Life & Faith

If Jesus offers wisdom for how to live, how necessary is the “Son of God” stuff? --- “I do think Jesus is a much more challenging figure than he is often presented to be. And a lot of the challenges he presents I think Christians find it quite hard to really look square in the eye.” Julian Baggini is a philosopher, an atheist, and the author most recently of The Godless Gospel: Was Jesus A Great Moral Teacher? It’s the latest contribution to a centuries-long effort to discover what’s left of Jesus of Nazareth if you subtract the miracles and “God talk”.  Jonathan Pennington is a New Testament scholar at Southern Seminary in Kentucky, and his book Jesus the Great Philosopher also places Jesus within a tradition of offering wisdom for life. However, he thinks that ultimately, you can’t separate the moral teaching of Jesus from the Easter story of his crucifixion and resurrection. His argument is that Jesus is more than a philosopher - but not less than one.  “When you study philosophy, you recognise the best ph