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In what are billed as "culture wars," people on the political right and the political left cite Jesus as endorsing their views. Garry Wills argues that Jesus subscribed to no political program. He was far more radical than that. In a fresh reading of the gospels, Wills explores the meaning of the "reign of heaven" Jesus not only promised for the future but brought with him into this life. It is only by dodges and evasions that people misrepresent what Jesus plainly had to say against power, the wealthy, and religion itself. Jesus came from the lower class, the working class, and he spoke to and for that class. This is a book that will challenge the assumptions of almost everyone who brings religion into politics-"Christian socialists" as well as biblical theocrats. But Wills is just as critical of those who would make Jesus a mere ethical teacher, ignoring or playing down his divinity. Jesus without the Resurrection is simply not the Jesus of the gospels.

Garry Wills has written many acclaimed works on religion. His Papal Sin and Why I Am a Catholic were New York Times bestsellers. He studied for the priesthood, took his doctorate in the classics, and taught Greek for many years at Johns Hopkins University. He is now adjunct professor of history at Northwestern University. His works on American history have received many awards, including the Pulitzer Prize for Lincoln at Gettysburg.

A Note on Translation	xi
Foreword: Christ Not a Christian	xv
1. The Hidden Years	1	(18)
2. The Work Begins	19	(21)
3. The Radical Jesus	40	(19)
4. Against Religion	59	(19)
5. Heaven's Reign	78	(14)
6. Descent into Hell	92	(16)
7. The Death of God	108	(16)
8. The Life of God	124	(16)
Afterword	140	(3)
Acknowledgments	143

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Foreword: Christ Not a Christian In certain religious circles, the letters WWJD serve as a password or shibboleth. Web sites sell bracelets and T-shirts with the cryptic motto. Some politicians tell us this watchword guides them in making decisions. The letters stand for iWhat Would Jesus Do?i We are assured that doing the same thing is the goal of real Christians.But can we really aspire to do what Jesus did? Would we praise a twelve-year-old who slips away from his parents in a big city and lets them leave town without telling them he is staying behind? The reaction of any parent would be that of Jesusi parents: iHow could you treat us this way?i (Lk 2.48). Or if relatives seek access to a Christian, should he say that he has no relatives but his followers (Mk 3.33?35)? We might try to change water into wine; but if we did, would we take six huge water vats, used for purification purposes, and fill them with over a hundred gallons of wine, more than any party could drink (Jn 2.6)? If we could cast out devils, would we send them into a herd of pigs, destroying two thousand animals (Mk 5.13)? Some Christians place a very high value on the rights of property, yet this was a massive invasion of some personis property and livelihood. Other Christians lay great emphasis on family valuesoshould they, like Jesus, forbid a man from attending his own fatheris funeral (Mt 8.22) or tell others to hate their parents (Mt 8.22, Lk 14.26)? Or should they go into a rich new church in some American suburb, a place taking pride in its success, and whip the persons holding out collection plates, crying, iMake not my Fatheris house a tradersi marti (Jn 2.16) or ia thievesi lairi (Mk 11.17)? Would it be wise of them to call national religious leaders iwhitewashed tombs, pleasant enough to outer appearance, but inside full of dead bones and every rottennessi (Mt 23.27)? Are they justified in telling others, iI come not imposing peace, I impose not peace but the swordi (Mt 10.34)? Or iI am come to throw fire on the earthi (Lk 12.49)? Should they imitate Jesus when he says, iHeaven and earth will pass away, but never will my words pass awayi (Mk 21.333)? Or when he says, iI am the resurrectioni (Jn 11.25) or iI am the truthi (Jn 14.6), or iI have the authority to lay down my life and I have the authority to take it up againi (Jn 10.18)? None of those who want to imitate Jesus should proclaim that iI am the light of the worldi (Jn 8.12) or that iI am the pathi to the Father (Jn 14.6). These are just a few samples of the way Jesus acts in the gospel. They were acts meant to show that he is not just like us, that he has higher rights and powers, that he has an authority as arbitrary as Godis in the Book of Job. He is a divine mystery walking among men. The only way we can directly imitate him is to act as if we were gods ourselvesoyet that is the very thing he forbids. He tells us to act as the last, not the first, as the least, not the greatest. And this accords with the common sense of mankind. Christians cannot really be iChristlike.i As Chesterton said, iA great man knows he is not God, and the greater he is the better he knows it.i The thing we have to realize is that Christ, whoever or whatever he was, was certainly not a Christian. Romano Guardini put it this way in The Humanity of Christ: If Jesus is a mere man, then he must be measured by the message which he brought to men. He must himself do what he expects of others; he must himself think according to the way he demanded that men think. He must himself be a Christian. Very well, then; the more he is like that, the less he will speak, act, or think as he did; and the more he will be appalled by the blasphemy of the way he did behave. If Jesus is mere man as we are, even though a very profound one, very devout, very pureono, let us put it another way: the measure of his depth, devotion, purity, reverence, will be the measure in wh

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What Jesus Meant

What Jesus Meant

0670034967

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