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The Existential Jesus
Upending Christianity's popular notion of Jesus the comforter, the good shepherd, the Lord and Savior, this forceful document reexamines the Christ image of the New Testament gospels—the mysterious stranger, the singular, abandoned, and solitary figure—and rethinks the current role of Western culture through this altered view of Christianity. The existential Jesus has no interest in sin, and his focus is not on an afterlife. He gestures enigmatically from within his own torturous experience, inviting the reader to walk in his shoes and ask the question, Who am I? —establishing Jesus as the West’s great teacher on the nature of being. Incorporating a new and original translation of the Gospel of Mark from its original Greek, this radical reinterpretation identifies the philosophical and cultural significance of the gospels in the modern world, based on the life and actions—rather than the word—of Jesus Christ.
288 pages, Paperback
First published May 1, 2008
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About the author
John Carroll
18 books4 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.
John Carroll is a professor of sociology at La Trobe University in Melbourne, Australia, and a fellow of the Center for Cultural Sociology at Yale University.
John Carroll is a professor of sociology at La Trobe University in Melbourne, Australia, and a fellow of the Center for Cultural Sociology at Yale University.
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
August 28, 2012
To say that "The Existential Jesus" offers an unconventional interpretation of the gospels is an understatement. Carroll's thesis is that Jesus did not preach about an afterlife, or even about salvation in a broader sense, or even about ethical teaching (p. 9). Instead, he "is the archetypal stranger. He appears from nowhere, shrouded in mystery, but is soon gone...He is the existential hero - solitary, uprooted from family and home, restless, always on the move and, until the mid-point in his mission, blind to where he is going" (p. 1).
Carroll challenges the reader to look at Mark's gospel through a completely new lens. I found his interpretation of sin and the holy spirit intriguing. For the author the former is really a misnomer, positing instead that the original Greek meant something akin to "missing the mark" or a character flaw. Jesus's teaches was therefore not concerned with what we currently conceptualize "sin" to mean (i.e., doing something against the wishes or commands of God).
For me the most innovative and rewarding interpretation in the book was that of Legion - who he was, what he represented, and ultimately how he ties into later parts of Mark's narrative. Although the author uses Mark as the basis of his analysis, he also contrasts this gospel with that of John, showing how the two complement each other, with Mark showing an "existential" Jesus not concerned with the afterlife and John showing a "divine" Jesus.
While I found Carroll's underlying thesis challenging and thought-provoking, I feel he has skirted around some very fundamental questions. For example, he argues that the true meaning of sin (hamartia) and the holy spirit (pneuma hagion) were distorted over time, that Jesus used these terms very differently than we think of them today. This basic premise is itself on shaky ground. The gospels was written decades after Jesus's death, in a language (Greek) that he did not speak, addressed to a community of Gentiles (whereas Jesus preached among the Jews). To argue that Jesus's teachings were later twisted by the institutionalized church requires one to believe that the gospels themselves captured Jesus's teachings accurately, and that what he preached in Aramaic, with all of its supposed linguistic subtleties, was captured in koine Greek.
A similar critique could be made of Carroll's interpretation of the concept of the "holy spirit". He argues that "pneuma hagion" should be viewed as "the charged wind, the cosmic breath, the driving spectral force. It is also the directing power that drives the stranger [Jesus] into the wilderness" (p. 25). Such an interpretation puts the orthdox conception of the holy spirit on its head. However I struggle to believe that this is what the author of Mark had in mind when he wrote his gospel. Paul used the same term in his writings, which were penned roughly 20 years before Mark. I would be interested in knowing whether and how this Greek term had been used previously as well. Was it a term that appeared in Greek writings only with the emergence of the Jesus movement? I would need to see more than simply the author's critique to discard the orthodox meaning of the holy spirit.
Despite my disagreements with some of the fundamental arguments made by Carroll, I still found this to be a fascinating book. I found it an excellent critique of Mark's literary structure, as he explains the arch of the story, but I find his theological arguments much less convincing.
Carroll challenges the reader to look at Mark's gospel through a completely new lens. I found his interpretation of sin and the holy spirit intriguing. For the author the former is really a misnomer, positing instead that the original Greek meant something akin to "missing the mark" or a character flaw. Jesus's teaches was therefore not concerned with what we currently conceptualize "sin" to mean (i.e., doing something against the wishes or commands of God).
For me the most innovative and rewarding interpretation in the book was that of Legion - who he was, what he represented, and ultimately how he ties into later parts of Mark's narrative. Although the author uses Mark as the basis of his analysis, he also contrasts this gospel with that of John, showing how the two complement each other, with Mark showing an "existential" Jesus not concerned with the afterlife and John showing a "divine" Jesus.
While I found Carroll's underlying thesis challenging and thought-provoking, I feel he has skirted around some very fundamental questions. For example, he argues that the true meaning of sin (hamartia) and the holy spirit (pneuma hagion) were distorted over time, that Jesus used these terms very differently than we think of them today. This basic premise is itself on shaky ground. The gospels was written decades after Jesus's death, in a language (Greek) that he did not speak, addressed to a community of Gentiles (whereas Jesus preached among the Jews). To argue that Jesus's teachings were later twisted by the institutionalized church requires one to believe that the gospels themselves captured Jesus's teachings accurately, and that what he preached in Aramaic, with all of its supposed linguistic subtleties, was captured in koine Greek.
A similar critique could be made of Carroll's interpretation of the concept of the "holy spirit". He argues that "pneuma hagion" should be viewed as "the charged wind, the cosmic breath, the driving spectral force. It is also the directing power that drives the stranger [Jesus] into the wilderness" (p. 25). Such an interpretation puts the orthdox conception of the holy spirit on its head. However I struggle to believe that this is what the author of Mark had in mind when he wrote his gospel. Paul used the same term in his writings, which were penned roughly 20 years before Mark. I would be interested in knowing whether and how this Greek term had been used previously as well. Was it a term that appeared in Greek writings only with the emergence of the Jesus movement? I would need to see more than simply the author's critique to discard the orthodox meaning of the holy spirit.
Despite my disagreements with some of the fundamental arguments made by Carroll, I still found this to be a fascinating book. I found it an excellent critique of Mark's literary structure, as he explains the arch of the story, but I find his theological arguments much less convincing.
March 21, 2014
John Carroll may well rescue post modern Christianity from itself with The Existential Jesus. Carroll, who is not a practicing Christian, offers up an interesting alternative to Jesus the Good Shepherd and Prince of peace, two metaphors that I quickly dismissed the first time I actually read one of the gospels myself.
The Gospel of Mark is the oldest account of the four that make up the Church canon and also the shortest. Yet, Carroll, with his knowledge of the Greek it was written in, demonstrates the literary genius of the anonymous writer who tells his story in style that draws from the tradition of Greek tragedy. As short as this text is it has layers of riddles to solve making it a rich intellectual and spiritual puzzle.
There is none of the confusing neo-Platonist dualism in Mark that creeps later into Matthew and Luke. Carroll provides the reader a Midrash on Mark that casts its principal character as the ultimate existential anti-hero; a mysterious stranger and outsider who appears suddenly and without warning on the edge of society. Jesus is irascible and impatient. He is not the embodiment of meekness that church tradition teaches. His healing is done hurriedly so that he can get back to what concerns him the most.
The author, himself an outsider to Christian practice and religion, is perhaps the only person who could offer the reader a fresh outlook on Jesus, a man whose actual mission was dark and obscure even to him. In the end everything Jesus tried ended in failure. Even his closest companions didn’t seem to understand.
The few, who did, the Roman Centurion, Legion and the Greek Woman, often stood as rebukes not to his followers, but to Jesus himself. When dealing with the Greek woman Jesus is shown to even be bigoted toward those who are not Jews. However, Jesus excepts these rebukes - marvels at the understanding of those who dish it out. The Jesus of Mark is for the outsider and the restless wanderer. He is not for the status quo churchgoer.
This Jesus is not the promised Messiah, but the iconic existentialist who confronts the enigma of being and dares to answer the question, “Who am I.” He responds, “I AM.” Yet in the end even god seems to abandon him and all that remains is an empty tomb and three terrified women fleeing as if running for their lives.
Jesus the diviner of the enigma of being is not concerned with petty traditions or sin or salvation of the people of god. His purpose is more primal. It is the experience of the pneuma, wild, unpredictable an untamed that he seeks to harness and understand. Even the two supreme commandment to love god with all ones heart, mind and soul and our neighbor as our self is secondary to the pneuma and its role in untangling the riddle of being.
Read the Existential Jesus for the sheer joy of it. Then read it again as a study guide to the Gospel of Mark. Then read it again and return to its wisdom and power again and again. This book should occupy a permanent place in your library.
The Gospel of Mark is the oldest account of the four that make up the Church canon and also the shortest. Yet, Carroll, with his knowledge of the Greek it was written in, demonstrates the literary genius of the anonymous writer who tells his story in style that draws from the tradition of Greek tragedy. As short as this text is it has layers of riddles to solve making it a rich intellectual and spiritual puzzle.
There is none of the confusing neo-Platonist dualism in Mark that creeps later into Matthew and Luke. Carroll provides the reader a Midrash on Mark that casts its principal character as the ultimate existential anti-hero; a mysterious stranger and outsider who appears suddenly and without warning on the edge of society. Jesus is irascible and impatient. He is not the embodiment of meekness that church tradition teaches. His healing is done hurriedly so that he can get back to what concerns him the most.
The author, himself an outsider to Christian practice and religion, is perhaps the only person who could offer the reader a fresh outlook on Jesus, a man whose actual mission was dark and obscure even to him. In the end everything Jesus tried ended in failure. Even his closest companions didn’t seem to understand.
The few, who did, the Roman Centurion, Legion and the Greek Woman, often stood as rebukes not to his followers, but to Jesus himself. When dealing with the Greek woman Jesus is shown to even be bigoted toward those who are not Jews. However, Jesus excepts these rebukes - marvels at the understanding of those who dish it out. The Jesus of Mark is for the outsider and the restless wanderer. He is not for the status quo churchgoer.
This Jesus is not the promised Messiah, but the iconic existentialist who confronts the enigma of being and dares to answer the question, “Who am I.” He responds, “I AM.” Yet in the end even god seems to abandon him and all that remains is an empty tomb and three terrified women fleeing as if running for their lives.
Jesus the diviner of the enigma of being is not concerned with petty traditions or sin or salvation of the people of god. His purpose is more primal. It is the experience of the pneuma, wild, unpredictable an untamed that he seeks to harness and understand. Even the two supreme commandment to love god with all ones heart, mind and soul and our neighbor as our self is secondary to the pneuma and its role in untangling the riddle of being.
Read the Existential Jesus for the sheer joy of it. Then read it again as a study guide to the Gospel of Mark. Then read it again and return to its wisdom and power again and again. This book should occupy a permanent place in your library.
January 4, 2014
I have just finished reading John Carroll’s The Existential Jesus (Scribe, 2007). In answering the question Why another book on Jesus, JC (that’s John Carroll, not… you know…) says that What emerges is a mysteriously enigmatic, existential Jesus whose story has not been retold elsewhere, and whose teachings have not been spelt out as they are here.
This is a big claim, but, in my opinion, it is justified.
Carroll focuses on the Gospel of Mark, the first written Gospel which set the agenda to which the others responded, and argues that the Gospel of John was the only other Gospel that really got what Mark was on about, and enlarged Mark’s story of Jesus into an account of Jesus the Christ. (Carroll says that the other two Gospels subvert and dilute Mark’s message to make it palatable to an audience incapable of hearing Mark’s story – namely, the church.) Along the way he gives riveting accounts of other players. His Peter and Pilate are breath taking, and not simply because he turns the traditional view of both men on their heads. Jesus, the main player, far from having foreknowledge of his identity and mission, makes mistakes, has to regroup, is disappointed in just about everyone and everything, and in the end dies as a failure in his own eyes. In other words, it’s an account of a Jesus who did not have the benefit of two thousand years of another point of view – the existential Jesus.
The significance of this is that you don’t have to be “into religion” to find this interesting, moving and relevant. This is a man who has had, and continues to have, a very big influence on humanity. This book explains why.
This is a big claim, but, in my opinion, it is justified.
Carroll focuses on the Gospel of Mark, the first written Gospel which set the agenda to which the others responded, and argues that the Gospel of John was the only other Gospel that really got what Mark was on about, and enlarged Mark’s story of Jesus into an account of Jesus the Christ. (Carroll says that the other two Gospels subvert and dilute Mark’s message to make it palatable to an audience incapable of hearing Mark’s story – namely, the church.) Along the way he gives riveting accounts of other players. His Peter and Pilate are breath taking, and not simply because he turns the traditional view of both men on their heads. Jesus, the main player, far from having foreknowledge of his identity and mission, makes mistakes, has to regroup, is disappointed in just about everyone and everything, and in the end dies as a failure in his own eyes. In other words, it’s an account of a Jesus who did not have the benefit of two thousand years of another point of view – the existential Jesus.
The significance of this is that you don’t have to be “into religion” to find this interesting, moving and relevant. This is a man who has had, and continues to have, a very big influence on humanity. This book explains why.
January 22, 2011
Ex-is-ten-tial –adjective: of or relating to existence, especially human existence.
This is Jesus, the way you’ve never read about him before. John Carroll draws primarily on the Gospel of Mark, a Gospel which rather quickly fell into disuse among early Christians as they favored the more majestic stories told by Matthew and the others.
Mark’s Jesus is far more human. He sometimes questions, sometimes fails. He is ridiculed by his family. Carroll portrays Jesus as a lonely, mysterious stranger with an obscure mission. By the end of his journey, he has lost all of his followers. “His life reaches its consummation in tragedy—a godless and profane one—and a great death scream from the cross, questioning the sense of it all.”
Mark’s story then closes with a mystery. An empty tomb, and three women fleeing in terror, told to tell no one of what they saw—or didn’t see. (Carroll is correct; the ending we have now in the book of Mark, describing the resurrection of Jesus, did not exist in the earliest manuscripts.)
Mark’s Gospel is, of course, one of four. Over time, the Jesus story grew in splendor, and by the time the fourth Gospel was written, Jesus had become God Himself. When I complete my book about John’s Gospel (yet a couple years away from publication), I am going to wander through every local bookstore and move my book next to Carroll’s, where the two extremes can sit side-by-side.
This is Jesus, the way you’ve never read about him before. John Carroll draws primarily on the Gospel of Mark, a Gospel which rather quickly fell into disuse among early Christians as they favored the more majestic stories told by Matthew and the others.
Mark’s Jesus is far more human. He sometimes questions, sometimes fails. He is ridiculed by his family. Carroll portrays Jesus as a lonely, mysterious stranger with an obscure mission. By the end of his journey, he has lost all of his followers. “His life reaches its consummation in tragedy—a godless and profane one—and a great death scream from the cross, questioning the sense of it all.”
Mark’s story then closes with a mystery. An empty tomb, and three women fleeing in terror, told to tell no one of what they saw—or didn’t see. (Carroll is correct; the ending we have now in the book of Mark, describing the resurrection of Jesus, did not exist in the earliest manuscripts.)
Mark’s Gospel is, of course, one of four. Over time, the Jesus story grew in splendor, and by the time the fourth Gospel was written, Jesus had become God Himself. When I complete my book about John’s Gospel (yet a couple years away from publication), I am going to wander through every local bookstore and move my book next to Carroll’s, where the two extremes can sit side-by-side.
January 18, 2020
The author, a non-Christian reads the Gospel according to Mark and finds a Jesus different than that presented by the church. He goes on to consider the meaning of that unique life. Although he apparently find something very interesting and of great value in that life he apparently finds no need to consider what others such as Matthew, Luke, and John or Paul might contribute to a fuller and clear understanding of that life and its meaning. Having set an arbitrary boundary in his consideration of Jesus, I take this to mean that the author is not really serious in considering the existential life of Jesus.
March 14, 2020
Didn't read past page 63. It was over my head.
April 20, 2020
Jesus Christ as the first "Stranger in Town", a bright thread running through Western existential thought and culture to the present day, as depicted in Mark, the shortest of the Gospels. Carroll's argument is compelling--his take on Judas is especially fascinating--but the writing is often awkward and obscure and I sometimes felt he was projecting--with little evidence--on some of the people Jesus drew into his orbit, most notably Pontius Pilate, whom he sees as a near-convert. My complaints aside, this is definitely a worthwhile read for deep-dish Christians, especially those, like me, who never bought into the view of Jesus as a mild-mannered "nice guy." The Son of God was anything but.
September 8, 2009
A fascinating and very well written study of the teachings of Jesus and Jesus himself from the perspective of existential philosophy. His chosen disciples never get his parables and aphorisms (all except Judas) and Jesus questions many times the meaning of his own existence. This is evident in The Bible as he often leaves the crowds to meditate and is tempted by his doubts (the "devil") as to his purpose. The outsiders get him immediately, the man with the withered hand, the woman at the well, Mary Magdalene, the leper etc. But his twelve seem to need everything explained (except Judas) and still do not understand his metaphors and similes. I had not noticed this while reading The Bible myself. Jesus is not posed as the Christ (the Anointed One) but as a man dealing with the nature of his existence.
January 23, 2010
Very powerful and provocative read so far.
Well, this is a huge book (not in size). Jesus the man has always been of more interest to me than Jesus the son of god. This book takes Mark's gospel and morphs it into something by Camus. Jesus doesn't have a clue as to who he is, where he's going, what he's supposed to do. Sound familiar? Carroll argues that the people who really understood Jesus were Mary Magdelene, Judas, and Pilate. And his take on Lazarus is mind blowing. I'm sending a copy to Sarah Palin.
Well, this is a huge book (not in size). Jesus the man has always been of more interest to me than Jesus the son of god. This book takes Mark's gospel and morphs it into something by Camus. Jesus doesn't have a clue as to who he is, where he's going, what he's supposed to do. Sound familiar? Carroll argues that the people who really understood Jesus were Mary Magdelene, Judas, and Pilate. And his take on Lazarus is mind blowing. I'm sending a copy to Sarah Palin.
January 28, 2014
Enjoyed this book's examination of the life of Jesus with special attention to the Gospels of Mark and John. Came to see the words "I am," as spoken by Jesus, contrasted with Judas, "I am not." Pilotte, Peter and Mary Magdalene provided other variations on this existential view. Appreciated how translations have distorted the original context and meaning of some words. The author also highlighted Peter and John in a way which suggested new meaning to me.
April 19, 2011
Carroll is so far off the mark, here. The circumstantial premise is interesting - non-believer writing an in-depth book on Mark's gospel, and using John's as a sounding board. Unfortunately, he starts in the wrong place, finishes in the wrong place, and spends a lot of energy trying far too hard to get to the wrong place. There were many long bows drawn in this book.
April 19, 2010
An interesting read, Carroll's study of Jesus' teaching and life through the existentialist lens is insightful and intriguing. Yet, he labors many of his points for far too long and the book really could be condensed down by one hundred or so pages.
December 25, 2008
Carroll's conclusions aren't as insightful as he seems to believe they are, and his methods are occasionally wobbly, but the book hits its targets often enough to rate a read.
January 11, 2011
I'm a Christian, born into a Christian family, raised a Christian, still a Christian. This book isn't for anyone who doesn't want their beliefs challenged.
March 13, 2013
There were two very insightful observastion conerning the Gospel of Mark. Other than that, I don't remember much, which means I probably didn't understand what the author was getting at.
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