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What Jesus Meant | 
| Author: Garry Wills
Publisher: Viking Adult
Category: Book
List Price: $24.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  68 reviews
Sales Rank: 31840
Format: Bargain Price
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 176
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 8.4 x 5.4 x 0.8
Dewey Decimal Number: 232
ASIN: B001AYDBY2
Publication Date: March 2, 2006
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Condition: Brand new - Most copies have a publishers overstock mark (Publisher close-outs usually have a small ink mark or stamp at the base of the book, but are otherwise brand new.)
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Product Description
As the religious rhetoric of the culture wars escalates, New York Times bestselling author and eminent scholar Garry Wills explores the meaning of Jesuss teachings
In what are billed as culture wars, people on the political right and the political left cite Jesus as endorsing their views. Garry Wills argues that Jesus subscribed to no political program. He was far more radical than that. In a fresh reading of the gospels, Wills explores the meaning of the reign of heaven Jesus not only promised for the future but brought with him into this life. It is only by dodges and evasions that people misrepresent what Jesus plainly had to say against power, the wealthy, and religion itself. Jesus came from the lower class, the working class, and he spoke to and for that class. This is a book that will challenge the assumptions of almost everyone who brings religion into politicsChristian socialists as well as biblical theocrats. But Wills is just as critical of those who would make Jesus a mere ethical teacher, ignoring or playing down his divinity. Jesus without the Resurrection is simply not the Jesus of the gospels. Wills calls his book a profession of faith in the risen Lord, the Son of the Father, who leads us to the Father. He argues that this does not make people embrace an otherworldliness that ignores the poor or the problems of our time. What Jesus Meant will no doubt spark debate about our understanding of Jesus and the Scriptures, especially as we head into midterm elections that will certainly prompt many heated discussions on the role of religion in our society.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 63 more reviews...
 Thank God Gary Wills is here to set us right August 18, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
As a 26 year old Catholic I love Reading this guys work. It is so comical. He is a poster boy of the old guard still trying to reinterpret Christianity to serve their tired old hippie agenda. Thank God young Catholics and most of all young Priests don't fall for this hogwash. Of all this clowns books this is the worst(well Papal Sin was pretty darn dumb). In it he actualy deigns to tell us what Jesus realy meant. Because you know, two thousand years of scholarship not to mention the gospels have been wrong. The ego mania on this man knows no end. Apparently he fancies himself a lone prophet telling us the truth. Go Gary!!
 Will's God August 3, 2008
I am most familiar with the Garry Wills who writes scholarly historical treatises on the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, even Henry Adams (Henry Adams and the Making of America). Lately, he's been busy writing essays on spiritual issues as a devout Catholic, and as I always liked and respected historical work, I took this slim volume for a spin . . .
. . . And a worthwhile use of time it was. Wills explicates the difficulty we sinful humans have in dealing with Jesus as he was, not what we want him to be. With the lone exception of justifying homosexuality as natural and not sinful, through a rather self-consciously torturous argument, Wills makes cogent and though-provoking points. He relies on ideas from masters of the faith such as Augustine, St. Francis, and Chesterton, and his own translations of the "marketplace Greek" of the New testament.
A couple of interesting points. In the Garden, as Jesus returns to where he left Peter and a small set of the disciples with the admonition to stay awake while he prayed, Wills translates the aphorism "The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak" as a complete sentence that may have applied to Jesus, not Peter as the semi-colon in the NASB translation implies. And indeed, as the God-Man prayed prostrate on the ground and sweat blood in his anguish, His flesh was weak even as His spirit said "Not My will but Thine."
At another spot, discussing the Last Supper and the meaning of the breaking of bread, Wills refers to the "Our Father" and points out the difficulty of translating "daily" bread, as the word rendered "daily" means roughly "approaching" in English, and more literally can be rendered "to come", " or "to be". The "to be" sense is captured in "daily", but Wills links the prayer for the bread "To come" to the Lord's offering of the bread, representing His body, at the Last Supper! Intriguing, and spiritually powerful.
And not very Catholic! His ideas about the Last Supper seem decidedly non-transsubstantiational, if that's a word.
 It began okay July 1, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
What Jesus Meant began in a promising manner; however, by the time I finished I couldn't help wondering if I had just finished a more modern and cleverly disguised manifesto of liberation theology. If Wills isn't truly embracing liberation theology, then he's certainly giving it a nod, wink, smile and pat on the back. He is also quick to point out that Jesus spent the majority of his time with "sinners" but he forgets to point out that Jesus would heal these people, instructing them to "sin no more" Jesus is reduced to an anti-religious, open minded and liberal hippie. I would recommend spending your money elsewhere.
Garry's Gigantic Nursery School Nanny June 14, 2008
0 out of 7 found this review helpful
Garry has showed us his Jesus--a gigantic nursery school nanny.
"Now, children, be nice! Share with your friends; and remember, we are ALL friends! And if you get mad at someone, give them a BIG HUG, and think nice thoughts! Because, remember, God loves you!"
So spake Garry's Nanny-Jesus, traveling throughout Palestine.
Garry is the latest of the Annointed, telling us what Jesus REALLY meant.
Thanks, Garry. But, I ain't buyin' it.
As several reviewers have said, your Jesus is astonishingly modern. Quite a Liberal; did he not mention global warming and "liberation theology"?
Garry's interpretation of Jesus leaves me feeling like a powerless toddler. He takes away our drives, our aspirations, our desires, and puts us in the nursery, where we are all friends, we are all the same, and we are all at the mercy of our caring, superior teachers. And is this not what the Annointed want? For us to be ignorant children, sitting at their feet, getting bite-sized portions of their benevolent wisdom? I think so, because, to me, this book dripped with arrogance. Not honest, Nietzschean arrogance, but some other kind--subtle, hiding in the shadows and in the squirrelly, slightly-condescending language.
Why should I believe Garry's interpretation of an interpretation? The gospels are interpretations of Palestinians about Jesus, assuming he really existed. Even more--they are the interpretations of the recollections of those who interpreted Jesus!
Some of Garry's nonsense: "Miracles, as it were, work themselves around such men (reviewer's note: Garry is talking about St. Francis and 'the Baal Shem Tov.' Who?! Never heard of BS Tov. Why not Paramahansa Yogananda or Sai Baba? But continuing:) Jesus is the preeminent example of this. The fact that he seems like other wonder-working holy men--Appollonius of Tyana, for instance--does not mean that he is an imitation of them. Rather, they are a reaching out toward him. They are a hunger and he the food. They are an ache, he the easement. As Chesterton said, his story resembles the great myths of mankind because he is the fulfillment of the myths." (What Jesus Meant, 2006, p. xxvii)
Cheap C.S. Lewis imitation, Garry; it is also total nonsense. Just read what you wrote--total blather. Besides, Jesus is an imitation of them, and they an imitation of him, because they all imitate the myths.
What Gary Wills Hopes Jesus Meant May 19, 2008
2 out of 15 found this review helpful
Mr. Wills, you're no Chesterton (who he claims to be emulating).
This book was written with an agenda. The agenda was NOT to make readers holy or bring others to the faith. It was NOT to give an honest examination of Jesus' words. It WAS a book written with utter self-righteousness filled with subtle and not-so-subtle potshots at various denominational approaches to the Bible. I came away with the impression that Wills thinks he's the only true Christian.
In the foreword, Wills goes out of his way to say that Jesus was not a mere man. But in the chapters that follow, Jesus is humanized in a way I've never seen, in the discussions on wealth, power, and egalitarianism. Basically, it's Jesus the philosopher. Very little talk about salvation or purpose.
Wills jumps from fundamentalism to meditation. In that I mean his material (proof) comes straight from the New Testament and then he adds his own meaning. As a Catholic, Wills arguing from the position of sola scriptura is odd. I have not read his book Why I Am a Catholic, but I don't understand how he can be after reading this book and seeing the numerous criticisms of his Church.
Mr. Wills, you're the sole deposit of the Faith (note the sarcasm, please).
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