"Jesus Through Pagan Eyes" by Rev'd Mark Townsend provides a look at Jesus the man, and Christ the God figure, from a new perspective. Townsend looks not only at the New Testament of the Christian Bible in forming his own views, he also incorporates writings on Jesus discovered in transcripts long removed from the New Testament such as The Gospel of Thomasand the Gospel of Mary and he calls upon other scholars for their insight. Finally, Townsend spoke with several followers of different Pagan religions, asking them for their viewpoints.
A selection of essays written by these Pagans forms the second part of this book. In the third section, many well-known and lesser-known Pagans from a varied mix of traditions are interviewed.The result is an insightful look at the man, Jesus of Nazareth and the religion that he inspired.
I have followed a Pagan religion for over 20 years, and during that time have had to explain and justify my beliefs many, many times for people who either cannot or do not want to understand why I choose to hold beliefs outside of the "norm". Invariably, at some point when some are questioning me on what I believe and why the question will arise "Don't you believe in Jesus?"
If you are a Christian who is seeking to find a better understanding of the founder of your beliefs, then this is a book you need to read.
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Your thoughts
I have ordered the book from Amazon and intend to read it, and I will prioritize it in the list I am committed to reading.
You are, of course correct, that the issue should not be sidelined too much by a discussion of Francis of Assisi. However, I was named after him and I was raised for a while in a Franciscan parish, so I have an interest in him, and I have a general interest in nature spirituality, with which he is associated.
I am not an expert on St Francisof Assisi. I am using the words that were used by the uthor of this book, Mark Townsend. I feel that to debate the merits of whether or not this one man should or should not be called "Priest" and whether or not he would have taken on such a title for himself rather detracts from the knowledge we could all learn from reading this book.
Francis would not have thought of himself as a priest, as he considered that he was unworthy of the rank, though he was more worthy than some of the priests in his time and ours. Deacon is one step below priest. He was pressed to take ordination as a deacon, but his humility prevented him from going further to ordination.
In one sense all Christians are priests, as they share in Christ's priesthood. We call this the priestood of all believers, which Catholicism underplays, I think to its detriment. Nevertheless, if you want to say that Francis was a priest, are you using the word in a sense different from the Christian or Catholic usage? What then do you mean by describing him as a priest.
St Francis is considered by many to have been a priest, duly ordained and officially recognised as such or not. Perhaps he was not officially a Catholic Priest, but he was a priest nonetheless.
I must make a minor correction to this article. Francis of Assisi was never ordained a priest, the highest that he ever went was deacon. You can be a member or founder of a religious order without being a priest.
This sounds original and I will be having a look at the book, though I do have a large backlog of books to read at the moment.
I had not heard of Mark Townsend, he sounds like a very interesting character!