We are so fortunate, biblical scholarship reveals two gospels. The gospel of Jesus, whose teachings to counter the sin of human violence led to his unjust death. This gospel of Jesus’ teachings became incorporated into gospels about Jesus as the Christ sent by God to die as a sacrifice for our sin.
Lorraine Parkinson, an ordained minister of the Uniting Church, with a PhD from the French School of Biblical and Archaeological Studies in Jerusalem explains both gospels in her two books.
The first, The World according to Jesus: his blue print for the best possible world (2011). Then Made on Earth: how the gospel writers created the Christ (2016) presents detailed evidence that the Christ of the gospels is the creation of Mark, Matthew, Luke and John, plus later editors.
Thus the gospel writers bequeathed to Christianity two contradictory gospels. The one about Jesus the Christ, increasingly irrelevant to most people, while the gospel of Jesus of Nazareth addresses the escalating violence, which we are all called by God to resist.
It is an excellent, pertinent, timely and well researched read.
Richard Smith