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What Members Thought
The important thing to remember, if you are religious, is that Reza Aslan is a religious scholar--it is his job to research and write about religions (plural!). He is not attacking Christianity or promoting Islam in any way, and to say that a religious scholar who happens to be Muslim can not write about Christ is like saying a writer who happens to be Christian can't write about Greek gods.
This is a very interesting book, and actually shows a Jesus that, if you are tired of Christians shoving C ...more
This is a very interesting book, and actually shows a Jesus that, if you are tired of Christians shoving C ...more
I like the concept of this book better than the execution. While Reza Aslan points out historical inaccuracies in The New Testament, his manner is so tedious that he overshadows the more interesting aspects of the book. His basic tenant is that Jesus was no different than many other Jewish figures around the same time. Some called themselves the Messiah and led rebellion against the Romans, most of them more successful than Jesus. However, Jesus becomes the basis of Christianity. From a historic
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Aslan provides interesting historical background for first century BCE/CE Roman Palestine and does explain something of the historical Jesus. His writing revealed to me not how little I know of the New Testament but how little I have ever compared one set of writings with another. Everything in the NT cannot be "true" since some of it contradicts itself. Not that the Catholic Church of my youth ever focused on bible readings.
I found Aslan's writing annoying. Much is repetitious. There is too mu ...more
I found Aslan's writing annoying. Much is repetitious. There is too mu ...more
May 04, 2014
Chris Burd
rated it
liked it
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
non-fiction,
religion-and-spirtuality
I want to rate the book higher, because as an academic work, it probably deserves it. And Reza Aslan deserves all the praise for his promotion of this book. (I'm still re-watching the Fox News interview periodically.) The truth, however, is that it took me a really long time to finally finish this book. It was just far more academic and not quite as riveting as I was hoping it would be.
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I enjoyed reading this book mostly for the early history of first century Palestine, Jerusalem, and Rome. I know there are many criticisms of this book by other scholars of religious history so I’m taking this presentation of the historical Jesus with a grain of salt. But still an interesting read.
Jul 22, 2013
Meg
marked it as to-read-classical-history
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
nonfiction,
history
Sep 02, 2014
Elizabeth
added it
