{"id":3062,"date":"2013-08-05T20:13:53","date_gmt":"2013-08-06T00:13:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.jasonstaples.com\/blog\/?p=3062"},"modified":"2021-06-15T22:21:32","modified_gmt":"2021-06-16T02:21:32","slug":"stephen-protheros-book-review-of-reza-aslans-zealot-the-life-and-times-of-jesus-of-nazareth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jasonstaples.com\/bible\/stephen-protheros-book-review-of-reza-aslans-zealot-the-life-and-times-of-jesus-of-nazareth\/","title":{"rendered":"Stephen Prothero’s Book Review of Reza Aslan’s \u2018Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
Unfortunately, there isn\u2019t much new here<\/a> other than Aslan\u2019s slick writing and cinematic sensibilities. In a now-notorious Fox News interview that propelled the book toward the top of the bestseller lists, Lauren Green questioned whether a Muslim should be writing about Christianity\u2019s founder.\u00a0But the real problem is that Aslan, like thousands of \u201chistorical Jesus\u201d experts before him, refuses to say \u201cI don\u2019t know\u201d with anything near the frequency required for the task. He, too, purports to be an intrepid archaeologist for historical truth, excavating the \u201creal\u201d Jesus out of the \u201cpropagandistic legend\u201d that has grown up around him. But he, too, remakes Jesus in his own image. … \u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n In short, Jesus was a frustrated Muhammad \u2014 a man who, like Islam\u2019s founder, came to revolutionize the world by force yet, unlike Muhammad, failed. This makes for a good read. It might even make for a good movie. Just don\u2019t tell me it\u2019s true.<\/p>\n