Jesus: The Human Face of God (Icons)

An Amazon Best Book of the Month, December 2013: Skeptics--religious and otherwise--will surely ask what more could possibly be said about Jesus, who has been mythologized, de-mythologized, re-mythologized and then some over twenty centuries. While novelist and professor Jay Parini hardly breaks new ground with this erudite yet accessible Jesus: The Human Face of God--the first in a series of short biographies known as the ICONS series--he manages, in less than 200 pages, to raise and examine the most important questions about the founder of Christianity. For those already steeped in religion, myth and literature, Parini’s offering is mostly a guidebook. But to those seeking to understand both who Jesus was and how he came to dominate the minds and hearts of millions over thousands of years, this is the perfect primer--arriving, of course, at the perfect time of year. —Sara Nelson