Big Jesus

This may be the most honest book ever written about Jesus. As a veteran pastor in the United Church of Christ, Dr. Watson shares his thoughts on the timeless topic of Christology--the doctrine of Christ--with new and creative insights, informative and accessible theology, personal anecdotes, and lively wit. Nothing is off-limits in this no-holds-barred contribution to the Jesus genre. Big Jesus is not another theological ""spin"" on the identity and nature of Jesus of Nazareth, nor is it a sentimental fairytale for those who prefer their Christology to be served up on Sunday mornings with fluffy sheep, little children, and footprints in the sand. This book is for Christian adults with a sense of humor. ""Jimmy Watson, being from West Texas, would understand the description of 'hitting someone with a two-by-four in order to get their attention.' Big Jesus is a literary slam against a long-accepted but seldom challenged Christology. In the spirit of George Carlin or Lewis Black, Watson uses satire and acerbic earthiness to kick some props out from under an ancient dogma. You may throw this book against the wall more than once. But pick it up and keep reading. There is something increasingly valuable here."" --Gary West, pastor, Grace Baptist Church, Statesville, NC ""Imagine that you are sitting in a rural Texas truck-stop diner overhearing a couple of guys at the next table talking about Jesus in the colorfully ribald and iconoclastic language of dismissive humor, and down home, mesquite grilled, thick steak, pickup truck driving, frankness. Now imagine that the two guys at the next table are Paul Tillich and Rudolph Bultmann. That's the sort of informed but accessible conversation Jimmy Watson has published in this nakedly honest work about the Jesus that can survive the critical thinking of the modern era . . . the only Jesus that's really worth talking about."" --Roger Ray, pastor, Springfield, MO and author of Progressive Faith and Practice ""Watson invites us to accompany him on a wild, entertaining, enlightening, provocative quest for the flesh-and-blood Jesus among the likes of Big Jesus, Badass Jesus, and the Christinator. You've never read Bultmann, Brueggemann, or Borg? No problem. Watson explains the big-name Christologists in down-to-earth language, salting tough spiritual questions with laugh-out-loud humor. An honest guidebook for any fearless twenty-first-century pilgrim searching for a Jesus worth finding."" --Robert B. Pettit, Professor of Sociology, Manchester University, Manchester, UK Jimmy R. Watson is a United Church of Christ pastor currently serving in the Indiana-Kentucky Conference. He is the author of Jesus Is Still Speaking through the Gospel of Mark (2011) and several ""Still Speaking"" devotionals for the United Church of Christ. He holds a PhD from Baylor University in the field of Theology and Ethics.