In reading "The Brother of Jesus" I observed a strong similarity with Darwin's approach to "The Origin of Species." When you have a broad fascinating subject lacking empirical evidence, but saturated with overwhelming facts, overwhelm the reader with a broad, detailed, balanced and well organized narrative. Bravo!
As Professor Butz was finishing structuring his conclusion, he pointed out that Christ did in fact conquer Rome, and He did it through His followers and from within the empire when Christianity became the official religion of Rome. A fascinating insight that would have escaped me for another 66 years, well done!
I have been enamored with the United States founding fathers, their values, major ancient and renaissance influences, etc., for many years. I have in my personal library, and have read, approximately forty volumes about them individually and collectively, as well as many of their writings. Professor Butz mentions that their insistence on a separation of church and state was a secret to the success of this experiment in self government that has so far propelled us to an historical pinnacle of freedom and prosperity. On this point I trumped him, and it's probably the only point where I was able to do so. I've felt this way for well over 40 years and I doubt he'd even yet read about it 40 plus years ago (read here a self applied pat on the back!).
The Bible was always impenetrable to me (possibly because of long exposure to the King James Version?!). I always thought this density was a result of the intellectual limitations with which I was born. Professor Butz' classes (I've taken three), however, coupled with "The Brother of Jesus," have shown me that this density came not only from within. Complexity, contradictions, numerous authors, Church (read "human") politics, and other semantic and sundry details added considerably to that density. That it was written by man rather than by Divine instruction, as discussed in one of his classes, also added clarity for me. How could Divine "guidance" be so ambiguous! The reader should know that I have great respect for all religions and especially for the Judeo-Christian ethic as taught to me by the Moravian Church of my youth. That ethic has guided me now for many decades. So, I thank Professor Butz for this new perspective!
Before I close, permit me to point out one thing that puzzled me. Professor Butz spent a good bit of time on Mark 3:21, "When his family heard it, they went out to restrain him, for people were saying, `He has gone out of his mind.'" and Mark 6:4, "Then Jesus said to them, `Prophets are not without honor, except in their hometown, and among their own kin, and in their own house.'" He is discussing here how Mark appeared to be saying that Jesus' family did not believe in Him at the time in question, and possibly not until after the resurrection. The scholars he quotes as well as his own thoughts don't seem to focus on Mark 3:35 where Jesus seems to say that all his followers are his family: "Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother." This is a powerful statement, not at all ambiguous, and to my recollection was always Jesus' approach to his followers in particularly and humankind in general. Does Jesus distinguish between his earthly family and his "flock?" Was Mark really doing so? What am I missing here?
So what did I think of the book? Professor Butz' very ecumenical conclusion surprised and impressed me. On my "Old Fogy" 0 to 10 scale of probability, James' importance to the history (and future?) of western religion went from a 3 or 4 to a 9 or 9.5; and there is no 0 or 10 on this scale (no alpha or omega?!). I felt I'd just finished a brilliant piece of scholarship and this was really solidified during just the last fifteen or so pages. This old pragmatic empiricist, however, finds it hard to imagine that the discovery of James' importance to western religion (this discovery may well happen) will eventually bring Jews, Christians and Muslims together as hoped for by Professor Butz. A noble thought, but throughout history (and I have read a good bit on world history as well), it has been man's nature to all too often find differences with his fellow man sufficient reason to look down upon them. As a species, we seem to seek superiority over both man and beast; and this is still true all round this world of ours today. Religion is not the only barrier we can see as its causation.
I enjoyed this book, as you can see from the above, and look forward to reading Professor Butz' next effort. It is to be entitled, "The Secret Legacy of Jesus: The Judaic Teachings That Passed from James the Just to the Founding Fathers." As mentioned above, the American Revolution is one of my favorite subjects, this could prove very interesting.
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In-line what Muslim Believe
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 20, 2022