Jesus of Nazareth: How He Understood His Life [Paperback]

Raymund Schwager (Author), James G. Williams (Translator)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 1998

This book takes a unique look at the life of Jesus and asks a new questions: how did Jesus himself come to understand life, and experience his faith? This imaginative narrative grounded in scholarship suggests that powerful answer.

Editorial Reviews

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: German

Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: The Crossroad Publishing Company (March 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0824517113
• ISBN-13: 978-0824517113
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,576,836 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The most intriguing retelling of Jesus' story I have read., August 4, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Jesus of Nazareth: How He Understood His Life (Paperback)

Schwager's telling of the life of Jesus and the early church is fascinating. Faithful to the Gospels and the book of Acts (some events are "rearranged," but plausibly so), it's like a jewel set in a filigree of Old Testament (and Apocryphal) scripture. Indeed, his working of Old Testament references into and through every thought and action of Jesus and the apostles is at times breathtaking. It's not a modern "psychological" or "theological" analysis of Jesus as the title might lead you to believe, but is instead a reverent and powerful retelling of Jesus' life and ministry, through his death and resurrection and into the days of the early church. At once familiar and strange, this book could change the way you read the gospels or view Jesus.

Schwager is putting out a scholarly edition of this book which explains and supports the story as he tells it here.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Unique and powerful retelling of the Life of Jesus, July 5, 2011

By 

Grad Student (Glen Cove, NY) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

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This review is from: Jesus of Nazareth: How He Understood His Life (Paperback)

Raymund Schwager gives us a very different discussion about the life of Jesus Christ that many of us are use to. I have studied classic Christology and this book is a major departure from the textbooks ordinarily used. Schwager helps us to see into the mind of Jesus as events were occurring in Jesus' life. We get to imagine what Jesus was thinking and feeling as these events occurred.

The book is very much based on Old Testament scripture. As the events in Jesus' life unfold there is constant referring back that Jesus is the fulfillment of these scriptures. I found the book to be fascinating. I could appreciate better the duality of Jesus (both divine and human) and how these aspects were different but also blended into a oneness.

The book ends on a beautiful description of the saving power of Jesus: "God does not destroy the wicked and godless with fire and sword from heaven. He transforms what is evil, as we know from our own experience, and he changes it into love." (187)

I highly recommend the book to those who have a background in Christology and can appreciate the uniqueness of this book.

0 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Do Good To Others, Friends or Enemies All The Same., July 18, 2005

By 

Betty Burks "Betty Burks" (Knoxville, TN) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Jesus of Nazareth: How He Understood His Life (Paperback)

To Christ, Paul said, "There is neither Jew nor Greek, neither slave nor free, neither male nor female." To him, we are all alike, as he hand an entourage of men prophets but did visit women on occasion and preferred those who would wash his feet, instead of cooking for him. At that time, there was no America; and we Christians took our name after him and his teachings.

In the Methodist church, one of the pastors was named Paul, and thus he based most of his sermons on Acts written by the apostle Saul who was changed to Paul after he converted to Christ's teachings and started his own. But sometimes it is good to go back to the Old Testament (everyone loves Psalms, no matter what his belief): "Seek the Lord, and strength: seek his face evermore." Paul offers some reassuring words for the journey: "Be at peace among yourselves...always seek to do good to one another and to all...hold fast to what is good and abstain from every form of evil. See that none of you repays evil for evil." When a person wrongs us, we carry on as best we can and show by example the way Christ would have. After all, he was tormented and killed by non-believers.