The Godless Gospel

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.