“‘Baggini is a philosopher and writer who manages to combine serious erudition and accessible prose. … he has been one of the most eloquent and attractive atheist voices of the last 15 years, free from the contempt that characterised ‘New Atheism’, and animated instead by a spirit of intelligent enquiry and intellectual generosity. Both are on display in The Godless Gospel… Baggini does a better job than anyone else I’ve read at transposing Jesus into a moral philosophical key.”
Review by Nick Spencer in Prospect
“A superbly lucid and emotionally involving account of the New Testament story, full of thought-provoking insights for atheists, agnostics and believers alike.”
Sarah Bakewell
“The Godless Gospel is a riveting account not of religious belief but of the wisdom of one of the world’s greatest moral philosophers… Baggini’s great gift is to be able to explain the most complex philosophical and theological arguments in language we can all easily understand… generous and warm.”
Gavin Esler
Even if we don’t believe that Jesus was the son of God, we tend to think he was a great moral teacher. But was he? And how closely do idealised values such as our love of the family, helping the needy, and the importance of kindness, match Jesus’s original tenets?
Julian Baggini challenges our assumptions about Christian values – and about Jesus – by focusing on Jesus’s teachings in the Gospels, stripping away the religious elements such as the accounts of miracles or the resurrection of Christ. Reading closely this new ‘godless’ Gospel, included as an appendix, Baggini asks how we should understand Jesus’s attitude to the renunciation of the self, to politics, or to sexuality, as expressed in Jesus’s often elusive words.
An atheist from a Catholic background, Baggini introduces us to a more radical Jesus than popular culture depicts. And as he journeys deeper into Jesus’s worldview, and grapples with Jesus’s sometimes contradictory messages, against his scepticism he finds that Jesus’s words amount to a purposeful and powerful philosophy, which has much to teach us today.
One of The Tablet‘s 2020 Books of the Year. (Note The Tablet is the UK’s leading Catholic newspaper!)
Watch me discuss the book with Ruth Wishart at the Wigtown Book Festival.
and with Justin Brierley and Skye Jethani on Unbelievable
Discussing the book with Robin Ince and Victor Stock on the Book Shambles podcast.
Interview about The Godless Gospel with Joe Humphrys in The Irish Times.
“As Baggini appreciates, there is a ferocity about the figure of Jesus. He has come, he announces, to bring not peace but a sword. The dominant tone of the Gospel is one of urgency: the end of history is rapidly approaching, and only friendship and justice will save us. This message may not have sounded too convincing when Jesus proclaimed it in Palestine. It’s a lot more convincing now.”
Review by Terry Eagleton in the Guardian.
Interview with Roger Lasko from the Centre for Radical Christianity.
Buy from my bookshop, your local bookseller, Waterstones, Foyles, Blackwell’s or (if you must) Amazon
