The Life of Jesus (Great Minds Series)

Rating:
Summary: Dated
Review: Renan was a Frenchman who had spent a considerable time in Palestine. He attempted to write a life of Christ based not on the perspective that he was God but rather a man. This consists of trying to put what happened in the context of Jewish and Roman Society at the begining of the Christian era.

He portrays Jesus as a spiritual leader who rejected orthodox judiasm and was killed by conservative believers who felt the order of their religion was threatened. He explains some of the miracles by coming up with mundane explanations. Thus Lazarus might have been simply sick rather than dead.

Historically the book was of importance in developing a secular understanding of the Gospels. However it is now out of date as many more questions have been raised about the content and consistency of the gospels and what appears to be historical and mythical in the life of Jesus. The book is reasonably easy to read but is written in a archaic style that does not read easily today and it also is reflective of descriptions of Jewish people that would now be seen as racist.