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The Scandalous Gospel of Jesus
Peter J. Gomes
What's So Good About the Good News?
HarperOne
November 2007
On Sale: November 6, 2007
272 pages ISBN: 0060000732 EAN: 9780060000738 Hardcover
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Non-Fiction | Non-Fiction Religion
Jesus came preaching, but the church wound up preaching
Jesus. Why does the church insist upon making Jesus the
object of its attention rather than heeding his
message? Esteemed Harvard minister Peter J. Gomes
believes that excessive focus on the Bible and doctrines
about Jesus have led the Christian church astray. "What did
Jesus preach?" asks Gomes. To recover the transformative
power of the gospel—"the good news"—Gomes says we must go
beyond the Bible and rediscover how to live out Jesus'
original revolutionary message of hope:
"Dietrich Bonhoeffer once warned against cheap grace, and
I warn now against cheap hope. Hope is not merely the
optimistic view that somehow everything will turn out all
right in the end if everyone just does as we do. Hope is the
more rugged, the more muscular view that even if things
don't turn out all right and aren't all right, we endure
through and beyond the times that disappoint or threaten to
destroy us." This gospel is offensive and
always overturns the status quo, Gomes tells us. It's not
good news for those who wish not to be disturbed, and today
our churches resound with shrill speeches of fear and
exclusivity or tepid retellings of a health-and-wealth
gospel. With his unique blend of eloquence and insight,
Gomes invites us to hear anew the radical nature of Jesus'
message of hope and change. Using examples from ancient
times as well as from modern pop culture, The Scandalous
Gospel of Jesus shows us why the good news is every bit
as relevant today as when it was first preached.
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