by Stephen Mitchell
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Product Description
A dazzling presentation of the life and teachings of Jesus by the eminent scholar and translator Stephen Mitchell.
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Average Customer Review:
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
 Presents the "spirit" of Jesus's spirituality, 2008-02-19
This book is in my opinion the ultimate way for one who was raised in but has abandoned Christianity to reconcile his/her feelings about Jesus and his teachings with any guilt that may have arisen from forsaking them and with their new beliefs. Stephen Mitchell shows how even a non-believer may become quite enthralled with Jesus, and at the same time shows that he can be interpreted in more than one way--in fact one of the main thrusts of the book is to show how Gnostics and many agnostics and spiritualists (including our country's founding fathers, as has been revealed over the last decade or two!) interpreted Jesus quite differently than Christians do, taking him more as the ultimate guru and taking many things differently. For instance there are many that believe that Jesus was quite misinterpreted regarding his divinity (his referral to himself as "The Son of Man," the revelations provided by the Essenes and Dead Sea Scrolls, etc.) Many people of a variety of faiths believe Jesus was divine, but in more the way Buddha was, as someone who found the divine in himself and became it wholly, as we all might be able to do. Another point of contention that Stephen puts very eloquently is the idea that Jesus was speaking of the here and now (or a particular way of experiencing it) when he spoke of "The Kingdom of God," rather than a separate heaven completely unknowable to our living spirit. This seems quite obvious/plausible if one removes the dogma of theology from the situation. This book is ideal for: non-Christians who are spiritual or of another faith; Christians of an unusual sect or belief system (Christians that believe the other books of the Gospel but find John and Revelations unbelievable or hard to swallow/quantify/prove, for instance); or those who want to understand the spirituality and ethos of our country's founding fathers (George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, etc.).
18 of 29 people found the following review helpful:
"New Gospel" not for fundamentalists, 2005-09-14
Absolutely great, simultaneously critical and spiritual. I have long seen Jesus pretty much the way Mitchell sees him. (a wise and compassionate human being with no pretensions to specialness)
But this book is a revelation; and such "good news" for those who admire Jesus and want to follow his path as decribed in the Sermon on the mount, and the parables of the Prodigal Son and the Good Samaritan, but who find Christology and mystification off-putting.
41 of 48 people found the following review helpful:
Grateful for this gift from Mitchell, 2005-04-24
I spent a good 15 years of my life trying to make peace with Christianity. I've struggled to appreciate the avid Christians' ability to embrace the Bible as a literal transcription of God's word. I've struggled to forgive those who applied peer pressure to me as a young teen to "accept Jesus as my personal savior." I've pondered with bewilderment the idea that God would create us with inquisitive, questioning minds but then require us to engage in blind acceptance of Jesus' teachings.
Finally, I was pushed over the edge by an evangelical Christian housemate who wouldn't shut up, and I picked up Mitchell's book in the hope of developing my gentle art of verbal self-defense. What an expected blessing this book has been! I was touched deeply and permanently by Mitchell's focus on forgiveness, and the many ways in which the teachings of Jesus the man are relevant to finding the Kingdom of Heaven within myself every day. Mitchell's book has helped me make peace with Christianity and Christians, and that is no small gift.
22 of 34 people found the following review helpful:
SIMPLE YET PROFOUND, 2004-12-23
I would recommend this book to anyone seeking spiritual truth. Mitchell has done a wonderful job of research to find the inconsistencies in other works, including the bible. What remains are not versions of the truth written by those with a personal agenda, but the simple message of the Christ: The Kingdom is Within. Why dogmatic religions don't get this is still beyond my comprehension. Perhaps it's to keep people living in fear of suffering an eternal inferno, or to keep the religious hierarchy alive. But when the man called Jesus embodied the Christ his point was clear: don't follow me, but your own wisdom, for you have the Christ within as well.
15 of 43 people found the following review helpful:
 For the non-traditional Christian, 2004-02-08
I wish Mitchell began this book with more autobiographical material. He spent many years halfway around the world finding spiritual truths in Zen Buddhism. How could he not find Western Christianity a little bit lacking? I found the most perceptive insights speculate on Jesus' psychology as an "illegitimate" child. Did the local community know Joseph was not Jesus' biological father? One wonders how this might have affected Jesus. This book is not for devout traditional Christians, although more liberal Christians might enjoy it.
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