JESUS FOR A NO-GOD WORLD

The need for another book on Jesus, the author argues, arises out of the religious crisis of our time. Which consists in our inability to say what it means to believe in God. In the Christian tradition, statements about God depend upon statements about Christ. Hence, a reexamination of the New Testament tradition about Christ may prove fruitful. The primitive Jewish Christian church had a way of speaking of Christ that could be helpful in our situation: Jesus is interpreted as the ""eschatological prophet"" -- the prophet of the ""last things."" The author proceeds to elaborate this concept by tracing the theme of the this-world-the other-world dichotomy in Judeo-Christian thought from the times of the prophets through the theological developments of Christianity -- ""from Cyrus, the Person to Johnson, the Texan""! In his treatment, he has a good many things to say that run counter to traditional doctrine and Biblical interpretation. We do not have to believe the same doctrines the New Testament writers held or that tradition has maintained as orthodoxy. What can be believed is, that Jesus of Nazareth is real, and has meaning for us today. Whether all of this argument can stand as presented remains a question. But the style is lively enough and the reasoning at least stimulating.