What the Gospels Meant

You hear the former Jesuit seminarian in the voice of Garry Wills. This is not a shy, self-hating writer. This is a minister, a prophet. Now in his 70s, he can still rouse those dozing in the back pews. In this, as in other recent books, the prize-winning writer (one Pulitzer and two National Book Critics Circle Awards) brings recent discoveries to bear on the Gospels. As what was taken for historical fact is changing and falling away, Wills referees the ensuing battle between reason and faith, confident that both can survive intact. The New Testament, he tells us, gives "four different takes on the central mystery. Since the mystery at the center of it all will never be exhausted, we need all of these angles of vision . . . ." B.H.C. (c) AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine

November 12, 2007
Wills’s follow-up to his bestselling works, What Jesus Meant
and What Paul Meant
, sheds new light on the four books of the Bible best known to most Christians. In taking the gospels apart, Wills helps readers see the oft-read stories from the life of Christ in a new way. As a former teacher of ancient and New Testament Greek, he provides his own translations of the texts, accompanied by incisive analysis that incorporates the work of other scholars. Although some Christians remain uncomfortable with the use of biblical scholarship to expand upon Christianity’s scriptures, Wills is obviously convinced of its value and holds that it need not weaken one’s faith. In his epilogue, for instance, he notes how scholar Raymond Brown, whom he quotes extensively, remained a devout believer even as he plumbed the depths of biblical scholarship. Wills explains that the gospels “are not historically true as that term would be understood today,” adding that they were composed several decades after Christ’s resurrection and are the culmination of an oral preaching process. Rather than historical accounts, he considers them to be a form of prayer: a “meditation on the meaning of Jesus in the light of Sacred History as recorded in the Sacred Writings.” Readers willing to have their impressions about these texts challenged by an erudite scholar will find this to be fascinating and worthwhile reading.