Download The Scandalous Gospel of Jesus: What's So Good About the Good News? AudioBook Free
Jesus came preaching, but the church wound up preaching Jesus. How come the church insist upon making Jesus the object of its attention rather than heeding his message? Esteemed Harvard minister Peter J. Gomes believes that excessive give attention to the Bible and doctrines about Jesus have led the Christian church astray. "What did Jesus preach?" asks Gomes. To recover the transformative power of the gospel—"the good thing"—Gomes says we must exceed the Bible and rediscover how to live on out Jesus' original revolutionary message of hope: "Dietrich Bonhoeffer once warned against cheap grace, and I warn now against cheap hope. Hope is not only the optimistic view that somehow everything will turn out all right in the end if everyone just does as we do. Hope is the more rugged, the more muscular view that even if things don't turn out fine and aren't fine, we endure through and beyond the times that disappoint or threaten to destroy us." This gospel is offensive and always overturns the status quo, Gomes tells us. It's not good news for many who wish not to be disturbed, and today our churches resound with shrill speeches of fear and exclusivity or tepid retellings of a health-and-wealth gospel. With his unique mixture of eloquence and insight, Gomes invites us to listen to anew the radical nature of Jesus' message of hope and change. Using examples from ancient times as well as from modern pop culture, The Scandalous Gospel of Jesus shows us why the glad tidings are every bit as relevant today as when it was initially preached.
