The New Testament Without Illusion

Book excerpt: From the beginning of the New Testament era, there have been disputes over what individual passages meant, who wrote them, when they were written, and whether certain sayings could be directly attributed to Jesus. McKenzie's aim is not to destroy the credibility of the New Testament, but rather to enhance belief by allowing it to rest on a foundation freed from various manmade illusions and historically inaccurate assumptions that modern biblical research has discovered from both internal and external evidence about the writings. Father McKenzie takes on a variety of topics -- the "real Jesus" and the Son of man; gospels and gossip; the roles of Peter and Paul; divorce; the resurrection; the meaning of the Apocalypse -- to name but a few, in this highly informative look at key themes and episodes of the New Testament.