Luke Timothy Johnson.  The Real Jesus:  The Misguided Quest for the Historical Jesus and the Truth of the Traditional Gospels (HarperOne, 1997), 177 pp., ca. $16.

A good place to start seemed to be a book about the author of our faith, Jesus himself.  Last year’s book on The Creed by Luke Timothy Johnson proved one of our most popular.  There is every reason to think that this book will be an equally rewarding read.

Johnson’s book was the first to challenge the findings of the Jesus Seminar – a group of some 200 scholars who claim that Jesus only said less than 20% of what the Gospels attribute to him.  Of this book, the Philadelphia Inquirer said, “More than simply being a critique of the historical Jesus enterprise, Johnson’s book provides a positive statement about what it means to have a genuine, contemporary faith in the living Jesus.”

Joyce E. Salisbury.  Perpetua’s Passion:  The Death and Memory of a Young Roman Woman (Routledge, 1997), 179 pp., under $30 from various second-hand sellers.

The second book on the list tells the story of a young Carthaginian/Roman mother who converted to Christianity and was martyred in the arena in Carthage in 203.

One of the remarkable things about Perpetua’s martyrdom is that she kept a diary of her last days, recording her feelings about her conversion, her family and her infant son.  She also recorded four dreams.  The diary was completed by another Christian who gives an eye-witness account of Perpetua’s death.  This book raises gripping questions about Perpetua’s motives, the rightness of her decisions and the demands of the faith, questions which resonate still for us in the twenty-first century.

Henry Chadwick. Augustine of Hippo: A Life (Oxford University Press, 2009), 170 pp., under $16.

(Alternative: Henry Chadwick. Augustine: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford University Press, 2001), 144 pp.).

Those pressed for time could read this Very Short Introduction instead of the somewhat longer Life.

It is impossible to move through the early period of Christianity without considering Augustine of Hippo, one of the most brilliant, creative, learned, controversial and prolific writers of all time, and one with an incalculable impact on the development of the Christian church.

Henry Chadwick’s Augustine of Hippo: A Life was written for the Past Masters series of Oxford University Press but not published.  It was eventually replaced by Chadwick’s contribution to the Very Short Introductions of O.U.P. (see above).  The manuscript of the longer work was found among Chadwick’s papers in 2008.  In this version we “can see him at work recapturing the full texture of Augustine’s life and thought; … this is a book about Augustine which has the tang of life” (Peter Brown).

Saint Augustine.  Confessions, Books I – IX.  Transl. Henry Chadwick (Oxford World Classics, 1991), 175 pp., under $8.

Following a pattern we established last year, we conclude the series with a book whose focus is on spirituality.  St Augustine’s Confessions has long been considered one of the great spiritual classics of the Church.  Returning to St Augustine at the end will give the series some thematic unity.

Books I – IX of The Confessions have a narrative structure which provide details of Augustine’s life up to the death of Monnica, his mother.  The tale is carefully told – Augustine was not a professional rhetorician for nothing!  But it is also the vehicle through which Augustine reveals his understanding of both himself and God, and his profound love of the One who rescued him from himself.