Judas and The Gospel of Jesus

On the cover of the book, the question has been printed, "Have we missed the truth about Christianity?" Wright gives a resounding "NO" as his answer to this question. Though only a couple of years old, this book seems to be dated because of the passing of the media attention given to the Gospel of Judas and the Da Vinci Code surrounding the release of this book by N.T. Wright.

Even if you are not interested in the Gospel of Judas, this book is a great read as it gives a brief overview and history of gnosticism and it's roots in Christianity and Judaism (or, as Wright points out, its opposition to the traditional views of both Judaism and Christianity).

Wright does seem, at times, to be a bit overzealous in his critique of the American Church in Judas and the Gospel of Jesus, but his analasis of the ancient text that received a great deal of media attention is dead-on. Further, as he traces the heresy and poor academic research in The Gospel of Judas, Wright interestingly points out that the gnosticism of the second and third centuries seems to show its face in some forms of modern Christianity.

Gnosticism saw the God of Israel as an inferior deity who created a wicked world, thus all material things were considered evil. Jesus, then existed to show the way out of this evil world and into a purely spiritual existence. Wright points out that much that parades as normal Christian faith today gives near total emphasis to escaping this world to live in the next world. Jesus, however, came to bring the Kingdom of God to earth. He came, not to escape this world, but to transform it, to restore it to its original order.

I enjoyed this book and would reccommend it.