Customer Reviews

Jesus the Son of Man

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Gibran's reputation as a poet and profound thinker is confirmed in this book.

He employs history, Biblical text and his imagination to conjure 'interviews' with folks who may have been intimate with Jesus or affected by His presence from a distance.

His insight is exceptionally believable and he takes you on a journey that is both mystical and practical with the varying points of view. The positives are for believers primarily, and one will be filled with a sense of awe and intimacy toward Jesus. Nevertheless the voice of skeptics is heard, though in the minority, but it is given due attention.

The downside may be for those who are not so poetically inclined. Khalil's voice through those who admire Jesus is extremely metaphoric and it may be lost on those who need a more 'down to earth' description of feelings, emotions and attitudes. I felt at times that the discourses were perhaps too symbolic, though one understood the implication of the experience of encountering Jesus as beyond words.

In the end one is left understanding Jesus' impact more but hungering to know Him in a way that is more understandable than the sometimes amorphous descriptions by Gibran's characters. The interviews are fairly short and this makes it a manageable read for the most 'unbookish' of us.

All the same a great read and a classic anyone should have.

it is so wonderful to read a book by a man who is not a christian in the literal sense of the word and yet so much a true christian in the spirit of things. this book was absolutely beautiful. i am very very sparing with my stars, but i have given this book four because it is absolutley beautiful... loved it so much i even gave my dad a copy. he enjoyed it too.

i guess that its in reading books such as this that ones belief in humanity is really boosted. a wonderful book. i do love Jesus and Gibran, clearly does too, though not a "Christian". this man does great honour to the name of Christ in writing this book.

i guess that in the Christian walk, a time comes where one begins to think and feel the importance of humanity... the importance of being one of the people, not just one of the material church... the value of love and openess to all men and women, whether 'good' or 'bad'. what has become a closed book, begins again to open up too all people, and ones faith moves downwards from the head and into the heart. (not always easy). its so easy to let life and culture, or experience to harden oneself towards others, especially people like 'publicans', 'prostitutes' and sinners and yet we are reminded in this book that jesus was a dear friend and lover of such people regardless of the spiritual pain they must have caused him.

this book portrays jesus as a true human, his humanity is what makes him so beautiful and the people he meets. sorrows, joys, pains, love, attraction, attachments, anger, deep caring... all the things that make us thoroughly human are found in Gibrans portrayal of jesus.

i have spoken with two or three people about the hardness of the western heart. people come from countries where emotionality is profoundly important and often find a lack of this in the west, but religious paths can also root out the delicate flowers of emotionality and caring too.
this book is full of emotion and atmosphere. it is my own prayer that i will share intense emotion with those that i love. sorrow with the sad, joy with the happy. bring back emotions!

i love this book!

Jesus the son of man, Gibran the friend/lover of Jesus.

love, flakey. xxx

One of the most beautiful books of prose-poetry ever written, Kahlil Gibran's JESUS, THE SON OF MAN, is a profoundly moving collection of "Gospelettes" presented as being told by the various people with whom Jesus had contact in his life.

Gibran used all of his not-inconsiderable powers as poet, author, artist, philosopher and theologian in writing this book. Barbara Young in THIS MAN FROM LEBANON, describes how one evening in his New York studio, Gibran somehow channeled Judas. In writing down Judas' words, Gibran was moved to tell the tales of other individuals as well.

Gibran also drew a portrait of Jesus at the same time. The one used as the frontispiece in this book is NOT that portrait, but a near-copy commissioned by his editors at Knopf, who objected to the fact that the original portrait was only a partial profile. Yet, that partial profile, when shown, has caused its audiences to gasp or to weep, so vital is its effect. As one young man reportedly said, "I could dig a Jesus who looked like that."

Gibran was a Maronite Christian Lebanese (or Syrian, depending on the vagaries of politics), and he referenced his view of Jesus as "Jesus the Palestinian" as opposed to "Jesus the Christian." Of course, the historical Jesus was neither Palestinian nor Christian. Nor was his name really Jesus. He was a Jew, Joshua, born and raised in Judea. "Palestine," as such, did not exist until the Romans renamed the province after the Jewish Diaspora of 70 CE.

There are legends that Jesus went to India as a young man and learned from Buddhist monks (one Eastern sect claims he died not on the Cross, but ended his days in Kashmir). There are the Glastonbury Legends, that say that Jesus was in Great Britain for a time. While Gibran does not reference these ideas, his Jesus is certainly a person who would be suited to such an existence. Gibran does reference many of the non-canonical Gospels (of which there are hundreds) in creating this portrait in words. This gives JESUS, THE SON OF MAN, a uniqueness and an atmosphere that is decidedly different than, particularly, the Western, Christian, view of Jesus.

If you are a reader who believes that the Western, Christian view is infallible, then you will not accept this book. However, this book is remarkable as an intimate portrait of Jesus, invented or not, and as such, should be visited by all readers, Christian and non-Christian alike, for a deeper understanding of This Man From Judea. I can really dig a Jesus who looks like this.

This book was given to me by a dear friend many years ago. The stories about Jesus are awesome and make you really think about who He was/is.