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| reza aslan zealot criticism: Zealot Reza Aslan, 2013-07-16 #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “A lucid, intelligent page-turner” (Los Angeles Times) that challenges long-held assumptions about Jesus, from the host of Believer Two thousand years ago, an itinerant Jewish preacher walked across the Galilee, gathering followers to establish what he called the “Kingdom of God.” The revolutionary movement he launched was so threatening to the established order that he was executed as a state criminal. Within decades after his death, his followers would call him God. Sifting through centuries of mythmaking, Reza Aslan sheds new light on one of history’s most enigmatic figures by examining Jesus through the lens of the tumultuous era in which he lived. Balancing the Jesus of the Gospels against the historical sources, Aslan describes a man full of conviction and passion, yet rife with contradiction. He explores the reasons the early Christian church preferred to promulgate an image of Jesus as a peaceful spiritual teacher rather than a politically conscious revolutionary. And he grapples with the riddle of how Jesus understood himself, the mystery that is at the heart of all subsequent claims about his divinity. Zealot yields a fresh perspective on one of the greatest stories ever told even as it affirms the radical and transformative nature of Jesus’ life and mission. Praise for Zealot “Riveting . . . Aslan synthesizes Scripture and scholarship to create an original account.”—The New Yorker “Fascinatingly and convincingly drawn . . . Aslan may come as close as one can to respecting those who revere Jesus as the peace-loving, turn-the-other-cheek, true son of God depicted in modern Christianity, even as he knocks down that image.”—The Seattle Times “[Aslan’s] literary talent is as essential to the effect of Zealot as are his scholarly and journalistic chops. . . . A vivid, persuasive portrait.”—Salon “This tough-minded, deeply political book does full justice to the real Jesus, and honors him in the process.”—San Francisco Chronicle “A special and revealing work, one that believer and skeptic alike will find surprising, engaging, and original.”—Jon Meacham, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power “Compulsively readable . . . This superb work is highly recommended.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review) |
| reza aslan zealot criticism: God Reza Aslan, 2017-11-07 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The author of Zealot explores humanity’s quest to make sense of the divine in this concise and fascinating history of our understanding of God. In Zealot, Reza Aslan replaced the staid, well-worn portrayal of Jesus of Nazareth with a startling new image of the man in all his contradictions. In his new book, Aslan takes on a subject even more immense: God, writ large. In layered prose and with thoughtful, accessible scholarship, Aslan narrates the history of religion as a remarkably cohesive attempt to understand the divine by giving it human traits and emotions. According to Aslan, this innate desire to humanize God is hardwired in our brains, making it a central feature of nearly every religious tradition. As Aslan writes, “Whether we are aware of it or not, and regardless of whether we’re believers or not, what the vast majority of us think about when we think about God is a divine version of ourselves.” But this projection is not without consequences. We bestow upon God not just all that is good in human nature—our compassion, our thirst for justice—but all that is bad in it: our greed, our bigotry, our penchant for violence. All these qualities inform our religions, cultures, and governments. More than just a history of our understanding of God, this book is an attempt to get to the root of this humanizing impulse in order to develop a more universal spirituality. Whether you believe in one God, many gods, or no god at all, God: A Human History will challenge the way you think about the divine and its role in our everyday lives. Praise for God “Timely, riveting, enlightening and necessary.”—HuffPost “Tantalizing . . . Driven by [Reza] Aslan’s grace and curiosity, God . . . helps us pan out from our troubled times, while asking us to consider a more expansive view of the divine in contemporary life.”—The Seattle Times “A fascinating exploration of the interaction of our humanity and God.”—Pittsburgh Post-Gazette “[Aslan’s] slim, yet ambitious book [is] the story of how humans have created God with a capital G, and it’s thoroughly mind-blowing.”—Los Angeles Review of Books “Aslan is a born storyteller, and there is much to enjoy in this intelligent survey.”—San Francisco Chronicle |
| reza aslan zealot criticism: The Illustrated Secret History of the World Mark Booth, 2018-11-13 Since its first publication in 2008, The Secret History of the World has sold over 250,000 copies and established itself as the authoritative text on the subject of esoteric belief systems and secret societies. Now, with The Illustrated Secret History of the World, this landmark book achieves a new level of authority, adding to its thorough and revealing text more than 350 illustrations--many of them rare--of the symbols, drawings, engravings, paintings, and photographs that are a key part of the world's secret history. This richly illustrated edition features exclusive new material to accompany the original text in a beautiful package and oversized format. The Illustrated Secret History of the World presents a radical re-interpretation of human existence and a view of the world previously hidden from us.Featuring: Alchemists & FreemasonsThe IlluminatiThe Garden of EdenThe Knights TemplarThe Looking Glass UniverseThe Gods Who Loved WomenThe Green KingThe ProphetsThe Sphinx & the TimelockThe Neolithic AlexanderZarathustraThe Rise of the Magi LuciferGnostics & ShamansMohammed and GabrielFrancis Bacon and the Green OneThe Rosicrucian AgeThe Seven Seals & The New JerusalemAnd much more . . . |
| reza aslan zealot criticism: The Jewish Jesus Peter Schäfer, 2012 How the rise of Christianity profoundly influenced the development of Judaism in late antiquity In late antiquity, as Christianity emerged from Judaism, it was not only the new religion that was being influenced by the old. The rise and revolutionary challenge of Christianity also had a profound influence on rabbinic Judaism, which was itself just emerging and, like Christianity, trying to shape its own identity. In The Jewish Jesus, Peter Schäfer reveals the crucial ways in which various Jewish heresies, including Christianity, affected the development of rabbinic Judaism. He even shows that some of the ideas that the rabbis appropriated from Christianity were actually reappropriated Jewish ideas. The result is a demonstration of the deep mutual influence between the sister religions, one that calls into question hard and fast distinctions between orthodoxy and heresy, and even Judaism and Christianity, during the first centuries CE. |
| reza aslan zealot criticism: The Passover Plot Hugh J. Schonfield, 2021-12-16 This is the new official Schonfield Trust edition of the Passover Plot which is probably one of the most controversial books on the role of Jesus the Messiah. Yet to say that, might detract from its scholarly attention to detail and its furnishing of new insights into the character of the Man who changed the world so radically. Thus it is a ‘must read’ for who are seeking a better understanding. Schonfield’s aim in life was to build a bridge between peoples and he hoped that by digging into the facts behind the origins of Christianity, he would be able to uncover the real Messiah, misrepresented since time immemorial. His sincere desire was that this understanding would bring together those who had so long been divided. Whilst his thesis that Jesus plotted his own crucifixion may seem far-fetched or even offensive at first, seen in the light of John’s Gospel and the thinking of the times it provides food for thought to those with an open mind. |
| reza aslan zealot criticism: No god but God: The Origins and Evolution of Islam Reza Aslan, 2012-08-14 Engaging, accessible, and thought-provoking, No god but God is a persuasive, elegantly written, and accessible introduction for young readers to a faith that for much of the West remains shrouded in ignorance and fear. Adapted for young readers from No god but God: The Origins, Evolution, and Future of Islam, this exploration of Islam by Reza Aslan, internationally acclaimed scholar of comparative religion, delves into the rituals and traditions of a religion that is largely misunderstood by the West. It covers the religion’s origins—the revelation of Muhammad as Prophet and the subsequent uprising against him, and the emergence of his successors—as well as Islam’s complex history. No god but God is sure to stimulate discussion and encourage understanding of the Islamic faith and the people who follow it. Praise for No god But God: The Origins, Evolution, and Future of Islam of Islam “This welcome addition to Islamic studies provides a valuable context for reflection about the origins of issues facing Muslims and their neighbors today.”—Publishers Weekly “An introduction to Islam as evocative as it is provocative.”—Kirkus Reviews “Wise and passionate book.”—New York Times Financial Times Best Book of the Year |
| reza aslan zealot criticism: Sinners Greg Carey, 2020-11-15 How did early Christians remember Jesus--and how did they develop their own Christian identities and communities? In this accessible and revelatory book, Greg Carey explores how transgression contributed to early Christian identity in the Gospels, Acts, Letters of Paul, and Revelation. Carey examines Jesus as a friend of sinners, challenger of purity laws, transgressor of conventional masculine values of his time, and convicted seditionist. He looks at early Christian communities as out of step with respectable practices of their time. Finally, he provides examples of contemporary Christians whose faith requires them to do the right thing, even when it means violating current definitions of respectability. |
| reza aslan zealot criticism: Echoes of a Prophet Gary T. Manning Jr., 2004-12-01 Echoes of a Prophet examines intertextual connections to Ezekiel found in John and in Second Temple literature. The Dead Sea Scrolls contain many allusions to a number of Ezekiel's oracles, while other Second Temple works refer to only a few of Ezekiel's oracles, and those only rarely. In each case, Manning examines the evidence for the presence of the allusions, studies the implied interpretational methods, and comments on the function of the allusion in advancing the author's ideas. He also analyzes John's allusions to Ezekiel: the good shepherd, the vine, the opened heavens, imagery from the dry bones vision, and water symbolism. He observes that John has a few unique tendencies: he alludes to all five of Ezekiel's oracles of hope and primarily uses that imagery to describe the giving of the Holy Spirit and new life through Jesus. |
| reza aslan zealot criticism: The Bible Explainer Michael E. Wittmer, 2020-11 When you need help understanding God's Word, turn to The Bible Explainer-- answering 250 who, what, when, where, and why questions about the world's best-selling book. People, places, things, and ideas are covered, from Genesis through Revelation, with insight, intrigue, and a dash of humor. Questions and answers are presented in logical order, from larger, more general issues (for example, What is the Bible?) through the more specific (such as Was Jesus a pacifist? and What is the significance of 666?). Bible Explainer tackles the tough ones, too--like How could God regret making humans? Did God command Israel to commit genocide? Why do Christians follow the Old Testament's teaching on homosexuality but not its commands about eating bacon and shrimp? The Bible Explainer acknowledges the variety of viewpoints in the larger Christian world while taking a conservative historical approach itself. It's a fascinating read that will enhance your appreciation of scripture--plus, it's illustrated in full color! |
| reza aslan zealot criticism: Paul David Wenham, 1995 David Wenham has returned with new vigor to the old question of the relationship of Pauline thought to the life and teachings of Jesus -- back cover. |
| reza aslan zealot criticism: Getting Jesus Right: How Muslims Get Jesus and Islam Wrong James A Beverley, Craig A Evans, 2015-06-01 IS IT POSSIBLE THAT MUSLIMS ARE WRONG ABOUT JESUS AND VARIOUS TENETS OF ISLAM? Is the famous Muslim writer Reza Aslan mistaken in his portrayal of Jesus of Nazareth and apologetic for Islam? Professor James Beverley and Professor Craig Evans take an in-depth look at subjects at the core of the Muslim-Christian divide: the reliability of the New Testament Gospels and the Qur’an, and what we can really know about Jesus and the prophet Muhammad. Importantly, they also examine the implications of traditional Islamic faith on the status of women, jihad and terrorism. |
| reza aslan zealot criticism: From Good News to Gospels David Wenham, 2018-05-17 The good news of Jesus spread like wildfire through the Roman Empire in the decades between his death and the writing of the first gospels—but how? What exactly did the first Christians say about Jesus? In From Good News to Gospels David Wenham delves into the gospels, the book of Acts, and the writings of Paul to uncover evidence of a strong and substantial oral tradition in the early church. This book will inform, engage, and challenge readers, inspiring them to better understand and appreciate the earliest gospel message. |
| reza aslan zealot criticism: The Unwinding George Packer, 2014-03-04 Paints a picture of the last thirty years of life in America by following several citizens, including the son of tobacco farmers in the rural south, a Washington insider who denies his idealism for riches, and a Silicon Valley billionaire. |
| reza aslan zealot criticism: The Best People Alexander Nazaryan, 2019-06-18 An engrossing look at the Trump cabinet: the scandals, the incompetence, the assault on the federal government, the bungled attempts to impose order on an administration lost in a chaos of its own making. Donald Trump promised a return to national greatness, but each day of his presidency seems to bring a new crisis, a deepening sense of national unease. Why, and how, has he failed his supporters? And how has he, on occasion, bested his detractors? The Best People takes complete measure of the Trump administration, to grasp with clarity the president and his intentions, and how those intentions are being carried out-or subverted-by the people he has hired. Alexander Nazaryan argues that the assault on the administrative state promised by Steve Bannon in early 2017 never came. What the American people got instead was Wilbur Ross hauling his tennis pro to confirmation hearing preparations; Scott Pruitt running away from rattlesnakes; Reince Priebus enduring insults from junior White House staffers. And yet, bungling as Trump's cabinet members have been, they have managed to either damage or arrest many of the gears that make government run. They have given away public lands to oil companies and allowed corporate lobbyists to make decisions about what is best for the American people, and have done it all while flying on private jets and dining at the finest restaurants, at taxpayers' expense. Meticulously reported and enthrallingly told, The Best People takes readers inside the federal government under Trump's control, a government assailed by the very people charged to lead it, a government awash in confusion and corruption. |
| reza aslan zealot criticism: When Christ and His Saints Slept Sharon Kay Penman, 2010-04-01 In When Christ and His Saints Slept master storyteller and historian Sharon Kay Penman illuminates one of the lesser-known but fascinating periods of English history. The next addition in this highly acclaimed historical fiction series of the middle ages, and the first of a trilogy that will tell the story of Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine. When Christ and His Saints Slept begins with the death of King Henry I, son of William the Conqueror and father of Maude, his only living legitimate offspring. |
| reza aslan zealot criticism: Who Was Jesus? Nicholas Thomas Wright, 1993-03-09 This provocative work examines the recent Jesus publications in the context of the many modern Jesus books, dominated by Albert Schweitzer's masterful portrait, The Quest of the Historical Jesus (1906). Wright shows that the modern quest displays many variations on the same themes, so that the latest portraits of Jesus are not nearly as novel as they are thought to be. |
| reza aslan zealot criticism: Creating Christ James S. Valliant, C. W. Fahy, 2016-09-07 Exhaustively annotated and illustrated, this explosive work of history unearths clues that finally demonstrate the truth about one of the world’s great religions: that it was born out of the conflict between the Romans and messianic Jews who fought a bitter war with each other during the 1st Century. The Romans employed a tactic they routinely used to conquer and absorb other nations: they grafted their imperial rule onto the religion of the conquered. After 30 years of research, authors James S. Valliant and C.W. Fahy present irrefutable archeological and textual evidence that proves Christianity was created by Roman Caesars in this book that breaks new ground in Christian scholarship and is destined to change the way the world looks at ancient religions forever. Inherited from a long-past era of tyranny, war and deliberate religious fraud, could Christianity have been created for an entirely different purpose than we have been lead to believe? Praised by scholars like Dead Sea Scrolls translator Robert Eisenman (James the Brother of Jesus), this exhaustive synthesis of historical detective work integrates all of the ancient sources about the earliest Christians and reveals new archeological evidence for the first time. And, despite the fable presented in current bestsellers like Bill O’Reilly’s Killing Jesus, the evidence presented in Creating Christ is irrefutable: Christianity was invented by Roman Emperors. I have rarely encountered a book so original, exciting, accessible and informed on subjects that are of obvious importance to the world and to which I have myself devoted such a large part of my scholarly career studying. In this book they have rendered a startling new understanding of Christianity with a controversial theory of its Roman provenance that is accessible to the layman in a very powerful way. In the process, they present new and comprehensive archeological and iconographic evidence, as well as utilizing the widest and most cutting edge work of other recent scholars, including myself. This is a work of outstanding and original scholarship. Its arguments are a brilliant, profound and thorough integration of the relevant evidence. When they are done, the conclusion is inescapable and obviously profound. Robert Eisenman, Author of James the Brother of Jesus and The New Testament Code A fascinating and provocative investigative history of ideas, boldly exploring a problem that previous scholarship has not clearly or credibly addressed: how (and why!) the Flavian dynasty wove Christianity into the very fabric of Western civilization. -Mark Riebling, author of Church of Spies: The Pope's Secret War Against Hitler |
| reza aslan zealot criticism: Confessions of a Secular Jesus Follower Tom Krattenmaker, 2016 An award-winning USA Today columnist makes the case for how a Jesus freed from religion and politics meets the need for meaning and purpose in secular America. Tom Krattenmaker is part of a growing conversation centered at Yale University that acknowledges--and seeks to address--the abiding need for meaning and inspiration in post-religious America. What, they ask, gives a life meaning? What constitutes a life well led? In Confessions of a Secular Jesus Follower, Krattenmaker shares his surprising conclusion about where input and inspiration might best be found: in the figure of Jesus. And Jesus, not only as a good example and teacher, but Jesus as the primary guide for one's life. Drawing on sociological research, personal experience, and insights from fifteen years studying and writing on religion in American public life, Krattenmaker shows that in Jesus, nonreligious people like himself can find unique and compelling wisdom on how to honor the humanity in ourselves and others, how to build more peaceful lives, how generosity can help people and communities create more abundance, how to break free from self-defeating behaviors, and how to tip the scales toward justice. In a time when more people than ever are identifying as atheist or agnostic, Confessions of a Secular Jesus Follower is a groundbreaking and compelling work that rediscovers Jesus--and our own best selves--for the world of today. |
| reza aslan zealot criticism: How to Win a Cosmic War Reza Aslan, 2011-03-01 *Why do they hate us? An entire cottage industry has arisen to answer this question. But what no one has really figured out is, who exactly are they? Is it al-Qaeda? Islamic nationalists? The whole Muslim world? *HOW TO WIN A COSMIC WAR lays out, for the first time, a comprehensive definition of the movement behind and surrounding al-Qaeda and the like, a global ideology properly termed Jihadism. *Contrasting twenty-first-century religious extremism across Christianity, Judaism and Islam with its historical antecedents, Aslan demonstrates that while modern Jihadis may have legitimate social grievances - the suffering of the Palestinians, American support for Arab dictators, the presence of foreign troops in Muslim lands, to name a few - they have no real goals or actual agenda. *So, what do the Jihadists want? Aslan's answer is: Nothing. The Jihadists have no earthly agenda; they are fighting a metaphysical conflict, a theological war. And ever since 9/11, we have unfortunately been fighting the same cosmic war, the war they want: the so-called 'War on Terror'. *How do we win a Cosmic War? By refusing to fight in one. And in this stunning new work, Aslan reveals surprising conclusions about how we can deal with this predicament. |
| reza aslan zealot criticism: The Sabbath World Judith Shulevitz, 2011-04-05 What is the Sabbath, anyway? The holy day of rest? The first effort to protect the rights of workers? A smart way to manage stress in a world in which computers never get turned off and work never comes to an end? Or simply an oppressive, outmoded rite? In The Sabbath World, Judith Shulevitz explores the Jewish and Christian day of rest, from its origins in the ancient world to its complicated observance in the modern one. Braiding ideas together with memories, Shulevitz delves into the legends, history, and philosophy that have grown up around a custom that has lessons for all of us, not just the religious. The shared day of nonwork has built communities, sustained cultures, and connected us to the memory of our ancestors and to our better selves, but it has also aroused as much resentment as love. The Sabbath World tells this surprising story together with an account of Shulevitz’s own struggle to keep this difficult, rewarding day. |
| reza aslan zealot criticism: The Triumph of Christianity Bart D. Ehrman, 2018-02-22 How did Christianity become the dominant religion in the West? In the early first century, a small group of peasants from the backwaters of the Roman Empire proclaimed that an executed enemy of the state was God’s messiah. Less than four hundred years later it had become the official religion of Rome with some thirty million followers. It could so easily have been a forgotten sect of Judaism. Through meticulous research, Bart Ehrman, an expert on Christian history, texts and traditions, explores the way we think about one of the most important cultural transformations the world has ever seen, one that has shaped the art, music, literature, philosophy, ethics and economics of modern Western civilisation. |
| reza aslan zealot criticism: In Defense of Elitism Joel Stein, 2019-10-22 From Thurber finalist and former star Time columnist Joel Stein comes a brilliant exploration (Walter Isaacson) of America's political culture war and a hilarious call to arms for the elite. I can think of no one more suited to defend elitism than Stein, a funny man with hands as delicate as a baby full of soft-boiled eggs. —Jimmy Kimmel, host of Jimmy Kimmel Live! The night Donald Trump won the presidency, our author Joel Stein, Thurber Prize finalist and former staff writer for Time Magazine, instantly knew why. The main reason wasn't economic anxiety or racism. It was that he was anti-elitist. Hillary Clinton represented Wall Street, academics, policy papers, Davos, international treaties and the people who think they're better than you. People like Joel Stein. Trump represented something far more appealing, which was beating up people like Joel Stein. In a full-throated defense of academia, the mainstream press, medium-rare steak, and civility, Joel Stein fights against populism. He fears a new tribal elite is coming to replace him, one that will fend off expertise of all kinds and send the country hurtling backward to a time of wars, economic stagnation and the well-done steaks doused with ketchup that Trump eats. To find out how this shift happened and what can be done, Stein spends a week in Roberts County, Texas, which had the highest percentage of Trump voters in the country. He goes to the home of Trump-loving Dilbert cartoonist Scott Adams; meets people who create fake news; and finds the new elitist organizations merging both right and left to fight the populists. All the while using the biggest words he knows. |
| reza aslan zealot criticism: God in Proof Nathan Schneider, 2013-06-10 In this tour of the history of arguments for and against the existence of God, Nathan Schneider embarks on a remarkable intellectual, historical, and theological journey through the centuries of believers and unbelieversÑfrom ancient Greeks, to medieval Arabs, to todayÕs most eminent philosophers and the New Atheists. Framed by an account of SchneiderÕs own unique journey, God in Proof illuminates the great minds who wrestled with one of historyÕs biggest questions together with their arguments, bringing them to life in their time, and our own. SchneiderÕs sure-handed portrayal of the characters and ideas involved in the search for proof challenges how we normally think about doubt and faith while showing that, in their quest for certainty and the proofs to declare it, thinkers on either side of the God divide are often closer to one another than they would like to think. |
| reza aslan zealot criticism: Tablet and Pen Reza Aslan, 2011 This volume celebrates the magnificent achievement of 20th-century Middle Eastern literature that has been neglected in the English-speaking world. |
| reza aslan zealot criticism: Where Jasmine Blooms Holly S. Warah, 2017-04-18 To the Mansours, an Arab American family living in Seattle, love knows no borders. But despite our best efforts, sometimes love—and family—are foreign to us . . . American-born Margaret Mansour wants nothing more than to rekindle the struggling twenty-year marriage to her Palestinian husband, Ahmed—but not if it means uprooting their home and children in America and moving halfway across the world. Young and ambitious Alison Mansour has a degree in Near East Studies, but her American education and Syrian background are of no use when her new marriage begins to crumble under the weight of cultural and religious differences. The communication between Alison and her husband is already shaky; how will they cope with the arrival of their first child? Zainab Mansour, the matriarch of her family, never expected to live in America, but after the death of her husband she finds herself lost in a faithless country and lonely within the walls of her eldest son’s home. She wants what’s best for her children but struggles to find her place in a new landscape. Emerging from the interwoven perspectives of these three women comes a story of love and longing, culture and compromise, home and homeland. Exploring the complex political backdrop of the Middle East from a personal perspective, Where Jasmine Blooms travels from the suburbs of Seattle to the villas of Jordan and the refugee camps of the West Bank, on an emotional journey exploring what it means to be a family. |
| reza aslan zealot criticism: Reopening Muslim Minds Mustafa Akyol, 2021-04-06 A fascinating journey into Islam's diverse history of ideas, making an argument for an Islamic Enlightenment today In Reopening Muslim Minds, Mustafa Akyol, senior fellow at the Cato Institute and opinion writer for The New York Times, both diagnoses “the crisis of Islam” in the modern world, and offers a way forward. Diving deeply into Islamic theology, and also sharing lessons from his own life story, he reveals how Muslims lost the universalism that made them a great civilization in their earlier centuries. He especially demonstrates how values often associated with Western Enlightenment — freedom, reason, tolerance, and an appreciation of science — had Islamic counterparts, which sadly were cast aside in favor of more dogmatic views, often for political ends. Elucidating complex ideas with engaging prose and storytelling, Reopening Muslim Minds borrows lost visions from medieval Muslim thinkers such as Ibn Rushd (aka Averroes), to offer a new Muslim worldview on a range of sensitive issues: human rights, equality for women, freedom of religion, or freedom from religion. While frankly acknowledging the problems in the world of Islam today, Akyol offers a clear and hopeful vision for its future. |
| reza aslan zealot criticism: (Re)Thinking Everything Glenn Siepert, 2022-01-22 Are you rethinking your faith? Do the ideas you were handed about God, Jesus, heaven, hell, the cross, the Bible, etc. no longer seem to fit your life? Do the pat answers you were given to the deep questions that keep you up at night no longer suffice? Are you convinced that the Good News of Jesus must be more than an escape plan from hell? Are you tired of seeing the Church outcast LGBTQ people and others who they label as different or ungodly or non-Christian? Do you wonder, what if everything I've been taught is ... wrong? What if there's more? If any of that rings true for you, this book will be balm for your soul. |
| reza aslan zealot criticism: Jesus and the Zealots Samuel George Frederick Brandon, 1967 |
| reza aslan zealot criticism: Judas and the Gospel of Jesus Nicholas Thomas Wright, 2006 N.T. Wright, an ancient historian, biblical scholar, and bishop, offers a Christian response to the discovery (and the sensation surrounding that discovery) of the Gospel of Judas. |
| reza aslan zealot criticism: The Discarded Life Adam Kirsch, 2022-05-29 A collection of moving and meditative poems that richly evoke a Gen X childhood in Los Angeles, exploring how our early recognitions shape our lives. |
| reza aslan zealot criticism: From Jesus to the New Testament Jens Schröter, 2013 Traces the historical rationale for the development of the Christian canon, rooted in the life, preaching, and teaching of Jesus--Résumé de l'éditeur. |
| reza aslan zealot criticism: Global Jihadism as a Transnational Social Movement Reza Aslan, 2009 By treating Global Jihadism as a social movement and noting the parallels between it and similar movements of the last century--all of which were replete with individuals who existed on the radical fringes of the political spectrum and all of which brought together a wide array of political views, ethnic backgrounds, socioeconomic statuses, and ideological causes under a master frame in which grievances were identified, blame assigned, solutions suggested, and participants mobilized--can we more effectively confront the security challenges posed by this little understood but much-feared ideology. The lesson to be learned from the rise and fall of the last century's social movements is that only when the movements' grievances were addressed and their specific concerns gradually co-opted into mainstream society, were the movements' members de-radicalized. |
| reza aslan zealot criticism: A Reader's Guide to Reza Aslan's Zealot Patrick Goggins, 2018-05-28 Reza Aslan's Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth (Random House 2013), initially caused a furor among the religious right. Now a month after its publication, it is beginning to get serious critical attention, not all of it laudatory.What is so controversial about Zealot? Does its scholarship merit the controversy? Where does Zealot stand among other studies of the historical Jesus? This reader's guide takes a close look at Zealot, and answers these questions and more.A Reader's Guide To Reza Aslan's Zealot should be considered a study aid, not a substitute for actually reading the book. Zealot is organized by topic, this guide is organized chronologically, to assist in understanding the scholarly concepts that Aslan discusses.SPOILER ALERT! This guide discusses many of Aslan's observations and conclusions. If you are reading or intend to read Zealot (which I highly recommend), do yourself a favor, close this window, and purchase the book before consulting this readers' guide. |
| reza aslan zealot criticism: Re-Views by an Evangelical Biblical Critic Robert H. Gundry, 2022-10-13 Review essays feature analysis and elaboration--what scholars call criticism--largely missing from ordinary book and movie reviews. The present book contains review essays that have appeared in a variety of publications and remain relevant for contemporary thinking Christians. The essays include critiques of written works by popular thinkers such as N. T. Wright, Bart Ehrman, Reza Aslan, Christian Smith, and Frederic Raphael, films by directors Mel Gibson and Ingmar Bergman, a recent biography of F. F. Bruce, and more. The hyphen in Re-Views links the newness of republication with the analytical character of the essays. They start with those dealing with the biblical text and its translation, proceed to some higher critical issues, graduate to literary portraits of Jesus, discuss the relation between the Bible and tradition, and conclude with some biographical portrayals of people associated with Scripture and its interpretation. |
| reza aslan zealot criticism: The Things that Make for Peace Jesse P. Nickel, 2021-02-08 This study offers fresh insight into the place of (non)violence within Jesus' ministry, by examining it in the context of the eschatologically-motivated revolutionary violence of Second Temple Judaism. The book first explores the connection between violence and eschatology in key literary and historical sources from Second Temple Judaism. The heart of the study then focuses on demonstrating the thematic centrality of Jesus’ opposition to such “eschatological violence” within the Synoptic presentations of his ministry, arguing that a proper understanding of eschatology and violence together enables appreciation of the full significance of Jesus’ consistent disassociation of revolutionary violence from his words and deeds. The book thus articulates an understanding of Jesus’ nonviolence that is firmly rooted in the historical context of Second Temple Judaism, presenting a challenge to the seditious Jesus hypothesis—the claim that the historical Jesus was sympathetic to revolutionary ideals. Jesus’ rejection of violence ought to be understood as an integral component of his eschatological vision, embodying and enacting his understanding of (i) how God’s kingdom would come, and (ii) what would identify those who belonged to it. |
| reza aslan zealot criticism: The Nonviolent Messiah Simon J. Joseph, 2014-06-02 When scholars have set Jesus against various conceptions of the “messiah” and other redemptive figures in early Jewish expectation, those questions have been bound up with the problem of violence, whether the political violence of a militant messiah or the divine violence carried out by a heavenly or angelic figure. Missing from those discussions, Simon J. Joseph contends, are the unique conceptions of an Adamic redeemer figure in the Enochic material—conceptions that informed the Q tradition and, he argues, Jesus’ own self-understanding. |
| reza aslan zealot criticism: Why I’m Still a Christian Justin Brierley, 2025-04-22 A compelling and intriguing discussion of why believing in God makes the most sense of human existence and our purpose on earth by one of the most respected Christian thinkers of our time. “Highly readable survey of the reasons for Christian faith. Not just an academic exercise, Justin has respectfully engaged many thoughtful atheists and sceptics over years, which is always a test for a believer. The book is therefore very personal—it explains how his own faith has emerged while working through the challenges he has received.” —Timothy Keller Popular radio host and podcaster, Justin Brierley, has been creating and facilitating constructive conversations about faith for more than two decades. He is an expert in Christian apologetics and has had a ringside seat as believers and nonbelievers alike have debated Christianity. Surprisingly, Justin has come out on the other side of these debates more convinced than ever of the truth of Jesus’ claims—and the power of good conversations. With this book, you get to watch Justin as he engages with the most unlikely of conversation partners—from Richard Dawkins to Philip Pullman—on the subject of faith. You’ll understand why Justin, after hearing the strongest objections to the Christian faith and religion, is still a Christian. For him, God makes sense of human existence, the inherent value of human life, and our ultimate purpose on earth. With this book, you’ll explore tough questions, with Justin Brierley as your guide: Why would God allow suffering? Are Christianity and the existence of God compatible with science? Is there any evidence for the resurrection? And much more. Discover the reasons to believe. This book is a revised and updated edition of the Unbelievable book published in 2017, with a new chapter on deconstruction. |
| reza aslan zealot criticism: Jesus, Skepticism, and the Problem of History Zondervan,, 2019-10-08 In recent years, a number of New Testament scholars engaged in academic historical Jesus studies have concluded that such scholarship cannot yield secure and illuminating conclusions about its subject, arguing that the search for a historically authentic Jesus has run aground. Jesus, Skepticism, and the Problem of History brings together a stellar lineup of New Testament scholars who contend that historical Jesus scholarship is far from dead. These scholars all find value in using the tools of contemporary historical methods in the study of Jesus and Christian origins. While the skeptical use of criteria to fashion a Jesus contrary to the one portrayed in the Gospels is methodologically unsound and theologically unacceptable, these criteria, properly formulated and applied, yield positive results that support the Gospel accounts and the historical narrative in Acts. This book presents a nuanced and vitally needed alternative to the skeptical extremes of revisionist Jesus scholarship that, on the one hand, uses historical methods to call into question the Jesus of the Gospels and, on the other, denies the possibility of using historical methods to learn about Jesus. |
| reza aslan zealot criticism: The Conflict Between Secular and Religious Narratives in the United States John Sumser, 2016-06-28 Social Construction, Communication, and Christianity uses the theory of social construction and the philosophy of Ludwig Wittgenstein to examine the current divide between religious and secular narratives in the United States. |
Reza Live – Edge of Illusion
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Reza's latest show, Edge of Illusion, is a breath-taking and inspiring journey into the world of impossibility, featuring jaw-dropping, cutting-edge and never before seen illusions merged with …
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Reza's latest show, Edge of Illusion, is a breath-taking and inspiring journey into the world of impossibility, featuring jaw-dropping, cutting-edge and never before seen illusions merged with …
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