Rating: 
Summary: read this before you read the bible
Review: 171 pages, Albert Nolan
The book is a concise, very interesting summary of the life of Jesus. I learned a lot, and I enjoyed reading it. Nolan didn't give me a chance to get bored or lose interest--I like that.
Also, having read what the reviewer who rates the book one star wrote, I am suspicious, and I have doubts as to whether we read the same book.
Rating:
Summary: One of the most important books ever written
Review: Albert Nolan clarifies Christianity as it has needed clarification for centuries.
When "Christianity" became a religion, it lost its connection to Jesus.
Albert Nolan gives Jesus back to us; a Jesus we can identify with.
Reading this book saved me from leaving the ministry.
P.D.
Rating: 
Summary: Penetrates to the Text
Review: Albert Nolan searches the text of the New Testament in order to see what kind of person Jesus of Nazareth was before layers of christology were heaped upon him. Nolan finds Jesus aligned himself with John the Baptist, was a friend of the oppressed, etc. For example, the concept of the "kingdom of God" was a measure of Jesus' understanding of evil in society (p.61)
When Nolan wrote this book back in the mid/late 1970s the idea of peeking behind the theology surrounding Jesus of Nazareth was much more avant garde than it is today. He does not recast theology as does Robinson in _The Human Face of God_. But he does limit his the penetration of his analysis to the text of the New Testament and no more. For example, Jesus may have told parables about guests who made excuses (p 47) because he himself may have experienced the same.
Perhaps Jesus did, but in recent writings by Crossan, Horsley, Reed, and others, one may see Jesus as a peasant with few resources to host a celebration. In more recent studies emphasis has been given to archaeological data and sociological models in order to illumine the world behind the text of the New Testament. Nolan's book penetrates to the text and does not deal with these latter.
Rating:
Summary: Awe-Inspiring Book!
Review: As a mass-attending Catholic, I have spent many Sundays go through the motions of "religious" life. My religion meant very little to me until I read Jesus Before Christianity. Jesus' radical teachings to throw off the chains of power, prestige, wealth, and group solidarity and live a life of compassion towards all others is just as relavant today as it was 2000 years ago. Please, read this book and take to heart what Jesus really meant so that you may truly live.
Rating:
Summary: In Your Face Jesus
Review: I was so stunned to read the one-star review that I had to write. Above anything I have ever read, this book changed my life. It was a clarion call for we who say we are Christians to wake up and absorb the radically uncomfortable messages of the real Jesus, Jesus the Jew, the Jesus who existed before the apostles hit the road to create the belief systems and institutions that undergird Christianity. His profound messages speak of love for the dispossessed, the exploited, the forgotten, and challenge our rationalizations about why we deserve to enjoy such cushy lives without thinking twice about our impact elsewhere in the world. If you want to learn, and to grow deeply and broadly in your faith and in its expression in the world, read this book. But be warned: you may feel a strong pull to radically change your own life -- for the sake of others.
Rating:
Summary: In Your Face Jesus
Review: I was so stunned to read the one-star review that I had to write. Above anything I have ever read, this book changed my life. It was a clarion call for we who say we are Christians to wake up and absorb the radically uncomfortable messages of the real Jesus, Jesus the Jew, the Jesus who existed before the apostles hit the road to create the belief systems and institutions that undergird Christianity. His profound messages speak of love for the dispossessed, the exploited, the forgotten, and challenge our rationalizations about why we deserve to enjoy such cushy lives without thinking twice about our impact elsewhere in the world. If you want to learn, and to grow deeply and broadly in your faith and in its expression in the world, read this book. But be warned: you may feel a strong pull to radically change your own life -- for the sake of others.
Rating:
Summary: A Must Read
Review: Jesus Before Christianity is a must read for Christians, as well as, non Christians. Nolan will provoke traditional Christians and challenge them to rethink the message of Jesus. One may tempted to make early judgements and lay the book aside, but the last chapter makes this finely written work of Albert Nolan worth the reading! So keep reading, it may change your life!
Rating:
Summary: A Must Read
Review: Jesus Before Christianity is a must read for Christians, as well as, non Christians. Nolan will provoke traditional Christians and challenge them to rethink the message of Jesus. One may tempted to make early judgements and lay the book aside, but the last chapter makes this finely written work of Albert Nolan worth the reading! So keep reading, it may change your life!
Rating:
Summary: The closest to the truth about Jesus I've read!
Review: Mr. Nolan has done a painstaking job reseaching the time period and the gospels. He has shown that Jesus was a man who stood up against the system and met the same fate as our modern day examples (Dr. Martin Luther King and Ghandi).Anyone who reads this book and says they deny the truth in it is fooling themselves. I would not be surprised if Mr. Nolan had not been killed for this book!
Rating: 
Summary: Same old same old
Review: One earlier reviewer wrote that according to the author Albert Nolan, Jesus was only concerned about preaching repentance to the Jews, and if they refused, they would be destroyed. That makes it sound as though Jesus was awfully coercive. In fact, Jesus sounds kind of like the Mafia: giving the Jews "an offer they can't refuse." ("You gotta accept me as your Messiah and do as I say or be forever damned!!") Another reviewer wrote glowingly of this book that "anyone who reads it and denies the truth in it is just fooling themselves." That sounds pretty absolutist and heavy-handed as well. In fact, the coercive tone of both these reviewers reflects the coercive tone of the book itself: Nolan doesn't present any actual historical data or facts independent of the Bible. He simply takes the Gospel stories as they are written and then interprets them in the light of his own political agenda, i.e. "liberation theology." This book is only one man's interpretation of Jesus. It is not the "absolute truth," as some reviewers appear to claim. If Jesus were a Martin Luther King Jr or another Gandhi, why don't we worship these other men as God too? Writer Nolan also eagerly continues the seemingly never-ending tradition of blaming the Jews for the death of Jesus, arguing that Judaism is a stale old system that needs to be rebelled against and replaced with a "new, improved" version (namely his, of course). All I can say is: thank God (literally!!) for the fact that so many Catholics and other Christians today have gotten beyond that old blind and ignorant hatred.
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