Josh Garner (joshgarner) reviewed on 1/6/2019 + 4 more book reviews

Succinctly, this book is one of the most laughable attempts of non-fiction regarding Jesus published in the past several decades. Practically all of the theories Aslan posits have been debunked by scholars of every persuasion for years, with the remaining cruft being nothing noteworthy. The central thesis that Jesus was a revolutionary leading an army against the Romans may have been respected a century ago, but any modern historian (Aslan's degree is in sociology with no formal historical training) will laugh at such a notion. Frankly, this book sits on the history-theory-respectability scale somewhere between the "new chronology" and JFK assassination conspiracy theories.

The one redeeming factor is that Aslan's creative writing professorship shows through in the book; much talent must have been required to weave a web so intricate, yet so fictional!

If you wish to ACTUALLY learn about the "historical Jesus" I would recommend the reports published by the Jesus Seminar: The Five Gospels (ISBN 9780060630409), The Acts of Jesus (ISBN 9780060629793), and The Gospel of Jesus (ISBN 9781598151589). While flawed, these three works constitute an actual good-will effort by multiple scholars in the field.

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