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Title: The Gospel According to Jesus by Stephen Mitchell ISBN: 0-06-092321-0 Publisher: Perennial Pub. Date: 31 March, 1993 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.32 (25 reviews)
Rating: 3
Summary: Not a "bad" book...an attempt to share the word
Comment: Well, after I read all the strong attacks of THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO JESUS, I had to see what Stephen Mitchell had done to upset so many. Sure, fundamentalists will not be open to this reinterpretation of Jesus, let alone the Gospels, but Mitchell is a wise person who has given us some wonderful interpretations. The same holds here...he writes so well, the Gospel comes alive with a voice that holds attention. However, I too object to Mitchell's premises of Jesus as a "bastard," and even less founded Jesus and Mary as a dysfunctional family. It's a needless attack and without evidence. His Gospel deserved better than that. Read around in this book...it's worth it.
Rating: 5
Summary: This review is inerrant
Comment: This review is inerrant. Those who doubt have insufficient faith.
For a long time I was separated from Jesus by the absurdity of such claims about scripture. I knew very well that concordance of the Gospels was a wish, not a fact. And it was clear to me that many statements attributed to Jesus simply did not jibe with others.
Mitchell's book played a major role in my life by showing me that one can, through exercise of scholarship and enlightened judgment, extract from those imperfect documents a coherent message. It was liberating to learn that over the centuries people like William Blake and Thomas Jefferson had done so.
Mitchell explains early on that we know very few facts about the historical Jesus. Only someone reading hastily could miss his dilineation of speculative regions, of which there are many. He makes it very clear that his interpretation is highly personal, and shares his Zen Buddhist experience openly. He does, however, often support his points with legitimate scholarship. The reader can use this scholarship to go in whatever direction he or she chooses.
It would be unfair to say that Mitchell makes Jesus into a Zen master, though his interpretation is certainly colored by his experience. On the contrary, he emphasizes the common aspects of spiritual experience and enlightenment in various religions and practices. He also clearly indicates that certain aspects of Jesus' teaching (e.g., forgiveness) seem to appear in no other tradition.
The first of all truths is that if you seek you will find, and Mitchell gives a valuable example of how to seek. I doubt that any active reader will find precisely what he did. And there is the rub for traditional Christians, who cannot acknowledge plural truths.
Rating: 3
Summary: For the Non-Christian
Comment: I wish Mitchell began this book with more autobiographical material. He spent many years halfway around the world finding spiritual truths in Zen Buddhism. How could he not find Western Christianity lacking? I found the most perceptive insights speculate on Jesus' psychology as an "illegitamate" child. Perhaps the local community knew Joseph was not Jesus' biological father. Whether or not you believe in a miraculous conception, one has to wonder whether Jesus was perceived by his peers to be of legitimate birth. How this would have fueled his anger against the Roman occupation! There has been some speculation by non-believers that Jesus was son of a Roman soldier. Was Jesus rage personal as well as righteous? Not for devout Christians.
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Title: Tao Te Ching by Stephen Mitchell ISBN: 0060812451 Publisher: Perennial Pub. Date: 07 October, 1992 List Price(USD): $8.95 |
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Title: The Book of Job by Stephen Mitchell ISBN: 0060969598 Publisher: Perennial Pub. Date: 03 August, 1992 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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Title: The Essence of Wisdom by STEPHEN MITCHELL ISBN: 0767903064 Publisher: Broadway Pub. Date: 19 October, 1999 List Price(USD): $10.00 |
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Title: Bhagavad Gita : A New Translation by Stephen Mitchell ISBN: 0609810340 Publisher: Three Rivers Press Pub. Date: 27 August, 2002 List Price(USD): $9.95 |
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Title: A Book of Psalms: Selected and Adapted from the Hebrew by Stephen Mitchell ISBN: 0060924705 Publisher: Perennial Pub. Date: 18 May, 1994 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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