David Gibson
What readers will find here is an engaging look at the Gospels, informed by the best biblical scholarship, as well as by Wills's own faith, which he discusses openly…Wills is a dangerous man. He does not create a foolish consistency out of differing Gospels, but underscores the attributes of each narrative to highlight truths more crucial than whether there were four discrete Evangelists, or whether three wise men actually followed a star in the East. The credulous will be shocked by his rationality, while skeptics will be scandalized by his respect for the faith.
—The New York Times
Publishers Weekly
Wills's follow-up to his bestselling works, What Jesus Meantand 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. (Feb. 18)
Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information
Library Journal
New York Timesbest-selling author and Pulitzer Prize winner Wills (history, emeritus, Northwestern Univ.; What Jesus Meant) provides another splendid book for the educated general public. Here, he analyzes the four Gospels of Mark, Matthew, Luke, and John, insisting that the church deliberately "gives us four different takes on the central mystery" of Christ, which remains inexhaustible. He observes that Mark emphasizes Jesus's role as sufferer; Matthew systematically presents his teachings; Luke stresses the healing aspects of his mission; and John keeps always in mind his divinity. Wills also explains the parallelism between biblical Jewish and Christian Scripture and the use of symbolic language in the Gospels to reveal the meaning of biblical events, e.g., God's theophany to Moses in Exodus 33 and the Resurrected Christ's theophany to two disciples in Emmaus. Wills dedicates his book to the memory of the great 20th-century biblical scholar Raymond Brown, on whose work he relies extensively. Highly recommended for public, seminary, and undergraduate academic libraries. [See Prepub Alert, LJ10/15/07.]
—Carolyn M. Craft
From the Publisher
A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
Praise for What the Gospels Meant:
“Full of riches . . . Wills brings to bear the skills that have justly brought him renown as America’s greatest public intellectual: encyclopedic erudition, concise prose and a polyglot’s gift for ancient languages. . . . This introduces . . . biblical scholarship as a whole to a wide audience of readers hungry for a sophisticated account of those eternally curious texts.”
—Chicago Tribune
“What readers will find here is an engaging look at the Gospels, informed by the best biblical scholarship, as well as by Wills’s own faith. . . . This eminently readable volume . . . underscores the attributes of each narrative to highlight truths more crucial than whether there were four discrete Evangelists.”
—The New York Times Book Review
“Wills’s scholarship . . . is impeccable, placing the gospels within their original cultural and religious context . . . A book that offers profound spiritual and historical insight in an accessible and intriguing format.”
—BookPage
“Poetic, penetrating, and moving. General readers and scholars alike will profit from Mr. Wills’s basic contention, that reason and faith are not antinomies.”
—The New York Sun
“An engrossingly concise sequel to his Paul book. Wills . . . shows that [the Gospels are] theological statements, applying Jesus to the different situations confronting each writer’s community.”
—The Boston Globe
“Readers willing to have their impressions about these texts challenged by an erudite scholar will find this to be fascinating and worthwhile reading.”
—Publishers Weekly
“A remarkable achievement—a learned yet eminently readable and provocative exploration of the four small books that reveal most of what’s known about the life and death of Jesus.”
—Los Angeles Times
FEBRUARY 2009 - AudioFile
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. © AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine
