I had this book on my shelf for a number of years but had put off reading it because I thought of Philip Yancey, the author, as primarily a religious fundamentalist/Evangelical writer. Why I had purchased the book in the first place, I do not remember, but when finally getting around to reading it, I was pleasantly surprised. Yancey admits to his deeply fundamentalist upbringing and is candid and humorous at times about his struggles with these beliefs throughout his life. The title, The Jesus I never Knew, is perfect when speaking to Yancey's personal growth in developing his own knowledge of Jesus. One of my favorite lines in the book comes in the last chapter under the subhead "A Sinless Friend of Sinners". It reads "Meanwhile he offended pious Jews with their strict preconceptions of what God should be like. Their rejection makes me wonder, Could religious types be doing just the reverse now? Could we be perpetuating an image of Jesus that fits our pious expectations but does not match the person portrayed so vividly in the Gospels?"