The Godless Gospel cover art

The Godless Gospel

Was Jesus a Great Moral Teacher?

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The Godless Gospel

By: Julian Baggini
Narrated by: Julian Baggini
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About this listen

From the Sunday Times best-selling author of How the World Thinks, The Godless Gospel asks: do Jesus' teachings add up to a coherent moral system, still relevant today?

Even if we don't believe that Jesus was the son of God, we tend to think he was a great moral teacher. But was he? And how closely do idealised values such as our love of the family, helping the needy and the importance of kindness match Jesus' original tenets? Julian Baggini challenges our assumptions about Christian values - and about Jesus - by focusing on Jesus' teachings in the Gospels, stripping away the religious elements such as the accounts of miracles or the resurrection of Christ.

Reading closely this new 'godless' Gospel, Baggini asks how we should understand Jesus' attitude to the renunciation of the self, to politics or to sexuality, as expressed in Jesus' often elusive words.

An atheist from a Catholic background, Baggini introduces us to a more radical Jesus than popular culture depicts. And as he journeys deeper into Jesus' worldview and grapples with Jesus' sometimes contradictory messages, against his scepticism he finds that Jesus' words amount to a purposeful and powerful philosophy which has much to teach us today.

©2020 Julian Baggini (P)2020 W F Howes Christianity Religious Studies Morality Resurrection

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All stars
Most relevant
I was expecting more: not much I didn’t know already. Well-written, but a bit self-evident in my opinion.

A bit basic

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I found this ‘stripped away gospel’ enlightening and life influencing. As a Christian, it affirmed the essence of the teaching. As a Doubter, it affirmed the struggles. All over, it left me spiritually freer and stronger.

Thought through commentary on Jesus’s teachings

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