The Christ of the Mount

Book excerpt: This book, which was first published in 1931, is for every person who suspects and hopes there is a better way to live responsibly and compassionately in the complex world we share. In this book, Jones challenges us to go deeper, question and ultimately discover the effect of Jesus’ principles on humanity, regardless one’s background or predisposed religious views. “I trust this book will be an unhesitating, but not a too-light, easy, ‘Yes’ to the question as to whether the Sermon on the Mount is practicable. If the reading of it brings to the reader what the writing of it has brought to the writer in these months of meditation, then we will both be repaid a hundredfold. A trusted friend said to the writer, ‘You are not a theologian; you are a divining rod. You tell us where there is water beneath—remember your function.’ In this book I have tried to remember my function. I have left to others the discussion of the critical questions involved in the accounts of the Sermon on the Mount as reported by Matthew and Luke. I have not been able to escape theological implications—who can escape them?—but I have tried to leave to the theologians the labeling of the wells and their more accurate description while I have endeavored to be true to my friend’s commission and have pointed to where in the Sermon on the Mount I think water may be found. There is water here—dig and drink!”—E. Stanley Jones, Introduction