Title: Zealot
Author: Reza Aslan
Published: 2013
ISBN-13: 9781400069224
Publisher: Random House
Twitter: @RezaAslan
What’s Auntie Reading Now? picture

Thank you to the publisher for sending a review copy

Publisher’s blurb:

Zealot yields a fresh perspective on one of the greatest stories ever told even as it affirms the radical and transformative nature of Jesus’ life and mission.

#ReadingIsResistance to conventional wisdom, and “truths” which fly in the face of established facts.

Let me just say I’ve had a tough time writing a meaningful review.  It’s so well-researched and well- written I’m sure a third reading is on the horizon.  Ancient religions and the intersection with politics is a favorite topic, and I’ve read so much over the years it’s hard to not stray into tangents.  The short version, is that I loved Reza Aslan’s Zealot more on the second reading than I did on the first.

Aslan puts the story of Jesus into context of the socio-economic-political-religious times during which he lived and preached.  He frames Jesus as a zealot.  “Zeal implied a strict adherence to the Torah and the Law, a refusal to serve any foreign master – to serve any human master at all – and an uncompromising devotion to the sovereignty of God.”  (p. 40)  In the three years of his ministry, Jesus was plainly, and simply, a rabble rouser.

That’s the Jesus I learned about in church.  He cared for the poor, defied authority and made promises of a kingdom for everyone who believed.  That last one marked him as a failure.  As with any good story, it’s more complex than that.

Aslan cautions, “For every well-attested, heavily researched, and eminently authoritative argument made about the historical Jesus, there is an equally well-attested, equally researched, and equally authoritative argument opposing it.”  (p. xx)

Zealot reflects a methodology towards history and story telling about the world’s most famous character which makes it a great read.  It isn’t about proving faith, it’s about taking an evidence-based approach to discuss why Jesus came to matter so much, and still matters over 2,000 years after his death.  Reza Aslan has done an excellent job of that, and makes me hunger to know even more.

#readingisresistance is a collaboration between readers and book bloggers who believe in the activism of reading; especially in the current political climate. Reading enriches, teaches, and allows us to experience the lives of others. It leads us to understanding. It forces us to confront the hard questions, and asks us to engage with the world in a way which leads to change. Join the resistance, read.