The Jesus of Fantasy vs. History (Reza Aslan)

Reza Aslan, The Aspen Institute, July 14, 2015; Pat Macpherson, CC Liu (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

The Jesus of History versus the Christ of Faith

Daring to question a sacred cow, 2012

(The Aspen Institute) Sifting through centuries of mythmaking, Dr. Reza Aslan, Ph.D., sheds new light on one of history’s most influential and enigmatic figures by examining Jesus within the context of the times in which he is said to have lived: the age of zealotry.

Balancing the Jesus of the Gospels against historical sources, Dr. Aslan describes

• a man of peace who exhorted his followers to arm themselves;
• an exorcist and faith healer who urged his disciples to keep his identity secret;
• the seditious “King of the Jews,” whose promise of liberation from Rome went unfulfilled in his lifetime.

Dr. Aslan explores why the early Christian Church preferred to promulgate an image of Jesus as a peaceful spiritual teacher rather than a politically conscious [Black] revolutionary and grapples with the riddle of how Jesus understood himself.

Speaker: Scholar of Christianity Dr. Reza Aslan