Book note: "Jesus, A Biography from a Believer" - Granite Grok

Book note: “Jesus, A Biography from a Believer”

Jesus
Jesus of Nazareth, one image

Whether you’re a believer or not, this short “biography of Jesus” by renowned historian Paul Johnson is well worth reading. Jesus’s teachings were essentially libertarian, and gave birth to the freedom, inventiveness, justice, and wealth of Western Civilization (under assault and beleaguered though all may be today).

In the book the author audaciously posits that “What Jesus provided by his life was in effect a new Ten Commandments.” Those new ten commandments are…

…fealty to self and God, universality, equality before God, love, mercy, balance, openness of mind, pursuit of truth, judicious use of power, and courage. Says Johnson in the Introduction, “I am prepared to defend all my assertions, if challenged, by documentation. My objects have been clarity and brevity, and my desire is to convey the joy and nourishment I receive in following Jesus’s footsteps and pondering his words.”

Paul Johnson’s books are very good reads. This one is of a kind, for people of faith as well as non-believers. Well worth picking up, reading, and pondering.

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