Garry Wills, a writer and adjunct professor of history at Northwestern, won a Pulitzer Prize in 1993 for General Non-Fiction for Lincoln at Gettysburg. He has written nearly forty books and many magazine articles. What Jesus Meant was a New York Times bestseller. (For his books I've read, click on his name.)

Wills first points out that the NT, written in koine Greek (a marketplace or “pigdin” laguage), was not elegant. He uses his own translation – “They go with the image I have of Jesus as a lower-class man speaking the everyday language of his workingmen followers.” He critiques WWJD braclets because “Christians cannot really be ‘Christlike’.” He also rejects the idea of the Jesus Seminar – rather than a ranking Jesus’ NT sayings or deeds (which Wills calls a new fundamentalism), he wants all the NT words. “So this book will accept what Jesus meant as conveyed to us by what the gospels mean. It will treat the Jesus of faith, since there is no other. The ‘historical Jesus’ does not exist for us.”

Garry Wills then proceeds to add meaning to the NT by telling us his version, intermixing Gospels and Epistles to both simplify and probe deeper into what Jesus meant. His reconstruction efforts reminds me of book 154 (Jesus: A New Revelation, edited by the Urantia Foundation), but book 154 is 1000-pp long, with in-depth analyses of Jesus and all persons. But Wills’ shorter book is not at all anything like a condensed version of 154.

Wills stresses the radical nature of Jesus’ vocation, forged during his hidden years and the desert temptations. He is convincing that Jesus especially challenges “holiness codes” and the pursuit of wealth. He extends this challenge to today’s religions, Catholic in particular, and much of the book has very heated words not just against codes and wealth, but against religion itself for its distortions of the intended meanings of the NT scriptures. Wills states often that Jesus strongly opposes all organized religion – not just of Jesus’ era, but of all future eras. He is especially hard on priestly orders (Popes too) whose elaborate temples and cathedrals distort Jesus’ life and teachings. [So I wonder what he says in his book “Why I Am a Catholic?”] Wills feels that direct communication with Jesus is essential: “One enters the heavenly reign by only one avenue – love. That avenue not only leads to Jesus. It is Jesus.” But Wills is not inclusive – Jesus is the only way. Wills states that Jesus was not involved in earthly justice or politics, but when he asks “What is the kind of religion Jesus opposed?” his answers are couched in terms I’d call justice and politics, so I wonder what he means by these terms.

His discussion of atonement is very good. He rejects the “substitution theory” but is vague here, saying “However we understand the mysterious sacrifice of the cross, one thing is certain – it is a proof of God’s love, not his anger.” Wills says “Religion killed Jesus.” As for Jesus’ resurrection, he condemns papal responses. Instead, “Jesus was resurrected into us. We walk around living his life after his death. The Resurrection was not something that happened a long time ago, in a far place. It is happening now, everywhere on earth.” I enjoyed Garry Wills’ unconventional view of the NT. This book is well worth reading for all who want an insightful view of what Jesus means. I give it a high recommendation (for a book with no index).