Komoszewski J Ed - Reinventing Jesus: How Contemporary Skeptics Miss the Real Jesus and Mislead Popular Culture

In a media horizon currently littered with caricatures of Christ and the church that he founded, Reinventing Jesus is a refreshing breeze of honesty regarding Christian origins. People ought to know that the Gospels and early records of the church are extremely reliable, but they are being misled by the current spate of books, movies, and television specials that offer torque instead of truth, sensation in place of sense, and the radical in place of the real. Unlike the writers and publishers who have sold their souls to the fiscal bottom line, the authors of these pages have not falsified a single syllable at the expense of truth, and I can't think of a more appropriate book "for such a time as this." Though aimed at the general public, professionals can also read these pages with enormous benefit. I know I did!

-PAUL L. MAIERAuthor, In the Fullness of Time Professor of Ancient History, Western Michigan University

In our postmodern, secular culture, religion is treated as privatized, relativized blind faith whose sole value is that it is meaningful to those who take the leap. In keeping with this milieu, Jesus has been reshaped and reinvented to fit virtually every ideology in sight. When this is done by scholars, the average believer may get the impression that something has been found out by those in the know that renders an orthodox view of Jesus naive and unreasonable. Reinventing Jesus corrects this impression and it represents a rigorous yet readable defense of the orthodox understanding of Jesus. While most books of this genre focus exclusively on the general historicity of the New Testament documents, Reinventing Jesus is unique in including but going beyond this concern by tackling questions of the accuracy of the New Testament textual materials, the credibility of the New Testament canon, and the relationship between Jesus and evolutionary Christology rooted in pagan religious myths. This book is a welcomed resource.

-J. P. MORELANDDistinguished Professor of Philosophy, Biola University Director, Eidos Christian Center

Through sound reasoning, strong documentation, and a winning style, this book puts the lie to many popular but misguided claims about Jesus and early Christianity that deny the objective truth and power of the Gospel. It is a winsome, timely, and needed antidote to the truth decay that is infecting our culture's perception of Christianity.

-DOUGLAS GROOTHUISAuthor, On Jesus Professor of Philosophy, Denver Seminary

We live in an era that is flooding us with books that present various types of claims about Jesus. They seek to undercut the idea that we have a trustworthy portrait of him. So it is refreshing to see a volume clear away the seeming fog. Reinventing Jesus effectively presents the other side of the public debate about Jesus, where seemingly glitzy speculation is shown to be more like virtual reality than the history it often claims to be.

-DARRELL BOCKAuthor, Breaking the Da Vinci Code and The Missing Gospels Research Professor of New Testament Studies, Dallas Theological Seminary

This carefully argued book offers a detailed and very helpful critique of many of the recent extreme approaches to the Gospels (from the Jesus Seminar to The Da Vinci Code). It explains the issues of Jesus scholarship, text criticism, and other subjects on a level that all readers who read the book through can grasp. Komoszewski, Sawyer, and Wallace have made a significant contribution!

-CRAIG KEENERAuthor, A Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew and The Gospel of John Professor of New Testament, Palmer Theological Seminary of Eastern University

Many college students, unfortunately, enroll in a university religion class only to have their faith shattered. And in the last few years, dozens of radio and TV news programs have also been demolishing Christian faith by citing researchers with the Jesus Seminar or proponents of The Da Vinci Code. Fortunately, Reinventing Jesus provides sound, biblical answers to these questions being raised on campus and in the culture. This book answers the major questions being raised today about the Bible and Jesus Christ, yet it provides those answers in a way that is easy for the layperson to understand. Reinventing Jesus will answer your questions and help you answer the questions others may have about the truthfulness of Christianity.

-KERBY ANDERSONNational Director for Probe Ministries Cohost of Point of View (USA Radio Network)

For the past decade Jesus has been a major figure in the news. The popular media have tended to showcase a few radical scholars whose "new views" have been presented as "new discoveries." Was the real Jesus different from what the New Testament reports? Were other books with a negative picture of Jesus banned from the Bible to repress the truth? These are the new questions being asked and they deserve fresh answers. Reinventing Jesus answers the call and reflects scholarship that is both sound and honest. No attempt is made to ignore or dismiss skeptical arguments too quickly. Instead, these three scholars present solid reasons for holding that the New Testament presents the most accurate portrait of the real Jesus available. Readers will be pleasantly surprised by how clearly the authors have presented the data, some of which is seen for the first time!

-MICHAEL LICONAAuthor, The Case for the Resurrection of Jesus and Paul Meets Muhammad Director of Apologetics Evangelism, North American Mission Board, Southern Baptist Convention

Reinventing Jesus puts top-flight scholarship on the bottom shelf. Komoszewski, Sawyer, and Wallace have crafted a book that is carefully researched, copiously documented, and clearly written. It will handsomely repay the effort of any serious reader looking for the real evidence behind historic belief in the deity of Christ.

-JOSH MCDOWELLInternational author and speaker

Whatever problems orthodox Christians have in demonstrating either historical reliability or historical integrity, the problem does not reside in whether or not the New Testament itself contains what was originally written. The facts are that, in spite of a welter of variations, the evidence that survives permits us to know with utter certitude that we are in touch with the original Gospels, letters, and writings of the first century. Recent skepticism advocating that the orthodox corrupted the text is proven in Reinventing Jesus to be an overstated conclusion driven by otherthan-historical forces.

-SCOT MCKNIGHTKarl A. Olsson Professor in Religious Studies, North Park University

Never in the history of the Christian faith has unbelief had the tools at its disposal that it has today. Every kind of argument against the Bible and its portrait of Jesus is picked up and repeated endlessly in published works and on the Internet. Christians are often hit with "scholarly" arguments indicating that we can't have any knowledge of what the Bible originally said or who Jesus really was. We are told Christianity is not unique and the story of Jesus is patterned after pagan myths. Reinventing Jesus cuts through the rhetoric of radical skepticism and provides a clear, understandable, and compelling response to those attempting to rewrite the history of early Christianity. People loosely slap "must read" on just about anything these days. But when it comes to Reinventing Jesus, the label sticks!

-JAMES WHITEAuthor, The King James Only Controversy and The Forgotten Trinity Director, Alpha and Omega Ministries

Perhaps like never before, some radical reinterpreters of the historical Jesus have tried to do a makeover of Jesus' public image, turning him into a politically correct guru who echoes snippets of today's popular cultural agenda. It seems that any Gospel data that do not fit this image are automatically jettisoned. The authors of Reinventing Jesus march into this morass in order to sift the evidence for the New Testament reports. Their careful, painstaking analyses invite us to study the data for ourselves and compare the ancient, accredited records with today's reconstructions. The endnotes alone are worth the cost of the book! Bravo, Kregel Publications, for this fine entry into the fray!

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