This book was written by Charles Dickens for his children and was read many Christmases in the Dickens' household. It was not published until after the death of his last child. The Christian doctrine is sound based on an understanding of the bible though some of the story is simplified as you would expect as it is written for the understanding of children.

The version I read was illustrated by Simon Dewey and was lovely. A real delight!

I intended to read this during the Christmas holiday, but it was not available at my library until after the first of the year. This did not matter though because this is not a Christmas book, but a life of Christ book. It is an appropriate read for any time of the year but might be most enjoyed at Easter or Christmas.

This is a small book and at 87 pages an easy read in a day or one sitting if you so wish.

I so enjoyed this I will be buying a copy for my personal library.

I tried to be charitable and believe the best of the author, but what this volume is is a modernized translation (compared to the kjv), and harmonization of the gospel of accounts of Jesus.

If that's all that it was I would take no issue, but Dickens appears to have a thin (heretical?) understanding of the Son of God.

Though my reading attempted to be charitable I don't think it would be right to assume his "gospel" was the biblical doctrine of justification by grace through faith in Christ alone. This line from the closing prayer shows that well, "...let me never be cruel to any dumb creature, for if I am cruel to anything, even to a poor little fly, God, who is so good, will never love me."

This is a beautifully written version of the story of Jesus. I commend Dickens for his desire to share this with his children. However, I cannot ignore the inaccuracies. The biggest of these is the point of the gospel. The gospel (death and resurrection of Christ), is that Christ came to save us from the punishment for our sins. According to Dickens, Christ came simply so that we can be good, and that those who came before were chosen because they were good people (which is untrue). So, while I appreciate his desire to share Jesus with his children, he appears to be sharing moralism rather than the actual gospel, and this saddens me just a little bit.

Retelling of the New Testament story of Jesus Christ by Charles Dickens. He wrote this for his own children and refused to publish it during his life because he did not want to profit from what he considered his sacred duty as a father to teach his children about Jesus. This a nice retelling of sacred scripture in language that children can understand. Highly recommended to Christian parents to read to their children.

Re-reading this again to my girls for Christmas. Every year I love it more.

Charles Dickens wrote The Life of Our Lord for his family, so that his children would have a simple and straightforward way to learn about the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. He never published it in his life time and bequeathed the manuscript to his son on condition that he not publish it. His son respected his father's wishes but did not lay such a restriction on his own son who published the book in 1933.

The book follows the gospel accounts, retelling the many events and teachings in Jesus's life with simple language. Each parable is followed with a paragraph by Dickens explaining what the parable meant (though not in detail--he doesn't get into the significance of the angry loyal brother in the Prodigal Son). The book is about the length of a gospel, making it easy to read in a short time.

I was a little surprised by two omissions. First, Dickens describes how, after being baptized by John the Baptist, Jesus went into the wilderness to pray and fast. But he skips the temptations by the devil. Second, he misses the whole Eucharistic significance of the Last Supper! After explaining each parable in turn, it is very odd not even to quote Jesus saying over the bread, "This is My body." Maybe he thought the issue was too complicated for his children (the oldest was twelve in 1849) or he just wanted to focus on the gospel message as a model for behavior rather than a core set of beliefs. Saying anything with certainty is hard since the book wasn't published or discussed in his lifetime.

Dickens' summation at the end is typical:

Remember!--It is Christianity TO DO GOOD, always--even to those who do evil to us. It is Christianity to love our neighbours as ourself, and to do to all men as we would have them do to us. It is Christianity to be gentle, merciful, and forgiving, and to keep those qualities quiet in our own hearts, and never make a boast of them, or of our prayers or of our love of God, but always to show that we love Him by humbly trying to do right in everything. If we do this, and remember the life and lessons of Our Lord Jesus Christ, and try to act up to them, we may confidently hope that God will forgive us our sins and mistakes, and enable us to live and die in peace.

This was the stories of Jesus Christ's life simplified. I read this to my kids over a couple evenings. They enjoyed it and it brought up questions and discussion. Great for December or anytime of year. 12/2015

Listened to it this time, still great. 11/17/23
“I am very anxious that you should know something about the history of Jesus Christ. For everybody ought to know about him.
No one ever lived who was so good, so kind, so gentle and so sorry for all people who did wrong or who were in any way ill or miserable. And as he is now in heaven where we hope to go. You can never think what a good place heaven is without knowing who he was and what he did.”

This is a sweet, simple, retelling of Christ’s life. It was written in a time where there were probably not Children’s Bibles or storybooks written, so it is touching to me to think that a good Christian man wanted his children to be able to understand the Bible and our Savior, and since there weren’t any good resources available, he wrote his own. I loved the simple, straightforward way he tells about some of Christ’s miracles, parables, and teachings. There were a few points or simplicities I didn’t quite agree with (especially how he explained the atonement), but overall this book has a sweet spirit to it. It is a quick read, it might take you about an hour, and I read a version that had lots of illustrations too which added to the narratives. A great Christmas Eve read!

This was a sweet and short read. I loved reading Dickens' perspective on the life of Christ.

I really enjoyed the story behind this little volume, as well as the content of the book itself.

Written by Charles Dickens not for his great literary audience but instead simply for his children, The Life of Our Lord is a simple, easy to understand retelling of the life of Jesus Christ. Unassuming and approachable, it is a short read and a great little snapshot into the life of Jesus.

My only complaint is there are a few key things missing - it is not stated that Mary was a Virgin, and the concept of the Trinity is missing as well. However, given the purpose of this book was to read to children, the omissions make sense. Just understand as a reader that the story is not complete without the full account found in scripture.

I really enjoyed listening to Dickens' reselling of the story of Christ (audible). It's a little old fashioned, and I think some of it was difficult for my children to understand, but I'm sure they caught much of it. I do think Dickens did not place as much emphasis on Christ as the son of God as the original scriptures do. Dickens speaks more of being "good" so we can go to heaven after death.

Sin lugar a dudas, la vida, pasión, muerte y ¿resurrección? de Jesús de Nazaret, “es la historia más grande jamás contada”. Además de los evangelios canónicos y agnósticos, existe una gran cantidad de biografías noveladas, cómics, interpretaciones, ucronías y demás sobre Jesús el Cristo. Tal es el caso de esta novela corta, escrita por Charles Dickens y dedicada a sus hijos. En efecto, Dickens escribió “La Vida de Jesucristo” entre 1846 y 1849, durante la misma época de escritura de su célebre: “David Copperfield”. La obra es una interpretación dickensiana de los evangelios canónicos, muy pegado a la tradición religiosa cristiana de occidente. El objetivo de este relato fue trasmitir, de forma entretenida y divertida, el contenido de las sagradas escrituras a sus hijos, de forma que pudiera contagiarles la fe que Dickens profesaba. Mientras la crítica literaria recibió la obra de forma tibia, el público la convirtió en una de sus favoritas, alcanzando el grado de best seller en la lista del New York Times.

La novela es didáctica, bella y sencilla; recorre los acontecimientos más relevantes en la vida de Jesús, acorde a la Biblia. Dickens, “ese gran escritor cristiano” nos presenta el nacimiento del Mesías en un establo en Belén y la huida de la familia sacra a Egipto, en cuanto se desató la masacre de los “Santos Inocentes” propiciada por el temible Herodes el Grande. Nos lleva a la infancia de Jesús y sus palabras en el Templo de Jerusalén, aquella Pascua en que se perdió de las caravanas de regreso. Asistimos a la vida pública de Cristo, sus tentaciones en el desierto, la elección de los apóstoles, los milagros, las parábolas, las bienaventuranzas, la expulsión de los comerciantes del templo, las intrigas de los fariseos, las calumnias, el temor del poder político y religioso. Llegamos entonces a la pasión, el vejamen, la condena. Cristo humillado, golpeado, azotado, coronado con espinas, el cuerpo lleno de cardenales y moretones, la piel sangrante, los pies destrozados, el rostro elevado a su padre, suplicando por esta humanidad condenada a sus miserias. El camino del calvario, el Gólgota, el Vía Crucis que recordamos en la tradición católica nos conduce a la cruz, signo de muerte trastocado en signo de vida cuando el hijo del hombre, el cordero de Dios, lavó los pecados del mundo con su santa sangre. Si bien Dickens se alejó del catolicismo y del evangelicanismo, por la corrupción de alguna parte de sus instituciones, fue un cristiano devoto, con una vida espiritual en contrapunto con las ambiciones de la carne, la pluma y la fama que logró una biografía novela de Jesucristo, dirigida a los niños, pero para todos los púbicos; sumamente bella y cuidada. Que la fe de Dickens nos acompañe en estas pascuas. Felices pascuas.