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Jesus: Then and Now
Jesus Then And Now Watson, David and Jenkins, Simon
28 pages, Paperback
First published December 29, 1986
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About the author
David Christopher Knight Watson
18 books5 followersDavid Christopher Knight Watson (1933–1984) was an English Anglican priest, evangelist and author.
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
June 9, 2025
This book is something of a nostalgic one for me - not that I ever read it before, but rather that it just happened to be one of the very early books I purchased after what I like to call my Catholic "reawakening". This goes back to 2016, just short of ten years ago, which might not seem like that much time - especially to older people - but for me the changes in my life since then have been profound. The same period that saw my proper embrace of Catholicism - progressing beyond what really was just vaguely Christian monotheism - I also happened to fall in love with the girl I ended up marrying. So, long story short, this was one of the first books I found at some book sale or something, and decided to get, figuring it was time for me to start seeking Christian books beyond simply reading the Bible.
It was one of the book spines I had peeping out at me mysteriously from my new "Christian" shelf, from the beginning of the best years of my life. Well, the most blissful, anyway. So here I am in 2025, finally giving it a read ...
It's average. That is all there is to it. Granted, if I had read this much earlier on, before I had really delved into apologetics and Christian history, I probably would have benefited more from it. It serves basically as a crash course on what Christians believe - why they believe these things - and how this should inform how their lives are lived.
As far as apologetics go - that is, arguing for the faith by means of logical, historiographical and philosophical reason - it is very bare bones. Meant, it seems, to satisfy only the well-convinced and wholly uninterested in considering other paths. Interestingly, having come out in the early 70s, it relies on many of the same historical resources as more modern books have. And I'm not quite sure I like this. It seems to suggest that the evidence was not considered by the wider world as particularly compelling. Yet our so-called best and brightest are still harping on about them. And this leads me to what is undoubtedly my main reason for only rating this three stars ...
It's fine and all. It does its job, and it's even particularly readable and concise. I've just heard the arguments made so many times before. They're still impressive enough - indeed, evidence that demands a verdict, as another book I read this year which is this one's cousin drills again and again into your head. But now, in the twenty-first century, anyone who is reasonably well-read in Christian apologetics will have heard it all a hundred times before, so its very brief and simple treatment here is rarely very stimulating.
Also, as a minor complaint, I have to say the pictures were awful. Done in such a way that only something published before the 2000s could be forgiven for, the images are the worst, most cheesy and inappropriate with only the most tenuous relevance to their subject. It's like they didn't have any inspiration for the pictures but could not bring themselves to neglect adding any since the printers gave them a good deal or something.
So, for all its nostalgia, I feel little guilt in putting it back into circulation after all these years of being with me. Perhaps somebody else who only has the flimsiest of religious knowledge might get more from it.
It was one of the book spines I had peeping out at me mysteriously from my new "Christian" shelf, from the beginning of the best years of my life. Well, the most blissful, anyway. So here I am in 2025, finally giving it a read ...
It's average. That is all there is to it. Granted, if I had read this much earlier on, before I had really delved into apologetics and Christian history, I probably would have benefited more from it. It serves basically as a crash course on what Christians believe - why they believe these things - and how this should inform how their lives are lived.
As far as apologetics go - that is, arguing for the faith by means of logical, historiographical and philosophical reason - it is very bare bones. Meant, it seems, to satisfy only the well-convinced and wholly uninterested in considering other paths. Interestingly, having come out in the early 70s, it relies on many of the same historical resources as more modern books have. And I'm not quite sure I like this. It seems to suggest that the evidence was not considered by the wider world as particularly compelling. Yet our so-called best and brightest are still harping on about them. And this leads me to what is undoubtedly my main reason for only rating this three stars ...
It's fine and all. It does its job, and it's even particularly readable and concise. I've just heard the arguments made so many times before. They're still impressive enough - indeed, evidence that demands a verdict, as another book I read this year which is this one's cousin drills again and again into your head. But now, in the twenty-first century, anyone who is reasonably well-read in Christian apologetics will have heard it all a hundred times before, so its very brief and simple treatment here is rarely very stimulating.
Also, as a minor complaint, I have to say the pictures were awful. Done in such a way that only something published before the 2000s could be forgiven for, the images are the worst, most cheesy and inappropriate with only the most tenuous relevance to their subject. It's like they didn't have any inspiration for the pictures but could not bring themselves to neglect adding any since the printers gave them a good deal or something.
So, for all its nostalgia, I feel little guilt in putting it back into circulation after all these years of being with me. Perhaps somebody else who only has the flimsiest of religious knowledge might get more from it.
December 19, 2020
Ok
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December 29, 2010Exellent
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews