Jesus: the Human Face of God / Jay Parini, 153 pp.

This title is part of the Icons Series, which includes Edgar Allan Poe, VanGogh, Alfred Hitchcock, and St. Paul. I am amused by this selection of topics, and like to think that the subject of this particular title would be as well.

Parini is a novelist, poet, and critic, and he brings a literary sensibility to his reading of the Gospels.  Most of the interpretations he presents of key passages, such as the Sermon on the Mount, were already familiar to me.  What was unique was the way in which Parini interwove the four Gospels to present an (almost) coherent story.  The final chapter is a very nice overview of the history of Jesus scholarship.