STRICTLY PERSONAL
A PERSONAL JESUS, by Upton’ Sinclair; | Peyr 4. Allen and Unwin, English toad 2ACH individual believer and ‘unbeliever has no doubt a different conception of the humanity of Christ, his appearance, his character and activities beyond that limited survey which we derive from the Gospels. It is a strong temptation to each of us to make Him in our own image. To one who is in the strict sense a believer the accuracy of his private image is not of prime importance; but it is all-important to one (continued on next nage)
BOOKS ‘(continued from previous page) who does not believe in Christ’s divinity. Upon its accuracy depends his sense | of moral security; for he must feel that the Man was of such a kind that He would have held the same view of life as himself and accepted his interpreta- | tion of Christian ethics. Upton Sinclair presents us with an in- _ teresting historical Jesus-though most | interesting as a guide to the personality of Upton Sinclair. His chronicle is constructed in three parts — "Youth," a simple and moving account of what may | well have been the outward circumstances of Jesus’s boyhood, as a mem- | ber of a wandering group of carpenters; | "Mission," an interpretation of the Gos- | pel narratives; "Spirit,’ a somewhat | harsh and controversial exposition of the | stowth of the Christian Church. The second and third sections are vastly inferior in style and content to _the first, for in them Upton Sinclair be- ' comes the political pamphleteer. He sees | Jesus as a politically-minded evangelist, | and summarily rejects the Gospel of St. | John-"If the Son knew all these things | it was easy indeed for Him to die; but why should He die, since the Father had all power, and could have saved Him and all the rest of mankind without going through such an unpleasant pro- | cedure?" Why, indeed, unless love is the | hardest of all things for men 4o grasp | and understand? There is some love be/hind Upton Sinclair's book; but it is | strained through a political sieve.
James K.
Baxter
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 32, Issue 818, 1 April 1955, Page 13
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344STRICTLY PERSONAL New Zealand Listener, Volume 32, Issue 818, 1 April 1955, Page 13
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