A Life of Jesus [Paperback]

Shusaku Endo (Author), Richard Schuchert (Translator)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 1978

A simple and powerful retelling of the life of Christ as seen through the eyes of a Japanese novelist.

Editorial Reviews

Language Notes

Text: English, Japanese (translation) --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Paulist Press; P edition (January 1, 1978)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0809123193
• ISBN-13: 978-0809123193
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #169,908 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

41 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Mallowcups for Shusaku, February 15, 2001

By 

Tracy Groot - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Life of Jesus (Paperback)

Shusaku Endo, in his own words a "solitary novelist in the Orient", has given us a singular gift in "A Life of Jesus." This novelist employed his talent to put a soundtrack and lighting to the gospels, complete with the dimensions of smell, taste, and touch. While I feel he used the word 'emaciated' one too many times in reference to Jesus, the point he makes is clear; Jesus was not what anyone expected a Messiah to be.

Endo takes a good portion of the book to explore the POV's of the disciples. His is the first account I have seen that presents a compassionate portrait of Judas Iscariot, a man who, in the end, hated himself to death. Toward the end of the book, Endo hammered the perplexing question of what changed the cowardly disciples, who had abandoned Jesus to his fate...the conclusion Endo reached did indeed resonate with this particular reader, though I could not help feel a bit of restless frustration with the end...his conclusions about the 'electrifying change' he saw in the disciples not once suggested the beginning of the book of Acts, where a once denying Peter is now empowered to not only hold forth, but to do so boldly.

The point Endo labors is more about the power of resurrection...he says "Regarding other miracles in the life of Jesus, the Gospel record is soft, compared to the resurrection." Indeed, it was fascinating to get inside the brains of Endo's disciples--the word 'resurrection' has new meaning for me.

I greatly admired this work, am still thinking about it, and had the feeling it ended too soon. In Endo's own words, because I cannot say it better, "Regarding those who deserted him, those who betrayed him, not a word of resentment came to his lips...he prayed for nothing but their salvation. That's the whole life of Jesus. It stands out clean and simple, like a single Chinese ideograph brushed on a blank sheet of paper. It was so clean and simple that no one could make sense of it, and not one could produce its like."

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Compelling Account, January 21, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: A Life of Jesus (Paperback)

I would have never discovered this book had it not been tucked away in a box of books given to us by an elderly friend...Endo wrote this book in the 70s and it deserves to be revived in connection with the recent interest in "the Historical Jesus".

Endo provides a speculative historical account of the life of Jesus based on the New Testament. His attention to Scriptural detail is remarkable and he provides many compelling interpretations of the words of Jesus and the events of the gospels. His goal in writing this account was to explain Christianity to a Japanese culture that views a fathers as stern and judgemental figures. Hence, his challenge is to re-define God the Father as a loving and compassionate figure in contrast to the God often portrayed in the Old Testament. His thesis, in my own words, is that Jesus came not to tell everybody that He is God, but rather to tell us who God is. At a time in history when Jesus' countrymen were looking for a violent revolutionary to lead them from Roman occupation, Jesus was rejected as weak and ineffective. Only in dying with dignity and showing faith and forgiveness in his dying words were his followeres able to understand that his message was indeed revolutionary.

He is careful to distinguish "fact" from truth" and hence "A Life of Jesus" is convincing and historically plausible as well as faith inspiring. He never asks the reader to place blind faith in unprovable accounts of miraculous events. Nonetheless, he ends with his account of the resurrection which argues that the transformation in Jesus disciples after the crucifixion is as miraculous as the corporal resurrection of Jesus from the dead, regardless of whether or not such a resurrection is historically factual.

If this book were more well known, Endo would undoubtedly be attacked by evangelical conservatives for suggesting that acceptance of the factuality of the New Testament is not a prerequisite for faith. In fact, he doesn't even touch on the birth narratives because of the historical speciousness. His account may not convince skeptics to run out and join a church, but they may reconsider their notions of the meaning of Jesus and the nature of the Divine.

28 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Read this book if you want to understand Catholicism., July 6, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: A Life of Jesus (Paperback)

This is a life of Jesus as told through the eyes of a Japenese man. It is without doubt the most sensitive account of the life of Jesus. The influence of Japanese culture and their concepts of God being understanding goes a long way to help the reader see Jesus in all His humanity and divinity at the same time. By reading this book you learn what being Catholic is all supposed to be about. This reader wants to read other works by Shusaku Endo