This apocryphal gospel story, Absolving All Men of the Most Hideous Crime of Deicide, is for those who thirst for a past that can bring peace and understanding between creeds and can lead to a brighter future.
Read the full review here.
Jefferey Sussman
author and critic
Having read László Bitó’s fictional Gospel of Anonymous, the reader will look back on Holy Scripture through an imaginatively refocused lens. It is one thing to understand the dreadfully ill-conceived concept that Jews alone were responsible for the Crucifi xion of Jesus through rational historical argument. It is quite another thing to comprehend this heresy through art. Bitó’s book is a delightful read and imaginative corrective to the real threat of modern anti-Semitism.
The Rev. Chloe Breyer
Executive Director,
The Interfaith Center of New York
www.interfaithcenter.org
Understanding Jesus requires critical imagination. The Gospels, based to a large extent on the oral memories of Jesus’ followers, shaped their material to address the concerns and challenges of their period, a generation after Jesus’ death. Sadly, lethal disputes between church and synagogue featured among those challenges. Historical imagination is one way to think past that obstacle to understanding Jesus. Another kind of imagination, sympathetic projection into the personalities and motivations of the people involved, is the method of László Bitó, and the result is a richly rewarding reappraisal.
Bruce Chilton
Bernard Iddings Bell Professor of Religion
Bard College
www.bard.edu
A clever reinterpretation of the life and death of Jesus This “gospel” is uniquely infused with the author’s scientific world view. There is a refreshing presence of logic and reason in the retelling of some of the best-known stories of Jesus’s life. These re-engineered and demystified stories are woven into a compelling and quick read that retains much of the archaic literary flavor of the originals. What emerges is a view of the life and death of Jesus that exposes and explains the miracles and magic of the gospels and the motives behind their creation, expansion and perpetuation. As an atheist with a strong respect for the words / teachings of Jesus, I enjoyed this book that helps put the absurd excesses of the biblical stories into perspective and goads us to look past them to the essence of Jesus’s wisdom.
reader’s review
www.amazon.com
A must read! Pope Benedict XVI stated that the Jewish people are not responsible for the flogging and crucifixion of Christ. Bito goes one step further: he shows that Jesus voluntarily went to the cross to fulfill His teaching about the truest Love…
reader’s review
Barnes&Noble
This a brilliant, exciting thought-provoking book. I have read many books on the subject of anti-Semitism, but I have never read such a brilliant account of the Biblical sources of anti-Semitism. The Gospel of Anonymous should be read not only by those interested in the subject of anti-Semitism, but also by those who have an interest in how the Bible has affected our culture, influenced our perceptions, fed our prejudices, and reinforced out-moded ways of seeing ourselves and others. Laszlo Bito has proven himself a masterful writer with a large and compassionate world view. His book deserves to be read by theists and atheists alike. It is eye opening, exciting, enthralling. I couldn’t put it down.
reader’s review
Barnes&Noble