Seekers Book Club: Jesus Before Christianity

Large meeting of Friends
The Seekers Book Club will be starting a new book, Jesus Before Christianity by Albert Nolan. This highly acclaimed book introduces Jesus as he was before he became enshrined in doctrine, dogma, and ritual: a man deeply involved with the real problems of his time — which are the real problems of our time as well.
“My interest is in the man as he was before he became the object of Christian faith,” Nolan observes.  “We must put aside all our images of Jesus, conservative and progressive, devotional and academic, so that we may listen to him with an open mind.” Jesus, he contends, was thoroughly humane, courageous, sapient, sensitive, and “in complete harmony with” his Heavenly Father, Abba.  “God’s feeling of compassion…possessed him.”

This book focuses on Jesus historically.  Before he became an object of Christian faith.  For this reason, it is not necessary to believe that Jesus is divine, one need only acknowledge that Jesus is a historical figure trying to work for social justice. With this book we will look at how the work he did can inform the work we are trying to do today.

Albert Nolan was a Dominican Priest from South Africa where he was active in the struggle against apartheid. You can learn more about him here.

We’ll meet on the first and third Thursdays of each month, beginning September 17th at 7:00 PM EDT. We will take small bites of the book, about 25 pages every 2 weeks, to discuss.

Let’s get together and talk about it!

To sign up, email Cheryl at cheryldemersrn@gmail.com to receive the zoom link for this journey.