On Jesus

Wadsworth Philosophers Series

by Douglas Groothuis

ON JESUS, like other titles in the Wadsworth Philosopher's Series, offers a concise, yet comprehensive, introduction to this philosopher's most important ideas. Presenting the most important insights of well over a hundred seminal philosophers in both the Eastern and Western traditions, the Wadsworth Philosophers Series contains volumes written by scholars noted for their excellence in teaching and for their well-versed comprehension of each featured philosopher's major works and contributions. These titles have proven valuable in a number of ways. Serving as standalone texts when tackling a philosophers' original sources or as helpful resources for focusing philosophy students' engagements with these philosopher's often conceptually daunting works, these titles have also gained extraordinary popularity with a lay readership and quite often serve as "refreshers" for philosophy instructors.

Genres: Philosophy, Theology

112 pages, Paperback

First published July 6, 2002

About the author

Douglas Groothuis (PhD, University of Oregon) is professor of philosophy at Denver Seminary in Denver, Colorado, where he heads the Apologetics and Ethics masters degree program. His articles have been published in professional journals such as Religious Studies, Philosophia Christi, Themelios, Christian Scholar's Review, Inquiry, and Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society. He has written numerous books, including Christian Apologetics and, most recently Philosophy in Seven Sentences.

Reviews

[فؤاد · Rating 1 out of 5]

کتاب رو به کتاب‌های دینی مدرسه تشبیه کرده بودن و بهتر از این نمی‌شه توصیفش کرد: همون قدر سطحی، با نتایج از پیش پذیرفته شده، پر از استدلال‌هایی شبیه به این:
عیسی گفته «خدای خود را با تمامی دل و با تمامی جان و با تمامی فکر خود محبت نما.» پس عیسی بزرگترین فیلسوف جهان بوده، چون کلمهٔ فکر را به کار برده.

عیسی همفری کارپنتر هنوز بهترین گزینه است.

[Hossein · Rating 2 out of 5]

یک مقدمه سطحی بود بر عیسی و مسیحیت و اناجیل.
به نظرم نویسنده تماما سعی داشت که با استدلال‌هایی ضعیف از مسیحیت دفاع کند.
اصلا کتاب خوبی نبود.

[امیر لطیفی · Rating 2 out of 5]

آن قدر سطحی بود که نیمه‌کاره رهایش کردم. بخشی دارد با عنوانِ "عیسی و زنان". همین یک بخش خواندنی بود، گرچه معلوم نیست چقدر دقیق باشد.

این ادعا که عیسی فیلسوف است خود به شدت غریب است، حالا تصور کنید دلایلی را که کسی ذوب در عیسی در اثباتِ این ادعا ردیف می‌کند.

[Erfan]

نویسنده‌ی کتاب مذهبیه و نگاه متعصبانه‌‌ای داره. همین به نظر من بزرگ‌ترین ایراد این کتابه.
مدت نسبتا زیادی از وقتی که کتاب رو تموم کردم می‌گذره اما اون طور که یادمه خیلی از مباحثی که در کتاب مطرح شدن اصلا فلسفی نیستن و نگاه نویسنده هم استدلالی و فلسفی نیست. از نمونه‌های روشنش این که فصلی از کتاب اختصاص داره به این که نشون بده عیسی با زنان خوش‌رفتار بوده و تفاوت چندانی بین مردان و زنان قائل نبوده. جدا از این که هیچ مفهومی در ارتباط با فلسفه تو این بخش ندیدم‌، فصلی بود پر از استدلال‌های ضعیف و با سوگیری، مشابه کتاب دینی دبیرستان.
پیش از این که عیسی به عنوان یک فیلسوف توصیف بشه، با یک قدیس مواجهیم که تلاش نویسنده خیلی وقت‌ها معطوفه به موجه نشون دادن کارها و گفتار عیسی طبق چیزی که در انجیل‌ها اومده.
برای آشنایی ابتدایی با مسیحیت شاید کتاب بدی نباشه اما حتما منابع بهتری برای این هدف در دسترسن.

[Seyed Mohammad · Rating 3 out of 5]

کتاب برای خواننده فارسی زبان دارای اطلاعات بسیار جالبی است. این باور کاذب رایج در میان ما که معتقدان به مسحیت تنها رویکردی ایمانی به دین خود دارند با این کتاب به چالش کشیده می‌شود. به طور مشخص با خواندن این کتاب با نحو دفاع متکلمانه و عقلانی از مسحیت آشنا میشویم

[Setareh Ezzatabadi · Rating 2 out of 5]

باید اعتراف کنم که صرفا نیمی از کتاب رو خوندم. فرض اولیه نویسنده حقیقتا من رو آزار میداد و باعث می شد که نتونم باهاش همگام شم؛ این فرض که باید (یا میشه) مسیح رو فیلسوف دونست و با آموزه هاش مثل آموزه های نظام مند فلسفی برخورد کرد.

[Dave · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dr. Douglas Groothius (groot-ice) provides a unique addition to Christian studies in his addition to the Wadsworth Philosophers Series titled "On Jesus." This series outlines the major teachings and beliefs of various philosophers from Socrates to Kant and beyond. Groothius tackles the controversial topic of Jesus as a philosopher - controversial to philosophers since Jesus never systematizes His philosophy and controversial to Christians who take an anti-philosophy bent from Col 2:8. Overall, this 95 page book wastes no space and packs in a tremendous amount of goodness regarding Jesus' teachings.

Groothius begins with making the case for Jesus as a philosopher. He adeptly puts both philosophers' and anti-philosophy Christians' minds at ease. From there, he does something I have never seen in print. Groothius outlines Jesus' use of philosophical/logical argument in His teaching. This section is superbly done and I would love to read more on the topic. Overall, Groothius shows how Jesus uses modus ponens, a fortiori and reductio ad absurdum arguments along with splitting the horns of a false dilemma and appeals to evidence. Truly an outstanding section.

From there, Groothius outlines Jesus' worldview including who He claimed to be, His view of women, criticisms of Jesus due to his apparent support of slavery and Jesus' resurrection. Throughout the text, Groothius refers to other authors such as major writers like Aristotle, Plato and Kierkegaard while also tackling more recent issues brought up by modern philosophers like Morgan. Grooothius, a seminary professor of philosophy, answers many questions skeptics raise about Jesus in this book to the point where this text almost qualifies as an apologetics text.

This is an introduction to these topics and he cuts the discussion off a little earlier than I would have liked at times. But, these books are intended to be short introductions, and On Jesus provides much more than a basic introduction to the philosophy of Jesus.

Highly recommended book!

[Alex · Rating 4 out of 5]

Douglas Groothius provides a provides a pretty clear and concise summary of Christ's "philosophical" views (including his metaphysics, epistemology, and views on women). He shows that, whatever your views on who Christ was, he certainly was a brilliant person who was able to effortlessly stump the religious intelligentsia of his day. He interacts with people like Michael Martin who find flaws in Jesus' character and sayings, and adequately refutes them.

In addition, he provides a brief though understandably limited defense of the historicity of the Gospels (understandably limited because he is constrained by book length considerations, and so cannot go into much detail).

In his last chapter, he shows that the Christ portrayed in the Gospels thought himself to be God. He brings home the point that what we say in response to Christ's question, viz., "Who do you say that I am?", will have huge consequences as to how we should live our lives.

This book is a very basic book, and is geared towards the layman. It will not be of much use to someone who is pretty familiar with New Testament scholarship.

[Jared Abbott · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an excellent book! Douglas Groothuis argues a compelling case that Jesus of Nazareth was a bona fide philosopher by any standard we might use today to determine what a philosopher is. He refutes objections raised by professional academic philosophers with an easygoing, yet eloquent grace. He also corrects erroneous views of Jesus taught by Gnostics and New Ayers.

My only objection is that, as a Van Tillian presuppositionalist, I believe his evidence-based apologetic will simply be dismissed by skeptics, who are already experts in suppressing truth. That being said, there is still much to be appreciated even by my fellow Van Tillians (he affirms that Jesus taught there was no neutral common ground, for instance).

Douglas Groothuis does succeed in showing Jesus was a philosopher, and of course more than a philosopher.

[Odin · Rating 1 out of 5]

خب امروز کتاب فلسفه عیسی شروع کردم نگاهی گذرا به این کتاب انداختم تلاشی مذبوحانه و گاها احمقانه برای عیسی یک فیلسوف بنامد دارای فلسفه کند اما عیسی در مقایسه افلاطون و ارسطو یا سهروردی و فارابی تعالیم جدید یا خاصی نیست و خوب در نگاه اولیه خوندن بخش های فصول کتاب جدیدی قرار نیست حداقل برای ارائه کنه

[Amir Momeni · Rating 2 out of 5]

کتاب اطلاعات خوبی درباره مسیح ارائه میده ولی نویسنده به بعضی نقدهایی که بر عقایدش وارده و خودش در کتاب آورده پاسخ درخوردی نمیده و عمدتا به بازتفسیر سخن های عیسی روی میاره

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall pretty good. Groothuis' goal is to show Jesus is a philosopher and to describe his philosophy. He argues Jesus is a philosopher though not in the same way as Kant, Aquinas, or Hume. His chapter arguing that Jesus was a philosopher was interesting. For example, he compares Jesus and Socrates. Socrates never wrote any of his arguments down and didn't really have a systematized philosophy, yet no one would not call him a "philosopher." Thus, this criteria cannot be used to contend that Jesus wasn't a philosopher.

His strongest chapter was "Jesus' use of argument". He pursuasively showed how Jesus logically handled objections based on Biblical dialogues and that Jesus valued rationality. Some of the other chapters were not as convincing. For example, he looks at Jesus' ethics by simply describing Jesus' position on various issues and how they are similar to modern philosophical categories such as virtue ethics and deontology. There are real connections there, but this method wasn't as convincing to show that Jesus was a Philosopher. A better method might have been to show these connections, but to argue that the Biblical authors were not interested in focusing on the philosophical aspects. One gets the sense that Jesus did have developed philosophical ideas which shine through at different times in the gospels. A more modest claim might have been that Jesus was a deep philosophical thinker, but that he focused more on theological and scriptural issues given his Jewish context. (I think these are philosophical issues but it depends on how you define philosophy.)


This book would definitely be great for a class that is studying Christian beliefs and Jesus' philosophy. Even though Groothuis could have framed his thesis differently it is still a helpful introduction to the worlds most influential thinker.

[Christopher · Rating 4 out of 5]

A nice little book for those who think that being religious (and particularly being Christian) requires one approach life full of faith and devoid of reason. Groothius takes each of the three major branches of philosophy: metaphysics, epistemology and ethics, along with Logic, and illustrates that Jesus engages each of them in the accounts of his life and ministry as recounted in the four canonical gospels, thereby illustrating Jesus' use of reason as a religious THINKER. Particularly nice is the chapter on Logic, which shows Jesus' use of argumentative strategies like the reductio ad absurdum. If you want a similar, but more technical (and thereby slightly less accessible to the general reader) treatment of Jesus' use of Logic, try Dallas Willard's article (on his website): "Jesus the Logician" (its a free download -- www.dwillard.org). I suppose a main goal of this book is to show that the Christian faith is not opposed to philosophy, but to what C. S. Lewis called "bad philosophy" (of course, it would work equally well to argue against anti-intellectualism). If you are a Christian and you think that philosophy is somehow "unchristian," (or implies a lack of faith) read this short little book.

[E · Rating 4 out of 5]

My goal is to read fewer, but better, books this year. I'm off to a good start. This book considers Jesus Christ as a philosopher. WAS he a philosopher? Yes. He demands rationality. He uses a fortiori and reductio ad absurdum arguments, he appeals to evidence. He had well-defined metaphysics, epistemology, and ethics.

This book may have been torture to read if it were written by someone antagonistic to Christ, but Groothuis is a professor at the evangelical Baptist school now known as Denver Seminary. He does a good job at treating Jesus' philosophy in a way that is faithful to scripture as well as the standards of the philosophical world.

[Joey · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is basically a weak and pathetic defense of Christian assertions through vague and unjustified arguments. Mr. Groothuis is not a scholar and his writing should be avoided. Not worth reading.

[Abolfazl · Rating 2 out of 5]

این کتاب از مجموعه ای به نام نام آوران فرهنگ است که نشر طرح نو منتشر کرده است و به کسانی به عنوان فیلسوف پرداخته است که به این نام در تاریخ اندیشه جایی ندارند

[John Nash · Rating 3 out of 5]

A basic outline of Jesus' philosophy and teachings that is worth a cheeky read.