Reading Jesus: a writer's encounter with the Gospels

These fragments I have shored against my ruins. The running father, the starving son, the fatted calf, the husks, the unbearable question ; Swine ; The burning tongue, the barren womb ; Perfume, hair ; A dream of whiteness ; The dark garden ; The fig tree ; The temptation in the desert ; The writing on the ground ; The blessed

The problem of Jesus : reading through anger, confusion, disappointment, loss. The problem of miracles ; The problem of asceticism : do we want to live like this? ; The problem of perfection : could we live the way he says even if we wanted to? ; The problem of apocalypticism ; Contradiction, conundrum, paradox ; The tainted text : the problem of the Jews ; The problem of divinity ; Wrestling

The Seven Last Words and the last words.