Neil Averitt
I came to a decision to write the book in stages, rather than at a single moment.
When I was a freshman in college saw that a new translation was needed. I had set out to read the Bible. The school library had shelves of them, in all sorts of editions and translations. But none of them seemed quite right. The King James had all of its great language, but many other passages were antique and hard to understand. The more modern translations often lacked the kind of dignity that you associate with scripture. They had changed many of the familiar phrases. Instead of the angels saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men,” they might say something like “peace to those on whom his favor rests.” This might be good Greek scholarship, but it undervalues the traditions of the Christian community, in my opinion.
Later on I came to realize that the substance of the gospels needed to be better known as well. The gospels are one of the true foundations of the Western literary canon, the source of innumerable references in art and literature. A person cannot fully appreciate a painting like Descent from the Cross, or a short story like The Gift of the Magi, without knowing their roots in scripture. But I came to see that this common culture was becoming less widespread among the people of my generation, who are less regular churchgoers than their parents or grandparents had been.
The consolidated narrative in The Single Gospel is intended to address this problem by making the story more accessible. It can be read by different people in different ways. Committed churchgoers can find in it a narrative of the life of Jesus, with the rich details and teachings all present in an understandable order. Our Jewish cousins can read it as an account of life in First Century Judea, and a portrait of a particularly influential reform rabbi. Members of the secular middle class can read it as a way of reconnecting with one of the world’s great works of literature and philosophy.
In time I realized that the values of spirituality and faith, which underlie the gospels, also needed to be more widely known. This kind of insight might come to a person anywhere, but for me it came during a visit to the monastic republic of Mount Athos in Greece. That’s a spectacular place, a sort of “Christian Tibet,” part of the unfamiliar world of the Orthodox churches, and a surviving part of the old Byzantine Empire. But I found faith there in forms I had not seen before. The lives that the monks had chosen for themselves seemed to make them calm and cheerful, at peace with the world. The nighttime services were done by candlelight, with the lighting dim and low, and they conveyed a sense of connectedness with something larger. I left convinced that people would be happier if they were more familiar with Christian teachings, and if the gospels made more readable.
Finally, I was motivated to write this book in order to help counteract a drift toward indifference or actual hostility toward Christianity in our culture. We live in an age of the world where religion is becoming more important in many other countries. This book will help to put the traditions and teachings of Christianity back on the table, in an original form that will help us remember where our own faith has come from, and what its virtues are.
When I was a freshman in college saw that a new translation was needed. I had set out to read the Bible. The school library had shelves of them, in all sorts of editions and translations. But none of them seemed quite right. The King James had all of its great language, but many other passages were antique and hard to understand. The more modern translations often lacked the kind of dignity that you associate with scripture. They had changed many of the familiar phrases. Instead of the angels saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men,” they might say something like “peace to those on whom his favor rests.” This might be good Greek scholarship, but it undervalues the traditions of the Christian community, in my opinion.
Later on I came to realize that the substance of the gospels needed to be better known as well. The gospels are one of the true foundations of the Western literary canon, the source of innumerable references in art and literature. A person cannot fully appreciate a painting like Descent from the Cross, or a short story like The Gift of the Magi, without knowing their roots in scripture. But I came to see that this common culture was becoming less widespread among the people of my generation, who are less regular churchgoers than their parents or grandparents had been.
The consolidated narrative in The Single Gospel is intended to address this problem by making the story more accessible. It can be read by different people in different ways. Committed churchgoers can find in it a narrative of the life of Jesus, with the rich details and teachings all present in an understandable order. Our Jewish cousins can read it as an account of life in First Century Judea, and a portrait of a particularly influential reform rabbi. Members of the secular middle class can read it as a way of reconnecting with one of the world’s great works of literature and philosophy.
In time I realized that the values of spirituality and faith, which underlie the gospels, also needed to be more widely known. This kind of insight might come to a person anywhere, but for me it came during a visit to the monastic republic of Mount Athos in Greece. That’s a spectacular place, a sort of “Christian Tibet,” part of the unfamiliar world of the Orthodox churches, and a surviving part of the old Byzantine Empire. But I found faith there in forms I had not seen before. The lives that the monks had chosen for themselves seemed to make them calm and cheerful, at peace with the world. The nighttime services were done by candlelight, with the lighting dim and low, and they conveyed a sense of connectedness with something larger. I left convinced that people would be happier if they were more familiar with Christian teachings, and if the gospels made more readable.
Finally, I was motivated to write this book in order to help counteract a drift toward indifference or actual hostility toward Christianity in our culture. We live in an age of the world where religion is becoming more important in many other countries. This book will help to put the traditions and teachings of Christianity back on the table, in an original form that will help us remember where our own faith has come from, and what its virtues are.
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