FACING UP TO JESUS IN THE GOSPELS AND PAUL

Now professor emeritus of the Gregorian University (Rome) and a world-acclaimed theologian who has authored or co-authored over eighty books, Gerald O’Collins illuminates difficult sayings of Jesus and meticulously explains these and other texts of the four Gospels. His interpretation also significantly advances our appreciation of Jesus’ virginal conception (Matthew and Luke), the ‘verbal’ quality of believing in John’s Gospel, and the silent flight of Mary Magdalene and her two companions when they hear the astonishing news of Jesus’ resurrection from the dead (Mark 16:1-8). O’Collins moves to Paul and sets out his role as key witness to the resurrection of Jesus-along with Peter and Mary Magdalene. He enters the debate about a current theory that the ‘high exaltation’ of Jesus (Philippians 2:9) amounts to nothing more than his becoming a superior angel. No one illustrates better than O’Collins the creative and constructive results of precise, Jesus-centred New Testament exegesis. His most recent books include The Beauty of Jesus, The Spiritual Exercises of St Ignatius of Loyola: A Lived Experience, and Letters to Maev.