Jesus for Skeptics

A Book Summary

This book engages the life of Jesus in his role as skeptical protagonist; skeptical not only of his own religious tradition but of his own practice of it and that of his disciple agents. He challenges skeptics, both religious and secular, to be skeptical first and foremost of themselves as well as the practice of others. Like Socrates, Jesus’ skepticism begins with self-examination. His critical “principle of suspicion” entails the difference between the authentic and inauthentic practice of religion. Authentic practice engages religion through the portal of selfless humility that welcomes and includes all; inauthentic practice engages religion through the portal of selfish pride that stirs up judgment, condemnation, and exclusion. Authentic religion inspires compassion for others; inauthentic religion demands conformity to oneself, one’s own beliefs. Authentic religion inspires justice, mercy, and peace; inauthentic religion retaliates and demands “eye for an eye” retribution and punishment. Jesus’ “Sermon on the Mount” and the “Beatitudes” with which it begins constitute the Rosetta Stone that translates skepticism into a provocative, authentic, moral way of life. Each moral quality—humility, compassion, justice, meekness, mercy, and peacemaking (Chapter Titles) is clarified in terms of skepticism’s principle of suspicion, the difference between its authentic and inauthentic practice. Each chapter includes three identical sections: Sacred Story (including Greek Mythology), Sacred Meaning, and Sacred Practice; this latter section shows how a person (St. Teresa, St. Francis, Gandhi, Lincoln, King, indigenous peoples) or a program (Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Roosevelt’s “Economic Bill of Rights”) demonstrates tensions and challenges inherent in Jesus’ skepticism regarding the practice of a particular moral quality.

UNIQUE: First, the focus of its skepticism is not the familiar doubts about the historicity and reliability of sources, sayings, and beliefs. Instead, its focus is on differences between genuine and hypocritical religion, between the authentic, humble practice of Jesus’ legacy and the inauthentic, arrogant practice of it. Second, I am not aware of any ethicists who clarify, as I do, the unique relationship between justice and mercy: that under conditions of injustice, justice is not suj generis, cannot establish and sustain itself, but depends on mercy and projects of mercy in order to subvert injustice and establish and sustain justice. Third, this book on Jesus is unique in that I begin each chapter with relevant stories from Greek mythology, specifically stories from the Iliad/Odyssey axis of stories, that help clarify the moral qualities of Jesus’ Sermon. Finally, at the end of each chapter I include a moral EXERCISE for contemplation and completion.

Jesus for Skeptics is a Trade Book not a scholarly book, but it is based on a lifetime of scholarship. It is accessible to a wide audience of intelligent laypersons who read New York Times, London Times, Times Literary Supplement, Manchester Guardian, The Atlantic and such kind of journals. Its audience includes the devout, doubters, atheists, agnostics; religious and secular skeptics, professors/students of religion, philosophy, ethics; clergy, scientists, politicians.

James E. Gilman: Psychology (B.A.), Theology (M.Div.), Classical Antiquities (M.A.), Philosophy of Religion and Ethics (PhD,).

James E. Gilman has published four books and numerous articles, including “The Metaphysics of Belief: A Wittgenstein and Collingwood Convergence”, in Religious Studies (Cambridge University Press) in 2016; Christian Faith, Justice and a Politics of Mercy: The Benevolent
Community in 2014. Faith, Reason, and Compassion: A Christian Philosophy of Religion in 2007; and Fidelity of Heart: An Ethic of Christian Virtue in 2001. Gilman is Professor Emeritus of Philosophy and Religion at Mary Baldwin College