Customer Reviews

Jesus: A Meditation on His Stories and His Relationships with Women

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***** Recent years have brough an onslaught of books, films, and other various forms of speculation about Jesus and his relationships with women, especially the notion that there could be a Mrs. Jesus. In the rush to look for gossip and scandal, or to refute the same, people have drifted between two heresies, gnosticism and docestism, while completely missing the glorious truth about the wondrous being of Christ, who is both God and man. Part of that identity was indeed how he related to women, and another major part of his persona was that of a storyteller. Father Greeley examines these two facets with a joyous love that makes you want to rush to find a Bible and re-experience the whole saga all over again. There are many books that give fascinating, intellectual insights into Scripture, but none of these unbiased, strictly factual volumes exudes the warmth and joy you find flowing for Father Greeley's pen. He offers a few new perspectives and insights, some startling, and some I do not fully agree with, but he is not offensive and does not provoke ire. If you have ever thought about Jesus, then this is a book that you should read. *****

According to his web site, Father Andrew Greeley (born 1928) is "one of the most influential Catholic thinkers and writers of our time, a priest, sociologist, author and journalist who has built an international assemblage of devout fans over a career that spans five decades. He is the author of over 50 best-selling novels and more than 100 works of non-fiction and his writing has been translated into 12 languages. A Professor of Sociology at the University of Arizona and a Research Associate with the National Opinion Research Center (NORC) at the University of Chicago, Father Greeley is a respected scholar whose current research focuses on the Sociology of Religion." This little book of meditations is not an academic or scholarly tome, but the sort of work he could write over a long and quiet weekend, and its awkward subtitle points to its lack of focus. But it's still worth reading.

The God whom Jesus revealed, writes Greeley, is a God of wonderful surprises and endless generosity. After illustrating this from the Christmas narratives and then from the story of the encounter on the road to Emmaus, in by far the longest chapter (pp. 57-106) Greeley explores the "profoundly shocking" nature of Jesus's relationship with women. He not only took their financial support but accepted them as traveling companions. He elevated them to an equality with men, just as he would elevate Gentiles to an equality with Jews. Although people could feel profoundly vulnerable in the presence of Jesus, women also felt unconditionally safe. These relationships with women, says Greeley, were not "passing incidents peripheral to the main story but central to Jesus' vision of the kingdom of God" (p. 104). In his final chapters Greeley examines the four "Great Parables" of reassurance that speak of God's outrageous and even profligate generosity: the stories of the Crazy Vintner, the Indulgent Father, the Lenient Judge, and the Good Samaritan. The parables of urgency remind us that grace is not cheap, life does not last forever, that our choices matter, and that the kingdom that Jesus announced calls us now and asks for everything. Along the way Greeley debunks the "absurd fantasies" of books like the DaVinci Code, and warns us of the many ways that we domesticate the Biblical stories into trite religious sentiment.

Known for his Nuala Anne McGrail and Bishop Blackie mysteries, Father Andrew Greeley provides an enlightening look at Jesus especially his relationships with women and not just females named Mary and his place in the twenty-first century of technology, science, and Da Vinci Codes. Father Greeley also provides a fascinating interpretation of the four major parables and some other tales told of or by Jesus. Well written Jesus reminds us that God has room for everyone in his tent as he and his son love all. Insightful Father Greeley reminds the faithful that there is a special place for the victims of genocides; the victims of the Holocaust, Darfur, and Rwanda, etc. This is an excellent work that will probably lead to proclamations by those who use Jesus as a weapon that Father Greeley will burn for his sins; while those like this reviewer are reminded why Jesus remains relevant today.

Harriet Klausner

Jesus: A Meditation on His Stories and His Relationships With Women is a marvelous book.

The meditations are loving and uplifting, they show how much Jesus loves us and respects us and teaches other to do like wise.

I shared this book with my niece, who is 20 years younger than I am and she is presently enjoying it.

I recomend it to women, so that they can feel the love that is pure and I recomend it to men as a teaching tool showin them how women should be loved and treated.

Jesus: A Meditation on His Stories and his Relationships with Women

by Rev. Andrew Greeley

New York: Tom Doherty Associates, 2007

"We must begin a search for understanding some of the stories of Jesus with the realization that he is deliberately elusive, mysterious, enigmatic, paradoxical . . . He is a man of surprises, appropriate for one who claims to witness a God of surprises." Rev. Andrew Greeley, a noted sociologist, author, and Catholic priest, sets out to bear witness to some of these surprises in "Jesus: A Meditation on His Stories and his Relationships with Woman."

Greeley divides his reflections on Jesus' surprising nature by themes, beginning with his birth narratives, moving along to the Resurrection experience, his life as a Jew, his relationship with women, and the stories he told. One of the things about the Jesus stories is that most of us are so familiar with them, they have lost their ability to surprise us. We may listen to the words of the Gospel, but think to ourselves, "Oh, I already know that one. I think I can tune out now." Greeley invites us to take a second look and really consider what is going on in these stories. For example, in his discussion of "The Christmas Surprises," he writes:

"We have perhaps seen so many Christmas cards during our lives that we are immune to the absolute weirdness of the nativity stories - an angel wanders into a hut in Nazareth and tells a very young woman (fifteen perhaps) that she is about to conceive a child of the Holy Spirit. The young woman, who is probably illiterate, asks how this is to be and then recites a complex poem steeped in the language of the Jewish Scriptures and makes the astonishing prediction that all nations will call her blessed. What's going on here?

Then she and her husband (who is not the child's father) go off on a difficult journey in the middle of winter . . . and the newborn babe is laid in a pile of straw in a cave somewhere. Then a crew of angels appears in the sky and praises the new babe, whom the shepherds dash over to inspect - shepherds, the absolute bottom of the Jewish social structure, dirty, smelly, rough, ignorant, and religiously unclean men. And what's this about magicians? Jews were not supposed to believe in magic and certainly not in gentile magic. What's this all about? Is this a decent way for the expected of nations, the anointed one, the messiah to come into the world?"

Greeley states that this unusual beginning of Jesus' story is just a preview of the surprising life that is to follow.

Greeley does not approach scripture from a literal viewpoint. He understands that the oral and written tradition that served as a foundation for the Gospels we read today developed over time, but he does allow much room for mystery and faith and maintains that each of the stories has a theological truth to share with us. Each story reveals something about God.

Jesus' relationship with women was revolutionary for its time, and given the current state of male-female relations, perhaps even today. "Someone has remarked that the attitudes and behavior of Jesus with women in his time and place are enough by themselves to suggest that he might be the Son of God." According to Luke 8:1-3 women traveled with the twelve apostles and Jesus. This was, quite simply, not done. "Women may have ministered to the great rabbis of the Second Temple era, but they did not travel through the country with them. What terrible scandals might come of such an arrangement? . . . To make matters worse - and this would shock the Romans perhaps even more that the Jews - St. Luke practically equates the women travelers with the apostles." Greeley maintains that this was such a radical concept that the other evangelists don't even make mentions of these women until they are at the foot of the cross bearing faithful witness after most of the men have run away. Jesus treated his women followers with "great respect and reverence as well as sensitive and gentle tenderness. He did not demean them or talk down to them of keep them in their place - whatever that place might be." Greeley then illustrates that point by delving more deeply into Jesus' relationships with several women in the gospels: his mother, Mary and Martha of Bethany, Mary of Magdala, the Samaritan woman at the well, the Gentile woman who asked for her daughter to be healed, the sinful woman who anointed his feet, the hemorrhaging woman, and the widow of Naim. Greeley maintains that these stories taken together provide a seamless picture of how Jesus treated women. "Nowhere in the New Testament does Jesus denounce women, nowhere does he condemn them. . . .Jesus is the model for all male followers of Jesus. One has to say that for much of the history of his followers that model has not been followed, not even seriously considered as a model." Greeley calls for us as Church to reexamine Jesus' attitudes towards women for the surprise that they are and reclaim them as our goal for today.

Of course the greatest surprise of all is the Resurrection and the promise that it holds for each of us. In "Jesus: A Meditation of His Stories and His Relationships with Women," Greeley invites is to reflect on this Jesus who surprises is at every turn. He invites us to reconsider the old familiar stories with fresh eyes and insight. While there are moments of digression when Greeley attacks those who have portrayed Jesus differently (Martin Scorcese, Dan Brown, etc), on the whole this is a very readable, interesting book which add to the reader's understanding of Jesus.

Andrew Greeley is always fun, always provocative, and always accessible. Some might say he is not terribly deep, and that's fine too. This book, which he calls a meditation, highlights the many stories of Jesus interacting with women in the gospels. Greeley makes a pretty good case that Jesus was comfortable with women and surprisingly polite to them. He healed them, taught them and allowed them into his entourage. He acted toward to them as equals. Even the Samaritan woman at the well -- a social inferior, a foreigner and a heretic to boot -- is treated with kindness and is invited into the kingdom. Greeley only fails once to make his case -- in the story of the Syro-Phoenician women from whose daughter Jesus expels a demon. Jesus does make an analogy in which she is referred to as a dog, but he respects her saucy answer and finally comes through. Unsurprisingly, the women present at Jesus's Resurrection come in for special attention. They were the first disciples to whom Jesus revealed himself after rising, which Greeley sees as no accident.

Another section moves away from Greeley's major focus on the women to examine four parables in which Jesus tells us about God -- the Prodigal Son, the Lenient Judge (Greeley's name for the story of the woman taken in adultery), the Good Samaritan and the Workers at the Vineyard. This section is stronger in that Greeley's tones down his penchant for smirky asides. He shows how God is a crazy, intemperate lover -- generous to the point that if he were a human, he would be considered insane. This vision of the God preached by Jesus is certainly at odds with the Jesus who judges harshly and speaks of torment in the afterlife for unrepentant sinners. Some may not agree with Greeley's solution, which is to focus on the loving, forgiving God while ignoring the condemnatory one. But it is a logical choice, given Jesus's mission to heal, forgive and gather.

Andrew Greeley's "Jesus" is not a deep analysis of Jesus's parables, but it is a good-hearted one that, for all its wildness, is quite orthodox. His Greeley-esque insistence that Jesus's full humanity involved sexual attractiveness and even sexual imaginings is a bit discomfiting but not uncalled for in a man who was like us in all ways except for sin. Some readers may still have questions about the inconsistencies about God's character found in the gospels. Is he a lover or a judge? But Greeley does make the case fairly well that the crazy-loving God he finds Jesus preaching through his association with women and teaching through his parables is the one in which he believes.

What an awesome book! Andrew Greeley beautifully explains Jesus' story telling in His parables and His relationship with His mother, Mary of Magdala, Martha and Mary of Bethany, and the Samaritan woman at the well.

Greely does it again. One of the best contemporary insights into Jesus' teachings...and lesson for today's society!

How I wish that the leaders of our Catholic Church were more like the real Jesus.He saw women as equals, men and woman created in His Father's image.Andrew Greeley's book tells how Jesus respected woman and of the wonderful relationships he had with them.

As a surface-level meditation on the various Biblical stories featured in this book, it is interesting and easy to read, but don't mistake this for a valuable source of accurate material! In fact, the book's principal value may be in the opportunity it presents the reader to do some research of their own, beginning with a different translation, to help identify the points where Greeley has wandered off into speculation (unsupported) and/or misrepresentation (start with Isaiah 53, to dispel Greeley's descriptions of Jesus as some sort of 1st century Jewish stud-muffin).