Jesus Before Christianity (Part 1 - Jesus Belongs to All Humanity)

As stated in my previous post (If You Read Only One Book About Jesus This Year...), I will be doing a series of posts with quotes from the book, Jesus Before Christianity, by Albert Nolan. I will of necessity be able to only give "teasers"; some of the quotes will be controversial to some readers and won't be fully understandable without reading the full text, but perhaps it may whet the appetite for more.

Nolan says the following in speaking about this book in particular:

"...Nothing about Jesus will be presupposed or assumed. The reader is invited to take a serious and honest look at a man who lived in first-century Palestine and to try to see him through the eyes of his contemporaries. My interest is in the man as he was before he became the object of Christian faith...

"...the book was (not) written for the apologetic purpose of defending the Christian faith. No attempt has been made to save Jesus or the Christian faith. Jesus does not need me or anyone else to save him...If our search for the truth leads us to faith in Jesus, then it will not be because we have tried to save this faith at all costs, but because we have discovered it as the only way in which we can be 'saved' or liberated..."

The following is a quote from the opening chapter:

"Jesus cannot be fully identified with that great religious phenomenon of the Western world known as Christianity. He was much more than the founder of one of the world's great religions. He stands above Christianity as the judge of all it has done in his name. Nor can historical Christianity claim him as its exclusive possession. Jesus belongs to all humanity."