Book summary of "A Spectator's guide to Jesus"

John Dickson, an Honorary Associate in the Department of History in Macquarie University, unfolds the myths and the religiosity that often blurs the image of Jesus. Dickson explores the many roles and identities that are given to Jesus, healer, teacher, Christ. "A Spectator's guide to Jesus" is a book dedicated to discovering the truth to the most controversial religious topics, from Jesus' replacement of the temple, his divineness, meaning of his death and his words and deeds that inspire.

In the first chapter, "How we know what we know about Jesus?" Dickson discusses the certainty of Christianity, mentioning the various ancient manuscripts of Jesus from the Greco-Roman references, to the writings of the New Testament. Dickson then comes to discuss the plausibility of the Bible. Since Paul and Mark had independently offered similar descriptions of Jesus' life and teaching, and because we know these sources are not copied from each other, we have to assume their information was both early and widely known.

Stained glass at St John the Baptist's Anglican Ch...

The Resurrection of Christ (Kinnaird Resurrection)

English: Resurrection of Christ

After proving the encounters of Jesus as extremely likely events, Dickson's main concern in the second chapter, "His words and their impact" is emphasising on Jesus' words of the Christian character of sex, marriage, prayers, wealth, food and body, caring for those in need, loving enemies and divine mercy. The words of Jesus as mentioned in the Gospels, impact on the way humans should live their lives and have an understanding for humanity.

Dickson confronts the problems for society believing in miracles since they occur only in small-minded children's tales. In Chapter 3, "The deeds that baffle," Dickson explains Jesus' stunning miracles as a preview of God's coming kingdom. Dickson argues that if one was to see that there were no forces in the universe other than the observable laws of nature, then a matter of...