Jesus Rediscovered

How well do you know Jesus? I think about this often, and I always come to the same realization. I don't know Jesus anywhere near as well as I would like to know him. The desire is there, but life gets in the way. There are times when I seem to be making great progress, and other times when I wonder if I know him at all. But I always arrive back at the same inspiring and haunting idea: If there is one person that we should each get to know in a deeply personal way, it is Jesus the carpenter from Nazareth, the itinerant preacher, the Son of God, the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, the Lamb of God, the new Adam, the Messiah, the Alpha and the Omega, the Chosen One, the Light of the World, the God-Man who wants good things for us more than we want them for ourselves, the healer of our souls. The best time to rediscover Jesus is right now. You are holding this book in your hand at this very moment for a reason. I don't know what God has in store for you, but I am excited for you.

Excerpts drawn from books, essays, journalism, broadcasts, scripts, diaries and letters, 1926-1986.

This biography of Malcolm Muggeridge traces the varied life of one of the most brilliant and controversial men of the twentieth century. The author, Ian Hunter, was given full access to all of Muggeridge's unpublished material, letters, and diaries. The result is an objective, well-researched, and honest account that is sometimes at variance with Muggeridge's own recollection of events. Ian Hunter captures the humor, the intellect, the rawness of perception, the abandoned honesty of a man engaged in knowing himself, his world, and his God. Malcolm Muggeridge was not merely a "vendor of words," as he invariably described himself, but was also a celebrated author, broadcaster, lecturer, debater, traveller, journalist and television personality, a one-time ardent admirer of the Soviet system, a World War II intelligence agent, and a former agnostic turned committed Christian. To many people, however, Malcolm Muggeridge was admired above all for his superb use of the English language. It is to the credit of Ian Hunter that after reading this biography one has a clearer understanding of an extraordinary man. Dr. Ian Hunter is professor emeritus at the University of Western Ontario. His articles and reviews have appeared in many Canadian and American poublications. He edited two collections of Muggeridge's writings: Things Past and The Very Best of Malcolm Muggeridge; he also wrote a biography of Muggeridge's friend, Hesketh Pearson (Nothing to Repent: The Life of Heskerth Pearson).

Readers' Choice Awards Honorable Mention One of Nijay Gupta's Best Academic New Testament Books Who is your Jesus? Matthew's teacher? John's Word made flesh? Hebrews' great high priest? What if it turned out that your Jesus is a composite of your favorite selections from the New Testament buffet, garnished with some Hollywood and Americana? Rediscovering Jesus takes us on a gallery tour of biblical portraits of Jesus, from Matthew through Revelation. Our expert guides point out the background and highlights of each New Testament image of Jesus. Then we hit the streets to visit other houses of worship and their scriptures, examining the Jesus of the Book of Mormon and the Qur'an. Popping into a bookstore, we browse the latest on the Gnostic and the historical Jesus. Then we're off on a walking tour of Jesus in America, followed by a film festival of Jesus movies. All along the way our tour guides describe and interpret, but also raise questions: How is this Jesus different from other portraits? If this were our only portrait of Jesus, what would our faith be like? Rediscovering Jesus is an enjoyable, informative and challenging look at how we encounter Jesus in Scripture and our culture. With ample sidebars exploring contexts and the "so what?" questions, it takes us beyond other surveys by probing how our understanding of Jesus can make a difference for faith and life. From the authors of Rediscovering Paul, this is a textbook introduction to Jesus that guides us in our pilgrimage toward seeing Jesus truly.

For each successive generation the story of Jesus needs to be looked at afresh through contemporary eyes. Malcolm Muggeridge, a distinguished international journalist and sometime editor of Punch, a sharp-tongued social commentator and television controversialist, has come to have an intense and highly personal preoccupation with Jesus and his teaching. Though he is now a fervent believer in the unique truth and continuing relevance of Jesus, as revealed in the Gospels, in the stupendous drama of the Incarnation, Passion and Resurrection, he accepts no sectarian rules, and is sceptical about current attempts to make Christianity conform to today's materialistic outlook and values. To look for Jesus in history, he insists, is as futile as supposing that his Kingdom can be realized through politics and advanced by the exercise of power. His concern is with the essential significance of Jesus's birth, life, ministry, death and continuing presence in the world. At the same time, he relates the traditional Christianity, which has been handed down to us, to life as it is lived today, with all its dilemmas and controversies and conflicts. One process, to which every Christian testimony ministers; from the simplest and crudest to the most articulate and sophisticated, from the Apostle Paul and St Augustine to a Mother Teresa and a Dietrich Bonhoeffer in our own time; but still deriving from that dramatic intervention of God in history two thousand years ago. This is a book which will command attention, arouse debate, and yet give much food for thought among those who really want to get back to the fundamentals of the Christian faith, out of which our civilization was born, on which it has sustained itself and flourished, and lacking which, Mr Muggeridge considers, it will surely perish. Professor William Barclay writes of the book: 'It is a compulsive reading...I have no doubt at all that it is an act of witness, one man's testimony to Jesus. I think that the dedication on the first page--"I write this book for love of your love"--from Augustine, does really characterize it. It is a book written from the heart, and I do not doubt that it will reach the heart.' Illustrating Mr Muggeridge's narrative and argument, the book reproduces a series of very relevant, and often quite unfamiliar, images of the life of Jesus, not merely from the works of great and original artists such as El Greco, Bruegel, Blake and Van Gogh, but also from early mosaics, ikons, medieval stained glass windows and church sculptures of great beauty. -Publisher

When writer and media personality Malcolm Muggeridge unexpectedly converted to Christianity in the 1960s, fans around the world flocked to his devotional writings and television programs about his spiritual journey. Because Muggeridge was critical of institutional Christianity and initially refused to join a church, he inspired a special affinity in those who were disillusioned with mainstream religious authority. Readers from around the world sent him deeply personal letters describing their spiritual and religious lives, revealing their anxieties, doubts, and hopes about the future of Christianity. In Searching for God in Britain and Beyond David Reagles draws on nearly two thousand of these remarkable fan letters to explore the thoughts and feelings of ordinary Christians in a time of cultural and religious upheaval. In these candid letters, Muggeridge’s correspondents wrestled with their experiences of faith and doubt, the value of institutional religion, uncertainties about permissiveness in society, the proper role of Christian social activism, and the forces of secularism. For these fans and skeptics alike, reading and writing were a vital means of working out their religious identities and convictions amid the supposed decline of Christendom. Searching for God in Britain and Beyond provides a rare and fascinating glimpse into the inner worlds of ordinary Christians in the 1960s and 1970s, revealing how the secularization of postwar society felt to average people.