Good Afternoon readers!
We had a terrific discussion last night unpacking, Educated by Tara Westover. It is a memoir of a young woman growing up in a survivalist, Mormon family in Idaho. Ms. Westover reveals one heartbreaking incident after another and how her parents expect all of their children to manage and cope. Their's is a complicated family dynamic with each of the seven children trying/struggling to find their way in the world.
Our next selection is, Zealot by Reza Aslan. I've included commentary from the Amazon website.
Two thousand years ago, an itinerant Jewish preacher walked across the Galilee, gathering followers to establish what he called the “Kingdom of God.” The revolutionary movement he launched was so threatening to the established order that he was executed as a state criminal. Within decades after his death, his followers would call him God.
Sifting through centuries of mythmaking, Reza Aslan sheds new light on one of history’s most enigmatic figures by examining Jesus through the lens of the tumultuous era in which he lived. Balancing the Jesus of the Gospels against the historical sources, Aslan describes a man full of conviction and passion, yet rife with contradiction. He explores the reasons the early Christian church preferred to promulgate an image of Jesus as a peaceful spiritual teacher rather than a politically conscious revolutionary. And he grapples with the riddle of how Jesus understood himself, the mystery that is at the heart of all subsequent claims about his divinity.
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.
A few of us have already read this book and have looked forward to sharing it with our book group. It is a very compelling look at Jesus of Nazareth through the lens of the historical context in which he lived, rather than that of the Biblical accounts in the New Testament.
This selection is available in all formats via Amazon, the Library and I will ask Aaron at Levin & Co. to put a few on our shelf!
Our next meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, December 3rd at 7:00pm.
