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the man jesus loved

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"The Man Jesus Loved" clears away centuries of traditional Christian teaching to reexamine Jesus's positions and roles with regard to personal relationships and family values and how these relate to the Kingdom of Heaven.

Members of the Christian Right in the USA are frequently known to state that biological family trumps everything, that marriage can only be between an adult man and an adult woman, that active homosexuals are automatically condemned to burn in the flames of hell, and that women and children should be subordinate to men. Centuries of the teachings of St. Paul, many early Church Fathers, of Church Councils, of Orthodox Jewish (and Islamic) teachings, and Papal directives are cited to support these views.

The author, Theodore W. Jennings, Jr., Ph.D. is a professor of biblical and constructive theology at Chicago Theological Seminary and is a United Methodist clergyman. He is not a crank but a trained professional willing to take another look at the Jesus story before the Church became a part of the respectable Establishment of the Roman Empire. It turns out that all the above mentioned teachings of members of the Christian Right are challenged in the Gospels (and in supporting documents like the Gospel of Thomas).

Jennings starts out by examining the title character's role in the Gospel of St. John [John 13, 18-21]. It turns out that there is substantial similarity between the relationship between Jesus and the Beloved Disciple and that between a lover and a beloved in a Hellenistic gymnasium; nowadays we would say they were boyfriends or lovers. Jennings reviews various attempts to identify the Beloved Disciple and goes into the stories of the nude youth fleeing at the arrest of Jesus, of Lazarus, of the youth at the tomb of Jesus, and of the usage of the words eros vs. philia vs. agape (different Koine Greek words for love) in the text. Furthermore, there is no indication Jesus and the Beloved Disciple would not have consummated the relationship. Jennings makes a case that traditional commentators prefer to ignore or sublimate.

Jennings moves on to show how the story of the Centurion's lad (pais,doulos) [Matthew 8:5-13] might reasonably be interpreted as Jesus being happy to help a sick lover in a same-sex relationship and on Jesus's compassion for eunichs.

The final section gathers the evidence that Jesus wanted to convert traditional family values to a situation where everyone cares about everyone else and all have a direct connection to God. My example: Jesus would be angry at the present situation where wealthy families push their children to go to the best schools and succeed-or-else while allowing poor children to go to schools with leaky roofs and no books and have no health care. Jesus supported and included women on a largely equal basis with men. Jesus wanted people to break their dependence on family and the accumulation of wealth and power and instead to treat each other well and to do good. This includes treating women as equals, being accepting of various sexual orientations, and not condemning sex itself. Traditional morality is mostly focused on preserving property rights and amassing wealth; the original position of the Jesus movement was different.

Although theology and Biblical research can be a slow slog to read, Jennings writes well enough to keep up one's interest. There is a bit of repetition, but since the ideas are untraditional, they do bear repeating.

While I find his arguments convincing, I suppose I am still fond of the notion that God had choices in how to incarnate the Son and that if Jesus was to experience all the temptations of Earth fairly, He would have been a Kinsey 3 (tempted equally by men and women), rather than a Kinsey 0 (the Traditional position) or a Kinsey 4-6 (gayish to gay) which may be what Jennings would suggest.

When one reads of the differences between Jesus's teaching and Traditional Abrahamic social teachings, it makes me wonder if someone could calculate more accurately than I could the number of gay people (say, from the set of people reaching 12+ years of age) subjected to Abrahamic rules over the centuries. Is it possible that the aggregate damage done to gays (violence, theft) exceeds that to the Jews during the Holocaust? (The count of adversely affected women dwarf both.) Traditional Abrahamic religion has been complicit in so much and is so unrepentant.

This book is an excellent start on reclaiming Christianity from Traditionalists. Jesus can be Our Personal Savior too.

THE MAN JESUS LOVED is the right book by the right scholar at the right time. Theodore Jennings, a Methodist by background and New Testament scholar at the Chicago Theological Seminary, offers a useful and reliable short volume that is not only gay-friendly but friendly to all Christians who want to confront an exegesis about the "other" Disciple without the blinkers of homophobia.

Indeed, much of the book's relevance and excellence lies in its ability to speak not only to Queer Studies but to other, more traditional schools of thought in a way that will meet and exceed their expectations. Anyone who expects a tabloidish "Extra, extra, Our Lord was gay! Kept rentboy on side!" won't find that kind of Procrustean insistence here. In THE MAN JESUS LOVED, Jennings takes us through an informed close reading of various gospels, revealing multiple interpretations. He patiently and expertly unpacks a First-Century social and political milieu, offering a full-bodied view of a fully-inclusive Jesus whose ministry spoke to all people, including the marginalized, then as now.

In essence, and in addition to its considerable scholastic merit, Jennings' work acts as a kind of hermeneutic or research switchboard among several polarizing communities: Queer Studies, Social Gospel, contemporary New Testament, and of course the well-informed lay people who like to stay on top of what's going on (some knowledge of the Bible, and preferably the New Revised Standard Version, is assumed).

Whatever one's experience or jumping-off point, this is a good book to begin or refresh a view of Jesus the all-inclusive; and certainly it's a great way to consider how modern ministry today can expand to include the previously excluded and unacknowledged. Highly recommended.

The "Man Jesus Loved" is a scholarly and thoroughly nonsensational study of same-sex love in the context of the teachings of Jesus and the Gospels. Up until now, the argument about what the Bible teaches about homosexuality has been largely confined to an exegesis of six or seven verses out of the thousands upon thousands of biblical verses (the only explicit condemnations of homosexuality being found in the Jewish purity laws that Jesus rejected). Jennings takes another and more holistic approach, studying the views of Jesus towards marginalized people in general, Jesus' distrust of patriarchal system and the "family values" it held sacrosanct, the general evangelical egalitarianism of the Gospels, and the implicit approval of same-sex love in many Gospel narratives. Those who make the effort to read this scholarly yet readable book will find their understanding of Jesus and his teachings enriched. Jim Marion, author of "Putting on the Mind of Christ, The Inner Work of Christian Spirituality."

The chasm between anti-gay and gay-supporting Christians has been growing wider in the United States because of cynical politics and religious grandstanding. This book is clearly an effort to build a bridge over that gap. It follows in the tradition of Jesus Acted Up and the works of Boswell from a scholarly perspective. Jennings explores a tradition about Jesus that has been around for centuries: that Jesus loved another man (the Beloved Disciple) passionately and faithfully. Jennings supports it with scripture and many sound observations. I was especially interested in his conclusion that the Beloved Disciple may have been Lazarus: the young man that Jesus had "raised from the dead." How does the theory of a gay Jesus fit with the much more popular idea that Jesus was wed to Mary Magdalene and had children? A bisexual Christ cannot be ruled out, and this was in fact suggested by the earlier book Jesus Acted Up. Although Jennings did not touch on all of the Old Testament writings that might have further supported his thesis, this book is certainly worth a place on your bookshelf.

Given the book's content and title, I was expecting something off-the-wall! But nothing could be further than the truth. The author has serious academic qualifications, and the press is associated with the United Church of Christ. The idea that Jesus could be involved in a homoerotic relationship is startling, to put it mildly, but the book makes an excellent case. Even if one doesn't fully accept the book's conclusions, there's a lot of thought-provoking textual analysis, especially on Jesus's attitude toward the Law, and to so-called "family values" issues (I suspect He would be quite dismayed to see how the Religious Right has hijacked debate in this area).

This is a very well-written book, not hysterical or tacky as I feared it would be. Ted Jennings maintains a scholarly tone throughout. For that reason, the book can be a bit slow-going at times, but anyone who believes that the Christ could have been a man of homosexual orientation in his human form should read it. The concept of a homosexual Christ is surely more credible than that of a Christ who slept with Mary Magdalene! What I want to know is . . . WHEN is someone going to edit a version of the Bible for Gay men and Lesbians? There is a desparate need for such an edition. You can find Bibles for youth, for women, for African-Americans. It seems the Gay population has been forgotten about again.

This book is a learned, convicing denubciation of the fallacies and hypocrisy of today's church heterosexism and homophobia. It depicts a Jesus who is love, both huma and divine, and as a human, no human love is extraneous to Him: for Jesus is the Wisdom of Love incarnate, who always sided with the discriminated, the oppressed, against the hypocrisy of religious hyerarchies. So, human love, be it "gay"or "hetero", is blessed as a reflection of the Divine Love of Our Beloved Saviour, Jesus.

This is a great book for anyone who is looking for a deeper view of Christianity than what is presented by traditional religion. Amongst televangelist and other hypocritical religious conservatives there will be much gnashing of teeth. If you are looking for the truth and personal freedom read this book.

Jennings gives us another powerful example of how the message of the Gospels is incompatible with prejudice.

Just as the "Christian" theology of antiSemitism --- for example, Christian Identity theology's exultation and sanctification of the Nazi Holocaust --- requires ignoring the fact that Jesus Christ was a Jew, so too the "Christian" theology of homophobia requires ignoring Christ's affection for the beloved disciple.

Unfortunately, Jennings' cool, academic treatment of the subject is both a blessing and a curse. For the dispassionate, Jennings' scholarly analysis immediately opens a door to greater understanding, one which is free of heterosexist filters for perhaps the first time. However, those whose minds are clouded by emotion (especially "gay panic") are left to manage their emotions themselves.

Jennings asks many questions that may evoke "gay panic" in his readers. In the end, open-minded readers will see that Jesus' relationship with his beloved disciple had important distinguishing characteristics. Distinguishing characteristics are pivotal in the oppression of a minority. The perpetrators of the Nazi Holocaust targeted Jewishness. Had historical Jesus been present during the Holocaust, He would have been a target. That Jesus was also different from others in that target group is moot. The key point is that He would have been targeted. (This is the ugly truth of domination theology --- adherents end up destroying the very thing they claim they embrace.)

Similarly, Jennings helps us see that Jesus also shared a distinguishing characteristic with targeted homosexuals: Jesus' beloved was of the same sex. Again, that Jesus is different from modern-day homosexuals is a moot point. The relationship with the beloved disciple, regardless of its purity, would qualify Jesus as a target of homophobia. For example, gay bashers storming the Last Supper would not have stopped to ask whether or not Jesus' relationship with his beloved had been consummated. It would have been enough that Jesus affectionately held his beloved close. If it is difficult to grasp that such a small thing could be a matter of life and death, consider another example of the blind tyranny of prejudice: that "one drop" of African blood was enough to make one a target of racial prejudice.

In the vocabulary of my last analogy, Jennings' reading of the Gospels reveals far more than "one drop" of blood. Those who protest, who would separate Jesus from being a target of homophobia, face a daunting challenge, again, similar to the one faced by those who would deny His Jewishness. Yes, it is possible to ignore the obvious, but at what cost?

Those who believe Christ would never have had a sexual relationship with anyone may be confused or offended by Jennings observation that the Gospels make no claim about Jesus' enduring virginity. Please don't panic. Jennings also, of course, finds no direct evidence that Christ had a sexual relationship with anyone. In other words, if one believes that Christ's purity or divinity precluded historical Jesus' sexuality, Jennings does not demand that you change your belief.

Jennings does, however, invite the reader to have an open mind about the possible importance of the relationship between Jesus and the beloved disciple, regardless of its nature. That Jesus' behavior would make him a target of homophobia should open the eyes of heterosexist Christians, especially those who revel in their presumed superiority to all non-heterosexuals.

For some, grasping the importance of the relationship between Jesus and His beloved is a journey that will take years, perhaps a lifetime. Those who already understand the call to care for the least among us will not have as far to travel.

Good Bible study of gays in the New Testament. He rightly sees the obvious intent of the Gospel of John and what it means to Gays and Christians today. Only fault I see is to much emphasis on the Modern Homosexual nonsense. In post-modern world what relavency is there in it. A must read if your gay a gay christian or non gay christian.