Book Review-Beyond the Passion
Beyond the Passion: Rethinking the Death and Life of Jesus Stephen J. Patterson
This book has been sitting on my shelf for years. I purchased this book from my seminary bookstore because it was written by my New Testament Professor. I loved his class. I learned so much from his book, The God of Jesus. I still reference it regularly when teaching and preaching. Finally I dug into this book, and I was not disappointed. Let me describe Steve as I knew him. He is a scholar and a man of faith. He pushes and challenges your assumptions and ideas of Jesus in ways that are sometimes painful. And if you stick with it, you will learn and grow. Steve writes in a manner that makes difficult topics easy to read. I was shocked by some of what I read and so fascinated that I had to read on.
In this book, we read about Jesus as victim, martyr, and sacrifice using these three concepts as they were understood by Jesus’ contemporaries and contemporaries of the writers of the New Testament. And I recognize that this review is much longer than most reviews I write. Because this topic hits so close to our hearts, I wanted to include as much information as I could about this book. I’d love for you to read the book, and I know that may not happen. So here is my review.
