Jesus and After | From Readers #3

MAKING IT KNOWN

Reader: Just want to share my enthusiasm regarding the existence of this book! I wouldn't have learned about it had I not been perusing the latest issue of UUWorld, and caught the ad.

Although I'm not a scholar, I've subscribed to Westar's "The 4th R" for many years, and scoured this year's back issues and didn't find a review of "Jesus and After." I'm left wondering why this is. . . too many books, too little time . . . differences of opinion on the scholarship, etc . . . Any light to shed on this?

Looking forward to delving in, and wishing you well.

Author: There might be two reasons you didn't see a review in The 4th R. The first is that we did not submit review copies. We have a very small staff, and chores like that tend to take longer than they should.

If we had been prompter, you might still not have seen a review. There is a good deal of discontent among the Christians of our day, and also of our parents' day. The basic documents, the Gospels, and even more the Letters of Paul, are in many ways problematic for modern persons: not all the miracle stories, and not all the doctrines, work as they used to.. There is a lot of interest in other ways of being Christian, and one is openness to other Gospels. The Gospel of Thomas is almost devoid of the elements that make the official Four Gospels difficult for many. It was a huge hit when it came out in a popular translation, back in the Fifties. It was taken up in a big way by groups like the Jesus Seminar of the Nineties, which adopted it as the "Fifth Gospel," and in the minds of many, really the Only Gospel. Westar is on that wavelength. You may recall the excitement over the recently published Gospel of Judas, not to mention the even more recent, but forged, Gospel of Jesus' Wife. These are the signs of yearning among the millions.

Our approach has been different. We do not set out to address modern discontent or modern searching. We simply ask, of the familiar Four Gospels, the basic historical question: What really happened? Which of these texts is oldest, and thus the best witness to Jesus and his early followers? Answer: obviously Mark. Second question: What is Mark really saying? And here is where it gets interesting. Mark consists of an original core, along with many interpolations: later added passages which bulk the book up to about twice its original size. The interpolations are later material, designed to keep up with developing ideas of Jesus. One of those ideas was that Jesus was not human, but divine, hence the Walking on Water and the other miracles. (By the time we get to the Last Gospel, John, Jesus has become not only divine, but fully equal to God). Such were the early enthusiasms.

What Jesus and After does is simply report what the original text of Mark said: what the Jesus Movement was like, before it went into overdrive. That picture is shocking to all (they are not used to a fully Human Jesus), but it is also a relief to some. It shows that one can be a Christian, and yet not be automatically committed to the later theological developments.

So to finish answering your question, Would Westar, which has so much invested in another solution, give a favorable review to a book taking a very different view of the old texts? It might, and we will be glad if it does, but there is no assurance that it will.

Still, you're quite right; we should have tried. I will pass the word down to the staff (our staff of three) that they should get some review copies out. Along with that reminder, I will pass along your kind wish, for which our thanks.

And best wishes to yourself. May your further delving prove rewarding.

The Author

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