WHAT THE GOSPELS MEANT

You hear the former Jesuit seminarian in the voice of Garry Wills. This is not a shy, self-hating writer. This is a minister, a prophet. Now in his 70s, he can still rouse those dozing in the back pews. In this, as in other recent books, the prize-winning writer (one Pulitzer and two National Book Critics Circle Awards) brings recent discoveries to bear on the Gospels. As what was taken for historical fact is changing and falling away, Wills referees the ensuing battle between reason and faith, confident that both can survive intact. The New Testament, he tells us, gives “four different takes on the central mystery. Since the mystery at the center of it all will never be exhausted, we need all of these angles of vision . . . .” B.H.C. © AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine [Published: FEBRUARY 2009]