What Jesus Meant

Wills, a Pulitzer Prize winner for his history writing, is a Roman Catholic, albeit a restless one, taking issue with many elements of that institution and not afraid to commit fully to his ideas about the faith. Here he pulls no punches in attempting to forge a middle way between hard-line Bible literalists and the watered-down Christianity of such revisionists as the Jesus Seminar. While he brings much to the conversation, he leaves the listener with little of lasting value. Vocally, he does not show the passion he claims is behind his words, until there's some juicy bit of polemic he wants to stress. This tends to give the performance a slow pace and flat affect. S.M.M. (c) AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine

January 16, 2006
Christianity has been twisted and warped to such an extent that not even Jesus would recognize it now. This is Wills's thesis in his stimulating, fresh look into the life and message of Jesus of Nazareth. The now-ubiquitous phrase, "What Would Jesus Do?" encouraged Wills, professor of history at Northwestern University and prolific writer on contemporary religion, to take a closer look at how the Christian message has been used and abused in recent times. Wills believes that most Christians don't understand Jesus' startlingly radical message, so they should not claim to have knowledge of how he would act today. People of all political persuasions have used Jesus' words to rationalize a domesticated, flaccid Christianity that upholds the status quo, or, worse yet, supports discrimination toward those who are on the margins. This attitude, according to Wills, completely misses the truth that Jesus "walks through social barriers and taboos as if they were cobwebs." Readers who are familiar with Wills's writing know that he is not shy about critiquing organized religion, and they will not be disappointed. Although his arguments lean toward hyperbole at times, at its core this book invites Christians toward more honest reflection on the life and message of the one they call "Savior."