About this item
Jay Parini brings a lifes worth of contemplation on Jesus to the first volume in ICONS, a series of brief, thought-provoking biographies edited by James Atlas. In Jesus, Parini turns the powerful narrative skill hes wielded over the course of a four-decade career to a figure whos dominated our collective imagination and cultural iconography for over twenty centuries.The main trend of modern theology has hinged on the notion of demythologizing Jesus. Parinis book seeks to re-mythologize him, considering the story in all its mythical radiance, taking Jesus as the human face of God. It asks Whats so moving about Jesuss story that millions of people over two millennia have considered it a paradigm for livingFar from dogmatic, Parini looks at the many ways in which Jesus has been viewed and dramatizes the transformation from Jesus to Christ, man to myth, and obscure Jewish carpenter to someone who pointed a finger toward God and said with conviction This is the way.
About the Author
Jay Parini is Axinn Professor of English at Middlebury College, Vermont. His six novels also include Benjamins Crossing and The Apprentice Lover. His volumes of poetry include The Art of Subtraction: New and Selected Poems. In addition to biographies of John Steinbeck, Robert Frost and William Faulkner, he has written a volume of essays on literature and politics, as well as The Art of Teaching. He edited the Oxford Encyclopedia of American Literature and writes regularly for the Guardian and other publications.
