_Zealot: ย The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth_ by Reza Aslan
The author of this book appeared onย The Daily Show about a year ago. As a student of religion and spirituality I was really interested in reading this despite its seemingly ‘academic’ nature for a pleasure book. ๐ (When has that stopped me before, right?)
Aslan writes about Jesus’ life, not as the Messiah, but as a man during the period in which he lived. Jesus is presented as a zealot who was then held up as the son of God by his followers.
This is really an interesting text considering the historical context, the Gospels which are accounts of Jesus’ followers, and the man himself according to others’ accounts. From a non-Christianity perspective, it is very informative and interesting to consider Jesus as a man rather than as the son of God. It is curious then to consider at what point and why it was then put into the New Testament that one must believe that Jesus is the Son of God in order to call oneself a Christian. Could it just be like any other religion adding on rules to join the “club”?
I think that this has continued to convince me that one particular religion cannot be THE religion and that we must focus on spirituality and foster love and compassion for others as fellow human beings. <3
Definitely a good read if you are into these kinds of things.
~T ๐
