The Fanatic: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth

Two thousand years ago, a wandering Jewish preacher wandered through Galilee, gathering followers to establish what he called the “Kingdom of God.” The revolutionary movement he started became so threatening to Roman rule that he was soon executed as a state criminal. And a few years after his martyrdom, his followers proclaimed him God. This preacher was Jesus of Nazareth, a figure who is still remembered in all corners of our planet today, and the religion he founded is the most widespread in the world, with over two billion believers. But who was Jesus during his lifetime? What prompted his followers to proclaim him God? And why did the early Christian church prefer to portray him as a peaceful spiritual teacher rather than a wandering rebel? Unraveling the mystery of such a transformation is the challenge that Reza Aslan, a renowned Iranian-American historian and sociologist of religion, has set himself. This is not the usual biography of Jesus from the Gospels, but a meticulous and fascinating scholarly study that examines the historical figure of Jesus in the context of the era in which he happened to live - the era of the Zealots, radical nationalists who proclaimed resistance to Roman occupation as a sacred duty of all Jews.