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Richard says: This was a completely original interpretation of the life of Christ, and gave a fresh insight into the Gospels.
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God in Three Classic Scriptures
Christ: A Crisis in the Life of God
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In his Pulitzer Prize-winning God: A Biography, Jack Miles offered a highly original approach to the character of the God of the Old Testament, addressing him as a character in a book, a literary charter. In Christ, reading the New Testament but hearing the Old echoing in its every verse, Miles tells the story of the agonising conflict that overtook God when he failed to keep his promise to his people, and the radical change in his character that this failure brought about. Coming after a large number of books pursuing the elusive 'historical Jesus', Christ: A Crisis in the Life of God offers a frankly mythological Christ, delivering a profound and dramatic companion to the story begun in God: A Biography.
377 pages, Paperback
First published August 1,2001
This edition
- Format
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377 pages, Paperback
- Published
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March 6, 2003 by Arrow/Children S (a Division of Random House
- ISBN
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9780099280767
- ASIN
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0099280760
- Language
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English
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I listened to this last week, and was halfway through before I realized that I was listening to the abridged copy (the only one my library owns). It reads very much like an appendix to Miles’ phenomenal book on the Jewish God, which I had just finished, and I don’t think is worth even attempting without finishing that first.
I think this there was too much expurgated for this abridged to be a workable draft, and I look forward to actually finding a real copy at some point.
I think this there was too much expurgated for this abridged to be a workable draft, and I look forward to actually finding a real copy at some point.
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A must read!
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A continuation of the author's project of taking the Bible rigorously as literature. In his first book, God: A Biography, he treated the God of the Hebrew scriptures as the protagonist of a single account. This book is in a way a sequel, recounting how one group, who came to be known as Christians, responded to the crisis referred to in the subtitle: the seeming non-fulfillment of God's promise to deliver Israel. They did so by acclaiming Jesus as the Son of God and viewing the crucifixion as a divine suicide, in Miles's opinion.
Miles presents his work as a response to a second crisis, that of modern biblical studies. It is one of two possible responses, the other being the attempt to uncover the history behind the story. Since the results of higher criticism leave the scholar with ever-less that can confidently be called historical, many universities have reconfigured their programs from "New Testament" to Christian Origins. In this way, all texts become once again relevant, since all, even those that might not reflect historical events, have what scholars call "Wirkungsgeschichte". But Miles's sympathies are not with this approach, but with the other possible response, which might be called "Bible as Literature". His image for contrasting the two is that one approach strains to see through the stained-glass window to see what's on the other side, while the other approach seeks to appreciate the glass itself. There have been several proponents of this second approach, but none before Miles to apply it not to individual books of the Bible, or even smaller units, but to read the entirety as a vast novel.
The result might offend those committed to a more traditional reading of scripture, while at the same time seeming uninteresting to those who have concluded that scripture is somehow irrelevant. But for those willing to engage the author on his own terms, the result is worthwhile.
Miles presents his work as a response to a second crisis, that of modern biblical studies. It is one of two possible responses, the other being the attempt to uncover the history behind the story. Since the results of higher criticism leave the scholar with ever-less that can confidently be called historical, many universities have reconfigured their programs from "New Testament" to Christian Origins. In this way, all texts become once again relevant, since all, even those that might not reflect historical events, have what scholars call "Wirkungsgeschichte". But Miles's sympathies are not with this approach, but with the other possible response, which might be called "Bible as Literature". His image for contrasting the two is that one approach strains to see through the stained-glass window to see what's on the other side, while the other approach seeks to appreciate the glass itself. There have been several proponents of this second approach, but none before Miles to apply it not to individual books of the Bible, or even smaller units, but to read the entirety as a vast novel.
The result might offend those committed to a more traditional reading of scripture, while at the same time seeming uninteresting to those who have concluded that scripture is somehow irrelevant. But for those willing to engage the author on his own terms, the result is worthwhile.
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”The world is a great crime, and someone must be made to pay for it. Mythologically read, the New Testament is the story of how someone, the right someone, does pay for it. The ultimately responsible party accepts his responsibility. And once he has paid the price, who else need be blamed, who else need be punished? The same act that exposes all authority as provisional renders all revenge superfluous.”
I truly think that this is the most metal line you could possibly include in the introduction to your book about jesus. jack miles is just out here on another level.
I truly think that this is the most metal line you could possibly include in the introduction to your book about jesus. jack miles is just out here on another level.
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This is a brilliant book looking at the New Testament, mostly the gospels, from a literary point of view. Miles also wrote God: A Biography which looked at the character of God in the Old Testament and how he changes during the course of the scriptures. In Christ, God has come to a major crossroads in his covenant with Israel, and His need to make amends (Israel has been under oppression for centuries) leads to sending His son, here looked at through the guise of God Incarnate. The terms or the covenant change as well as the notion of what victory is and why. An absolutely fascinating book which I'm having my Literature of the Bible students read.
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I’m really not sure what to make of this book and I don’t have a lot to say about it. It’s the stories of the gospel in a narrative format with some (perhaps?) controversial twists. For example, in the story of the talk Jesus has with the Samaritan woman at the water well, the author suggests that there is some provocative wordplay going on that may even have been scandalous in its historical context (a single man talking to married woman).
It seems that the author’s basic thesis is that God had a change of mind (or heart) about how to “save” people. Instead of just saving “his” people by restoring Israel to earthly prominence through battle, he decided to save all people by offering them the Kingdom of Heaven, not of this world, through sacrifice rather than triumph.
In a way, this sidesteps the problem of having to reconcile the “God of the Old Testament” with the “God of the New Testament,” as if they are different entities. The author reframes the problem by taking the position that it’s the same God who underwent a radical change of strategy.
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Fantastic... this will reinvigorate your spiritual imagination.
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