Mind and Media Book Review

Jesus: An Intimate Portrait of the Man, His Land and His People by Leith Anderson is the latest entry into a crowded field of books attempting to make the Gospel accounts of Jesus’ life accessible to the masses. It is an admirable attempt.

There is a danger in erring in one of two ways with biographies of Jesus. One is to stray to far from the biblical accounts and risk parody, the other is to be so slavishly devoted to the text that one loses the fact that Jesus was human as well as divine. Anderson does a fairly good job of walking the line between the two.

He is careful not to bring in a vast amount of extra-biblical material. In fact he offers what could best be described as a running paraphrase upon the Scriptures. But to avoid just parroting the Gospels he makes some reasonable assessments upon the reaction of Jesus, his disciples and those whom Jesus interacts with in the course of his ministry to various events. These personal touches help humanize the characters.

Especially helpful were the numerous sidebars that explain the history, culture, customs and atmosphere of Jesus’ time. Even a veteran minister, like myself, found several “factoids” that had escaped my studies over the years. These were nicely integrated into the text so as not to disrupt the flow to much.

My one true complaint is that Anderson tended to quote at great length the teaching of Jesus. The sometimes tedious rendering of sermons and parables bogged down the flow of the story. I think the average reader would have been better served with a synopsis of the teachings with perhaps an appendix in the back of the book. With this same thought in mind, the book would have benefited further from some type of footnotes that would have directed the reader to the appropriate texts from the different Gospels.

On the whole however, I think that this book is a welcome addition to the market. I think it would be of the most benefit to those with little exposure to Christianity and those who perhaps are a bit daunted by the Bible itself.

[A big thank you goes out to Stacy Harp of Mind and Media, as well as to Bethany House Publishing who provided this copy of the book. If you are interested in becoming a Mind and Media reviewer please check out the website.]