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Philip Yancey helps reveal what two thousand years of history covered up
What happens when a respected Christian journalist decides to put his preconceptions aside and take a long look at the Jesus described in the Gospels? How does the Jesus of the New Testament compare to the “new, rediscovered” Jesus---or even the Jesus we think we know so well?
Philip Yancey offers a new and different perspective on the life of Christ and his work---his teachings, his miracles, his death and resurrection---and ultimately, who he was and why he came. From the manger in Bethlehem to the cross in Jerusalem, Yancey presents a complex character who generates questions as well as answers; a disturbing and exhilarating Jesus who wants to radically transform your life and stretch your faith.
The Jesus I Never Knew uncovers a Jesus who is brilliant, creative, challenging, fearless, compassionate, unpredictable, and ultimately satisfying. “No one who meets Jesus ever stays the same,” says Yancey. “Jesus has rocked my own preconceptions and has made me ask hard questions about why those of us who bear his name don’t do a better job of following him.”
Who He Was
The Jesus I Thought I Knew
Suppose we hear an unknown man spoken of by many men. Suppose we were puzzled to hear that some men said he was too tall and some too short; some objected to his fatness, some lamented his leanness; some thought him too dark, and some too fair. One explanation ... would be that he might be an odd shape. But there is another explanation. He might be the right shape.... Perhaps (in short) this extraordinary thing is really the ordinary thing; at least the normal thing, the centre.
G. K. Chesterton
The Jesus I Thought I Knew
I first got acquainted with Jesus when I was a child, singing "Jesus Loves Me" in Sunday school, addressing bedtime prayers to "Dear Lord Jesus," watching Bible Club teachers move cutout figures across a flannelgraph board. I associated Jesus with Kool-Aid and sugar cookies and gold stars for good attendance.
I remember especially one image from Sunday school, an oil painting that hung on the concrete block wall. Jesus had long, flowing hair, unlike that of any man I knew. His face was thin and handsome, his skin waxen and milky white. He wore a robe of scarlet, and the artist had taken pains to show the play of light on its folds. In his arms, Jesus cradled a small sleeping lamb. I imagined myself as that lamb, blessed beyond all telling.
Recently, I read a book that the elderly Charles Dickens had written to sum up the life of Jesus for his children. In it, the portrait emerges of a sweet Victorian nanny who pats the heads of boys and girls and offers such advice as, "Now, children, you must be nice to your mummy and daddy." With a start I recalled the Sunday school image of Jesus that I grew up with: someone kind and reassuring, with no sharp edges at all--a Mister Rogers before the age of children's television. As a child I felt comforted by such a person.
Later, while attending a Bible college, I encountered a different image. A painting popular in those days depicted Jesus, hands outstretched, suspended in a Dalí-like pose over the United Nations building in New York City. Here was the cosmic Christ, the One in whom all things inhere, the still point of the turning world. This world figure had come a long way from the lamb-toting shepherd of my childhood.
Still, students spoke of the cosmic Jesus with a shocking intimacy. The faculty urged us to develop a "personal relationship with Jesus Christ," and in chapel services we hymned our love for him in most familiar terms. One song told about walking beside him in a garden with dew still on the roses. Students testifying about their faith casually dropped in phrases like "The Lord told me...." My own faith hung in a kind of skeptical suspension during my time there. I was wary, confused, questioning.
Looking in retrospect on my years at Bible college, I see that, despite all the devotional intimacies, Jesus grew remote from me there. He became an object of scrutiny. I memorized the list of thirty-four specific miracles in the Gospels but missed the impact of just one miracle. I learned the Beatitudes yet never faced the fact that none of us--I above all--could make sense of those mysterious sayings, let alone live by them.
A little later, the decade of the 1960s (which actually reached me, along with most of the church, in the early 1970s) called everything into question. Jesus freaks--the very term would have been an oxymoron in the tranquil 1950s--suddenly appeared on the scene, as if deposited there by extraterrestrials. No longer were Jesus' followers well-scrubbed representatives of the middle class; some were unkempt, disheveled radicals. Liberation theologians began enshrining Jesus on posters in a troika along with Fidel Castro and Che Guevara.
It dawned on me that virtually all portrayals of Jesus, including the Good Shepherd of my Sunday school and the United Nations Jesus of my Bible college, showed him wearing a mustache and beard, both of which were strictly banned from the Bible college. Questions now loomed that had never occurred to me in childhood. For example, How would telling people to be nice to one another get a man crucified? What government would execute Mister Rogers or Captain Kangaroo? Thomas Paine said that no religion could be truly divine which has in it any doctrine that offends the sensibilities of a little child. Would the cross qualify?
In 1971 I first saw the movie The Gospel According to St. Matthew, directed by Italian filmmaker Pier Paolo Pasolini. Its release had scandalized not only the religious establishment, who barely recognized the Jesus on-screen, but also the film community, who knew Pasolini as an outspoken homosexual and Marxist. Pasolini wryly dedicated the film to Pope John XXIII, the man indirectly responsible for its creation. Trapped in an enormous traffic jam during a papal visit to Florence, Pasolini had checked into a hotel room where, bored, he picked up a copy of the New Testament from the bedside table and read through Matthew. What he discovered in those pages so startled him that he determined to make a film using no text but the actual words from Matthew's gospel.
Pasolini's film captures well the reappraisal of Jesus that took place in the 1960s. Shot in southern Italy on a tight budget, it evokes in chalky whites and dusty grays something of the Palestinian surroundings Jesus lived in. The Pharisees wear towering headpieces, and Herod's soldiers faintly resemble Fascist squadristi. The disciples act like bumbling raw recruits, but Jesus himself, with a steady gaze and a piercing intensity, seems fearless. The parables and other sayings, he fires in clipped phrases over his shoulder as he dashes from place to place.
The impact of Pasolini's film can only be understood by one who passed through adolescence during that tumultuous period. Back then it had the power to hush scoffing crowds at art theaters. Student radicals realized they were not the first to proclaim a message that was jarringly antimaterialistic, antihypocritical, pro-peace, and pro-love.
Contents Introduction Session 1: The Jesus I Thought I Knew Session 2 : Birth: The Visited Planet Session 3: Background: Jewish Roots and Soil Session 4: Temptation: Showdown in the Desert Session 5: Profile: What Would I Have Noticed?
Session 6: Beatitudes: Lucky Are the Unlucky Session 7: Message: A Sermon of Offense Session 8: Mission: A Revolution of Grace Session 9: Miracles: Snapshots of the Supernatural Session 10: Death: The Final Week Session 11: Resurrection: A Morning Beyond Belief Session 12: Ascension: A Blank Blue Sky Session 13: Kingdom: Wheat Among the Weeds Session 14: The Difference He Makes About the Writer
The Jesus I Thought I Knew
I first got acquainted with Jesus when I was a child, singing 'Jesus Loves Me' in Sunday school, addressing bedtime prayers to 'Dear Lord Jesus,' watching Bible Club teachers move cutout figures across a flannelgraph board. I associated Jesus with Kool-Aid and sugar cookies and gold stars for good attendance.
I remember especially one image from Sunday school, an oil painting that hung on the concrete block wall. Jesus had long, flowing hair, unlike that of any man I knew. His face was thin and handsome, his skin waxen and milky white. He wore a robe of scarlet, and the artist had taken pains to show the play of light on its folds. In his arms, Jesus cradled a small sleeping lamb. I imagined myself as that lamb, blessed beyond all telling.
Recently, I read a book that the elderly Charles Dickens had written to sum up the life of Jesus for his children. In it, the portrait emerges of a sweet Victorian nanny who pats the heads of boys and girls and offers such advice as, 'Now, children, you must be nice to your mummy and daddy.' With a start I recalled the Sunday school image of Jesus that I grew up with: someone kind and reassuring, with no sharp edges at all---a Mister Rogers before the age of children's television. As a child I felt comforted by such a person.
Later, while attending a Bible college, I encountered a different image. A painting popular in those days depicted Jesus, hands outstretched, suspended in a Dali-like pose over the United Nations building in New York City. Here was the cosmic Christ, the One in whom all things inhere, the still point of the turning world. This world figure had come a long way from the lamb-toting shepherd of my childhood.
Still, students spoke of the cosmic Jesus with a shocking intimacy. The faculty urged us to develop a 'personal relationship with Jesus Christ,' and in chapel services we hymned our love for him in most familiar terms. One song told about walking beside him in a garden with dew still on the roses. Students testifying about their faith casually dropped in phrases like 'The Lord told me....' My own faith hung in a kind of skeptical suspension during my time there. I was wary, confused, questioning.
Looking in retrospect on my years at Bible college, I see that, despite all the devotional intimacies, Jesus grew remote from me there. He became an object of scrutiny. I memorized the list of thirty-four specific miracles in the Gospels but missed the impact of just one miracle. I learned the Beatitudes yet never faced the fact that none of us---I above all---could make sense of those mysterious sayings, let alone live by them.
A little later, the decade of the 1960s (which actually reached me, along with most of the church, in the early 1970s) called everything into question. Jesus freaks---the very term would have been an oxymoron in the tranquil 1950s---suddenly appeared on the scene, as if deposited there by extraterrestrials. No longer were Jesus' followers well-scrubbed representatives of the middle class; some were unkempt, disheveled radicals. Liberation theologians began enshrining Jesus on posters in a troika along with Fidel Castro and Che Guevara.
It dawned on me that virtually all portrayals of Jesus, including the Good Shepherd of my Sunday school and the United Nations Jesus of my Bible college, showed him wearing a mustache and beard, both of which were strictly banned from the Bible college. Questions now loomed that had never occurred to me in childhood. For example, How would telling people to be nice to one another get a man crucified? What government would execute Mister Rogers or Captain Kangaroo? Thomas Paine said that no religion could be truly divine which has in it any doctrine that offends the sensibilities of a little child. Would the cross qualify?
In 1971 I first saw the movie The Gospel According to St. Matthew, directed by Italian filmmaker Pier Paolo Pasolini. Its release had scandalized not only the religious establishment, who barely recognized the Jesus on-screen, but also the film community, who knew Pasolini as an outspoken homosexual and Marxist. Pasolini wryly dedicated the film to Pope John XXIII, the man indirectly responsible for its creation. Trapped in an enormous traffic jam during a papal visit to Florence, Pasolini had checked into a hotel room where, bored, he picked up a copy of the New Testament from the bedside table and read through Matthew. What he discovered in those pages so startled him that he determined to make a film using no text but the actual words from Matthew's gospel.
Pasolini's film captures well the reappraisal of Jesus that took place in the 1960s. Shot in southern Italy on a tight budget, it evokes in chalky whites and dusty grays something of the Palestinian surroundings Jesus lived in. The Pharisees wear towering headpieces, and Herod's soldiers faintly resemble Fascist squadristi. The disciples act like bumbling raw recruits, but Jesus himself, with a steady gaze and a piercing intensity, seems fearless. The parables and other sayings, he fires in clipped phrases over his shoulder as he dashes from place to place.
The impact of Pasolini's film can only be understood by one who passed through adolescence during that tumultuous period. Back then it had the power to hush scoffing crowds at art theaters. Student radicals realized they were not the first to proclaim a message that was jarringly antimaterialistic, antihypocritical, pro-peace, and pro-love.
Anonymous
Posted Wed May 05 00:00:00 EDT 2010
This book made me want to read the Gospels with fresh eyes.
4 out of 4 people found this review helpful.
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Posted Tue Oct 12 00:00:00 EDT 2004
**** In the last eighteen months or so, the question of ''who is Jesus' has been on the minds of many. Although this is not actually a new book, it does answer the question to a great extent, stripping away the Hollywood images to reveal the man who could be termed 'a good Jew', and still is the Son of God. Through the lens of the culture into which He came and the affect His life has had since then, Mr Yancy paints a moving portrait. This is not one of his more contraversial books, but it is one of his best. ****
3 out of 3 people found this review helpful.
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Posted Wed Sep 01 00:00:00 EDT 2004
This book has brought me into a closer walk with Jesus. I read it ever so slowly to savor all that Philip Yancey wrote about my Savior. I didn't want it to end. Yancey has written words that sent me back to first century Palestine. I watched Jesus heal the sick, raise the dead and give the Sermon on the Mount. I was there! God Bless you, Mr. Yancey.
2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.
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Posted Thu Dec 30 00:00:00 EST 1999
I grew up going to church with my family, and knowing a lot about Jesus, but I had never thought about some of the things Mr. Yancey explores in this book. I found his perspective very enlightening. This book is also pleasantly free of church-ese. Mr. Yancey doesn't act like he knows everything there is to know about faith and about Jesus, which is a great relief. This book gently warns me not to keep Jesus in a little 'box,' writing him off as just a wise man or a great thinker (yes, he was both -- but as Mr. Yancey points out, there is much more to Jesus than this). Highly recommended.
2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Being of Jewish decent I am humbled in having Jesus as a huge part of my world. People believe what they want ... I practice Christianity and Judaism and feel the best of both worlds. I love what Yancey states in page 140. He gives examples of the type of people who would impress Him. I was able to relate to one of these people. Because I already did something so similar, by giving to a homeless person. I then watched this woman run across the street into a fast food joint because she mentioned she was hungry. The Lord blesses those who help others. Reading this book will expand our knowledge of what He wants us to do, in our lives ...
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
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Posted Tue Nov 11 00:00:00 EST 2003
Philip is gifted in that he perceives a deeper picture which is also biblical. I have been a Christian for 17 years, but after I have read this book, I felt like I have met Jesus in person afresh. The title of this book is very appropriate -- The Jesus I never knew before. Praise the Lord for the works of Philip.
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
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Posted Sat Mar 02 00:00:00 EST 2013
This book reveals Jesus in several different aspects of life. From having always existed, even before his earthly birth, to his resurrection from the grave into everlasting life.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.windadore
Posted Fri Nov 02 00:00:00 EDT 2012
Just when one thinks they really know who Jesus is, they realize they weren't taught enough. Phillip Yancey tells us how much he "really" knew about Him too. Only to discuver after reading the Bible and seeing what society shows him is a totally different Jesus the Christ.
I really didn't think about how much I really knew about Jesus the Christ until I looked into this book, and I see I could use a little more insight. I grew up knowing one side of Jesus, but when I read the Bible then I discovered there is the other side too.
Anonymous
Posted Wed Jan 11 00:00:00 EST 2012
A wonderful book. A real eye opener. Yancy no doubt will anger some in the right wing with this book. In this Book he lays out the truth. A wonderful read.
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Posted Tue Dec 06 00:00:00 EST 2011
Very good book
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Posted Tue Apr 26 00:00:00 EDT 2011
I Also Recommend:
This book was not at all well thought out or informative. I prefer authors who take on a subject like this to use actual scriptures. He did not back any of his opinions up with any scriptures. How does one learn more about Jesus with out the Bible?
This book was a requirement for class, I usually do not read books like this for this very reason. We have a Bible that tells us all we need to know about Jesus and God. The entire body of Christian teachings, which later became part of the written Word of God, is "the truth" or "the truth of the good news." Adherence to this truth, 'walking' in it, is essential if an individual is to gain salvation.
When Jesus spoke he used scriptures to back up his teachings. When someone had questions for Jesus he referred them back to what was written. So why should we rely on earthly man?
Want something good to read? Start with these scriptures:
Joh 14:6
Joh 1:17
Joh 2:19-22; 12:14-16; 20:9
1Ti 4:1-3
1Jo 4:1-6
Joh 10:37, 38
Jos 24:14
1Sa 12:24
Ps 25:4, 5; 26:3-6; 43:3; 86:11
Isa 38:3
2Pe 2:2
Ro 2:8
2Co 4:2
Eph 1:13
1Ti 2:4
2Ti 4:4
Tit 1:1, 14
Heb 10:26
2Jo 1-4
3Jo 3, 4
1 Timothy 2:5
1 John 2:1, 2
John 14:6
1 Corinthians 10:14
Jer 10:14
Revelation 22:8, 9
John 8:32
0 out of 5 people found this review helpful.
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Posted Sun Jan 02 00:00:00 EST 2011
Anyone who has questions about who Jesus was and is needs this book. I grew up in a christian church, but always had some doubts and questions I didn't even know how to ask. Philip Yancey phrased all my questions better than I could have and answered most of them. He presents a clear, believable picture of a very human Christ and also the divine Christ and meshes the two with a real, living God. After reading this I have a much clearer idea of who i am and how to be the Christian I want to be. I borrowed this from my church library, but I am going to buy this and all his books so I can refer to them whenever I need help on my journey.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.We used this book and some videos related to it in a prayer group in my home congregation. The book disappointed me. Mr. Yancey writes well enough. He seems to intend to open readers and small group participants to thinking about Christian faith and Jesus. For my money, he does not do that well. His lectures on the video are ambiguous.
The book itself meanders without much sense of focus. He ignores the various searches for the historical Jesus and the literature that emerged from the search. He does employ movie portrays of Jesus but not much comes from this. I suspect he tries to open fundamentalist readers to a more open view of the historical Jesus, but I think he does this by using unformulated notions and questions. His method do not work well.
There are much better resources than this one. Books by Bishop N. T. Wright represent conservative views much better than Mr. Yancey does. John Crossan and Marcus Borg are much more to my taste, but I like works by Pope Benedict XVI quite well because of their theological point-of-view. A completely different but interesting point-of-view comes from Robert Funk's "A Credible Jesus". Luke Timothy Johnson offers a credible alterantive to the radical biblical scholars.
0 out of 2 people found this review helpful.
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Posted Mon Oct 03 00:00:00 EDT 2005
Why is it so hard to know Jesus. Why is he so mysterious? Why is there so much pain in the world?
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Posted Mon Oct 28 00:00:00 EST 2002
I didn't want to put this book down. Yancey deals directly and openly with many of the tough questions regarding Jesus. I was looking for a book to give to my son who is having some doubts and to another person I know who is searching. This is the book. It presents Jesus and his teachings in a scrutinizing and honest light that illuminates so many truths that had heretofore been somewhat obscure. Its direct style of confronting the tough issues in a non-threatening way makes it a perfect gift to help those who are questioning or struggling with their faith. It deepened my faith even more.
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Posted Sat Nov 23 00:00:00 EST 2002
I happened to come across this book at B&N. I was really touched by it, especially the discussion on a Harvard priest who gave up his teaching and moved to a remote area to take care of a teenager with cerebral palsy. This book prompted me to evaluate my own spiritual walk with God, and confront the mistakes I have been making as a Christian.
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Posted Mon Aug 05 00:00:00 EDT 2002
We move clothed in flesh between bones and air In the short span it takes from here to where No skeleton, hinged or unhinged, can aid Or impede motion. Vision will fade, Hearing dim and all the senses cease To function and what remains may seem least Of what we have been and of what we are But what we will be's beyond sense as far As it's possible to journey, from seed And bones and flesh to be forever freed.
0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
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Posted Thu Jul 19 00:00:00 EDT 2001
I was a little worried that this book might be too narrow, but it was not in the least. Phillip Yancy comes from that kind of narrow background, but is definitely not there now!!His willingness to ask probing questions is a blessing to the reader. This book will move you forward spiritually. You can feel the humility and compassion of the author as you read.
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Posted Mon May 07 00:00:00 EDT 2001
Very well researched and how we have left the root truths for just surface facts. This book really takes you deeper and thus made me a more well-rounded Christian.
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Posted Wed Jan 17 00:00:00 EST 2001
I am reading this book for the second time (I first read it three years ago). I have to rank this book with C.S. Lewis' 'Mere Christianity' as my two favorite books. This book does an awesome job of trying to explain the complexities of Jesus Christ and all the mispreceptions. Amazingly, it makes you uncomfortable (knowing how far we fall short of God's ideals) and comforted (through the grace of God).
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Overview
Billy Graham
Philip Yancey helps reveal what two thousand years of history covered up
What happens when a respected Christian journalist decides to put his preconceptions aside and take a long look at the Jesus described in the Gospels? How does the Jesus of the New Testament compare to the “new, rediscovered” Jesus---or even the ...