March 29, 2006 7:30 PM
What Jesus Meant
In response to our nation so littered with t-shirts and bumper stickers asking “What would Jesus do?” prominent historian and respected Catholic scholar Garry Wills argues that we must ask instead, “What did Jesus mean?”
In his latest book What Jesus Meant, Wills says, “The only Jesus we have is the Jesus of faith.” He urges us to question our understanding of Jesus, to examine what Jesus actually said about how we should live our lives, and to see what we can infer from the way he lived his own.
Jesus brought with him a radical vision of the reign of heaven that did not subscribe to any political platform. Wills says Jesus’ life was one that we, in our humanity, cannot and should not emulate. Not even the Gospels do justice to the divine-human fullness of Jesus. But in their symbols and language, they capture the faith Jesus hoped humanity would live by.
In this evening presentation, Wills professed his own faith and challenged the audience with a fresh reading of Jesus’ intention for all human beings.