Jesus of Nazareth: How He Understood His Life

Rating:
Summary: The most intriguing retelling of Jesus' story I have read.
Review: Schwager's telling of the life of Jesus and the early church is fascinating. Faithful to the Gospels and the book of Acts (some events are "rearranged," but plausibly so), it's like a jewel set in a filigree of Old Testament (and Apocryphal) scripture. Indeed, his working of Old Testament references into and through every thought and action of Jesus and the apostles is at times breathtaking. It's not a modern "psychological" or "theological" analysis of Jesus as the title might lead you to believe, but is instead a reverent and powerful retelling of Jesus' life and ministry, through his death and resurrection and into the days of the early church. At once familiar and strange, this book could change the way you read the gospels or view Jesus.

Schwager is putting out a scholarly edition of this book which explains and supports the story as he tells it here.