Harry Emerson Fosdick's 1949 book is subtitled "As His Contemporaries Saw Him" which is usually a code word for Christian apologists to talk about how Jesus' friends Mark, Matthew, Luke, et al saw Jesus. Instead we get a scholarly and provocative look at Jesus as others saw him. Chapter 3, for example, asks us to imagine what it was like for 1st Century Pharisees to see Jesus preaching in their midst. The Pharisees were trying their best to keep the Jewish nation intact and to prevent the assimilation that swallowed up the Babylonians, Assyrians, etc. Here comes Jesus who preaches a type of universalism that threatens to undermine the uniqueness of the Jewish people. While they were sympathetic to his righteousness, his practices represented a greater threat than the Roman occupation. A fascinating point of view. Here is Fosdick at his best:

"The radical cause of this difference between Jesus and the Pharisees runs deep. They were thinking primarily of saving Judaism in general and the nation in particular; Jesus was thinking primarily of saving individuals. To be sure, the Pharisees would have affirmed that the Jewish nation and religion could not be saved without devout and faithful individuals, and Jesus obviously was thinking of a transformed nation and world as the crown and consummation of transformed persons. The focus in each case, however, was distinctive...(p. 88)."

Of course the book is outdated in many respects. Written in 1949, Fosdick is unable to take advantage of more than a half century of archeological findings and biblical studies. In many respects, it seems quaint. Yet the power of Fosdick's thinking does not grow old with time. Chapter 2, "As the Crowds Saw Him", is one of the most insightful looks at what went on inside Jesus' head. Few books before or since have captured the psychological issues with which Jesus must have struggled in his mission.