A Boy Named Jesus

Offers a view of the childhood and adolescence of Jesus Christ through a presentation of the language, culture, and prayers of the times and examines the young man's growing relationship with God

One of France's widely read historians in the 1950s and 1960s, Aron completely updates his A Boy Named Jesus (1960), adding material to the current debate of the role of first-century Judaism on the development of Jesus and Christianity. Aron's task is to place the life of Jesus into a historical context, to discern from those things we know about him the various forces and crucial influences that molded him. Aron highlights three purposes: to remind Jews of certain features of their religion, give Christians a feeling for their religious origins, and illuminate the conflict between contemporary Christianity and paganism. The three parts of the book (before Jerusalem, Jerusalem, and after Jerusalem) and the six-page index make it uncomplicated to probe this history and culture of an earlier place and time. Once this is done, as Episcopal Bishop John Spong points out in the introduction, the reader can ask what is the meaning. Public libraries and collections on historical figures would find this a helpful addition.?Leroy Hommerding, Citrus Cty. Lib. Sys., Inverness, Fla.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.