Whose side is Jesus really on? Whose views do his teachings support? Should we aspire to be “Christlike”—meaning homeless, subversive, scandalous, in constant danger of being kidnapped or arrested, and keeping company with the less-than respectable?Garry Wills points out that Jesus’ acts were meant to show that He is not just like us; that he has higher rights and powers. To read the gospels in the spirit with which they were written, it is not enough to ask what Jesus did or said—or would do. We must ask what Jesus meant by his deeds and words.
This is not a scholarly book, but a devotional one, written with intelligence and humility. It is a profession of faith—reasoning faith, and reasonable; what St. Anselm called “faith out on quest to know.” In questing, Wills illuminates a much more complex, compelling, and controversial figure than the one we hear so much about in sound bites today.