WHY JESUS?

Friday, January 27, 2012

WHY JESUS?

Rediscovering His Truth In An Age

Of Mass Marketed Spirituality

By Ravi Zacharias

OVERVIEW: In this book, bestselling author and radio evangelist Ravi Zacharias analyzes the "spiritual" movements of the past forty years, debunking thier claims and returning the reader to the classic, biblical definition of Jesus' person, work and teaching. Focusing on Christianity's centrally important tenet—the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ—Zacharias makes a passionate, imaginative, and convincing case that the biblical Jesus is the real Jesus.

AUTHOR: Frederick Antony Ravi Kumar Zacharias (born 1946) is an Indian-born, Canadian-American evangelical Christian apologist. Zacharias is the author of numerous Christian books, including Gold Medallion Book Award winner Can Man Live Without God?^[1] and bestsellers Light in the Shadow of Jihad^[2] and The Grand Weaver.^[3] He is the founder and chairman of the board of Ravi Zacharias International Ministries, host of the radio programs Let My People Think and Just Thinking, and visiting professor at Wycliffe Hall of Oxford, where he teaches apologetics and evangelism.^[4] Zacharias studied as a visiting scholar at Cambridge University and held the chair in Evangelism and Contemporary Thought at Alliance Theological Seminary from 1981 to 1984.^[5] Commentator Chuck Colson referred to Zacharias as "the great apologist of our time."^[6]

MY REVIEW: Ravi Zacharia has done it again. This is one amazing book! This is a book about the deep, irrepressible spiritual hungers we all have. These are confusing times we live in. We live in a world that mass-markets numerous paths to truth. But of course all these paths do not lead to truth. Zacharia has given careful research and deep thought to this subject. After traveling in numerous countries and many conversations over a period of forty years he is able to offer thoughts that lead to truth. Many today say they are not "into" religion but they are "into" spirituality. Ravi Zacharia looks into all of this, the forms of new spirituality and the religions that have provided the underlying worldviews from which these popular forms of spirituality have emerged. Finally, he looks at what it is about the message of Jesus Christ that, if properly understood, still offers the beauty, the power, and the only hope of any future for mankind. At the point of his conversion C.S. Lewis said, "I thought I had come to a place. I found out I had come to a person." that's what this book is about: examining the places we wish to be and those we should walk away from until we find the Person for whom we are looking. This is an important book. I recommend it without reservation!

(My thanks to FaithWords of Hachette Book Group for this book to review.)