The Book of Jesus

A True Metaphorical Account of her Life and Teaching

By: Mike Wine

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

Metaphorically True
Sometimes the only truth is a figure of speech.

My college major was mathematics, a realm where theorems can be proved with clear deductive logic. But I also enjoyed studying the humanities, particularly religion…a totally different philosophical ecosystem than math.

Now that I’m in my seventies I enjoy deductive and inductive reasoning, as well as sensing spirit within and without. Epistemology is as important as ever, but my personal sense of knowing-how-I-know has enlarged with life’s experiences. What an amazing thing this world is with its overwhelming beauty interwoven with cruel brutality. Amidst this reality, I celebrate the best of what I know each day.

So truth…and Jesus. In our American society, Jesus remains a powerful cultural icon. Yes, the Buddha has gained ground and Mohammed is read in more places across the USA, and our indigenous religions are followed more closely than ever by many of us. But, Yashua, Joshua, or the anglicized Greek version of the name, Jesus, still holds strong appeal.
In this book’s new telling of Jesus’ story, I listen to the spirit of life as I reimagine Jesus’ life and teaching. It is, after all, the essential truth of the Jesus-Way that speaks most powerfully to us.

This way of rethinking Jesus is not dissimilar from how John’s gospel radically reimagines the Jesus’ story vis-à-vis the earlier synoptic traditions: Matthew, Mark and Luke. Except in this case the reframing is away from John’s Gnosticism and toward an open spirit of life.

In The Book of Jesus, we listen anew as she opens up more of life to us. We learn again that God is not an anthropomorphic being, but the connection of us all, the wonder of nature, and even the taste of searing pain. We realize anew that worship is not the exaltation of a supernatural entity, but the celebration and embrace of life in its fullness. Jesus, in this true metaphorical account, is about savoring reality and making it even better.

That’s why we love God, the authentic God.

Mike/Grandad.