Zealot: The Life And Times Of Jesus Of Nazareth

Description

Two thousand years ago, an itinerant Jewish preacher and miracle worker walked across the Galilee, gathering followers to establish what he called the 'Kingdom of God'. The revolutionary movement he launched was so threatening to the established order that he was captured, tortured, and executed as a state criminal. Within decades after his shameful death, his followers would call him God. Balancing the Jesus of the Gospels against historical sources, Aslan describes a complex figure: a man of peace who exhorted his followers to arm themselves; an exorcist and faith healer who urged his disciples to keep his identity secret; and the seditious King of the Jews, whose promise of liberation from Rome went unfulfilled in his lifetime. Aslan explores why the early Church preferred to promulgate an image of Jesus as a peaceful spiritual teacher rather than a politically conscious revolutionary, and grapples with the riddle of how Jesus understood himself. This is a thought-provoking, elegantly written biography with the pulse of a fast-paced novel, and a singularly brilliant portrait of a man, a time and the birth of a religion.

Author description

Reza Aslan is an internationally acclaimed writer and scholar of religions. His first book, No God but God: The Origins, Evolution, and Future of Islam, has been translated into thirteen languages and was named one of the 100 most important books of the decade. He is also the author of How to Win a Cosmic War: God, Globalization and the End of the War on Terror.

Table of contents

Map: First-Century Palestine..The Temple in Jerusalem..Author's Note..Introduction..Chronology..PART I..Prologue: A Different Sort of Sacrifice..1: A Hole in the Corner..2: King of the Jews..3: You Know Where I Am From..4: The Fourth Philosophy..5: Where Is Your Fleet to Sweep the Roman Seas?..6: Year One..PART II..Prologue: Zeal for Your House..7: The Voice Crying Out in the Wilderness..8: Follow Me..9: By the Finger of God..10: May Your Kingdom Come..11: Who Do You Say I Am?..12: No King but Caesar..PART III..Prologue: God Made Flesh..13: If Christ Has Not Been Risen..14: Am I Not an Apostle?..15: The Just One..Epilogue: True God from True God..Acknowledgments..Notes..Bibliography..Index