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A Life of Jesus
by Shusaku Endo
Product Group: Book
Publisher: Paulist Press (1978-01-01)
ISBN: 0809123193
EAN: 9780809123193
Dewey Decimal #: 232.901
Binding/Media: Paperback - 192 pages
SKU: 7W-NA9Q-0S9L
Condition: As New
Comments: Trade paperback in Like New condition, this is A Life of Jesus by Shusaku Endo, translated from the Japanese by Richard A. Schuchert. Clean and tight, in gift condition. From Paulist Press. « if ( document.getElementById ) { document.writeln('Show less'); }
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Editorial Reviews
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Product Description
A simple and powerful retelling of the life of Christ as seen through the eyes of a Japanese novelist.
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Customer Reviews
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A Life Lived, A Love Triumphant
Rating  (4)
Date: 2010-01-20
1 out of 1 customers found this reveiw helpful
What is it that we truly know about Jesus? What can we glean through reading of the scripture about the man who today commands the following of millions of Christians? Physically, we do not have much to go by although many depictions have throughout history sought to bring to life the image of Jesus. Yet from a political and social perspective, we know a lot. Galilee during Jesus' time would have been part of a territory that extended slightly east of the river Jordan ruled as it was by the Jewish King Herod Antipas.
Herod had strong allegiances with the governing hand of Rome and was therefore looked at with much scorn by many Jews at the time, concerned as they were with what they perceived as the `Romanization' of the Jewish tradition. This resentment also extended towards the Jewish authorities in Jerusalem who were seen as having given up the Jewish culture to appease the Roman occupation. So it was that the poor and the suffering maintained their hope in the coming of their messiah- the liberator who would free them from this foreign rule. For these same people, Jesus became their hope.
Initially Jesus did indeed fit the role of a messianic liberator. After a brief time in the wilderness as a follower of John the Baptist he returned with his own group of followers to Galilee where he began to round up his disciples. In contrast to John's proclamation on the wrath of God, Jesus' message was a joyous one mingling as he did with the sick, the poor and the needy. He strictly followed the law but took a courageous stance when it came to helping those who had been condemned by the religious elite.
We see in the Bible how Jesus was a man filled with loving compassion ready to take, "the grief of all the people in the world" on his shoulders (p.51). And yet the ultimate search of many of these people was not for his acts of love but rather for his `signs and wonders'. People wanted miracles that would cure them from their disease, not just acts of kindness. With his ever increasing following, Jesus had the formidable task of trying to affirm a God of love to a people for whom sickness and suffering were commonplace.
For the Jewish authorities back in Jerusalem, Jesus' increasing popularity would have been a source of tremendous concern. The continuing altercations between Jesus and the `spies'- the men sent by the Sanhedrin to investigate his teachings- reveal just how much he had already drawn attention to himself. He had angered the Sanhedrin by healing the sick on the Sabbath. In their eyes he was therefore a blasphemer. Moreover his appeal to the populous as their much-wanted nationalist liberator created shock waves of fear in the hearts of those eager to keep a stable relationship with Rome. Alas Jesus never sought to become a political renegade. Indeed his only claim was to be a man totally intent on showing God's love.
Those embittered with nationalistic fervor would have been disappointed with the `Sermon on the Mount'. Again, Jesus' message of love on this occasion would have dampened the hopes of even his disciples who were rooting for him as their political messiah. Jesus' return to his home town of Nazareth and the cold reception from his very own family would only have added to the sense of isolation that he and his disciples must have already been feeling. In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus is heard as saying how he the Son of Man had, "no place to lay his head", even in his home town (Luke 9 vs 58). Those who stayed with him followed him on a lonely wondering into the southern regions of Galilee where he finally spoke of the impending end to his earthly life. His death, or more appropriately his slaughter, would be the way through which he would take the pain of human suffering upon himself. For the disciples, they were to carry on in the mission of spreading God's love long after he had died.
Shusaku Endo's account of the moments surrounding the last supper is poignant. Contrary to the popular image of this scene with the twelve disciples sitting in seclusion with Jesus, Endo believes that others in the crowd would also have heard his declaration of the passion and his death. His `doctrine of love' would have underscored his intentions and those listening would probably have been confused and disappointed. Endo paints a picture of Judas Iscariot, the betraying disciple, storming out of the room together with vast crowds and making his way to the palace of the high priest to denounce his leader.
But it was Jesus' death on the cross that signaled the moment of victory. Standing alone while his disciples slept in the garden of Gethsemane on the eastern side of Jerusalem, we read in the Gospels how he was in so much anguish that he sweated blood while crying out to God. Yet he faced the ensuing arrest by the temple guard with little resistance even though his disciple Peter fought valiantly to intervene. Peter's subsequent denial of Jesus and Judas' later realization that he himself had, "betrayed innocent blood", stand as testimony to how much Jesus was alone as he faced the judgment of the high priest Caiaphas.
Endo's account of the unease that followed in both the Jewish and Roman camps as he appeared in front of both Pilate and Herod underscores just how much his subsequent death on the cross served to fulfill the political needs of both sides - a death of convenience designed to preserve political peace. And yet as convenient as it was, the violent and bloody nature of the crucifixion meant that only Jesus came out victorious, declaring to those who had rejected him the immensity of the love of God.
While Endo readily admits that the Gospel accounts differ in several key points, he is firm in his beliefs regarding the truth of who Jesus was and how he died. What is clear is the extent of God's love as demonstrated through the agonizing death of His only son. Today we are all witnesses to that love and just like Endo we all have the opportunity to tell His story.
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Liberal Theology
Rating  (2)
Date: 2009-12-08
1 out of 4 customers found this reveiw helpful
My wife bought me this book a few years ago knowing that I really wanted to read it. I learned about Shusaku Endo several years ago through Philip Yancey's book, Soul Survivor. A Life of Jesus is not a long book (less than 180 pages), but I really struggled completing the book due to Endo's beliefs, or should I say his unbelief. Endo has some very peculiar views on a variety of topics, and it bothered me quite a bit at times. There is no way he can believe what II Timothy 3:16 says. I had a strong interest in reading this book because I thought learning about Jesus through the help of a Japanese novelist would give me a deeper insight into the Japanese psyche as well as that of other Asians. This is extremely important to me since I am half Japanese, live in China and once lived in Thailand and South Korea. Although Shusaku Endo is considered to be one of Japan's greatest modern writers, this is a book I cannot recommend.
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Alternative for the NT?
Rating  (5)
Date: 2009-04-16
Nice historical-novel which tries to place Jesus life and dogma in the historical moment. Seen with the eyes of the oriental culture.
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THE MORE PERSPECTIVES WE TAKE THE MORE FULLY WE COME TO KNOW AND TO LOVE AND MORE CLOSELY TO FOLLOW OUR LORD
Rating (5)
Date: 2008-05-28
1 out of 2 customers found this reveiw helpful
The more we study other perspectives, the better we form an idea of the presence of Jesus Christ within our own life and situation, and of how to bring His love, and peace, to where we see so very little.
Shusaku Endo is called one of Japan's greatest modern writers. Born in 1923, at an early age he converted to Christianity, a difficult step in Japan. See for instance his history of the early Portuguese mission in Japan, Silence as well as his other works. The back matter of this present volume, published thirty years ago by the noted Roman Catholic printing house Paulist Press, in an excellent English translation by the scholarly and Reverend Father Richard A. Schuchert, SJ, calls Endo's extensive body of work an "attempt to integrate his religious faith with Japanese culture." And so this beautiful, illuminating, challenging Life of Jesus.
We have seen several novelists try to present the life of Jesus Christ with greater or lesser fideilty and filters. Nikos Katzanzakis wrote The Last Temptation of Christ, filmed by Martin Scorcese as Martin Scorsese's The Last Temptation of Christ (Director's Cut) [Import, All-region] (Dvd). We may read VIE DE JESUS by Francois Mauriac, etc., etc., yet I do not believe we can find so delicate, faithful and precise a portrait as we encounter here through Endo, except through the blessed hand of the evangelists themselves.
The conservative Catholic Review determined this a finely sketched presentation by a skilled draughtsman: "His description of the Judean countryside and the little towns that dot it, and of the incredibly bleak and empty desert, are among the most real and poetic I have ever read."
This is direct heart to heart Christology from a brilliant and sincere believer, well read and well written. We find Truth here untarnished. We find in full Isaiah 52, the description of the Suffering Servant which prophecy Jesus fulfills, and which begins: "He was despised, the lowest of men, a man of pains, familiar with disease, one from whom men turn their gaze - despised, and we reckoned him as nothing. But it was our disease that he bore, our pains that he carried . . ." and which ends " . . .He was given a tomb with the wicked, with the evildoers was his sepulcher, Although he did no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth (pp. 82-83)."
Endo writes of Jesus's ministry and preaching: "The God of Love, the love of God - the words come easy. The most difficult thing is to bear witness in some tangible way to the truth of these words (p. 71)."
Endo writes as directly, purely and truly as a well trained exegete. His meditation of the Sermon of the Mount is as edifying as any now avalable. After the Beatitudes, he copies faithfully this essential passage with commentary following:
" '. . .love your enemies, do good to those who hate you. Bless those who curse you. Pray for those who abuse you. To him who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also. From him who takes away your coat do not withold your cloak as well.'
They had never received any instruction that touched on this sort of love from either the doctors of the Law or the priests. None of the prophets, including John the Baptist, had ever delivered a discourse on love to match this one by Jesus. His principle of love was directly opposed to all causist commentaries regardig the letter of the Law. The teaching of Jesus demanded of men and women an impossible standard of sincerity in heart and soul, of purity, honesty, and self-denial."
' . . .Give to everyone who begs from you, and of him who takes away your goods do not ask them again. And as you wish that men would do to you, do so to them. If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? . . .Is that the way to act for sons of the Most High?'"
The spirit of forgiveness . . .the spirit of sacrifice . . .this teaching was altogether in contrast to the prudential maxims concerning success in life which they had always heard read to them from the sapiential books, or had heard from the injunctions of the Pharisees. It was a summons to love which lies prehaps beyond the power of mere human earthlings to attempt (pp. 67-68)."
Read this book. Live this book. Love thy enemy.
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Jesus and His life
Rating (5)
Date: 2008-03-13
1 out of 1 customers found this reveiw helpful
A good book, especially towards the end when Endo helps us understand what the life of Jesus means for him. Throughout his book Endo comments on various scholarly interpretations of the life of Jesus.
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