Customer Reviews

Jesus Before Christianity

5 star:		(22)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Orbis-Maryknoll's 25h anniversary reissue of Nolan's book is both timely and well advised. Jesus Before Christianity is above all a very careful explication of the life of Jesus as it is portrayed in the New Testament. It tends to concentrate on His mission prior to the resurrection and, therefore, weeds out much Christological material, early Church development, and liturgical instruction. It also occasionally references Jesus to Old Testament prophecies where called for. What we have here is a remarkable book of exegetics, interpretation, and commentary on the New Testament in so far as it sheds light on the historical Jesus. Nolan a Roman Catholic priest brings a fresh outlook and vast erudition to his task considering its original publication date. That many a reader is excited by his project is a tribute to his writing and the message he finds in Jesus' life.

He arranges his book in nineteen chapters each of which examines an aspect of Jesus and or his mission. Do I necessarily agree with each of the author's interpretations? No, not always, but at his best, he has an expansive understanding of God's love and compassion that is deeply moving. Written in the 1970's, Nolan is well versed in the literature of the mid Twentieth Century regarding his subject. The bibliography and footnotes are a treasure yielding much to read of further interest. So who is Nolan's Jesus? He reminds one of John Crossan's Jesus but with far greater majesty and simplicity. His portrait of Jesus as the revelation of the one true God is moving. Compassion and love and an unerring sense of the truth distinguish Jesus in this book. Regarding the human aspect of Jesus, little I have read is more insightful or convincing. Liberation theology it may be, but Nolan tries to convince us that Jesus came to liberate mankind and that is all mankind.

While gospel attestations of Jesus' part in the mission to gentiles does not receive the attention it deserves, Nolan's interpretation of Jesus' dealings with the Jewish authorities and His mission to the Jews are deftly handled. Jesus' problems with the scribes and Pharisees are clearly delineated. However, it should be remembered that Josephus numbered the party of the Pharisees at six thousand with the Temple faction even smaller and the Herodians a tiny group. Jesus' problems were with the rich and powerful among the Jews. And, His preaching and pronouncements to them are there and unvarnished. Some impute to Nolan an Anti-Semitic bias. I see this more as a reader response problem motivated by political correctness.

This book is without a doubt one of the best short consideration of the life of Jesus I have ever read. It has stood the test of time remarkably well. Whether you are thrilled by this book as a Christian or merely wish to know more about the historical Jesus, by all means, read this book. It should encourage all readers of it to continue on to more ambitious studies of the matters herein covered and considered.

I really like this book and the approach it takes. Rather than looking at mere historical facts or starting with a lot of assumptions, it starts from scratch. Most importantly, it looks at various points where Jesus had to make a decision and analyzed the meaning based on the decision made. In other words, it looked at what Jesus' behavior meant relative to a particular historical and social context. This is a very psychological approach and one that sheds light on his life by providing a somewhat different lens than most people use habitually to understand Jesus' life.

Also, this book is well-written and easy to read. It brings the bible and the figure of Jesus and his time to life. It provoked a lot of inquiry on my part and I thoroughly enjoyed it. The author also follows a good line of reasoning and seems to try very hard to avoid bias.

No book is perfect and this book is no exception. However, overall it is well done, scholarly and accessible. If you are a Christian or just someone curious about the historical Jesus, you will find a lot of value here. Many parts of the book read like good fiction and like good fiction this good storytelling is quite compelling.

I was so stunned to read the one-star review that I had to write. Above anything I have ever read, this book changed my life. It was a clarion call for we who say we are Christians to wake up and absorb the radically uncomfortable messages of the real Jesus, Jesus the Jew, the Jesus who existed before the apostles hit the road to create the belief systems and institutions that undergird Christianity. His profound messages speak of love for the dispossessed, the exploited, the forgotten, and challenge our rationalizations about why we deserve to enjoy such cushy lives without thinking twice about our impact elsewhere in the world. If you want to learn, and to grow deeply and broadly in your faith and in its expression in the world, read this book. But be warned: you may feel a strong pull to radically change your own life -- for the sake of others.

Nolan's audience is anyone sincerely interested in Jesus of Nazareth, believer and non-believer alike. I have been a Believer for fifty years and have read at least fifty books about Jesus. This one captures the human side of Jesus, the lover of God and Man, better than any I've found to date. No one can come away from this book unchanged. Nolan's treatment combines historical data, religious insight, and contemporary issues in such a thoughtful, respectful, matter-of-fact, even-handed manner that the faith of the believer and the curiosity of the bystander both must be deepened. I recommend this book to the sincere of any stripe. Let Jesus speak for himself, and find out how his life, love, respect and compassion has changed and will continue to change the world and everyone in it.

This wonderful book now over 25 years old, is intelligent, learned and easy to read, no mean feat. Fr. Nolan presents Jesus within the framework of His time, answers the questions that nag at the mind of those who are uncomfortable with religious dogmatic explanations. For example, he explains how Jesus and the apostles became actual fugitives who had to hide out and not be seen in towns lest they be arrested. This makes the exchange between Jesus and Peter on the question of going to Jerusaleum so much easier to understand. For many of us raised thinking of Jesus as always robed in white and haloed this book brings Him closer and more beloved than ever. Scholars know many of things in this book, but sadly the faithful know almost none of it. I believe this book is a must read for Catholic Christians particularly those raising children today.

As a mass-attending Catholic, I have spent many Sundays go through the motions of "religious" life. My religion meant very little to me until I read Jesus Before Christianity. Jesus' radical teachings to throw off the chains of power, prestige, wealth, and group solidarity and live a life of compassion towards all others is just as relavant today as it was 2000 years ago. Please, read this book and take to heart what Jesus really meant so that you may truly live.

Albert Nolan searches the text of the New Testament in order to see what kind of person Jesus of Nazareth was before layers of christology were heaped upon him. Nolan finds Jesus aligned himself with John the Baptist, was a friend of the oppressed, etc. For example, the concept of the "kingdom of God" was a measure of Jesus' understanding of evil in society (p.61)

When Nolan wrote this book back in the mid/late 1970s the idea of peeking behind the theology surrounding Jesus of Nazareth was much more avant garde than it is today. He does not recast theology as does Robinson in _The Human Face of God_. But he does limit his the penetration of his analysis to the text of the New Testament and no more. For example, Jesus may have told parables about guests who made excuses (p 47) because he himself may have experienced the same.

Perhaps Jesus did, but in recent writings by Crossan, Horsley, Reed, and others, one may see Jesus as a peasant with few resources to host a celebration. In more recent studies emphasis has been given to archaeological data and sociological models in order to illumine the world behind the text of the New Testament. Nolan's book penetrates to the text and does not deal with these latter.

I have admittedly not read many "Christian" books but this one has changed my life. The insights beyond the words of the Bible and into Christ's living message and attitudes really made me review my own. The author has interesting perspectives on many aspects of Jesus' ministry. It's an easy read and probably a good book for beginner Christians or anyone who wants not "religious" but practical examples of how to live a Christian life.

Albert Nolan presents an image of Jesus before Christianity who is full of compassion and an exemplary willingness to suffer in order to conquer suffering in the world. This theme seems to run throughout the book. This, in itself is very commendable. But Nolan's Jesus has been practically stripped of his divine nature using assumptions that are reminiscent of the Jesus Seminar's questionable scholarship. The miracle stories are matter-of-factly dismissed as embellishments added later by the Church along with many other statements attributed to Jesus in the Gospels that don't fit their (desired?) image of Jesus. The reasoning supporting this reductionism isn't explained in the book, but its conclusions are taken to be well founded.

It was disappointing to me that, after 25 years since the book's first publication, Nolan still considered this view of Jesus to be entirely relevant, even more so in 2001 than in 1976 (p. ix), in no need of revision in light of the scholarly debate that has taken place in that time. Other views that one might want to consider are The Challenge of Jesus: Rediscovering Who Jesus Was and Is by N. T. Wright, The Real Jesus : The Misguided Quest for the Historical Jesus and the Truth of the Traditional Gospels by Luke Timothy Johnson and The Many Faces of Christ: The Christologies of the New Testament and Beyond by Ben Witherington, III. It's easy to find others who present seriously considerable challenges to Nolan's picture of Jesus and the scholarship that supports it. (For an in-depth treatment of the Gospels as eyewitness testimony see Richard Bauckham's more recent book Jesus and the Eyewitnesses: The Gospels As Eyewitness Testimony.)

In his work, N. T. Wright puts forth a challenge to Christians to do the difficult work of rethinking their image of Jesus in light of new historical and biblical understanding. In my opinion, studying a picture of Jesus that was in vogue 33 years ago will not serve readers well today in meeting that challenge.

Today Jesus is used by so called fundamentalist churches who have transformed him to almost exactly the opposite of what he was. He has been presented as a defender of the rich, the wealthy, the hypocritical moralists, the bigots and the mighty. In this extraordinary book Nolan shows that Jesus on the contrary was in total opposition to the power structures of the society. The fine thing is that he is doing this not by refering to learned theological works but by the same method the fundamentalists claim to use - a literal reading of what Jesus says in the gospels. He shows that if you really dares to read Jesus "literary" you come to conclusions that is the very opposite to those of the right-wing fundamentalist churches, sects or cults. Nolans views is certainly important for the whole Christanity. If the churches will have a future in this century this is certainly the only way to go...