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    A Doubter's Guide to Jesus: An Introduction to the Man from Nazareth for Believers and Skeptics
    A Doubter's Guide to Jesus: An Introduction to the Man from Nazareth for Believers and Skeptics
    A Doubter's Guide to Jesus: An Introduction to the Man from Nazareth for Believers and Skeptics
    Audiobook7 hours

    A Doubter's Guide to Jesus: An Introduction to the Man from Nazareth for Believers and Skeptics

    Written by John Dickson

    Narrated by Van Tracy

    4.5/5

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    About this audiobook

    Who was Jesus?

    Historical sources portray a person who was complex, multi-layered, and often contradictory to the tidy portrait that much of modern Christianity paints him as. Even the gospel accounts render him as both judge and healer, teacher and temple, servant and savior.

    A Doubter's Guide to Jesus is a persuasive and often challenging investigation into the historical figure found in the earliest sources. These sources, which include references both direct and indirect—from Roman, Jewish, and Christian accounts—offer us more than simple evidence that Jesus existed; they begin to form a picture that is both deeply credible and profoundly counterintuitive.

    Each chapter explores the evidence for a different aspect of the most influential figure in human history, exploring:

    • His words and their impact.
    • The scandal of his social life.
    • His preference for the poor and lowly.
    • The meaning of his death and influence of his promises.

    The goal is not to turn Jesus into something neater, more systematic and digestible; but to see him more clearly as someone who stretches our imaginations, confronts our beliefs, and challenges our lifestyles.

    After two millennia of spiritual devotion and more than two centuries of modern critical research, we still cannot fit Jesus into a box—and this is as challenging as it is deeply compelling.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherZondervan
    Release dateFeb 6, 2018
    ISBN9780310578369
    Author

    John Dickson

    John Dickson is an historian, musician and bestselling author. He is an Honorary Associate in the Department of Ancient History, Macquarie University (Sydney) where he also teaches a course on world religions. He lives in Sydney with his family and spends his time researching, writing and speaking about life's big questions.

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    Reviews for A Doubter's Guide to Jesus

    4.5/5

    8 ratings2 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Impeccable historian demonstrates the way (of historians) that lies between the way of skeptics and the way of apologists.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 2/5
      This book is a good example of what it means to give the other side a foothold and pretend there is neutral ground. For any of the good point Dickson makes it's underscored by giving up the traditional and biblical standpoint in favor of natural history. This is a stance that shouldn't be taken up by the Christian and is not genuinely made. While Dickson makes some valid points about what you bring in from your worldview says about the evidence presented to you, he does not make the point throughout and gives the doubter the point. What his argument boils down to is the possibility of Jesus being God and the Bible talking about Him in probability but not in divine revelation.

      I understand what Dickson is trying to do but he gives up his position immediately. There are also many times where Dickson is just plain wrong in many of his assertions. For example, Jesus never calls His disciples to believe anything. What? A matter-of-fact statement about there being a Q document and what it says. Ya, good luck trying to actually show that. His chapter on Jesus being Adam misses the comparison almost completely. His example using the Prodigal Son misseses the audience and half the story. Dickson's view of the early Church, the Atonement of Christ, and how salvation comes about could use some further reading and study.

      I would not recommend this book to many people for the above reasons. Final Grade - D