Reinventing Jesus: How Contemporary Skeptics Miss the Real Jesus and Mislead Popular Culture

Written by M. James Sawyer, J. Ed Komoszewski and Daniel B. Wallace

Narrated by Tom McElroy

From the worldwide phenomenon of The Da Vinci Code to the national bestseller Misquoting Jesus, popular culture is being bombarded with radical skepticism about the uniqueness of Christ and the reliability of the New Testament. Reinventing Jesus cuts through the rhetoric of extreme doubt expressed by these and several other contemporary voices to reveal the profound credibility of historic Christianity. Meticulously researched, thoroughly documented, yet eminently understandable, this book invites a wide audience to take a firsthand look at the solid, reasonable, and clearly defensible evidence for Christianity's origins. Reinventing Jesus shows believers that it's okay to think hard about Christianity, and shows hard thinkers that it's okay to believe.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tantor Media, Inc
• Release date: Jun 13, 2023
• ISBN: 9798765085202

Reviews for Reinventing Jesus

[d_adams-397966 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

My book review on amazon.com

This book boldly answers the most common expostulations raised against Christ by the skeptics. The authors cover the historical controversies, and the questions posed by The Da Vinci Code, Jesus Seminar, Acharya S., Timothy Freke and Peter Gandy, and the likes. The topics include; Oral traditions, memorizing culture, textual criticism, canon, the Jesus mythical god parallels, council of Nicea.

The authors have embarked on a journey into the insights of the historical accounts of the first century culture that memorized oral locutions in a community setting. This book exemplifies Christianity on a positive level, not so much as merely answering the claims set forth the by skeptics. The authors point out the erroneousnesses of the skeptic mindset, and their discrepant partial construction of the facts.

An immense number of pages cover textual criticism and the canonization of scripture. The book commences with terms such as; source criticism, redaction criticism and literary dependence of the Gospel writings and the oral tradition and a memorizing culture. In the last chapter the Christ mythers originally set forth by James Frazer in 1906, the book answers back with a death blow to these concepts by exposing their frail and fragile constructs by the misuse of Christian terminology.

In conclusion, "Reinventing Jesus" may have a misconceived incantation at first glance, but nevertheless the book is a great resource for the newfangled and the well seasoned Apologist. This book is an absolute must have for anyone entering the debate arena.

My opinion of the book is that the authors have spent a great deal of time (decades) in their research. It is truly time for other scholars to step up and answer the claims of the skeptics. This book may well be the start for a new gyration of inspiration of upcoming apologetic authors. You can find a helpful set of endnotes (64 pages to be exact) and handy resources for further reading. I highly recommend adding this book to your shelf as a valuable reference tool whether you are an apologist or lay Christian.

[james1garriss · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is an excellent defense of the historical accuracy of Jesus as portrayed in the Bible. The authors trace problematic issues that might cause us to have an inaccurate account, such as: How do we know the Gospel writers got it right? Which books were supposed to be in the New Testament? Didn't Christianity rip off other mythical gods? This is a well done apologetic, a good read for every Christian. BTW, as the title might be a bit misleading, the subtitle should be mentioned: How contemporary skeptics miss the real Jesus and mislead popular culture.

[layman_2 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

In some ways the title is unfortunate, because Reinventing Jesus is so much more than another response to The Da Vinci Code (as good as some of those are). What this book provides is excellent scholarship on a number of issues that have been inadequately addressed, if addressed at all, by traditional apologists. The authors have actually lowered themselves to address arguments and theories that academics rarely encounter in scholarly circles. As noted in Reinventing Jesus, much of said sludge has flowed forth as a result of -- in the author's words -- "ready access to unfiltered information via the Internet and the influential power of this medium. The result is junk food for the mind--a pseudointellectual meal that is as easy to swallow as it is devoid of substance." Id. at 221-22. In response, Reinventing Jesus provides rebuttals to arguments propounded by the likes of Internet Infidels, Robert M. Price, and even, yes, Earl Doherty (though not yet his Jesus Myth stuff).

In my opinion, the best part of the book is a superb discussion of the textual transmission of the New Testament. There is the usual stuff we see from apologists like Josh McDowell about the wealth of manuscript evidence comparative to other ancient writings, but there is a lot more. Reinventing Jesus breaks down the information into greater detail, explaining the manuscript evidence more deeply, the nature of the disagreements in the traditions, the types of traditions and their origins. The result is a powerful case for accuracy of our modern translations. All this is written for the layperson, but the authors apparently believe that the layperson can handle a lot more (intellectually and spiritually) than is typically assumed. This targeting of the well-informed layperson is a hallmark of the entire book, resulting in more information and deeper analysis than the typical apologetic provides.

The discussion of the origins of the NT Canon is also excellent, once again giving layreaders more information than they may be expecting. Reinventing Jesus goes through the criteria by which the books of the NT were chosen and is candid about which books were quickly accepted as well as those which where not. The authors also discuss those who made the decisions and when the decisions were made. Special attention is given to the last books to be accepted. In this section, as well as throughout the book, the authors attempt to come up with examples and metaphors from sports, work, pop culture, or everyday life. Most of these examples are well made and a feature employed throughout the book.

Another very effective set of chapters addresses what the authors call "Parallelomania." Here the authors take on an argument that even many of the online-skeptics have abandoned; namely that Christianity was merely a myth based on pre-existing pagan myths. It is good that they do such an excellent job of debunking all of the supposed "parallels" because too many of the underinformed on the internet are still being taken in. Reinventing Jesus is successful in showing that the core doctrines of Christianity originated out of Judaism and the events in the life of Jesus and his apostles. The supposed "parallels" between Christianity and the pagan religions are either based on word games (describing very different beliefs as if they were the same), misunderstandings of the evidence, are the result of pagan copying of the more successful Christian belief system, or are the result of some Christian copying of pagan beliefs in the third and fourth centuries (after the core NT beliefs were already well-established). There are several online responses to parallelomania, but this chapter exceeds most of them in its breadth, depth, and readability.

The chapter on the Council of Nicea is quite good. There are also chapters about the accuracy of the NT, oral tradition, and authorship of NT documents that are solid discussions, though not the best available. Still, they add to the value of the book and fill out the complete picture that the authors are trying to impart.

As for other features, there is a helpful list of Suggested Reading for each part of the book, as well as a scripture index and subject index. My only real complaint about the book is that it uses book endnotes, rather than footnotes or chapter endnotes.

On a whole, Reinventing Jesus would be an excellent addition to any apologist's or pastor's library. In fact, it is so effective and readable, it would be a good buy for any Christian wanting to better understand the history of their faith (as all should). It is a big step above Josh McDowell's helpful though basic historical apologetic books. It effectively engages some of the most recent skeptical arguments that having been spreading with the help of the internet. Finally, it trusts laypersons to sort through the good and the bad in the historical evidence while maintaining a very readable presentation.