails at its main intent because of the depth of its flaws.
Why then have I rated it so low?
The reason is simple. In casting such a wide net, it seems they chose snippets on the basis of how florid the language was. The commentary is thus not punchy, but flowery. It doesn't impact the reader so much as glaze him in a surface of shiny sentiment about Christ. Worse than that, however, is the unforgivable mistake of including numerous Catholic and liberal theologians. Both of those have highly errant views of Scripture and theology and Christ. That means you cannot relax into the book, seeking some beautiful thing about Christ. You must always be on alert for bad theology couched in beautiful sentimement.
The book isn't entirely useless. Out of the 400 selections I did pull a number of good thoughts. But I wouldn't recommend it to anyone other than someone well versed in the Word of God, and it entirely fails at its main intent because of the depth of its flaws.
Displaying 1 of 1 review