Overview

An exploration of transcendent faith in modern times—from the author of the New York Times–bestselling Constantine’s Sword   What can we believe about—and how can we believe in—Jesus Christ in light of the Holocaust and other atrocities of the twentieth century and the drift from religion that followed? In this urgent and provocative work, award-winning author James Carroll traces centuries of religious history and theology to face this core challenge to modern faith and to rescue it for the secular age. Far from another book about the “historical Jesus,” Christ Actually takes the challenges of science and contemporary philosophy, of secularism, seriously. Carroll retrieves the power of Jesus both as an answer to humanity’s perennial longing for transcendence and as a figure of profound ordinariness—his simple life, and his call to imitate him, all suggest an answer to the question “What is the future of Jesus Christ?” This book points the way.

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9780143127840

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Reviews

Praise for Christ Actually: The Son of God for the Secular Age With well-researched clarity, Carroll explores the question posed by anti-Nazi Lutheran pastor and martyr Dietrich Bonhoeffer: who actually is Christ for us today?... Because Christ actually is meaningful in some way to a billion Christians around the globe, this heartfelt investigation is of interest to many. Publishers Weekly Carroll strives to reconceive Christ for a secular, post-Holocaust, post-Hiroshima era .readersseeking a faith responsive to the zeitgeist will find it here. Booklist An in-depth, thought-provoking challenge to two millennia of Christian interpretation. Kirkus Reviews Written in the brisk, argumentative style that has won James Carroll a broad popular readership, Christ Actually avoids the interminable maundering of academic prose, even as its extensive footnotes indicate attention to advanced, if radical, scholarship. Conservative Christians may well be shocked and annoyed at Carroll s configuration of Jesus. Nevertheless, for its pushback against the boundaries of conventional interpretations and, above all, for its passionate presentation of the sinfulness of Christian anti-Semitism, his book deserves serious attention. Commonweal magazine Praise for Constantine s Sword Monumental An eye-opening journey through twenty centuries of history..This is a book for everyone. Christian Science Monitor A triumph. The Atlantic Monthly A deeply felt work, a book that measures the sweep of history against [his] experience as a man of the church. Floyd Skloot, San Franciso Chronicle Remarkable . . . A book of a deeper sort. Andrew Sullivan, The New York Times Book Review A masterly history . . . fascinating, brave. Time

Praise for Christ Actually: The Son of God for the Secular Age With well-researched clarity, Carroll explores the question posed by anti-Nazi Lutheran pastor and martyr Dietrich Bonhoeffer: who actually is Christ for us today?... Because Christ actually is meaningful in some way to a billion Christians around the globe, this heartfelt investigation is of interest to many. Publishers Weekly Carroll strives to reconceive Christ for a secular, post-Holocaust, post-Hiroshima era .readersseeking a faith responsive to the zeitgeist will find it here. Booklist An in-depth, thought-provoking challenge to two millennia of Christian interpretation. Kirkus Reviews Written in the brisk, argumentative style that has won James Carroll a broad popular readership, Christ Actually avoids the interminable maundering of academic prose, even as its extensive footnotes indicate attention to advanced, if radical, scholarship. Conservative Christians may well be shocked and annoyed at Carroll s configuration of Jesus. Nevertheless, for its pushback against the boundaries of conventional interpretations and, above all, for its passionate presentation of the sinfulness of Christian anti-Semitism, his book deserves serious attention. Commonweal magazine Praise for Constantine s Sword Monumental An eye-opening journey through twenty centuries of history..This is a book for everyone. Christian Science Monitor A triumph. The Atlantic Monthly A deeply felt work, a book that measures the sweep of history against [his] experience as a man of the church. Floyd Skloot, San Franciso Chronicle Remarkable . . . A book of a deeper sort. Andrew Sullivan, The New York Times Book Review A masterly history . . . fascinating, brave. Time

Author Information

James Carroll is a Distinguished Scholar in Residence at Suffolk University and a columnist for The Boston Globe. He is the author of ten novels and seven works of fiction. He lives in Boston.

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