"Jesus is missing," says Nelson-Pallmeyer, assistant professor of justice and peace studies at the University of St. Thomas. The historical figure of Jesus of Nazareth has mostly disappeared from the church and from the lives of most Christians. In his place are a pathologically violent God, muddled thinking and unjust living. The real Jesus is missing—or has been banished—and Nelson-Pallmeyer, a scholar, activist, author and regular contributor to Sojourners
magazine, wants to find him again. In this book, Nelson-Pallmeyer draws heavily on clues left by other Jesus scholars (Marcus Borg, John Dominic Crossan, etc.) to find what was central to the life and thought of Jesus. He methodically argues that the Bible is full of contradictory and distorted images of God, and rife with stories attributing to God violence, abuse and murder. These images and tales must be jettisoned, for they conflict with the nonviolent God revealed in Jesus of Nazareth, who preached and worked against the domination culture of his era. No accommodationist, Nelson-Pallmeyer cannot find any place for violence, even when exercised against evil. He is by turns prophetic and passionate, redundant and reckless. In a telling passage, Nelson-Pallmeyer jokes about reading his Bible and "crossing out the parts I don't like." Cast as a mystery in which Nelson-Pallmeyer discovers why and how the real Jesus disappeared, this volume is interesting, but overly defensive. (July)
