There is an immense dilemma, even a crisis, in Christian churches today-and it is shared by most other spiritual traditions -Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism and Islam. It is a dilemma of belief, and of trust. Lack of enthusiasm and dissatisfaction in congregations is pervasive, hyper-rigidity abounds, and many have completely closed their minds and hearts to any form of religion at all because they have been injured or angered by what they perceive as a lack of logic, or charity-or both. This book reveals a revolutionary biblical discovery that directly addresses this critical dilemma. During the first years of the Christian church, early followers not only elevated the traditional four gospels above all the other gospels and writings available-they placed them in a mysterious, non-chronological reading sequence and read them that way for over a thousand years. Why? Because the four Christian gospels tell a much greater story than the biography of Jesus! Dr. Shaia unravels the divine inspiration of this mysterious sequence, and links it to universal, spiritual and anthropological as well as modern psychological understandings. He demonstrates the value of this perspective to create faith-filled lives that are relevant and useful in a time that is much more complex than village life millennia ago. He shows how we can trust in the gospels of Matthew, Mark, John and Luke, the core documents of the Christian faith, as revelations of divine truth, despite all of their discrepancies, mistranslations and centuries of abuse and misuse. In the sequence Dr. Shaia discloses, the gospels are the map of our never-ending spiritual journey.
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Editorial Reviews
About the Author
Alexander J. Shaia, Ph.D, is an educator, psychotherapist, liturgist, writer and passionate professional speaker. He is the founder and director of the Blue Door Retreat in Santa Fe, NM. He travels internationally, lecturing and conducting workshops and retreats on Quadratos, Jungian sandplay therapy, rites of passage, and Christian spirituality.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
24 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Not Just for Old White Men,
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This review is from: Beyond The Biography of Jesus: The Journey of Quadratos, Book I (Paperback)
Before reading Dr. Shaia's work, I had come to believe that the four "traditional" gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, chosen to be included in the Bible, were chosen by a bunch of old white men who wanted to maintain power and keep the rest of us in our place. I regarded the gospels as interesting, though sometimes contradicting, stories of Jesus' life 2,000 years ago, and I didn't see how they related very much to the up's and down's of my life, day-to-day, here and now in the 21st century. I was convinced that the "real" Christian message would be revealed as soon as scholars unearthed and translated the Gospel of Thomas or Judas or Mary Magdalene or Philip or the myriad others that had been kept hidden from us. Dr. Shaia has shown how the four "traditional" gospels were not intended to be just a biography of Jesus but, rather, when these four gospels are read, in specific non-chronological order, they contain the wisdom needed 2,000 years ago to navigate through the challenges of life and they contain the wisdom still needed by us in the 21st century to live our complicated lives in a full and rich way without fear and with confidence. Dr. Shaia alternates between explaining how and why the four gospels were written -- who wrote them, the audience they were written for and what the people in that audience were experiencing that influenced what was included in the particular gospel -- and then showing how these same gospels apply to our 21st century lives and the dilemmas we face here and now. After reading Dr. Shaia's book I have an entirely new outlook on the four traditional gospels. I now see their richness and relevance to my life and have come to believe that it wasn't the old white men who chose them for inclusion in the Bible, but rather the Spirit who directed that they be preserved and presented to the people 2,000 years ago and to us, here and now. They contain the wisdom the world needs in order to know we are all okay and are all equally loved. We need to know this for ourselves and in order to bring the peace to the world which the Spirit has intended from the beginning of all time. The "new" gospels which are coming to our attention are indeed interesting and good to have, but we do not need them in order to discover truth. The truth has been with us all along in the four "traditional" gospels of Matthew, Mark, John and Luke. It just took Dr. Shaia to once again reveal that to us through his work. His book is not only filled with wisdom, it is a remarkable work of prose. It reads easily, comfortably and beautifully.
18 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A New Way to Be with the Gospels,
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This review is from: Beyond The Biography of Jesus: The Journey of Quadratos, Book I (Paperback)
Shaia believes that the four gospels were chosen of the many available to the early church because their writers address and give significant guidance to the four universal stages of spiritual (and indeed, all human) growth, because the gospel writers were not simply writing a biography, but were instead giving the communities for which they were writing guidance, metaphors, and comfort for their situation. The four stages are, first, the beginnings necessitated by the collapse of crucial aspects of our life and characterized by feelings of loss and fear, (Matthew, written for the Christians after the destruction of the Temple), Second, a time of feeling around in the dark for a new path, a time which could be characterized as stormy and difficult (Mark, written for persecuted Christians of the Roman Empire), Times of illumination, spiritual highs, and new insights which fuel our resolution to continue (John), and Fourth, the time of building a new life (a new church) based on the foregoing. (Luke and Acts) This first of two books goes into fascinating and motivating detail about the first two legs of the journey; an upcoming (August 06) book will deal with the second two. It's all very readable and applicable to all kinds of life journeys.
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Read this book!,
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This review is from: Beyond The Biography of Jesus: The Journey of Quadratos, Book I (Paperback)
I have read this book several times, and have listened to Dr. Shaia's interview on NPR, and each time, I have taken something new that have helped me understand the gospels. This is a very powerful book; Dr. Shaia is up there with Joseph Campbell and Carl Jung. I look forward to reading book two.
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