Jesus a
great savior? Absolutely. Jesus a perfect shepherd? Of course. Jesus a
great philosopher? Hey, wait a second.
Today,
philosophy in many Christian communities is viewed with some suspicion and
little necessary for the Christian faith. And it seems even more alien and
scandalous to us, to say that Jesus was a philosopher. This alarmism arises
from ignorance or baseless prejudices, because the truth is that Jesus is the
greatest and best philosopher.
To help us
come out of the shadows, and discover this impressive aspect about Jesus, we
find this book entitled "Jesus the great philosopher", written by Dr.
Jonathan T. Pennington, who with great skill and with a friendly and academic
style, makes us see that as Christians we can confidently say that Jesus is the
great philosopher and therefore he offers us the best philosophy. As the author
writes “Christianity is not just a set of doctrines but a divine whole-life
philosophy worth dying for, if need be”.
Therefore,
it is time to know and follow Jesus and his philosophy.
In this
book, the reader will find a good short introduction to philosophy, and how
Christianity from its inception has promoted the true philosophy. For this, the
author presents us the great
philosophical ideas found in the Scriptures, particularly presenting Moses as a
philosopher, who presented the life instructions to the people and how the
prophets spoke of this, to finally speak of the Gospels as testimony of the
life of Jesus, and of how the philosophy of Christian life is presented. All
this under four criteria: metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, and politics.
Then the
author takes us to a more practical part, in which he talks about emotions,
relationships and happiness. Issues that directly address our understanding of
the philosophy that we find in Scripture. There would be a lot more to say,
especially on the approach to stoicism, which is very good. But, I encourage
you to get this book.
I believe
this book will challenge our understanding of who Jesus is, leading us to see
our Lord as the one who shows us how to live. Only in Jesus the Messiah, we
find true eudaimonia and ataraxia.
You can get this book here.
I received this book for free from the publisher and was not required to write a positive review for the book.
